Nancy Brophy, Charged With Killing Husband, May Face More Charges

PORTLAND, OR – The Beaverton romance novelist who infamously wrote an essay, "How to Murder Your Husband" before being charged with doing exactly that, was back in court Tuesday afternoon. Nancy Crampton Brophy is charged with murdering her husband, Daniel, at the Oregon Culinary Institute where he worked as a chef-instructor.

While the hearing was supposed to address a request by her lawyer for a court order sealing the visitors log at Inverness Jail where she is being held, the prosecutor disclosed that Brophy may be committing crimes behind bars.

Her lawyer had claimed that because the visitor log is a public document, prosecutors could see what kind of experts and witnesses that they are consulting with and have a leg up for the trial.

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"The lack of protection for Defendant’s Jail Visitors Logs has seriously hampered
preparation of her defense because her lawyers are wary of using any experts whose name
could reveal to the prosecutor (or to the public or the media) our defense strategies, our
pretrial investigation efforts and other work product," the wrote in a court filing..

"Like released defendants and like the prosecution, Ms. Brophy should be allowed to prepare her defense in private."

Deputy District Attorney Shawn Overstreet said that they have no interest in Brophy's legal strategy. He said what they are interested in is who's visiting her because during the murder investigation they've uncovered information indicating that one or more of her visitors may be involved in criminal activity with her.

Overstreet did not elaborate.

Daniel Brophy was found shot to death on June 2 on the floor of one of the kitchens at the culinary institute.

The next day she posted to Facebook that she had "sad news to relate."

She said that her husband "and best friend" had been killed. "I'm struggling to make sense of everything right now. While I appreciate all of your loving responses, I am Overwhelmed."

In her now-infamous essay, "How to Murder Your Husband," Crampton Brophy listed five reasons for doing so:

• Financial;
• Lying, cheating husband;
• Fell in love with someone else;
• Abuser;
• It's your profession.

"As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure," she wrote in the essay. In it, she says that if you use a gun, consider that they are "loud, messy, require some skill. If it takes 10 shots for the sucker to die, either you have terrible aim or he's on drugs."

Photo of Brophy via Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.