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NBC’s Dateline Season 30, Episode 30, titled Murder in Kitchen One, revolves around the story of Dan Brophy, a chef and teacher at Oregon Culinary Institute. The kind and passionate teacher and chef was shot to death in Kitchen One at the institute on the morning of June 2, 2018.
His wife, Nancy Crampton-Brophy, a novelist, was later convicted of murdering her husband.
More on this in our story:
Dateline: Murder In Kitchen One - Who was Dan Brophy, and what happened to him? Details explored
63-year-old Dan Brophy was a chef and instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute and a restaurant in Portland, Oregon. As per Dateline, Dan was passionate about food and cooking. He always looked for new recipes to cook.
The Oregon chef started from scratch and initially used to wash dishes in a Kansas City kitchen. Through his passion and hard work, he reached a position where he liked teaching others about food.
Dan was also a gardener and had a marine biology degree. He met his wife, Nancy Crampton-Brophy, when she took a course under Dan in the early 1990s.
Dan’s son Nathaniel Stillwater told Dateline how great their relationship was as they both had the freedom to follow their dreams. He said:
"One of the great things about their relationship was that he had the freedom to pursue his hobbies and interests. You know, she was very much involved with her writing and I think that coalesced nicely, you know, into him being able to make it out to the forest and hunt mushrooms or work on whatever project he had."
However, their perfect relationship came to an end when, on the morning of June 2, 2018, Dan was shot to death in Kitchen One of the Oregon Culinary Institute.
As it was a test day for his students, Dan was preparing for the day ahead when he arrived in the kitchen around 7:22 am. He was in front of the kitchen sink when a shot was fired at his back. Later, another shot to his chest was fired that instantly killed him.
Dan was discovered by one of his colleagues, and then a student called 911 to report the incident. The paramedics declared him dead as soon as they arrived and checked his vitals.
As the investigation started, the possibility of robbery was ruled out as nothing was missing from the kitchen, not even Dan’s wallet, which had several credit cards.
The case took a dark turn when the police found surveillance footage of Nancy’s minivan moving around his culinary institute on the morning of his death.
Dateline: Murder In Kitchen One - Nancy was found guilty of murdering Dan Brophy by a jury
The Portland police started investigating Nancy and found numerous reasons that might make Nancy the killer.
The couple was going through a difficult financial struggle and was contemplating selling their house. Other than that, they also found out that Nancy was to receive a life insurance benefit of $800,000 after her husband’s death.
Moreover, they also found that Nancy had been searching online about guns and that she had recently bought a new Glock. Another shocking detail found by the investigators was Nancy’s 2011 blog post titled How to Murder Your Husband.
With the help of this evidence and surveillance footage of Nancy driving around Oregon Culinary Institute before and after Dan’s murder, she was arrested.
In 2022, Nancy was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The 74-year-old novelist will not be allowed parole until she turns 91.
Other than Natahniel Stillwater, the Dateline episode also includes interviews with Portland Detective Darren Posey, prosecutor Shawn Overstreet, and his family and friends.
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