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The Murder of Daniel Brophy | Morbid

April 11, 2023 / 01:12:56

This episode covers the case of Nancy Brophy, who murdered her husband, Daniel Brophy, and her subsequent trial. Key topics include their financial struggles, Nancy's writing career, and the evidence against her.

Ash and Caleb discuss Nancy's early life, including her marriage to a police officer and her culinary career in Portland, Oregon, where she met Daniel. They highlight her catering business and the couple's financial troubles following the 9/11 attacks.

On June 2, 2018, Daniel was shot twice at the Oregon Culinary Institute, where he worked. Nancy's alibi quickly fell apart due to surveillance footage showing her near the scene of the crime. The episode details the investigation that revealed Nancy's multiple life insurance policies on Daniel.

As the trial unfolds, evidence such as Nancy's article titled 'How to Murder Your Husband' and her suspicious behavior after Daniel's death come to light. The prosecution argues that Nancy's greed motivated her actions.

The episode concludes with the jury finding Nancy guilty of second-degree murder, leading to her life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years. The hosts reflect on the tragic nature of the case.

TLDR

Nancy Brophy murdered her husband Daniel for financial gain, leading to her conviction and life sentence.

Episode

1:12:56
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hey weirdos I'm Ash I'm Caleb [Music] and this is morbid it's a special edition of morbid with Caleb
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I would also like to acknowledge the fact that pepper is here you might hear him every so often if you're so lucky
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he's a very he's a very uh Dapper Dachshund the most dapper he is he's a beautiful man he has a
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sweater he has a diaper but that doesn't matter to the audio listeners my bad I mean it does matter they need to know
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like set the scene Caleb has a Christmas sweater on I just have a lavender sweatshirt we're all pretty pretty
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dashing today I almost wore a Santa hat you should have I can I mean I like the turkey 100 hot I
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can't lie shout out turkey 100. listen to scream um but yeah so Caleb's joining me today
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because Elena is busy at some kind of award show getting awards for her book and stuff I know things
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um but yeah Caleb was nice enough to join me while Elena is in New York being Fancy with John and actually getting
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some husband wife time so happy for her what a you know a book writing gal just a real gem just writing
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books kicking ass taking names I love that girl period period all right so I invited Caleb on to tell him the story
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of Dan and Nancy Brophy and I actually picked this case because I was watching um this is embarrassing but I was
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watching Married at First Sight on Lifetime have you ever seen that I have yeah yeah I'm like wildly addicted to it
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um but I was watching that I don't watch a lot of Lifetime anymore that's like the only thing that I will watch on
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there but when I was younger I used to watch Lifetime movies all the time so when I see the commercials now I'm like
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damn that shit's wild and I saw a commercial for this lifetime story which is the Nancy Brophy story and I was like
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what the hell is happening there yeah the last name Brophy is crazy uh this woman is also completely delusional
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um yeah yeah thought she was gonna get away with it with his wild sorry to um alert you up
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front she did it I mean yeah she she definitely did it she definitely wrote about it
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um the fact that she wrote about it so she wrote about it before it even happened we're gonna get into all of
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that but first I gotta tell you about Nancy when she was born so okay tell me about when she was born
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I'll tell you Nancy cramped and Brophy she was born Nancy Lee Crampton on June 16 1950 which makes her not only a
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Gemini but the middle child of her parents so it was all from the start yeah yeah that's a little there's a few
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problems there yeah Gemini middle child out here wild in so both her parents were lawyers and they decided that they
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wanted to raise their family in Wichita Falls Texas which is my favorite place to say
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it is a very fun name Wichita is a are there more wichita's is it just the one in Texas no I feel like there's other
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ones there's more wichita's right I mean I'm gonna I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say there's like many in
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Wichitas I feel like there is I think I've heard of that name often like when you said Texas it kind of threw me off
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because I feel like I've heard of uh Wichita somewhere else I think there might be a Wichita Kansas
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Wichita is gonna stop being a word any second now this is Wichita with Caleb and Ash but anyway after graduating from
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high school in 1968. Nancy she went on to study at the University of Houston and there she majored I don't know why I
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said it like that I was in Texas I guess um she majored in economics and she ended up graduating in 1972. now not
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long after graduating from the University of Houston she got married to her first husband who was a police
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officer and according to her later testimony she was not or he was not allowed to keep his gun in the house she
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wouldn't let him okay which is interesting when we get to later because yeah she claims that she's
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obsessed with guns but weird that she was like no he couldn't leave his gun in the house like I I didn't like that
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from what I saw about this it seems like she kind of flip-flops too she'll be like no I'm not I don't like guns at all
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it's not a thing but she's like well everyone had a gun so like you know we just had to and then she was like oh
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well we shouldn't have yup that's exactly what she does she's she's a flip-flop fish she's definitely a
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flip-flopper she is um so it's unclear really how long their Mass marriage lasted or when it ended
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but by the end of the 1980s she was divorced and she was ready to shake her life up in a real big way and so she
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moved to Portland Oregon in 1990. she just really wanted to put like her old life behind her start over completely so
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she decided to try something new she said on the enroll in culinary school okay yeah I feel like that's a fun thing
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to do so she didn't know that was her thing too interesting yeah it was for like a minute so she enrolled in the
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western Culinary Institute which is now Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts it's another fun fun set of words caught
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on Blue yeah Le cord on blue blue um but it was there that she ended up meeting Daniel Brophy
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so oh okay he was also born in June but he was born a little bit later in June June 27 1954 which makes him a cancer
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but he was born in Valley City North Dakota and after he graduated high school in 1971 he went to the University
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of Sioux Falls graduated from there in 1976 and then he started his own culinary career shortly after that
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right his passion for food and cooking eventually led him to Portland Oregon where he became I feel like you're gonna
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love this he became a mushroom hunter and gardener oh no I don't love that no no I hate
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mushrooms uh well yeah but I just thought you would love that like lifestyle like he was just like you know
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what I'm gonna go find out about mushrooms I'm against it I don't think they should be harvested I don't think
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they should be made I don't think they should be in existence I don't like smelling them
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you don't like smelling mushrooms I feel like they don't really have much of a smell they smell like fungus because
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they are a fungus they you know they're just dirt I don't like them okay well you might
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not like them and I might I like I go back and forth with mushrooms but Daniel he loved mushrooms and he was good at
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mushrooms like like picking out which ones you could Harvest and eat and which ones you shouldn't anyway this is a very
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interesting thing there are a lot of mushrooms out there there are I've even like in Elena's guard there's like
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several different kinds of mushrooms that is true and I'm like kids don't eat those because I am not an expert on
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shroomies those are weird I could never imagine just walking out and going like all
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right I'm gonna eat this weird looking phallic thing growing out of the ground kids will eat like anything on the
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ground but I mean Elena's kids do not eat the mushrooms on the ground but I feel the need to be like don't touch
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that you know yeah mushrooms just seemed like something I shouldn't eat yeah but but it's good to know which
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ones you can and cannot eat like if you're like stranded somewhere and you're hungry
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I can see that yeah so you know Daniel he he knew all about that and actually he got so good at it that he would
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eventually start leading tours and giving lectures on the Region's mushrooms herbs and other local
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ingredients and once he became a full-blown Chef he honed his craft at restaurants like
