‘How To Murder Your Husband’ Author on Trial for the Murder of Her Husband
Nancy Crampton Brophy, a romance novelist, is on trial in the United States for the murder of her husband of 21 years, eleven years after penning an essay titled ‘How to Murder Your Husband.’ In June 2018, the 71-year-old was accused of killing her 63-year-old chef spouse Daniel Brophy. However, she had entered a not guilty plea.
On June 2, 2018, Crampton Brophy’s husband was killed while getting ready for work, according to The Oregonian. He was working alone in a cooking classroom as a teacher at the Oregon Culinary Institute when the incident happened. According to officials, Mr Daniel Brophy’s body was discovered in June 2018 at the Oregon Culinary Institute, where he taught.
As per a police statement from 2018, detectives “think” the author is the suspect in Mr Daniel Brophy’s murder based on “evidence obtained during the inquiry.” Mr Brophy’s phone, wallet, and keys were still with him, according to court filings, and there were no signs of force or struggle.
Nancy Crampton Brophy was allegedly motivated by greed and a $1.4 million insurance policy, according to the prosecutor. Since her arrest in September 2018, Nancy Crampton Brophy has been held in jail. Until she was arrested, Brophy’s death remained a mystery. Authorities have never named any other suspects.
According to The Oregonian, Crampton Brophy shot her husband with a Glock pistol she bought at a Portland gun show after purchasing a ‘ghost gun’ construction kit online. Prosecutors claim she then replaced the gun’s barrel with an identical mechanism, making it impossible for forensic analysts to connect the spent bullets to the original slide-racking system, which law enforcement agents were never able to retrieve.
Who is Nancy Crampton Brophy (Author of How To Murder Your Husband)?
Nancy Crampton Brophy is an award-winning novelist whose first published work was a pamphlet called Between Your Navel and Your Knees for the University of Houston. The subject was the changing attitudes toward sexuality in the 1960s and 1970s.
She’s spent most of her career writing nonfiction, with pieces in trade publications and technical writing for HR departments. Her primary passion, though, was telling stories. She became a member of her local chapter of Romance Writers of America in 2003 and began studying the craft of story writing.
She has since released two romantic suspense novels and two novellas under her name as well as those of others. Her stories are about handsome men and strong women, dysfunctional families, and the delight of finding love and the challenge of keeping it.
Crampton-Brophy describes herself as an author of ‘fiction books in the Romance Suspense genre’ on her website. “Wrong never felt so right,” she says of her series, which includes titles like ‘The Wrong Hero,’ ‘The Wrong Brother,’ and ‘The Wrong Husband.’
‘The Wrong Husband’ is about a woman who devises a scheme to flee her violent husband while on an abroad anniversary trip. When their cruise ship sinks off the coast of Italy, her attempts to flee are derailed.
Nancy Crampton Brophy noted in an article that she spends a lot of time thinking about murder. The author said she thinks a lot about police procedures and murder as a romantic suspense writer. While talking about her works, she noted that she was not interested in spending any time in prison if the murder was an attempt at her liberation. She added that she hates jumpsuits, and orange is not her favourite colour.
Shocking Murder of Daniel Brophy
The community was shocked by Daniel Brophy’s death. Students hailed him as an inspiring educator with a good sense of humour who helped shape their careers at a vigil outside the Oregon Culinary Institute where he taught for decades.
“Daniel was one of the few people I’ve ever known who did exactly what he wanted in life and loved doing it,” the author, Nancy Crampton Brophy had said at her husband’s memorial. “He was a person who did what he enjoyed: teaching, eating mushrooms, and spending time with his family,” she added.
She described him as a fantastic listener, a beautiful lover, a consummate chef, and a true life partner. Shortly after her husband’s death, Crampton Brophy commented on Facebook, ‘Right now, I’m battling to make sense of everything,’ she added.
All pieces of Evidence against Nancy Crampton Brophy
Daniel Brophy, an Oregon Culinary Institute lecturer and chef, was found dead in his classroom on June 2, 2018, with two gunshot wounds. Nancy Crampton Brophy, his wife, was charged with murder, and authorities say she was motivated by a $1.4 million life insurance payout.
The court police had a wealth of evidence, including video of her driving to and from the scene, a Glock that matched the gunshot wounds on the body, and comments from neighbours of unusual conduct after the crime. However, when the trial eventually began on Monday, April 4, one item that appears to be very relevant to the facts of this case was ruled inadmissible ‘due to the risk of undue prejudice.’
Crampton Brophy published an essay titled ‘How to Murder Your Husband’ on her website in 2011. Crampton Brophy is a self-published romance novelist, and this piece delves into all of the possible motives and techniques for a wife to murder her husband. In the list, the first reason is, ‘Financial.’
Court Proceedings in the Trial of Nancy Crampton Brophy
Nancy Crampton-Brophy, 71, appeared in court in Portland this week to face charges related to the death of her 21-year-old husband, Daniel Brophy. She had earlier entered a not guilty plea regarding the same. A seven-week trial is expected to take place.
Brophy’s death was unknown until his wife was apprehended. There were no traces of force or struggle, and no signs of robbery, according to investigators, who also pointed to traffic camera footage showing Crampton Brophy’s minivan arriving and departing the site at the time of the shooting. According to the investigators, the author, Nancy Crompton Brophy is suspected of the murder of her husband Daniel Brophy.
The judge found the blog post ‘How To Murder Your Husband’ was old and written for a writing seminar before jurors arrived in court on Monday. Judge Christopher Ramras announced on Tuesday that her article would be omitted from the trial’s evidence. He stated the post was too old to be relevant, and that whatever benefit it would bring to the trial is overshadowed by the bias it might cause.
Shawn Overstreet, the Oregon district attorney, argued to jurors on Monday in Crampton-Brophy’s trial that she was motivated by greed and a $1.4 million insurance policy. Crampton Brophy’s health and her finances deteriorated after Brophy’s death, according to lead defence counsel Lisa Maxfield, contradicting the prosecution’s argument that she profited from ill-gotten gains.
Defence VS Prosecution in the Case
According to The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Shawn Overstreet, Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney, told jurors that Crampton-Brophy was driven by greed and a $1.4 million insurance policy payoff. They also played an audiotape of her requesting a detective to draught a letter exonerating her four days after her husband died so she could collect the life insurance policy.
She said the policy was worth $40,000, but investigators say she tried to claim a total of $1.4 million in insurance policies, as well as a worker’s compensation plan since her husband was murdered on the job. According to the prosecution, Mr Brophy was the only one inside the culinary school at the time of his death. The prosecutor also stated that there were no security cameras present.
As per The Oregonian, defence counsel Lisa Maxfield stated that the author’s health and finances have both deteriorated since her husband’s death who spoke in court on Monday. She went on to say that her client had no cause to murder her spouse and that the author had lost ‘a superb listener, a consummate cook, and true life partner.’
Nancy Crampton’s ‘circumstantial Brophy’s case’ “begs you to turn a blind eye to the most powerful evidence of all; love,” Maxfield remarked. Maxfield believes that her client had no reason to murder her husband. According to the sources, Crampton Brophy was not on the deed to the couple’s home, and grief prevented her from returning to her day job selling Medicare coverage.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
