One Draft From Murder

Draft Nancy Crampton Brophy Portland, Oregon. Saturday, June 2, 2018 8:24am. A 911 call comes in from the Oregon Culinary Institute to report that a man had been shot. The victim was Chef and instructor, Daniel Brophy. A college had arrived at the school that morning to find Dan lying on his back in front of a large sink in an instructional room known as Kitchen One. A student arrived shortly after and made the call to 911. OCI is both a school and restaurant. Students served 3 course lunches and 4 course dinners as part of their schooling. Dan Brophy had been teaching at OCI since it opened in 2006 – 12 years. He’d been a chef for over 40 years. He was 63 at the time of his death. Police estimated Dan had arrived at the school about an hour earlier, as he had disabled the school’s alarm system at 7:22 am. It seemed that Dan had been at the sink filling jugs with water for ice water and coffee when he was shot in the back. Then after he had fallen on the ground, laying on his back, he was shot again in the chest as the shooter stood over him. Two 9mm shell casings were found near his body. Dan’s phone, watch and wallet (including cash and credit cards) had not been taken. Expensive cooking equipment had not been taken or disturbed. No one else had been in the building at the time. This was not a robbery or vandalism gone wrong; this was an execution. There were no signs of forced entry. Dan would typically be the first in the building, shut off the alarm system and open a garage door to bring in supplies. So there was easy entry from the street. Unfortunately, the school had no security cameras. News of the shooting spread quickly, with students texting each other. The local news reported a someone had been shot at OCI. Around 10:30 am, Dan’s wife Nancy arrived at OCI after hearing there had been a shooting at the school, and police quickly ushered her to a quiet place to give her the news that her husband had been shot and killed. Once she had time to process what had happened, she told detectives that Dan had left their home in the nearby suburb of Beaverton shortly after 7am. After a short interview, she was sent home to grieve and notify relatives. When police started interviewed the people in Dan’s life, a possible motive was presented: a disgruntled student. Dan could be harsh. He himself would admit that he was tough, had high expectations. He trained with many European Chefs – picture Chef Gordon Ramsay. But he was also beloved by many. He was always looking for new techniques, new ingredients. He had a degree in marine biology and would take students on field trips. He was an expert in foraging edible mushrooms and would often take students into the woods to pick fresh ingredients. He was also a beekeeper. But he also had a great sense of humor. His dry, witty comments were known as Brophy-isms. He also spent time feeding the homeless. So most people loved him, but he was a tough instructor. And that was the only possible motive anyone could imagine. Still, detectives know you always have to look at the spouse. Dan met Nancy Crampton in 1990 when she was his culinary student. She was divorced and had moved to Oregon from Texas. Dan was still married at that time. But their relationship was purely teacher/student then. Nancy graduated and opened her own catering company. Dan and Nancy kept in touch. Once Dan divorced, they started a relationship. Nancy even employed Dan’s adult son Nathaniel at her company. Dan and Nancy seemed to complement each other. Although some found it odd that he would refer to Nancy as “the management” or “the cruise director”. But those who knew him well, understood that was Dan’s sense of humor. The physical demands of the catering company took a toll on Nancy. She ended up selling it in after about 10 years and started selling insurance to pay the bills and tried her hand at writing. Her passion was mystery/romance novels. She self-published a book series with the word “wrong” in the titles. “The Wrong Cop,” “The Wrong Lover,” and “The Wrong Husband,” to name a few. They all had the tagline “Wrong never felt so right”. Dany and Nancy were also active in their grandchild’s life. Dan’s son, Nathaniel, had a daughter. They had been together for 25 years and were making plans for retirement together. 2 days after Dan’s murder, a vigil was held at OCI. Hundreds of people attended. Nancy shared loving words and memories with the crowd. And detectives attended, knowing the killer might be in attendance as well. But no one stood out to them. Detectives were suspicious when Nancy began packing up Dan’s things and selling them in the weeks after the vigil, but friends and family reported that the couple had already been planning to sell the home and downsize. Nancy said she was struggling being in the home without Dan, surrounded by all his things. This was part of her grieving process. But there was another reason police had Nancy on their radar: just a few days after the murder they had received an odd phone call from Nancy, which they recorded. She told them she had called the insurance company where she had a life insurance police on Dan and they told her to call the detectives and ask that they write a letter saying she was no longer a