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Jake's famous crawfish which is a Portland Landmark that has been in business for more than 125 years
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wow okay it's a lot of crawfish over that time that's a lot of restaurant over that time
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but outside of work Daniel was really committed to his community he not only worked at a soup kitchen every week but
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he would also bring his own ingredients to the soup kitchen to make sure he could cook up something special this
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wasn't like regular soup kitchen food it was Daniel's soup kitchen food and he put a lot of love into his food he did
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it see it really seems like he did and he loved cooking he was super knowledgeable in his field he was also
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just like a really easy going man in general and he just wanted to share his passion and his smarts with other people
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so because all those things were really working for him he decided that he'd like to become a culinary instructor
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so he started at that Western Culinary Institute the one that would later become Le Cordon Bleu and he was in his
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first year as an instructor when he met Miss Nancy okay not a good time not a good time she
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you know I have I all the nancies I've come across I'm sorry all the Nancy's out there but they've been a problem in
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this Nancy just kind of confirms it for me I only have ever really dealt with one Nancy in my life that I can think of
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and she's the only person that I ever requested not to work directly with so so I agree with you so guys I'm sure
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there's a few of you good nancies out there and shout out to you but yeah these nancies I don't know so far it's
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like Karen's there's great carrots but then there's Karen Karen's yeah but then you feel bad for the great Karen's
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because they're like Jesus Christ I want to change my name yeah some of these nancies are just you know they're
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they're making it bad for other nancies needle and Nancy's you know I don't know that's the best I could
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come up with yeah yeah no I got it she's a metal in Nancy because she was immediately taken with Daniel she
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thought he was a fine instructor and a fine man and it started to become very clear to everybody else in the class
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just how much she liked him um but there was a big issue Daniel was married he couldn't be out here with Miss Nancy
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Nance no Nancy's roommate at the time Tanya Medlin she warned Nancy about getting
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too close to Daniel because you know he was married and all and she told her don't be dipping your candle in somebody
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else's wax which I loved that's like a that's a real quote that's a that's a crazy way
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to put it don't dip your candle in somebody else's wax I love it no not not even the that side of it the
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candle side of it why would you why would you dip your candle in somebody else's wax in the first place it's
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already waxed it's already a candle that's the thing you already it's already a marriage it's already
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them two together stop dipping into it that's that's what my good girl Tanya was trying to say
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it's a saying and a half you know but Nancy responded well that's not gonna last which like don't ever be that girl
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like you don't know his wife or anything about her and even if you do like stop battling in people's marriages but
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unfortunately Nancy was correct the marriage would end just a few years later in 1994 and once it did Daniel
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Brophy began dating Nancy um no he kept building his career at the same time as a chef instructor with the
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culinary school and Nancy actually opened up her own catering business uh Chef du jour catering it was a really
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successful catering company in Northwest Portland by the late 1990s things actually were going really well for the
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both of them as a couple because Nancy's catering business had grown really considerably at the time they were
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employing 25 people and they were earning half a milli per year damn okay right and then in 1999 eight
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years after they met Dan and Nancy held what they called a large marriage ceremony and they started calling each
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other husband as well husband and wife but it actually took them until June of 2016 to file the
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legal paperwork okay paperwork because like that's really relatable for me but I was gonna say I
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mean some people just you know I I I'm bad at paperwork I'm bad at getting back to things like that whatever my
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accountant is like it's time to look through your taxes I'm like I don't know what those are
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trust me I'm horrified about that I hate tax season it freaks me out because I'm
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like where did I put that little slip of paper six months ago literally so maybe
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that's what happened with Dan and Nancy here they were like [ __ ] we had that marriage certificate we don't know where
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it is and then they found it and they filed it but you get to it when you get to it
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yeah now just like a lot of people Dan and Nancy hit a little bit of financial trouble when the economy downturned
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after 9 11. Nancy had to lay off at least 10 people from the catering business so to help supplement their
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income Dan kept teaching but he also started Moonlighting as a chef at a retirement home now they also on top of
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that ended up refinancing their house so that they could get money from their equity
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I don't really know how any of that works but things started improving financially over the next couple of
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years Daniel got a better job he got hired actually as lead Chef instructor at the
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Oregon Culinary Institute in 2006 and immediately people freaking loved him there students uh especially really
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loved him and they said he was quote the most active faculty member leading field
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trips organizing student projects and speaking in the community so he's like one of the favorite
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teachers that sounds like a stand-up guy shout out Brody he really does no not long
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brofia not long after he started working at oci the college there he and Nancy moved to Beaverton which I love the name
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of that town it's a small City just outside of Portland and in 2013 Nancy decided to
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dedicate as much time as humanly possible to her passion for writing you guys had no idea Nancy is a writer
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no in the past she had written some small pamphlets in college she made some money as a technical writer but she
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always wanted to pursue her interest in writing fiction and now she kind of had the chance
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since graduating from culinary school in the early 90s she joined a few writing groups and she said that she had quote
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spent years dabbling in literary crafts but she never really thought it would be
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something or could be something that she would take very seriously but she I because I don't know enough
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about all this part is she a successful writer like was she fairly big how um in the grand scheme of things how did
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it go for her I don't really think she didn't make a lot of money doing it she may have been successful in the way that
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she did write several books which is more than I can say um but I don't I don't think they were
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like in in a crazy amount of success yeah because I think we'll get into it later but one of the books she wrote it
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seems like like it has one of those names that seems like it's pretty popular but it also seems like
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it's just she called it that because something like that is already really popular you know what I mean yeah I
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think that's exactly what it was and I think okay she was also writing in a genre that is probably I'm just assuming
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here probably hard to get into because I think there's so many books that in the
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genre that she'd write it already exactly but we'll get there don't jump ahead yeah okay okay okay so she she really
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when social media started like happening and the internet started becoming more mainstream throughout the 2000s and
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early 2010s it made it easier for writers to reach an audience through websites and blogs and self-publishing
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so Nancy decided to give writing an honest try for like the first time ever now we're going to get into some of what
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she wrote writing as Nancy cramped and Brophy she would eventually pen nine romance novels including a five book
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series with titles like the wrong husband the wrong cop and the wrong lover oh my God I've seen this time and
00:15:55
time again standard lifetime standard Lifetime and these were self-published books and they were sold online they
00:16:02
were pretty much all within I've never heard of this but it's called The bodice Ripper genre
