Romance Novelist Accused of Killing Husband Wrote Essay on How to Kill Husband

An Oregon woman has been accused of murdering her husband and wrote an essay about how to do it years before he was killed.

Nancy Crampton-Brophy was married to her chef husband, Daniel Brophy, for 27 years before he was found fatally shot twice in a test kitchen at the Oregon Culinary Institute on June 2, 2018.

Investigators believe the 69-year-old stood to gain $1.5 million from life insurance policies, which she had continued to pay into while the couple were drowning financially, according to newly filed court documents obtained by KGW8.

"Nancy Brophy planned and carried out what she believed was the perfect murder. A murder that she believed would free her from the grips of financial despair and enter a life of financial security and adventure," Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill said, per the documents.

"In fact, she paid over $16,000.00 in insurance premiums in 2017 while the Brophy's fell over $6,000.00 behind in mortgage payments that same year," he added.

Prosecutors had provided the new evidence to argue against a motion on Tuesday asking to move Crampton-Brophy out of jail to home detention because she is at high-risk for the coronavirus.

Underhill revealed detectives spoke with the couple's acquaintances and discovered Crampton-Brophy wanted to sell the couple's belongings and travel the world, but thought she would not be able to convince her husband.

"Dan Brophy was content in his simplistic lifestyle, but Nancy Brophy wanted something more," Underhill argued. "As Nancy Brophy became more financially desperate and her writing career was floundering, she was left with few options."

After Brophy's death, Crampton-Brophy provided the police with a Glock gun she said the couple had purchased at a gun show. The gun was unused, but investigators discovered she had Googled "ghost gun" and purchased a kit online to swap out pieces of her purchased gun, "thus being able to present a new, fully intact firearm to police that would not be a match to the shell casings she left at the scene," Underhill wrote.

Later in the investigation, it was discovered Crampton-Brophy wrote an essay called "How to Murder Your Husband."

"Divorce is expensive, and do you really want to split your possessions?" she wrote, per the documents. "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."

Police also found an article on the couple's joint iTunes account titled "10 Ways to Cover Up a Murder."

Crampton Brophy has pleaded not guilty to the murder.