suspect. When they asked why she would need that, she said “Because they don’t want to pay if it turns out that I secretly went down to the school and shot my husband.” They said that was not normal. And Nancy agreed saying “This is such a stupid little policy. I can’t believe they’re making me jump though the hoops like this. This is only $40 thousand dollars.” That was the first red flag. The second was the discovery that in 2011, Nancy had written an essay called “How to Murder Your Husband” and posted it on her blog. It was written from the persona of a woman who wants to murder her husband, she was not writing as herself. Here are a few quotes from it: "Divorce is expensive, and do you really want to split your possessions?" "Or if you married for money, aren't you entitled to all of it? The drawback is the police aren't stupid. They are looking at you first. So, you have to be organized, ruthless and very clever." "I don't want to worry about blood and brains splattered on my walls. And really, I'm not good at remembering lies. But the thing I know about murder is that every one of us have it in him/her when pushed far enough." Although this was a work of fiction, investigators thought there was reason enough to do a little more digging into Nancy and their marriage. Investigators recovered evidence from Nancy’s laptop showing that 6 months before the murder, she had visited a website called Ghost Guns where you could purchase unserialized and unregistered firearms. Nancy had purchased a gun kit, that she had to put together herself. The laptop also showed google searches for info on Glock revolvers and gun shops in the area. Then 4 months before the murder, Nancy attended a gun show and purchased a 9mm Glock 17 and registered it in her name. She had told police on the day of the murder that she owned the gun, but at the time, Nancy wasn’t a suspect. But investigators also discovered that Nancy purchased a Glock slide and barrel on Ebay. The parts that are used to tell if a shell casing comes from a particular gun. 3 months after Dan was killed, his wife Nancy was arrested and charged with his murder. In April 2022, the judge ruled that the blog post could not be presented to the jury, it was too prejudicial. But prosecutors were able to present to the jury the evidence found on the laptop, as well as have a police officer demonstrate how easily a slide and barrel could be swapped between guns. It was their theory that Nancy had shot Dan with the Glock using the spare slide and barrel, then disposed of it, and then put the original slide and barrel back in the Glock so that forensics couldn’t prove the shots that killed Dan came from Nancy’s registered gun. They also showed video surveillance from businesses near OCI of Nancy’s gray minivan circling the building 40 minutes before Dan arrived and disarmed the alarm at 7:22am. They were able to confirm it was Nancy’s van because there was a large scratch on the driver’s side that was visible in the surveillance tape. She circled the building a few times before Dan arrived. Dan had opened the garage door, so Nancy easily could have walked into OCI and shot him in the back as he stood at the sink in Kitchen One. Nancy’s van was shown driving away from the area of OCI at 7:29am. The prosecution then presented their theory on Nancy’s motive: Money. Remember Nancy had sold insurance. Turns out she had multiple insurance policies on Dan, totaling $1.5 million dollars. And, Nancy’s cellmate, Andrea Jacobs, testified that Nancy had described the killing in detail to her. In her defense, Nancy’s lawyers tried to create reasonable doubt by suggesting video surveillance of a homeless man that was in the area at the time of the murder. They were adamant that Nancy was still in love with Dan and that although they’d had financial issues in the past, they had turned a corner and were doing ok at the time of his murder. And then Nancy testified in her own defense. She told the jury that she had read an article about a man in California who bought a gun kit online, put it together himself, and then killed his family. That article had sparked an idea for her next novel where a woman who was afraid bought a gun kit online. All of the gun purchases she made were research for her story. She also said that the school shooting in Florida in February of 2018 prompted her to buy her own gun. And that Dan – as he worked at a school – knew about the gun and agreed with purchasing it. As far as why her van was seen in the vicinity of OCI on the morning of the murder, Nancy testified that she has no memory of the morning of the murder. She remembers speaking to Dan in the morning before he left, and then the phone call telling her to go to OCI because there had been a shooting. She had Stress Induced Traumatic Memory Loss. She believes she went to Starbucks and then just drove around while working out the plot of her next novel in her head, something she frequently does as part of her writing process. The jury took only 8 hours to find Nancy guilty of 2nd degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 71. She will be eligible for parole after 25 years. Sources: Dateline S30 Episode30 “murder in kitchen one” People .com New York post .com Oregon live .com