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what is that I think it's like when you rip off your corset probably or something like that it's the whole genre
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for that isn't that just an action I don't really know man I'm not in that job now but it featured quote unquote
00:16:21
rugged men strong women and a good story and that was according to her website and then all of the novels had covers
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that quote depicted handsome Heroes and at least one heroine with chiseled bodies and dark quaffed hair
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I don't even know what koifter is I think it just means it's like in place this seems like a very uh
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I don't know it's very time explanation it's very like Nicholas Sparks kind of writing and like kind of genre I feel
00:16:58
and also it's taking me back to a place of the America's Next Top Model shoot where Fabio joins I don't know if you
00:17:05
ever watched that I'm not I've just been honestly my brain is getting fried lately because all I've
00:17:11
been watching is 90 Day Fiance and um since I got into this Rabbit Hole I've realized that there's like 36 like
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offsets of 90 Day Fiance so really it's a whole you could dig yourself into I I don't think it's it's not a hole you can
00:17:25
dig yourself it's a hole you can't dig yourself out of that's really actually that's exactly what it is that's what I
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should have said it doesn't end like there's so many my grandma you should talk to Cath next time you're here
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because that girl loves 90 day she's like did you watch the I'm like I don't watch it Ma
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she said I didn't know that Ma loves 90 day I mean me and Mom already get along well but once we start getting to the 90
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day I mean it's not gonna stop it's about to go off most of the one that got me into Bravo in the first place she
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doesn't really watch it anymore but 90 day I don't think she'll ever give up on 90 day I I feel her dude I get it well
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it's kind of like how Nancy wasn't going to give up on writing bodice Ripper novels so writing fulfilled her
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personally but like you were kind of asking earlier uh it didn't really do it for the couple financially she wasn't
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making a lot of money doing this and very soon they were struggling again to the point where in 2014 they started
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dipping into Daniel's 401k which like I don't really know a lot about that but I don't think that's
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something you want to dip into if you can help it but yeah that's basically the the
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standard practice Yeah Yeah that's the take so they were dipping into it I think like obviously like good
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intentions they wanted to fix up their house and eventually subdivide the property and sell off the various
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subdivisions and they actually even went as far as to have Nancy's name taken off
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the deed which reduced the amount of income reported by the homeowner who now at that point was just Daniel basically
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I was trying to figure out like what that would save them and I think it just saves them taxes if you're like if your
00:19:05
income is like less than what you were originally reporting I would think it was just tax time like
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things but I don't really know I'm sure you guys listening will know if you're into taxes and things like that all you
00:19:18
people that are into taxes out there you just you do your tax things oh you CPA brothers and sisters
00:19:25
shout out CPAs shout out even though there was a steep decrease in income Nancy she kept focusing on her writing
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she was writing full time at this point but now she was spending money quite frequently on her writing and quote
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unquote research for her novels she would spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on all kinds of things for This
00:19:48
research like one time when she bought a Victorian era chastity belt for research
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to research what exactly goddess Ripper genre I don't know do you can't just like Google that stuff
00:20:05
well that's the thing I think maybe she had like a shopping problem or something
00:20:09
like that or I don't know maybe she just really liked these things and wanted them but then like wrote it off as
00:20:15
research so her husband wouldn't get mad at her I would just love to be a fly on
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the wall just to see what she was doing with this chastity belt I would not like
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to be a fly on the wall for that look it's not for pleasure it's purely for science just for writing it down and
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doing experiments later of course but in addition to her spending on Research she and Daniel actually started
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investing heavily in life insurance policies and that was starting in 2014. that was a red flag right when people
00:20:48
are just like gambling on their life insurance yeah definitely you don't need to have like multiple
00:20:55
multiple multiple life insurance policies I think like one or two will cut it again not something I really know
00:21:01
a lot about yeah to me it just seems like starting a life insurance policy seems fairly standard to a certain
00:21:06
extent but then those they used a few keywords that made it sound like they're doing this many different times and just
00:21:12
kind of throw in life insurance policies around and that seems worrisome that was
00:21:17
a really good inference you made there because between 2014 and 2017 they had acquired six life insurance policies all
00:21:25
right for Daniel like not for Nancy uh oh these life insurance preparers how do they even allow that they could be they
00:21:37
should just be like okay wait that I'm pretty sure why I think it's because they were going like different places so
00:21:43
the other life insurance brokers I guess is what you call them they didn't realize that they already had five
00:21:50
others taken out this is crazy it does so they had six life insurance policies between 2014 and 2017 that they took out
00:21:59
and they had a base payout of four hundred thousand dollars and an additional three hundred and twenty
00:22:05
thousand dollars in the event that Daniel's death was accidental this is from each of them
00:22:13
um I think it was like a majority of them okay like at least but I think between all of them that's what would
00:22:21
have happened so can you just do that like can you just have multiple life insurance policies and just like
00:22:28
take them all out I don't know enough about life insurance is what I'm realizing right now I would think that
00:22:33
that would be some kind of fraud if you had multiple but right I don't know I mean like people aren't going around
00:22:40
with like you know three different car insurances you know what I mean right and I mean you have to get approved for
00:22:47
all of them also fun fact getting life insurance is really [ __ ] hard and it's really [ __ ] annoying because you
00:22:53
have to answer like a bunch of questions like if you've ever done drugs are you overweight do you smoke cigarettes you
00:22:59
must have a physical some lady has to come to your house and you have to pee in a cup and give it to her it's awful
00:23:05
wow and to do that six different times I'm like you couldn't pay me money and like you would be but you couldn't so by
00:23:13
September of 2017 sadly they had blown through almost all of Daniel's 401k and as of that month there was only about 35
00:23:22
000 remaining now obviously thirty five thousand dollars is a lot of money but I
00:23:26
think when it comes to to a 401k not very much you can't really live off of that for the rest of your life no and
00:23:32
that's that's exactly it but Nancy had been pushing Daniel to sell the house and the land thinking that that would
00:23:39
wipe away their debts and kind of give them a fresh start but the problem was after Consulting with a financial
00:23:44
advisor Nancy was informed that even if they sold the house and the land they would still come out of that deal with
00:23:51
negative cash flow so basically her spending habits and I mean really inability to generate income
00:23:58
had put her and her husband deeply in the red financially speaking and not even selling the house would generate
00:24:05
enough money to get them out of it so basically they're [ __ ] pretty much basically Nancy should have just like
00:24:11
reopened her catering business yeah or done anything really aside from um the wrong mister and the wrong
00:24:18
chastity belt it's like at the end of the day if that's not bringing you in enough money to support you and your
00:24:24
husband and like in addition to his income that's a hobby you're not yeah you know like you you gotta get
00:24:31
something to supplement this if you're in the red so the morning of June 2nd 2018 we're
00:24:38
flash forwarding here and fast forwarding um it started out pretty much sorry let
00:24:43
me catch you off real quick what what timeline were we at before that uh before that we were between 2017 or 2014
00:24:50
and 2017. oh okay yeah they started having money problems after 9 11 because like the economy went down and stuff
00:24:58
like that but then they were able to kind of regain but then they kind of started floundering again when Nancy
00:25:04
stopped The Culinary business and started writing okay okay so 2017 is when things got like really really bad
00:25:11
financially that's when they were told like even if you sell the house even if you sell the land and subdivide all
00:25:16
these properties you're still going to end up with some debt and like a good amount of debt so now
00:25:23
we're in 2018. it's June 2nd 2018. and this morning started off pretty regular for Daniel Brophy like pretty much like
00:25:30
every other morning had he woke up early he went out back to feed the chickens in
00:25:34
the backyard he just seems like a very wholesome man like working at a retirement home working at a soup
00:25:41
kitchen feeding his chickens he takes the dogs for a walk comes back home takes a quick shower and then he heads
00:25:47
off to work so he got to the Oregon Culinary Institute oci a little after 7 A.M and
00:25:54
since he was the first one to come in the building he disabled the alarm and headed to Kitchen one which was his
00:25:59
usual kitchen classroom one another thing too he was pretty much always there every morning he was the first one
00:26:05
there every morning really early yup he loved getting there early and just like being able to set up the kitchen before
00:26:11
all the people came now A co-worker arrived about 10 or 15 minutes later they were going to be the
00:26:17
one that was going to unlock the doors for the students and kind of greet them when they started filing in and then
00:26:22
they would go to their classroom where Daniel had everything set up so in kitchen one like I just said he
00:26:27
was setting everything up for the day starting the coffee maker making other arrangements he was at the sink filling
00:26:34
up pictures with ice water though when somebody snuck into the classroom quietly and shot him one time in the
