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What initially seemed like a tragic robbery at a Portland cooking school soon unraveled to reveal a chilling reality far more disturbing.
On the morning of June 2, 2018, emergency responders were called to the Oregon Culinary Institute, where it was initially believed that the well-respected 63-year-old instructor, Daniel “Dan” Brophy, had succumbed to a heart attack.
However, upon closer inspection, paramedics discovered that Brophy had been shot twice, and sadly, he was declared dead at the scene. Investigators found two 9mm semiautomatic shell casings near his body, indicating a violent end rather than a medical emergency.
Colleagues remembered Brophy fondly. “Chef Brophy was an encyclopedia of food,” recalled Bikram Vaidya, a former instructor at the institute, during the premiere of Oxygen‘s new series Killer Grannies on November 9. “He had so much knowledge in his brain.”
What happened to Daniel Brophy?
After a SWAT team ensured the area was safe, detectives interviewed students who had been present. As noted by June Squibb, the host of Killer Grannies, investigators concluded that none of the students were involved in the crime.
The lack of forced entry suggested the perpetrator had entered through an unlocked door, raising questions about who could have accessed the building so easily. The mystery deepened when Nancy Crampton Brophy, Dan’s wife, arrived at the school, adding another layer to the already complex investigation.
“She had come to the scene,” said Portland Police Bureau Detective Darren Posey, “because she had heard that there was some kind of situation at the school.”
Investigators recorded their conversation when they informed Nancy of her husband’s death. When they asked her if Daniel had any enemies, she said, “In 25 years of teaching, I have never heard him badmouth a student one time.”
She claimed they were happy together. “She tells them, ‘We lived a quiet life. Dan had no enemies,’” said The Oregonian reporter Zane Sparling. “They both loved to cook, and they would take romantic trips just the two of them.”
Nancy expressed anger to the cooking school, according to Killer Grannies, about its lack of security cameras in the building.
Police initially suspected that the crime was a robbery gone wrong, but Daniel still had cash and credit cards in his wallet, and nothing was taken from the school. Evidence pointed to a targeted hit.
How did Daniel and Nancy Crampton Brophy meet?
A preacher’s son from North Dakota, Daniel developed an interest in food and the American West at an early age.
“Dan had a first marriage that was tumultuous at best,” said Sparling. “They had a son together, but Dan left and was not involved with his son’s life until around high school.”
Raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, Nancy decided to pursue a career in catering. She met Dan in culinary school. She left a successful business, per Sparling, to write romance novels.
She later became the president of the Rose City Romance Writers in Portland.
“Very few people in the Rose City Romance Writers were full time writers,” said author Heidi Joy Tretheway. “Most of them, like Nancy, were aspiring.”
Nancy and Dan didn’t have children, but she embraced his son, Nathaniel, and Nathaniel’s kids, according to Killer Grannies.
“Nancy wanted to be the uber grandma,” said Sparling. “She would say, ‘Let’s go on a family trip to the zoo or the garden.’ She really wanted to be there to have some fun times with the little ones.”
Nancy told investigators that she and Dan had bought a gun but had never used it. The crime lab confirmed that the Brophy firearm wasn’t a match for the weapon that killed Dan.
Investigators zeroed in on a van caught by a security camera leaving the area right around the time Dan Brophy was shot.
Nancy insisted that she’d not be at the school the morning of the shooting. Detectives were struck by the fact that it looked like Nancy’s vehicle.
Clues from Dan Brophy’s autopsy
The medical examination showed that Dan was likely shot first in the back. The second bullet blasted his chest.
“It seemed very personal,” said Portland Police Bureau Detective Anthony Merrill. “It seemed like somebody went there with vengeance.”
At a vigil for Dan, Nancy suggested that his ex-wife might be seeking revenge on him, according to Killer Grannies. Detectives pursued this lead and found that Nancy had misled them.
That raised a red flag, and another one soon arose. Nancy asked police to sign a document stating she wasn’t a suspect so that she could collect on an insurance policy.
Detectives promptly explored the Brophys’ financial situation. They found that the couple was struggling to make ends meet–and that Nancy stood to collect $800,000 from Dan’s life insurance benefits.
Nancy Crampton Brophy arrested for husband Dan Brophy’s murder
Police learned that in 2011 Nancy had written a blog called “How to Murder Your Husband.” It was about a woman solving her problems by getting rid of the man in her life.
“I don’t know to what degree she lost herself in her fiction,” said Tretheway. “Was Nancy using her books as a trial ground?”
The content intrigued investigators. “It was apparent that she had knowledge of firearms,” said former prosecutor for Multnomah County Shawn Overstreet, “and police procedures and how somebody might carry out a murder.”
Three months after the fatal shooting, Nancy was arrested. Investigators learned that six months before the murder, Nancy made an online purchase of a ghost gun–a homemade firearm without serial numbers, untraceable by authorities.
When it proved to be too difficult to assemble, she began researching Glock guns online and purchased a 9mm Glock at a gun show in February of 2018.
When ballistics couldn’t match Nancy’s gun to the crime, authorities went back to video of the suspicious van to see what else lined up.
Through a painstaking process, officials were able to get enough of the license plate to confirm it was Nancy’s vehicle.
Nancy Crampton Brophy’s trial begins
After a long delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nancy’s trial began in April 2022. During the proceedings, Overstreet laid out a theory of her motivation.
“I said, ‘Isn’t it possible what really drove Nancy to kill, was that she wanted a change of lifestyle?’” he recounted. “And Dan couldn’t give that to her.”
At the end of the eight-week trial, Nancy was found guilty of second-degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison.
Killer Grannies airs Sundays at 8/7c p.m. on Oxygen.
