Heidi Joy Tretheway was stunned when she learned that a romance writer had been arrested on suspicion of murdering her spouse – and she knew exactly who it was.
“I was shocked,” Tretheway told Fox News Digital. “The first time I ever found out this was happening was when I saw Nancy Crampton Brophy’s mugshot on the news.”
The Oregon writer who plotted for months to kill her spouse until she made her devious plan a real-life tale is the subject of a new true-crime podcast on Wondery, “Happily Never After: Dan & Nancy.” It’s hosted by Tretheway, who was once in the same writing circle as Crampton Brophy. It features new interviews with those who met Crampton Brophy over the years.
“But it seemed there was a lifestyle she wanted that her writing could never provide because she was never successful as a writer,” Tretheway continued. “She never sold enough books to even slightly have a comfortable life. It barely supported her Starbucks habit. So it appeared that she thought killing would be the way to get the lifestyle that she always wanted.”
Crampton Brophy was arrested in September 2018. The stunned widow said she had no reason to kill her husband. She pointed out that their financial problems had largely been solved by cashing in a chunk of Brophy’s retirement savings plan.
Police never found the gun that killed Brophy. Prosecutors alleged Crampton Brophy swapped out the barrel of the gun used in the shooting and then discarded the barrel.
Defense attorneys said the gun parts were inspiration for Crampton Brophy’s writing. They suggested someone else might have killed Brophy during a robbery gone wrong. Crampton Brophy testified during the trial that her presence near the culinary school on the day of her husband’s death was a mere coincidence and that she had parked in the area to work on her writing.
Circuit Judge Christopher Ramras excluded Crampton Brophy’s how-to essay from the trial. He noted it was published in 2011, seven years before Brophy’s death.
Tretheway said it was impossible to ignore Crampton Brophy’s infamous piece.
“The essay reveals a lot about her mindset,” she said. “She talks about how you murder someone. Maybe you shoot them, but then you’ll get blood and brain splattered on the walls. You don’t want to clean that up. Well, she committed the murder somewhere else, so she didn’t have to clean it up.”
In 2022, Crampton Brophy, 71, was found guilty of second-degree murder. She displayed no visible reaction. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Tretheway said she attempted to reach out to Crampton Brophy. Her letter was unanswered.
“If Nancy had been more successful as a writer, if money had not been a problem, would she have felt so desperate?” Tretheway reflected. “Did she really love Dan? Only she can answer that… Nancy always thought she was the smartest person in the room… She thought she could engineer the perfect crime and get away with it. Ultimately, she couldn’t.”