00:26:41
back and when he got shot with that one shot the force of the bullet caused his body
00:26:48
to spin around 180 degrees at which point his killer fired again quote directly sent her Mouse to his chest
00:26:56
Jesus which sent a second bullet tearing through his torso ultimately piercing his heart
00:27:05
brutal as [ __ ] and just like out of nowhere this man is just at work setting up for the day you would never expect
00:27:12
this and at first Carla his for his culinary class yeah right exactly and here's the thing students are
00:27:21
starting to come in and clearly like nobody really heard this because there wasn't that many people around us like
00:27:27
right when it happened so he's laying there on the ground as students are filing into the kitchen just after 7 30
00:27:34
and they are completely shocked to find their instructor lying on his back in front of the industrial sink unconscious
00:27:42
and bleeding profusely from two gunshot wounds and I did watch a little video about that I think how it happened and
00:27:48
I'm not sure who I heard speaking they were in core and they were explaining like you know this is the building this
00:27:54
is the back door that we were all lined up at blah blah I'm not sure if it was one of the students or I I think to my
00:28:00
knowledge I might have been another one of the teachers like another one of the culinary teachers I think there's only
00:28:05
like a few because they were doing like weekend classes Saturday and Sunday Type
00:28:08
Thing um but she said she saw a bunch of students like lined up out there and was
00:28:13
like that's weird they're usually all in there because he's early he lets them in
00:28:17
really early but the door was locked none of them came in and then another like um one other worker or something
00:28:23
something like that came over to the side let all the kids in and then after they're in I think they walked around
00:28:29
for a bit and eventually one of them goes hey call 9-1-1 there's a body over here like found him over there can you
00:28:36
imagine you're just like filing into your classroom they're like oh I gotta take a Saturday class and that's what
00:28:40
you stumble into yeah like the 911 call was pretty crazy too because I mean but I can never listen to 9-1-1 calls it's
00:28:48
not one of those like really really I mean they're all horrific you know but it's not one of those ones that's like
00:28:53
you know it like makes you want to like break down while you're listening to it but it is still pretty [ __ ] up and you
00:29:00
know you're listening to it and they don't really realize that he's dead at first they're like hey he's unconscious
00:29:04
like he's down here I don't think he's BR he's breathing but then after a while they go oh [ __ ] like he's bleeding from
00:29:09
his chest right and then you know it goes on and then they realize yeah he's gone
00:29:15
so sad so yeah like you said one of the students just called 9-1-1 the police and the emergency responders they raced
00:29:21
to the scene but again like you just said by the time they got there it was too late he was dead dead on the rifle
00:29:27
so Portland detectives Anthony Merrill and Darren Posey arrived at OSI excuse me
00:29:33
um around 8 30 in the morning and at that point the school had been placed in lockdown crime scene
00:29:39
technicians had started processing the scene so when the detectives entered the kitchen they found so sad the metal ice
00:29:46
scoop lying on the floor where he had dropped it when he was shot and then nearby they discovered two nine
00:29:52
millimeter shell casings on the floor which meant that whoever had killed Daniel most likely wasn't a professional
00:29:59
killer Merrill told interviewers from Dateline they wanted to get in quick and get out quick
00:30:05
yeah So within two hours of the murder somebody a friend had called Nancy to let her know that the police were
00:30:11
converged on oci so she immediately drives down to the school detectives meet her and they Usher her into a room
00:30:18
that they started kind of using as a command center and they kind of you know go through
00:30:22
their series of questions like what was your husband doing this morning what does he usually do like blah blah
00:30:29
what were you doing and after several minutes they finally gave her the news they told her we believe it's Dan that's
00:30:35
been killed now she barely skipped a b and said to them yeah I got that when everybody gave me the Sad Sack look
00:30:44
like okay we're weird response weird energy weird response now what followed was typical Behavior like what you would
00:30:52
call it she was bewildered she was grief stricken she was crying that is the kind
00:30:57
of reaction that you would expect from somebody but again me and Alina say it all the time like you can't chop like
00:31:03
somebody's guiltiness up to how they react to something right away because not everybody's gonna cry right away
00:31:09
some people are gonna you know freeze yeah everyone has different reactions man yeah Nancy just makes weird comments
00:31:16
and then she cries but anyways they were like okay um like you can go for now and we're
00:31:23
gonna talk to you later today like we'll be in contact because they were still working on the scene
00:31:28
so by the next day the news had made its way around the OSI community and there was a wave of stunned and shocked
00:31:34
responses current and former students were on the internet just sharing their surprise and grief they were posting
00:31:40
comments to social media one said Oregon Culinary Institute lost a top-notch chef
00:31:46
instructor that touched so many lives and another one said Daniel was also one of the smartest most
00:31:53
thoughtful people I've ever met and would take the time with whatever you needed
00:31:57
so sad so that seemed like a good dude he really did and then Nancy shared her thoughts online
00:32:04
um and in my opinion this is a pretty strange Facebook post but she wrote for those of you who are close to me and
00:32:10
feel this deserved a phone call you're right but I'm struggling to make sense of everything now while I appreciate all
00:32:16
of your loving responses I'm overwhelmed please save calls for a few days until I
00:32:21
can function hmm just weird like I don't know a bizarre a bizarre post in my opinion yeah I mean I guess again I
00:32:31
guess I don't know what to chop it up to because I mean I guess I already know the outcome of the story and that's the
00:32:36
scumbag but yeah I guess in hindsight looking at it but I don't know I guess if I didn't
00:32:41
know what I knew it might not be that odd of a statement like hey you know leave me alone kind of thing
00:32:47
give me a little while like I can't talk about this like I get it I appreciate it
00:32:51
but I don't know it is it's a little odd no but that's a solid point I'm looking at it through the lens
00:32:57
of like I already knew and again we already set it up like clearly she did this so when I read that I was like well
00:33:03
that's weird but if I had read that and she didn't if she wasn't the one that did it maybe I would feel differently
00:33:08
probably yeah you might just think like hey you know she's tired of hearing about this and she's trying to agree
00:33:13
right right and she doesn't want to like have her phone blown up all day when she's going through it yeah but to
00:33:19
reiterate that's not the what's happening she's a piece of [ __ ] yeah not the case [ __ ] Nancy so a candlelight
00:33:25
vigil was held in Daniel's honor a few days later in the parking lot at the school and Nancy reiterated her grief
00:33:32
and her shock to the students and the faculty saying I just can't wrap my head around it Dan was one of the very few
00:33:37
people I've known that knew exactly what he wanted in life and loved doing it which is really sad when again we know
00:33:45
that she's the one that is doing this she's standing in front of all of these grieving people saying I can't wrap my
00:33:50
head around it he was the nicest guy he knew what he wanted and he was doing it it's like okay so like then why did you
00:33:56
kill him he was happy he was doing what he wanted to do like what like that's just some
00:34:03
people have no shame they truly don't so back to the investigation as they surveyed the scene detectives Marilyn
00:34:10
Posey were a rather perplexed there was no sign of a struggle no sign of forced entry Daniel still had his wallet phone
00:34:19
Keys his car was still parked in the parking lot so pretty much right away those factors ruled out the whole
00:34:25
robbery gone wrong scenario to them it seemed like somebody had snuck into the culinary school to murder
00:34:31
him and then snuck out without disrupting or taking anything but they were stumped because they were like who
00:34:36
the hell would want to do that Daniel was super well liked so they were having a really hard time coming up with
00:34:43
anybody who disliked him especially enough to kill him or have him killed yeah I mean you get a culinary chef
00:34:50
who's just there for his like weekend job right at an Institute like someone walking in and killing someone like that
00:34:56
is pretty wild yeah just like very sudden and out of the blue and then to have all of his things still with him
00:35:03
you're like what like yeah crazy so detective Posey told Dateline there was people that were like he's tough but
00:35:10
nothing that you know somebody had it out for him because they like had their career ended by him or anything like
00:35:16
that so many people knew Daniel Brophy to be a very direct person who quote wasn't afraid to have conversations that
00:35:22
many instructors might shy away from and also his dry sense of humor and he did have kind of like a rigid personality
00:35:28
that did did tend to rub people like certain people the wrong way but it was never to the extent like I was just
00:35:35
saying that somebody would want him dead for something he said or anything he did
00:35:39
it was just like I'm trying to honestly it kind of reminds me of my grandpa yeah
00:35:46
little guy yeah like yeah a little bit he might like piss you off because he's not gonna like beat around the bush but
00:35:54
it's like hey he's not like he's not a bad dude murder material you know no exactly not that anybody is but
00:36:00
no yeah and that's I think that's exactly like you put it so perfectly like he's not gonna beat around the bush
00:36:06
like he's just gonna tell you how he feels so with a case like this where somebody
00:36:11
is killed seemingly for no reason as we all know the spouse is the one that they
00:36:15
look into first so when Nancy was questioned shortly after the murder she told investigators that she'd woken up
00:36:22
briefly when Daniel came in after walking the dogs that morning but she said she fell asleep soon after he had
00:36:27
left and otherwise she'd just gone about her morning leisurely until she got the
00:36:32
call about what happened now detectives outwardly seem to accept her description of her movements that
00:36:39
morning but they also knew right away that she was lying even as she was telling them her uh version of that
00:36:46
morning's events Because by the time they sat down to question her they had already found surveillance footage that
00:36:52
contradicted her story so she says she's sleeping and that she just woke up when Daniel came in with
00:36:58
the dogs and then fell right back to sleep and just had a chill morning nope at 708 am when she was supposedly
00:37:06
at home sleeping a surveillance camera from a business across the street from the culinary school captured Nancy
00:37:13
driving by the school in her minivan I mean the dude's been an idiot every step of the way seriously this dude
00:37:22
Nancy you're leaving shells at the scene just driving by running around with cameras all over you she's like oh no
00:37:29
I'm I'm sleeping I was in bed thank you I don't understand 2018 and you don't realize that we are being videoed every
00:37:36
[ __ ] second of every [ __ ] day like when you were driving around in your car you were being caught on surveillance
00:37:41
