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Romance Novelist Wife of Chef, Who Called Her Hubby Her 'Best Friend,' Charged With His Murder
Talk about a plot twist: "Writers are liars."
The wife of an Oregon chef, who was gunned down this summer at the culinary school where he taught, has been arrested and charged with his murder.
The Portland Police took romance novelist Nancy L. Crampton-Brophy, 68, into custody Wednesday, three months after her husband was found shot in a kitchen area of the Oregon Culinary Institute.
Although life-saving efforts were performed after he was shot on June 2, Daniel Brophy, 63, died from his injuries, police said.
The day after his death Crampton-Brophy seemed like a grieving wife. She took to social media to announce the death, calling her husband her "best friend" on Facebook.
"While I appreciate all of your loving responses, I am overwhelmed. Please save phone calls for a few days until I can function," she wrote in the Facebook post.
Police didn't release a motive in the case but said information learned during their investigation led them to Crampton-Brophy.
She's been charged with murder and unlawful use of a weapon.
The Oregon Culinary Institute, where Brophy had worked as a lead chef since 2006, described Brophy on its website as a marine biologist, master gardener and mushroom expert. He was known for leading students in experiential field trips and was an "encyclopedia of knowledge," according to his biography.
"He will be remembered for his offbeat sense of humor and creative approach to teaching," it stated.
Crampton-Brophy is an author who has written several romance novels, according to her website.
"My stories are about pretty men and strong women, about families that don’t always work and about the joy of finding love and the difficulty of making it stay."
Among her works is a series with the tagline "wrong never felt so right," which includes a book called "The Wrong Husband."
Her bio starts off with the sentence, "Writers are liars."
She describes the moment she fell in love with her husband on her website, saying she was taking a bath and had expected him to join her, but when she asked if he was coming he said he had to make hors d'oeuvres first.
"Can you imagine spending the rest of your life without a man like that?" she wrote on the site.
While she said the marriage had its ups and downs she described it as "more good times than bad."
Crampton-Brophy was arraigned on Thursday.
[Photo: Portland Police Bureau]