footage everywhere you can't just say that you're not home sleeping you should have said oh I got
00:37:47
gas across the street from the culinary school I can't believe that happened while I was there
00:37:53
I mean I guess I'm not giving you like a an alibi but still no but we're just saying she's a giant idiot and she could
00:37:58
have said anything else if she was really you know not a giant idiot and was able to like you know come up with
00:38:05
some kind of Alibi I mean I'm glad that she's a bozo and got caught but but come on man now again that she was
00:38:13
not snoozing like she said she was because that same camera where she was caught at 708 captured her again about
00:38:20
20 minutes later in front of the school and then about 10 minutes after Daniel had deactivated the alarm system at the
00:38:27
school and then five minutes before his body was discovered in the classroom so she was discovered left right and Center
00:38:34
on this [ __ ] surveillance system so the other thing is her story about being home and in bed at the time of the
00:38:42
murder was not her only suspicious behavior in the days and weeks following the murder just three days after Dan was
00:38:48
killed detective Posey got a call from Nancy asking if he would produce a letter confirming that she was not a
00:38:56
suspect in the murder so that she could assure the insurance company she wasn't involved in the deaf okay buddy AKA let
00:39:05
me get my insurance payout yeah like hand me the check and then we'll figure out what else is going on exactly so
00:39:12
Posey clearly had never been asked for such a letter by anybody and he was like yeah girl like that's not gonna happen
00:39:18
his real direct quote was he literally said to her he goes the way you clear somebody is you arrest somebody else and
00:39:25
take them to trial like you're not gonna get a letter until I have tried somebody
00:39:30
for this murder that's not you so she's just like wait so her quote wasn't yeah buddy
00:39:37
no no not the direct quote okay but it wasn't just detectives who found her reaction to Dan's death to be unusual
00:39:46
there were neighbors who were also pretty put off by her behavior John McConnell who lived in the house that
00:39:52
abundant Daniel and Nancy's property told reporters quote she never showed any signs of being upset or sad I would
00:39:59
say she had an air of relief like it was almost a godsend McConnell asked whether
00:40:04
the police had been keeping in touch with her and Nancy told him no I'm a suspect
00:40:09
like damn girl now other neighbors had also noticed her odd behavior too she was moving
00:40:15
furniture in and out of or out of the house she had started telling people that she was seriously thinking of
00:40:21
putting the house on the market because she was quote haunted by Dan's side of the bedroom she said thinking about him
00:40:27
upset her and she wanted to get away from the house okay which I mean if my neighbor said
00:40:33
that to me after their husband was murdered I feel like I'd be like I don't think I would consider that strange like
00:40:38
no she's like the bedroom that makes sense but putting the house on the market that's like
00:40:44
that's abrupt yeah I mean I don't know again I guess when I look at it through the lens of
00:40:51
maybe she you know like something she's actually going through something I could see that
00:40:56
happening because I've had friends who have lost spouses who have had very similar reactions so I mean yeah I don't
00:41:02
know I guess it's just kind of out of character at this point because she was so
00:41:05
sporadic and terrible about like you know leading shells at the scene like being caught on camera everywhere just
00:41:12
saying like oh I'm in bed but then when it comes to this I don't know I feel like I almost feel like she did react
00:41:17
kind of well for someone who's trying to hide the fact that they killed their husband I think there are times where
00:41:24
she does and then I think there are times where she slips up oh I think she slips up basically all
00:41:29
over the place yeah I think more often than not she's slipping up but as technicians began digging into Dan's
00:41:36
personal life they only found more evidence leading them back to Nancy as they were searching through his cell
00:41:41
phone for Clues they actually discovered an article bookmarked on their shared iTunes account so this iTunes account
00:41:47
was shared by Dan and Nancy and the article they found was titled 10 ways to cover up a murder
00:41:56
okay no not long after they also discovered another suspicious article this one written by Nancy herself in
00:42:03
2011. she had written this article for a Blog called CJ in publish and it was titled how to murder your husband your
00:42:12
husband yeah yeah that's that's the one I was referring to earlier um real unreal
00:42:20
like I don't know I don't know Nancy again maybe maybe don't if that's your goal but you
00:42:29
know maybe even if that is your is not your goal like don't write about how to murder people
00:42:35
it's that's something else so this this article was written kind of like in an essay format and it detailed the motives
00:42:42
and methods that somebody might use to kill their spouse in a romance novel Nancy wrote divorce is expensive and do
00:42:49
you really want to split all your possessions or if you married for money aren't you entitled to all of it the
00:42:55
drawback is the police aren't stupid they're looking at you first if the murder is supposed to set me free I
00:43:02
certainly don't want to spend any time in jail I wish I said the police aren't stupid
00:43:06
but I am yeah literally she launched into the pros and cons of the five methods of murder the essay
00:43:14
recommended against hiring a Hitman to do the job because quote an amazing number of Hitmen Hitmen rat you out to
00:43:21
the police how many Hitmen do you know thank you what statistic is this she beat it up uh
00:43:28
she then cautions against using poison saying who wants to hang out with a sick husband
00:43:34
yeah that's that's the only downside to poisoning your bands sorry what and then
00:43:39
she ends the essay by saying I find it easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them I don't worry I don't
00:43:46
want to worry about the blood and brain splattered on my walls and really I'm not good at remembering lies
00:43:55
I mean I guess this is a fairly it's not even a good script for a movie about a psychopath it's a very
00:44:02
Bland script it's a very but wish them dead I'm sorry yeah this is a weird list even for someone who is
00:44:11
a terrible person and does terrible things this is this is odd like I love that she's like you know I would just
00:44:18
rather wish people dead because I don't really want to like clean up my walls and I'm really bad at remembering lies
00:44:23
not like I have a conscious and I would never murdered someone like oh I get what this is now she wrote this
00:44:30
so she could show it to the police later and go no no no see this is me saying I
00:44:33
would never do I would only wish it I I acknowledge that you guys aren't stupid and I knew you'd be looking at me of
00:44:39
course it's not me maybe it was honestly that's not a bad point like it's crazy Nancy but I can see that being like her
00:44:46
kind of logic you know in this probably yeah no her I mean because we'll get into it we already have a little bit her
00:44:51
logic is wild logic but so they find all of that they're like okay well this is plenty of
00:44:57
evidence and then detectives learned that the couple owned a Glock nine millimeter handgun which
00:45:03
was the very same caliber used in Daniel's murder that it was but it gets tricky according
00:45:10
to Nancy she had purchased the nine millimeter as research for one of her novels
00:45:15
and she claimed that neither her or Daniel had ever fired it so see and I heard another side too
00:45:22
where she was like oh all my friends had one and then we felt like it was stupid
00:45:27
because we didn't have one because friends just kept showing up to our house and they were like oh we have a
00:45:31
gun I was like I don't think that ever happened actually but sure interesting story I think that ever happened Nancy I
00:45:37
think you're just cray-cray but so she said that they had never fired it that it was for research blade or it was
00:45:43
because her all her friends had one and she just had to get it like it's a new pair of Nikes uh but investigators took
00:45:49
the gun into evidence and they had it tested but forensic technicians determined it probably was not the gun
00:45:56
used in the shooting no okay later but that but maybe it was because later detectives learned that
00:46:04
this wasn't the first gun Nancy had purchased in late 2017 she had purchased what's called a ghost gun kit online
00:46:12
which would have allowed her to make her own untraceable gun no wait what apparently the kit was
00:46:20
actually too difficult for her to complete and that's when she purchased the Glock but through the course of
00:46:25
their investigation detectives would also learn that while the Glock wasn't a match for the casings at the scene on
00:46:31
the day of the murder it might have been used because Nancy had purchased additional parts for a Glock 9
00:46:38
millimeter on eBay and she had swapped several components of the gun before handing it over to detectives so that's
00:46:45
where she actually like is kind of a scary Mastermind how did she manage to do all of that but
00:46:53
she goes no I was asleep I had no idea also like Mama they're gonna look at your search history yeah I mean you
00:47:04
bought it on eBay come on like that's very traceable I mean like the thing that she did like you said that's kind
00:47:10
of impressive that's kind of crazy right I don't know how many people would think
00:47:15
to do that but uh maybe people that are like more into guns but I don't know like that's still
00:47:20
just that's crazy this chick riding murder mystery [ __ ] lifetime novels about killing her husband
00:47:27
I mean I don't know and she's saying she's gonna wish people dead but then she thought to do this that that's
00:47:32
that's something else it's wild and I also love that she was like yeah the the ghost gun kit online was too hard for me
00:47:39
but I was able to switch out several components of another gun she's an enigma for sure she really is
00:47:47
so after months of quietly following leads and collecting evidence detectives had assembled what they believed was a
00:47:54
pretty strong case against Nancy Crampton Brophy for the murder of her husband she and Daniel were way behind on their
00:48:01
mortgage they were living well beyond their means and it was mostly especially when it came to Nancy's spending habits
00:48:07
she was really the one pushing them above their means uh then there were the multiple life insurance policies that
00:48:13
would pay out nearly four hundred thousand dollars in the event of Daniel's death
00:48:18
Israel's also she's spending all this money how much money are they spending on six different life insurance policies
00:48:24
it must have been like crazy and I think I have to wonder if he knew I don't think he knew about those I think she
00:48:30
was probably buying those and like keeping it secret from him and then the fact that should Daniel die the house
00:48:37
and all of his assets would be transferred directly to Nancy so she had the most to gain from his death and then
00:48:44
finally the most damning evidence of all and the reason why they were actually able to
00:48:49
get a probable cause affidavit in the first place was the surveillance video footage proving that contrary to her
00:48:56
statement Nancy was at the school during the very short window of time in which Daniel was killed
00:49:02
so oh so can I actually play you a clip yeah that I think is very um interesting
00:49:07
kind of regarding that yes you may this is uh like from one of her uh trials I believe
00:49:14
did not not sure where would have been shooting your husband within a six minute window
00:49:25
the exact type of gun that you own your version of what happened that is not my version I think your case is held
00:49:33
together with real frankly Band-Aids girl that's the thing it's like you were there in a very small time frame you
00:49:45
have all the means all the motives to do this but it wasn't you all the materials
00:49:51
even too and then why why were you lying about sleeping like you really put it out there like
00:49:57
pretty straightforward within a six minute time frame she goes nope your defense terrible dog [ __ ] what do you
00:50:04
mean why why is the defense terrible because you haven't given her favor that's the thing so so crazy on the
00:50:12
morning of September 5th 2018 just three months after the murder of her husband police arrested Nancy at her home at
00:50:19
previously the couple's home in Beaverton she was seemingly shocked and asked you're arresting me you must think
00:50:25
I murdered my husband no Nancy we thought that you actually stole some Cheerios from the Stop and
00:50:31
Shop down the street um yeah you arrested for that this has nothing to do with your husband's murder no this is
00:50:37
just from something that happened like two decades ago you know you grew up the Skittles from the Kroger you just like
00:50:42
had a couple unpaid parking tickets Nance it's we're just gonna take you downtown like yes they think you
00:50:47
murdered your husband of course that's why they're arresting you and don't they literally say like you're being arrested
00:50:52
for the murderable yeah for sure there's no way remains silent anything you say can yeah
00:51:00
so she's really quick on the uptake there but despite all the strong evidence against her like we just heard
00:51:06
in that crazy ass clip Nancy maintained that she was innocent but still offered zero explanation for her presence
00:51:12
outside the school on the morning of her husband's murder but strangely enough her arrest actually
00:51:20
shocked almost everybody who knew her and Daniel especially the people closest to them her old roommate Tanya she said
00:51:28
I was absolutely shocked I don't think she did it and I would be embarrassed if I was them if they can't prove this
00:51:34
now Daniel's son Nathan Stillwater was among those most stunned by Nancy's arrest he told Dateline they were you
00:51:41
know they had started making some plans for what was going to happen in their retirement years and while it hadn't
00:51:46
been nailed down yet it seemed like they were on to some exciting ideas honestly
00:51:52
we were coming to terms that this would be an unsolved murder it doesn't make any sense
00:51:57
wow so at first I think before they knew what the evidence was people in their lives were just like no there's no way
00:52:04
Nancy could have done this but then they're sitting there through the trial and they see the surveillance footage
00:52:08
the multiple life insurance taken out the the different gun parts like and they're like holy [ __ ] I knew this woman
00:52:15
and like this is what she's capable of so Clancy was arraigned in Multnomah I believe it's how you say it circuit
00:52:23
court on September 7th and a week later on September 13th a grand jury indicted her on one count of murder with a
00:52:29
firearm constituting domestic violence to which she pled I'm sure you'll be amazed not guilty I'm not amazed at all
00:52:38
no exactly I was being sarcastic so while she was sitting in jail waiting for her trial the story was circulating
00:52:44
online and eventually made its way to the national news outlet and the late night cycle and of course they were all
00:52:50
shelving at the bit to get the story out about the woman who wrote the wrong husband and how to murder your husband
00:52:58
but reporters were actually having a tough time lining up any interviews with the brophy's friends family or anybody
00:53:05
at the school their request to those people went almost entirely ignored and actually Daniel's students and his
00:53:11
friends had quote made a pact to stay silent out of respect for a man who had life valued his privacy
00:53:17
yeah which I think is cool so yeah that was good stuff yeah good stuff so in the months after Nancy's arrest
00:53:25
the County Judge imposed a protective order actually which barred the release of any information or evidence related
00:53:31
to the case on the grounds that it might jeopardize the investigation but by April 2019 the news had gone National
00:53:38
and because of that Nancy's attorney tried to have the protection order extended essentially arguing that if any
00:53:45
more coverage or any more information got released Nancy wouldn't get a fair trial
00:53:50
but the prosecutor Sean Overstreet completely disagreed and he argued all of the information being shared was fact
00:53:57
it was just damning and that's why the defense wanted it left out so ultimately the judge agreed with the prosecution
00:54:03
and the order was lifted as it should be yeah agreed so as the prosecution and the defense did their
00:54:10
thing detectives actually kept on investigating Gathering more and more evidence against our girl dance who is
00:54:15
not our girl at all it was during this time that they discovered several more life insurance policies that Nancy had
00:54:23
taken out in Daniel's name and they discovered the replacement Glock parts that would later be essential in
00:54:29
Prosecuting Nancy according to the prosecutor the gun confiscated from Nancy was the exact
00:54:35
make and model used in the killing of Daniel but the ballistics testing found out that the bullets taken from his body
00:54:42
were not a match for Nancy's gun but the match of gun but mismatch of the bullet seemed too much of a coincidence
00:54:49
for the investigators so they dug deeper into Nancy's activities and they found a
00:54:54
possible explanation and that's when they ended up finding out that she had bought separate parts for a Glock nine
00:54:59
millimeter handgun on eBay meaning the gun could be a match for the murder weapon it just had a different slide and
00:55:06
Barrel and that's why Nancy thought she was going to get away with it I mean like
00:55:13
she couldn't even had someone else buy it for her on eBay like I don't know like I'm not trying to give you ideas uh
00:55:19
potential nancies out there but no come on no you're right though like you have to sit there and you're like oh my God
00:55:25
but then at the same time it's like wow she literally thought to like replace different I would I don't I don't even
00:55:32
think I knew before this that you could replace different parts and like mix match gun parts I thought they all just
00:55:38
had to like line up together like a Lego set or something but I mean like I knew
00:55:42
that that was a thing I'm not like super into guns or anything um but like I knew that was a thing but I wouldn't
00:55:49
have I wouldn't have thought to like you know be like oh that could be a thing in
00:55:52
a case where you're switching it around for like you know the investigation purposes like I wouldn't have thought of
00:55:58
that and I don't I don't know maybe other people listening they're like oh of course think of that but
00:56:03
I wouldn't think that Nancy would think of that that's the thing like and why is
00:56:07
she so cocky thinking she's gonna get away with this when she's like yeah I did this but you didn't you didn't prep
00:56:13
anything else that's the thing I don't understand I think like you were saying in the beginning I think she just had to
00:56:19
have been delusional if she thought she was gonna get away with this she is fully delusional
00:56:24
I mean that is held together by Band-Aids according to her it's like no it's tied together by actual
00:56:30
surveillance footage of you outside of a murder scene but the case ended up finally going to trial on April 4th 2022
00:56:38
there were tons of delays because of coven her lawyers actually tried to get her released from prison
00:56:45
um because of like covid complications they were like she's in danger and this is like a violation of her rights and
00:56:51
they were like she waved a bell hearing so unless you want to have a bale hearing like we can talk then but if not
00:56:58
you're sitting in prison and even if you do talk about a bail hearing you're most
00:57:02
likely sitting in prison you're awaiting trial for murder yeah but they were Off
00:57:07
to the Races with prosecutor Sean Overstreet arguing on behalf of the state and Lisa Maxfield arguing for the
00:57:13
defense now by the time the case was ready for trial the judge actually had decided to exclude the how to murder
00:57:20
your husband blog post from the evidence on the grounds that quote any minimal probative value is substantially
00:57:25
outweighed by the danger of unfair Prejudice and a confusion of the issues so I think basically what he was saying
00:57:33
is that like it might be confusing to the jury that's kind of what I got out of that I don't agree but I can see
00:57:42
where like maybe it would have been an issue um because it's like it's like a fiction
00:57:47
novel type thing or like a blog post or whatever it happened to be exactly and I
00:57:52
think they really well in the prosecution they were okay with that because they had actually planned in
00:57:57
their argument to minimize that post anyway because they had stronger evidence so they were okay with it being
00:58:02
omitted yeah they had better [ __ ] to work with so it is opening statement prosecutor
00:58:08
Overstreet told the jury that even though a good amount of their evidence was circumstantial they planned and
00:58:14
believed that they could show it that it was greed that motivated Nancy to kill her husband back in 2018. he told them
00:58:21
and would later tell Dateline as well quote Nancy wanted more Nancy wanted a lifestyle that Dan couldn't give to her
00:58:27
I think she thought if I could do this I'll get enough money that will allow me to change that lifestyle we never
00:58:34
thought that she didn't love him I think she probably hoped things had worked out
00:58:37
differently but when they didn't he was a problem for her ultimately I mean uh Nancy's out for
00:58:43
number one right exactly it's tale as old as time she thinks she's entitled to a certain lifestyle and she's gonna do
00:58:50
whatever she needs to do to get there and I think she also got more and more desperate as they were losing more and
00:58:56
more money and she wanted to be able to spend money on things that she wanted but she couldn't because he was the only
00:59:03
person making money and she was not and how [ __ ] old was she at this point she's like
00:59:09
I want to say she's like in her like late 50s early 60s it's just I don't know at that point
00:59:16
like I don't know is this weird just I feel like material things mean less and less
00:59:22
the older you get you know I think that it depends on who you are I think yeah if you've gotten what you if you've
00:59:30
gotten what you wanted out of life okay so far if you got to like age 50 60 I would assume that material items would
00:59:38
mean less to you but I guess if you're not getting what you want out of life then it's gonna mean more to you I think
00:59:43
it just I think it really depends on the kind of person you are and how much material things mean to you I think she
00:59:49
was a very materialistic person it seems yeah that's true and I and like you were
00:59:54
saying I think she was always out for number one she's definitely over number one Nancy
00:59:59
you suck right crazy and as Overstreet again the prosecutor put it to the jury Dan Brophy
01:00:07
was worth almost 1.5 million dollars to Nancy if he was dead but worth a life of
01:00:13
financial hardship if he stayed alive damn so [ __ ] up either like it's either way
01:00:19
it's your husband I know and it it sucks that you know they get to that point where they have to put it out there like
01:00:26
that it's like hey yeah I don't want to say this but he was just a number to her
01:00:30
yeah like I can't imagine like like putting a value on how much Drew is worth to me like a money a monetary
01:00:39
value right like that's crazy way more than that like I would what it's like hey this this is also a human you know
01:00:48
you remember that part uh exactly not really for your monetary gain but thank you
01:00:54
so over the course of 11 days the prosecution supported their argument by showing the surveillance footage of
01:01:00
Nancy at the school on the morning of the morning of the murders and then search history and data from her
01:01:06
computer which showed the purchase of the additional parts for the Glock the multiple life insurance policies that
01:01:12
would have provided a payout altogether once they found the other ones of nearly
01:01:16
eight hundred thousand dollars Jesus and then the jury also heard from 47 Witnesses including everybody from the
01:01:24
oci which by the way I think I said OSI earlier I'm sorry I meant to say ocially Institute I definitely did yeah
01:01:33
that's not what I was saying but they heard from the facilities manager at the school several of the students who
01:01:39
actually were the ones to find Daniel they heard from Daniel's father Jack Brophy and several of the couple's
01:01:45
friends now one of the witnesses that helped the prosecution significantly actually came from a financial analyst
01:01:52
named Steven Santos he testified that Nancy and dance retirement plans were financially unsustainable and that the
01:02:00
life insurance policies taken out in Daniel's name would have been more appropriate for a couple with more uh
01:02:07
discretionary income so basically saying because again when they met with that financial advisor
01:02:13
earlier they said even if you sell your house even if you sell your land you're still gonna end up in the red I think
01:02:19
she had gotten them so much in the red that even with the money that she would have gotten from Daniel she like she
01:02:26
still potentially could have been in the red I'm sure she would have been I mean it
01:02:30
sounded like it wasn't going well no and eventually I think even if even if she like did end up in the green a bit it
01:02:37
was only a matter of time before she ended up in the red again for sure I mean she's obviously wanted to get rid
01:02:44
of him to keep spending so I don't think that was gonna slow down I think of anything it was gonna ramp up yeah and I
01:02:50
mean it's crazy I'm sure like how fast that money could go like you see it when people win the lottery and like stuff
01:02:56
like that like obviously a million dollars is a lot of money but when you are spending it with like absolutely no
01:03:02
regard I'm sure it's gonna go quickly yeah So Lisa Maxfield the defense attorney
01:03:08
she tried to poke any hole that she could in the state's case about Nancy she told the jury in her opening
01:03:14
statement the state will present a circumstantial case that begs you to cast a blind dye to the most important
01:03:20
circumstance love Nancy crafted Brophy has always been thoroughly madly crazy in love with Daniel Brophy and she still
01:03:30
is to this day for Nancy Brophy he was perfect wow it's like yeah why'd she murder him
01:03:37
then yeah it kind of It kind of shatters once you uh like why was she outside of
01:03:42
school when he got killed then that doesn't really make a lot of sense to me but she uh write a whole entire article
01:03:48
on how to murder your husband while she was married to a perfectly great husband
01:03:51
but she uh write a letter to the insurance and go hey uh can I get that money uh post taste no she literally
01:03:58
that that wasn't even to the insurance that was to the detective clearing me as this like I was like
01:04:05
saying I'm not a suspect and they were like no that's [ __ ] crazy insane I guess the woman is delusional truly is
01:04:17
the definition of the word and then she she went on to try and explain every point that the prosecution had made a
01:04:23
way she said the ghost this is the defense attorney the ghost gun kit and the Glock were merely researched for
01:04:29
Nancy's writing I'm like I host a true crime podcast and never have I ever bought a Glock on eBay
01:04:36
yeah I mean really anything that you need to research about it you could look up or if anything I don't know maybe ask
01:04:43
a friend who has one or something be like hey can I just look at this for like a little bit or something like
01:04:47
anything else I don't think you need to go out and get a gun license if you just
01:04:52
want to look at a gun for a little while exactly and you were saying all of her friends had this specific kind of gun so
01:04:58
use theirs for your [ __ ] research and if she's saying like oh it's researchers
01:05:01
researchers this and that but I've never fired it how much research are you doing
01:05:05
you're not even gonna shoot the thing that you're researching like don't you want to see how a thing functions if
01:05:10
you're researching it I don't know there's there's a lot of levels to that which I think she's full of [ __ ] I agree
01:05:16
giant [ __ ] I agree and then she also said that the internet searches uh for how to cover up a murder were also just
01:05:26
for research yeah yeah fair and then she offered the alternative theory that Brophy had actually been killed by a
01:05:33
local unhoused man seen in the area that morning yeah always know it's going well
01:05:38
when they start offering up their own theories yeah exactly exactly the theory was very quickly dismissed by detective
01:05:46
Anthony Merrill who told the jury he and his partner had located the man and determined he was never a threat and he
01:05:52
pointed out Daniel had been shot but nothing had been taken yeah like hello and then he said there she was also
01:06:00
being a little racist when she did this because the um detective ended up saying later
01:06:05
they're asking you to consider the black guy in the neighborhood as the Killer without any any evidence you should be
01:06:11
offended like literally said to him you should be offended it's true now the most dramatic moment came on day 21 of
01:06:20
the trial when Nancy took the stand to testify in her own defense and as we know from the clip you showed us this
01:06:26
was a big yikes during questioning from the defense she tried to explain away the more damning
01:06:32
aspects of the prosecution's arguments she told the jury she was a very thorough researcher had saw the guns she
01:06:39
and Daniel were very much in love and they were working on solving their financial problems and then she admitted
01:06:45
yes she had purchased that replacement Glock barrel and slide from the seller on eBay but it was because she was quote
01:06:52
obsessed with gun parts and that the missing part were parts were surely in storage somewhere
01:06:59
okay well what do you think our plan was in that moment to draw them up like she
01:07:03
was gonna order them again do right I don't even think I think if it went down to it she was
01:07:12
gonna order them again and she was gonna go look they're right here and then they
01:07:15
were gonna go um it says right here yes Tuesday you just ordered a second set so
01:07:21
where's the first set should be like I don't know what you're talking about surely it should be like my my account
01:07:26
was hacked ridiculous so some of her testimony seemed sub plus like seemed plausible in some way but
01:07:35
other parts were downright ridiculous she said she had no memory of leaving the house on the morning of the murder
01:07:40
and she didn't know what she was doing on the surveillance camera footage she said you know maybe I was struggling
01:07:48
to write and I went out to clear my head and a psychiatrist for the defense testified it was possible that Nancy was
01:07:55
suffering from what's called retrograde amnesia from the later trauma of learning that her husband had been
01:08:01
killed and that's why she didn't remember what she was doing that morning but the prosecutor challenged that claim
01:08:06
and said to Nancy if you can't remember anything how could you be sure that you didn't kill your husband
01:08:12
and she goes uh she was like uh she said I see Dan every day I talk to him every
01:08:20
day this is not a man I would have shot because I had a memory issue it seems to
01:08:25
me if I shot him I would know every detail okay okay buddy that's also just a strange explanation
01:08:35
yeah I mean like I said she's the king of flip-flopping so after 25 days of evidence and testimony closing arguments
01:08:43
were presented on May 23 2022 so not that long ago Overstreet focused on Nancy's convenient claim of Amnesia the
01:08:51
physical evidence the forensic evidence that linked her to the crime including the purchases of the guns the
01:08:56
surveillance footage and in closing he turned the defense's argument back onto them and reminded the jury no one would
01:09:03
want to hurt Dan even Nancy herself told that to detectives so nobody else had a
01:09:08
motive but Nancy did no literally the only person in the world literally now in closing Arguments for the defense
01:09:18
Nancy's attorneys focused on the purely circumstantial nature of the case and reminded the jury that the prosecution's
01:09:24
case couldn't be proven Beyond A Reasonable Doubt instead they emphasized that throughout the trial the jury
01:09:30
repeatedly heard how happy Nancy and Daniel were together Maxfield even said at one point that the best proven fact
01:09:37
during the trial was that Nancy and Dan loved each other that doesn't nah I okay she murdered him
01:09:47
and then because after she was like they loved each other she was like there were
01:09:52
other possible assailants in the area then she claimed the police had ignored them which was not true
01:09:58
and also why are you saying there are multiple other assalians when the only person you brought up in the first place
01:10:03
was just an unhoused man minding his own business you dingus [Laughter] so on May 25th 2022 after eight hours of
01:10:20
deliberation I can't even believe it took them that long the jury returned with a unanimous guilty verdict for the
01:10:26
second degree murder of Daniel Brophy sentencing was held on June 13th and that's when they did Victim Impact
01:10:33
statements um Daniel's son Nathan did an impact statement and said to Nancy you opted to
01:10:38
lie steal cheat fraud ultimately killed the man that was for some reason still unbeknownst to me your biggest fan you
01:10:46
executed my father in an act of cold-blooded premeditated murder the man that did everything for you
01:10:53
I was actually curious on if they had kids or not I think that was his son from like his first marriage yeah no
01:11:01
that's what it seemed like yeah that's really sad so before pronouncing his sentence the judge addressed the family
01:11:06
saying I think the thing that you can take away which I hope gives you some small measure of Solace is that he was a
01:11:12
mentor and a teacher to many and hopefully they and hopefully they will turn and have an impact on others
01:11:18
themselves as they teach and with that said he sentenced Nancy to life in prison with the possibility of
01:11:25
parole after 25 years and then lifetime went on to make the movie called how to murder your husband the Nancy Brophy
01:11:32
story which I have not watched wow they took the name took the name that's crazy just like a really sad
01:11:41
story overall because it just didn't need to happen no I mean what a what an idiot dude I
01:11:48
mean I'm glad she's in jail I'm kind of disappointed that she has the possibility of parole in 25 years but um
01:11:53
hopefully she'll be like withering and like dying seriously at that point seriously
01:11:58
but Caleb thank you so much for joining me doggy of course dude thanks for having me
01:12:04
welcome I hope I did all right my my uh it's been a while since I've done a true
01:12:08
crime anything really I think it's been like three years you did a great job and
01:12:12
for those of you who are listening we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it
01:12:20
weird but not so weird that you murder your husband and write a blog post about it because that's really too weird
01:12:28
please [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 85
    Most intense
  • 80
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most unpredictable
  • 75
    Most heartbreaking

Episode Highlights

  • Nancy Brophy's Background
    Exploring Nancy's early life and her journey into culinary arts.
    “Nancy cramped and Brophy was born Nancy Lee Crampton on June 16, 1950.”
    @ 02m 45s
    April 11, 2023
  • Daniel Brophy's Culinary Passion
    Daniel's love for cooking and community service shines through.
    “He put a lot of love into his food.”
    @ 08m 23s
    April 11, 2023
  • Nancy's Writing Journey
    Nancy's transition into writing and her self-published novels.
    “She spent years dabbling in literary crafts.”
    @ 14m 14s
    April 11, 2023
  • Nancy's Research Spending
    Nancy's extravagant spending on research raises eyebrows, including a Victorian chastity belt purchase.
    “I think maybe she had like a shopping problem or something.”
    @ 20m 07s
    April 11, 2023
  • Daniel's Shocking Murder
    Daniel Brophy was shot while preparing for class, shocking students and staff alike.
    “Brutal as [ __ ] and just like out of nowhere.”
    @ 27m 05s
    April 11, 2023
  • Nancy's Odd Reaction
    Nancy's response to Daniel's death raises suspicion, as she exhibits strange behavior.
    “You can't chop someone's guiltiness up to how they react to something right away.”
    @ 31m 06s
    April 11, 2023
  • Suspicious Behavior Post-Murder
    Nancy's actions after Daniel's death raised eyebrows, including moving furniture and seeking a letter of innocence.
    “I would say she had an air of relief like it was almost a godsend.”
    @ 39m 56s
    April 11, 2023
  • The Glock Connection
    Investigators found a Glock handgun purchased by Nancy, which was the same caliber used in Daniel's murder.
    “She claimed it was for research for one of her novels.”
    @ 45m 15s
    April 11, 2023
  • Nancy's Greed Unveiled
    Prosecutor Overstreet argues that greed motivated Nancy to kill her husband for a better lifestyle.
    “Nancy wanted more. Nancy wanted a lifestyle that Dan couldn't give to her.”
    @ 58m 26s
    April 11, 2023
  • The Trial's Dramatic Moment
    Nancy testifies in her defense, claiming love for her husband while facing damning evidence.
    “This is not a man I would have shot because I had a memory issue.”
    @ 01h 08m 22s
    April 11, 2023
  • Verdict Delivered
    After 25 days of evidence, the jury finds Nancy guilty of second-degree murder.
    @ 01h 10m 26s
    April 11, 2023
  • Judge's Impact Statement
    The judge addresses the family, emphasizing the victim's positive influence on others.
    “I hope gives you some small measure of solace.”
    @ 01h 11m 10s
    April 11, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • She definitely wrote about it before it even happened.
    The Murder of Daniel Brophy | Morbid
  • I would just love to be a fly on the wall.
    The Murder of Daniel Brophy | Morbid
  • You can't chop someone's guiltiness up to how they react to something right away.
    The Murder of Daniel Brophy | Morbid
  • I find it easier to wish people dead than to actually kill them.
    The Murder of Daniel Brophy | Morbid
  • It's tale as old as time. She's gonna do whatever she needs to do.
    The Murder of Daniel Brophy | Morbid
  • This is not a man I would have shot because I had a memory issue.
    The Murder of Daniel Brophy | Morbid

Key Moments

  • Special Edition00:19
  • Culinary School05:16
  • Financial Struggles12:39
  • Research Spending19:40
  • Suspicious Requests38:54
  • Glock Discovery45:01
  • Prosecutor's Opening Statement58:05
  • Guilty Verdict1:10:26

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown