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This mystery unraveled in a BLOG POST · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today's story is about a fiction writer who used her
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Speaker 1: own life as inspiration for her books. However, as she
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Speaker 1: would find out, some stories are better left untold. But
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Speaker 1: before we get into today's story, if you're a fan
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Speaker 1: into today's story. On the night of June first, twenty eighteen,
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Speaker 1: sixty eight year old Nancy Crampton Brophy sat in bed
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Speaker 1: with her computer on her lap in the home she
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Speaker 1: shared with her husband in the suburb of Beaverton, Oregan.
1:03
Speaker 1: Nancy was trying to work on her newest book, but
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Speaker 1: for some reason, she just couldn't focus on the chapter
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Speaker 1: she was writing. So. Nancy was a romance writer who
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Speaker 1: had actually finished eleven novels, and she also ran a
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Speaker 1: blog with some other romance writers who lived in the area.
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Speaker 2: Now, writing really.
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Speaker 1: Was Nancy's passion, and she'd been doing it her whole life.
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Speaker 1: But despite that, she really had not made any real
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Speaker 1: money from writing. She had never gotten a legitimate publisher
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Speaker 1: to buy one of her books. So those eleven novels
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Speaker 1: she did well, they had to be self published and
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Speaker 1: basically had to be free online for anybody to read them.
1:35
Speaker 1: And so in order to keep on writing, she had
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Speaker 1: to have a day job to pay the bills. In
1:41
Speaker 1: the past, she'd run a catering company, but now she
1:44
Speaker 1: worked for medicare. However, despite not having made it big,
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Speaker 1: at least not financially as a writer, yet it didn't
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Speaker 1: deter Nancy. I mean, she was totally motivated to keep
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Speaker 1: on writing because she believed that the next thing she
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Speaker 1: wrote was going to be the thing that finally made
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Speaker 1: her best seller and made her famous and financially.
2:02
Speaker 2: Stable on her writing.
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Speaker 1: However, tonight Nancy just felt completely stuck. She could not
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Speaker 1: think of what to write next. So she leaned back
2:11
Speaker 1: into her pillow and just thought about what her character
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Speaker 1: was going through and tried to think if if she'd
2:17
Speaker 1: ever gone through anything similar, that might inspire you know,
2:19
Speaker 1: what would need to happen next In the story. So
2:23
Speaker 1: these romance epics that Nancy wrote were very over the top,
2:27
Speaker 1: but she did draw a lot of inspiration from her
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Speaker 1: actual personal life. Most of her work featured very powerful
2:33
Speaker 1: women and had similar themes like freedom and strength and love,
2:37
Speaker 1: because Nancy really valued all those things in her own life.
2:40
Speaker 1: The other things all her books had in common was
2:43
Speaker 1: they always had happy endings, and Nancy knew all about
2:46
Speaker 1: happy endings because in some ways.
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Speaker 2: You know, she was living one.
2:50
Speaker 1: Nancy and her husband, Dan Brophy had been married for
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Speaker 1: almost twenty five years. They had both been married before,
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Speaker 1: and Dan actually had a son and granddaughter from his
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Speaker 1: first marriage, and so the fact that Nancy and Dan
3:01
Speaker 1: had found each other after essentially both of them had
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Speaker 1: been living what felt like very complete lives to that
3:07
Speaker 1: point felt like another theme that she wrote about all
3:10
Speaker 1: the time, which was this idea of fate, you know,
3:12
Speaker 1: as if fate is the thing that brought Nancy and
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Speaker 1: Dan together.
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Speaker 2: Dan and Nancy.
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Speaker 1: Even called themselves soulmates, sort of playing on this idea
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Speaker 1: that really fate had led them together. I mean, they
3:22
Speaker 1: had fights and disagreements like any other couple, but they
3:25
Speaker 1: also knew each other so well that sometimes Nancy felt
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Speaker 1: like they could almost read each other's minds, and that
3:31
Speaker 1: sort of got them through any rough patches. And also
3:34
Speaker 1: another part of the reason that they seemed to work
3:36
Speaker 1: so well together as a couple was because they gave
3:39
Speaker 1: each other plenty of space to pursue their own interests.
3:42
Speaker 1: They were given freedom, something again that Nancy really valued.
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Speaker 1: And so for Nancy, her sense of freedom, her sense
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Speaker 1: of you know, being able to pursue what she wanted
3:51
Speaker 1: to meant shutting herself away every evening in their little
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Speaker 1: attic bedroom for hours and hours to write. And for Dan,
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Speaker 1: you know, his sense of freedom and his ability to
4:01
Speaker 1: pursue his own interests meant working long hours at a
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Speaker 1: career he loved as a chef and a teacher at
4:07
Speaker 1: the Organ Culinary Institute. Just like Nancy was sort of
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Speaker 1: obsessed with writing, Dan was obsessed with food and cooking,
4:14
Speaker 1: and when he was not in a kitchen, he was
4:15
Speaker 1: often out in the backyard of his and Nancy's house,
4:18
Speaker 1: raising chickens and working in his garden, or maybe on
4:21
Speaker 1: a trip into the Oregon woods to forage for mushrooms.
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Speaker 1: But tonight, despite how happy Nancy's life was and how
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Speaker 1: secure she felt in her own relationship like none of
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Speaker 1: that really mattered relative to what she was trying to do,
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Speaker 1: which was write this book.
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Speaker 2: She just was not able to do it.
4:37
Speaker 1: And as she continued to struggle with writer's block, her
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Speaker 1: mind kind of spiraled off into more sort of pessimistic thinking,
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Speaker 1: and she began thinking about, you know, the money problems
4:46
Speaker 1: that recently had begun to take a toll on both
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Speaker 1: her and Dan. Neither Nancy nor Dan had ever made
4:52
Speaker 1: particularly high salaries, and their finances had always been pretty tight,
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Speaker 1: so that was kind of normal for their relationship. But
4:58
Speaker 1: about two years ago, they'd gotten really behind on credit
5:02
Speaker 1: card debt, and that extra debt threw everything else out
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Speaker 1: of whack, and at one point they actually had not
5:08
Speaker 1: even been able to afford their mortgage. Now, realistically, things
5:11
Speaker 1: were actually more under control now. Nancy and Dan had
5:14
Speaker 1: taken a chunk of money from Dan's retirement account to
5:17
Speaker 1: pay off some of this debt, and they'd also made
5:19
Speaker 1: the decision to sell the house the house they were
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Speaker 1: in now and downsize, which Nancy actually was kind of
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Speaker 1: excited about. With these lower overhead costs, it would likely
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Speaker 1: mean that she would get to quit her day job
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Speaker 1: and just pursue her passion writing and also pursue being
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Speaker 1: the best grandmother she.
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Speaker 2: Possibly could be.
5:38
Speaker 1: So in a way, things were starting to look up,
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Speaker 1: at least in terms of their financial situation. But Nancy knew,
5:45
Speaker 1: especially tonight, that she couldn't just forget about the fact
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Speaker 1: that they had these problems, like she couldn't just pretend
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Speaker 1: they weren't there. In fact, tonight, the reason Dan was
5:53
Speaker 1: not home when normally he would be is because recently
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Speaker 1: Dan had picked up a second job, cooking for and
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Speaker 1: assisted living facility, and he had picked it up to
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Speaker 1: help pay off this debt, so it really was sort
6:05
Speaker 1: of beginning to infect their whole lives this debt. He
6:08
Speaker 1: was working for a friend of theirs. It was a
6:09
Speaker 1: woman whose name was Tanya Medlin, and the job wasn't
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Speaker 1: bad exactly, but it definitely was not Dan's dream job either.
6:16
Speaker 1: But just then, as Nancy's having all these kind of
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Speaker 1: conflicting and sort of bad thoughts, she heard the front
6:21
Speaker 1: door open and realized that Dan must be home, So
6:24
Speaker 1: she slammed her laptop shut, figured she would attack this later,
6:28
Speaker 1: and she went downstairs to meet him. Nancy got to
6:30
Speaker 1: the front door just as Dan was taking off his
6:33
Speaker 1: boots and coming into the house, and she quickly gave
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Speaker 1: him a kiss and asked how a shift went, but
6:38
Speaker 1: Dan just kind of grunted and said, you know, fine,
6:41
Speaker 1: and then he disappeared into the kitchen to make some food.
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Speaker 1: Dan had always been a pretty gruff person, but to
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Speaker 1: Nancy it was sort of part of his charm. He
6:49
Speaker 1: was blunt and a little socially awkward, but his love
6:52
Speaker 1: language was food, and so he made her elaborate meals
6:55
Speaker 1: to show her that he cared about her, and she
6:57
Speaker 1: knew that. Nancy did know that other people didn't really
7:00
Speaker 1: understand Dan and often took his mannerisms and gruffness the
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Speaker 1: wrong way. In fact, at the last school where he taught,
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Speaker 1: he'd gotten fired because of his bad attitude, and at
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Speaker 1: the culinary institute where he was currently teaching, a group
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Speaker 1: of students had complained that he was way too tough
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Speaker 1: and had impossible standards. Now, Nancy did worry about this.
7:20
Speaker 1: I mean, she understood Dan, she knew what he was like.
7:23
Speaker 1: But I mean, the reality here is that if he
7:25
Speaker 1: loses his job or multiple jobs here, they're going to
7:28
Speaker 1: be in a bad spot financially. And again, they have
7:31
Speaker 1: these financial problems that they're working through, but that.
7:33
Speaker 2: Would be really bad.
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Speaker 1: And then also on top of that, this was sort
7:37
Speaker 1: of buried in the back of Nancy's mind, is she
7:40
Speaker 1: had this fear that, you know, Dan was going to
7:42
Speaker 1: upset the wrong person. It just seemed like he kind
7:45
Speaker 1: of made people mad everywhere he went, and who knows,
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Speaker 1: I mean, a student could snap and try to hurt him.
7:50
Speaker 1: And so maybe it was just a stress kind of
7:53
Speaker 1: coming through as she can't write and they have money problems,
7:55
Speaker 1: but on this night, she just had this feeling of like,
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Speaker 1: I hope he's going to be okay here. I hope
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Speaker 1: he isn't gonna make more people mad and jeopardize his
8:03
Speaker 1: own safety. And so Nancy goes to Dan in the
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Speaker 1: kitchen and she kind of tries to lighten the mood
8:08
Speaker 1: and just like ask him how the day went, you know,
8:10
Speaker 1: nothing too crazy. But she noticed that Dan's attitude was
8:14
Speaker 1: really bad, like even by his standards, he was really
8:17
Speaker 1: being quite rude, and Nancy knew that very likely the
8:20
Speaker 1: reason for this is because he had to work the
8:22
Speaker 1: second job because they were in debt, and so Nancy
8:25
Speaker 1: tried to be understanding, but as Dan got grouchier and
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Speaker 1: grouchier over the course.
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Speaker 2: Of the next few minutes.
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Speaker 1: You know, Nancy just started to feel like he was
8:33
Speaker 1: being rude to her and it was totally unnecessary, and
8:35
Speaker 1: it's like, she's in this with him, you know, why
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Speaker 1: are you treating me so badly. Eventually Dan finished making
8:41
Speaker 1: his snack and it was big enough that he puts
8:43
Speaker 1: someone on a plate for Nancy as well, and he
8:45
Speaker 1: handed it to her. And this made Nancy smile, even
8:48
Speaker 1: though she was kind of annoyed with Dan, because it
8:50
Speaker 1: felt like, oh, the old Dan's back, you know, giving
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Speaker 1: me food is his way of showing me he loves me.
8:55
Speaker 1: And so they ultimately sat down together and they ate
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Speaker 1: and they chatted a little bit before Dan and said.
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Speaker 2: I'm tired. I'm going to bed.
9:08
Speaker 1: Just before five am. The next day, so June second,
9:11
Speaker 1: Nancy woke up to the sound of Dan banging around
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Speaker 1: in their bathroom. Nancy liked to sleep in when she could,
9:17
Speaker 1: and today she could, but Dan he couldn't because he
9:20
Speaker 1: had a lot to do that morning, so he was
9:21
Speaker 1: up that day. He had to go to his school,
9:23
Speaker 1: the Oregon Culinary Institute, to set up the classroom before
9:27
Speaker 1: his students got there and then also teach that day,
9:29
Speaker 1: and then before that, he also had a list of
9:32
Speaker 1: chores that he did around the house before work, like
9:34
Speaker 1: feeding his chickens. Nancy tried to fall back asleep, but
9:37
Speaker 1: Dan frankly was too loud, and at this point, you know,
9:40
Speaker 1: she was kind of back in some negative thought loops
9:42
Speaker 1: and she couldn't sleep, And so she laid there and
9:45
Speaker 1: she began thinking, in particular of all the negative thoughts
9:49
Speaker 1: about the book, that she just couldn't continue to write
9:52
Speaker 1: this book. It was like she really had writer's block,
9:54
Speaker 1: and she had not really experienced that in previous novels.
9:57
Speaker 1: This one was just really really challenging. So after tossing
10:00
Speaker 1: and turning for a few more minutes, feeling really frustrated,
10:04
Speaker 1: she decided she would just get up and go take
10:06
Speaker 1: a drive and just clear her mind. This was Nancy's
10:09
Speaker 1: go to whenever she needed to work out a storyline
10:12
Speaker 1: or plot hole. She would just hop in her car
10:14
Speaker 1: and drive around and just kind of let her thoughts wander.
10:17
Speaker 1: And this morning she knew exactly where she wanted to go.
10:20
Speaker 1: She wanted to go to this very beautiful neighborhood with
10:23
Speaker 1: streetcar tracks and tree lined roads in the nearby city
10:26
Speaker 1: of Portland.
10:27
Speaker 2: So up and out of bed she got.
10:28
Speaker 1: She found Dan in the bathroom and said bye to him,
10:31
Speaker 1: and then she went outside, got in her car, and
10:33
Speaker 1: she was off less than twenty minutes later. And Nancy
10:37
Speaker 1: was in Portland. In particular, she was in the neighborhood
10:40
Speaker 1: that she thought was beautiful, and it was this area
10:42
Speaker 1: near a place called Washington Park, and so it's got
10:45
Speaker 1: beautiful foliage and there's all these beautiful homes and it's
10:48
Speaker 1: just this wonderful area. And she's driving around just kind
10:51
Speaker 1: of looking out the window, enjoying herself. And then she
10:54
Speaker 1: had this sort of pang of jealousy because Dan's school
10:57
Speaker 1: where he worked was roughly in this area, and so
11:00
Speaker 1: he got to go through here every morning, and she
11:02
Speaker 1: suddenly felt like, man, I wish I could do that. However,
11:06
Speaker 1: as she continued to drive around Portland, she began to
11:08
Speaker 1: see other sides of the city that she herself did
11:11
Speaker 1: not necessarily think were so great. In particular, she drove
11:15
Speaker 1: through an area where there were all these tents on
11:17
Speaker 1: the streets where people who were displaced or potentially homeless,
11:21
Speaker 1: you know, that's where they were living and you know,
11:22
Speaker 1: they were making the best of it, but from her perspective,
11:26
Speaker 1: this represented danger, and in fact, there'd been a whole
11:29
Speaker 1: lot more drug and criminal activity in this area lately
11:32
Speaker 1: that sort of coincided with more and more of these
11:34
Speaker 1: tents popping up around town, and this had actually really
11:37
Speaker 1: bothered Dan, you know, he was worried about this. However,
11:40
Speaker 1: the way Dan had responded ultimately beyond just telling Nancy
11:43
Speaker 1: about his concerns, is he had recently started this outreach
11:47
Speaker 1: program where he took extra food from his school and
11:50
Speaker 1: he gave it to a local church to help feed
11:52
Speaker 1: the homeless. Now, Nancy and Dan both thought this was
11:55
Speaker 1: a great idea, and it seemed like, you know, giving
11:57
Speaker 1: back in that way was exactly the right way to
12:00
Speaker 1: respond to what really amounted to a homelessness crisis in
12:03
Speaker 1: the city. But for Nancy, who worried about Dan, she
12:07
Speaker 1: couldn't help but feel like, I kind of wish she
12:09
Speaker 1: wasn't really getting involved. I don't really want him in
12:12
Speaker 1: this part of town. I want him home and safe
12:14
Speaker 1: or just at a school and safe there. And just
12:17
Speaker 1: she just had this growing sense of dread that something
12:19
Speaker 1: was going to happen to Dan. But as Nancy is
12:23
Speaker 1: having seemingly like ten thoughts all at once in all
12:26
Speaker 1: different directions, she suddenly has an epiphany. She has this
12:30
Speaker 1: moment of absolute clarity about how to write her book.
12:35
Speaker 1: It was like all these elements came together and were
12:38
Speaker 1: showing her the way, and so in an instant she
12:41
Speaker 1: turned back around and she drove back home to get
12:44
Speaker 1: to work. When Nancy got back to her house, she
12:47
Speaker 1: saw that Dan was already gone, which meant he was
12:50
Speaker 1: off to work at the culinary Institute, which meant Dan
12:53
Speaker 1: was sort of, you know, back into the dangerous part
12:56
Speaker 1: of town, you know, potentially, you know, surrounded by these
12:58
Speaker 1: homeless people that could POTENTI harm him.
13:00
Speaker 2: At least that's where her head was going.
13:02
Speaker 1: But she told herself she needed to focus, she needed
13:04
Speaker 1: to just do the writing while she had this moment
13:07
Speaker 1: of clarity, and so she rushes up to her bedroom
13:10
Speaker 1: and she spends the next two plus hours just writing NonStop.
13:17
Speaker 1: But then, at around ten am that morning, her concentration
13:20
Speaker 1: was broken when her cell phone rang, and when she
13:23
Speaker 1: answered it, she was very surprised to hear one of
13:26
Speaker 1: Dan's colleagues from the institute on the other line and
13:29
Speaker 1: the colleague sounded totally frantic, and she told Nancy that
13:33
Speaker 1: Dan was not at the school and she had heard
13:36
Speaker 1: there was a shooting at the school this morning, and
13:38
Speaker 1: so she was just worried about Dan. She had to
13:40
Speaker 1: make sure he was okay. She said she had tried
13:43
Speaker 1: to call Dan to see what was going on, but
13:44
Speaker 1: he hadn't answered, and so she was hoping that Nancy
13:47
Speaker 1: would know where he was. When Nancy heard this, it
13:50
Speaker 1: was like immediately her mind exploded with all the worst
13:53
Speaker 1: possible case scenarios that could be playing out here. But
13:57
Speaker 1: you know, she took a deep breath and tried to
13:59
Speaker 1: stay calm, and she hold this colleague, although she was
14:01
Speaker 1: not confident this was true, but she told the colleague
14:04
Speaker 1: likely Dan is just in the middle of a lesson
14:06
Speaker 1: and that's why he's not picking.
14:07
Speaker 2: Up his phone. He's probably just fine.
14:10
Speaker 1: The colleague sort of agreed and decided they would sort
14:12
Speaker 1: of wait and see if maybe Dan got back.
14:14
Speaker 2: In touch with them.
14:15
Speaker 1: But as soon as Nancy hung up the phone, she
14:18
Speaker 1: threw a laptop aside and ran downstairs and turned on
14:21
Speaker 1: the TV. And as she was flipping through channels looking
14:24
Speaker 1: for the news to find out more about the shooting.
14:26
Speaker 1: She also grabbed her phone and called Dan, but it
14:29
Speaker 1: rang and went to voicemail, so she hung up. She
14:32
Speaker 1: tried it again, but again he didn't answer, and so
14:34
Speaker 1: she texted him, but he didn't text back. At this point,
14:38
Speaker 1: the news was now on the TV, and as Nancy
14:40
Speaker 1: took stock of what she was seeing on the screen,
14:44
Speaker 1: she was horrified because it was all these images, you know,
14:47
Speaker 1: from helicopters and from reporters, showing Dan's school with all
14:51
Speaker 1: these police and all these news crews outside.
14:53
Speaker 2: I mean, clearly.
14:54
Speaker 1: Something had happened at the school. And she had just
14:57
Speaker 1: spoken to the colleague who said there was maybe the shooting,
15:00
Speaker 1: and so she raised a volume to see if they
15:01
Speaker 1: would maybe say, you know, was it a shooting, did
15:03
Speaker 1: somebody get shot, who got shot.
15:05
Speaker 2: Who did the shooting, what happened?
15:07
Speaker 1: But nobody was saying anything that clarified it, just that
15:10
Speaker 1: something had happened at the school. And so at this
15:12
Speaker 1: point Nancy couldn't wait any longer. She grabbed her keys,
15:15
Speaker 1: rushed out to her car, and she sped towards Dan's school.
15:18
Speaker 1: Less than twenty minutes later, Nancy drove through that same
15:21
Speaker 1: beautiful neighborhood that she had been in that morning in Portland,
15:24
Speaker 1: but this time, instead of admiring the scenery, she was
15:27
Speaker 1: laser focused on trying to find out if Dan was okay.
15:31
Speaker 2: She was calling and.
15:32
Speaker 1: Texting him, and she was cycling through the radio to
15:35
Speaker 1: hear any news broadcast about what had actually happened here,
15:38
Speaker 1: you know, to make sure Dan was not involved.
15:40
Speaker 2: In it in any way.
15:41
Speaker 1: But at this point, all she had learned from the
15:43
Speaker 1: news was that there really had been a shooting at
15:46
Speaker 1: the Oregon Culinary Institute.
15:47
Speaker 2: But that was it.
15:48
Speaker 1: There was no other information, and so by the time
15:50
Speaker 1: Nancy actually got to the school, she was such a
15:54
Speaker 1: nervous wreck. She was so anxious, she was nauseous, her
15:57
Speaker 1: hands ached from having white knuckled the steering wheel on
16:00
Speaker 1: the drive over.
16:01
Speaker 2: I mean, she was a mess. As Nancy looked around.
16:04
Speaker 1: All she saw was the sea of police officers and
16:07
Speaker 1: other first responders, and all this crime scene tape had
16:10
Speaker 1: been put out.
16:11
Speaker 2: And all these reporters. I mean, it was total madness.
16:14
Speaker 1: But in the chaos, and despite her anxiety, Nancy was
16:18
Speaker 1: able to identify a couple of people in this big
16:20
Speaker 1: crowd that she recognized. They were colleagues of dance, and
16:24
Speaker 1: so she rushed over to them to ask them questions
16:26
Speaker 1: about where her husband was, what's going on. But as
16:30
Speaker 1: she ran up some stairs to get over to these
16:32
Speaker 1: other colleagues, they saw her coming and all of them
16:35
Speaker 1: just kind of looked away, like they couldn't look her
16:38
Speaker 1: in the eye. Nancy didn't know what to do, but
16:40
Speaker 1: clearly picked up on the signal, and so instead of
16:43
Speaker 1: talking to them, she turned course and went to the
16:46
Speaker 1: nearest police officer and she said, my name is Nancy
16:49
Speaker 1: Crampton Brophy. Dan Brofy is my husband.
16:51
Speaker 2: He works here. I can't get in touch with him.
16:53
Speaker 2: Is he okay?
16:55
Speaker 1: And as soon as she said this, the officers told
16:57
Speaker 1: her to just wait right here.
16:58
Speaker 2: They'll be right back. And then Nancy, she's standing.
17:01
Speaker 1: There as these officers leave, and they come back with
17:04
Speaker 1: these two other men who were wearing dark suits, and
17:07
Speaker 1: those men walk up to her and they introduce themselves
17:09
Speaker 1: and they say Nancy were homicide detectives and that her husband,
17:13
Speaker 1: Dan Brophy, was the man who was shot on campus,
17:16
Speaker 1: and that he was dead. The next few days went
17:24
Speaker 1: by in a blur for Nancy. She spent basically half
17:27
Speaker 1: her time crying and grieving, and the other half being
17:31
Speaker 1: the person that was sort of in charge of delivering
17:33
Speaker 1: the bad news to friends and colleagues and family about
17:37
Speaker 1: what had happened to Dan. And the reality was what
17:40
Speaker 1: happened to Dan was still very much up in the air.
17:43
Speaker 1: I mean, the only thing detectives knew at this point
17:45
Speaker 1: was that Dan had been found dead by his students
17:48
Speaker 1: in the kitchen after being shot twice and that's what
17:50
Speaker 1: killed him. But the school actually didn't have good security
17:54
Speaker 1: camera footage, and so there was no footage to try
17:57
Speaker 1: to indicate who could have come into the classroom and
17:59
Speaker 1: killed him and then laugh. It was like they didn't
18:01
Speaker 1: really have any good leads, they didn't have any good evidence,
18:04
Speaker 1: and in many ways, it was just this big mystery
18:06
Speaker 1: that didn't appear like it was.
18:07
Speaker 2: Going to get solved anytime soon. Now.
18:10
Speaker 1: Nancy certainly had her own theory. I mean, she felt
18:12
Speaker 1: like she knew Dan rubbed people the wrong way, and
18:15
Speaker 1: she always had this kind of, you know, basic concern
18:18
Speaker 1: that he was going to make the wrong person mad
18:20
Speaker 1: and they were going to just snap and hurt him someday,
18:22
Speaker 1: And that was definitely a worst case scenario. But here
18:25
Speaker 1: she is, her husband's been killed. He's been shot to death,
18:28
Speaker 1: and so that's what she thought had happened. You know,
18:30
Speaker 1: maybe it was a student who went crazy and snapped
18:33
Speaker 1: and killed him, or the fact that there was this,
18:35
Speaker 1: you know, burgeoning homeless crisis in Portland and that he
18:38
Speaker 1: was often or at least recently interacting with homeless people,
18:42
Speaker 1: and she kind of equated that to being in danger
18:45
Speaker 1: due to the rising drug and criminal activity that was
18:47
Speaker 1: popping up in Portland. And so she had this theory that,
18:50
Speaker 1: you know, basically he had rubbed shoulders with the wrong
18:53
Speaker 1: people and they had killed him over it. She'd know
18:55
Speaker 1: where to prove it, but that's what she thought. But
18:58
Speaker 1: instead of really dwelling on what happened to her husband,
19:01
Speaker 1: the reality was is over the couple of months following
19:04
Speaker 1: her husband's death, Nancy's life basically fell apart. She wasn't
19:09
Speaker 1: able to focus on anything. It was like her mind
19:11
Speaker 1: had gone blank. It was so traumatic what had happened
19:13
Speaker 1: to her, and so as a result, she couldn't write,
19:16
Speaker 1: so she didn't do any writing, and she also couldn't work.
19:19
Speaker 1: She had to quit her day job because she just
19:21
Speaker 1: could not concentrate on anything. Eventually, Nancy did decide that
19:25
Speaker 1: she would go through and try to sell the house,
19:27
Speaker 1: basically do the plan that she and Dan had thought
19:30
Speaker 1: of to sell it and downsize to get rid of
19:32
Speaker 1: some of this debt. But then she discovered her name
19:35
Speaker 1: was not actually on the deed to the house, and
19:38
Speaker 1: so she couldn't sell it because it technically really wasn't hers,
19:41
Speaker 1: and so now the bank was likely going to foreclose
19:43
Speaker 1: on it because she couldn't afford it. And so again
19:46
Speaker 1: Nancy's life is just completely upside down. She's totally in debt,
19:50
Speaker 1: you know, she's facing financial ruin. Her husband's been killed.
19:53
Speaker 1: The police have no suspects, no leads. It seems like
19:55
Speaker 1: the case is just going to go cold, and so
19:57
Speaker 1: Nancy just didn't even know what to do. I mean,
19:59
Speaker 1: she was surroun by friends and family that were there
20:01
Speaker 1: to support her, but there was nothing that anybody could
20:04
Speaker 1: reasonably do to lift her out of this horrible situation
20:07
Speaker 1: she was in. Fast forward to September fifth, so two
20:11
Speaker 1: months after Dan had been killed, and Nancy was on
20:15
Speaker 1: her way back to her house, the house that she
20:16
Speaker 1: still couldn't sell, and she had by this point sold
20:19
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff inside of the house just to
20:21
Speaker 1: pay the bills. And she still wasn't working, and she
20:24
Speaker 1: had tried writing a little bit, but still it was
20:26
Speaker 1: like her mind was just blank at this point from
20:28
Speaker 1: all the trauma. And she's on her way home from
20:30
Speaker 1: some errands and she pulls into the driveway and as
20:33
Speaker 1: she gets out of her car, she hears another car
20:36
Speaker 1: pulling behind her, and she turns and she sees it's
20:38
Speaker 1: a police cruiser. Now, she had had several interactions with
20:42
Speaker 1: police pretty much immediately following the death of her husband,
20:45
Speaker 1: but for the most part, she didn't really see police
20:48
Speaker 1: officers all that often. And so these two detectives get
20:50
Speaker 1: out of the vehicle and they walk up to Nancy,
20:53
Speaker 1: and so Nancy she's looking at them expectantly, like, clearly
20:56
Speaker 1: this has to do with Dan, why else would you
20:58
Speaker 1: be here. But she's wondering, you know, maybe there was
21:00
Speaker 1: a break in the case. You know, maybe there's a
21:02
Speaker 1: promising new lead, or they just want to talk to her.
21:04
Speaker 2: She didn't know, but she.
21:05
Speaker 1: Just stood there and they walked up to her and
21:08
Speaker 1: they told her that there has been a huge break
21:11
Speaker 1: in the case. They found something on the internet that
21:15
Speaker 1: points to exactly who Dan's killer is. It would turn
21:19
Speaker 1: out Dan's killer had actually confessed to their crime on
21:22
Speaker 1: the Internet more than a decade before it happened. The
21:26
Speaker 1: killer literally wrote about how all they think about is murder,
21:30
Speaker 1: and that you have to be organized and ruthless and
21:33
Speaker 1: very clever to commit murder, and that you know, the
21:35
Speaker 1: thing they know about murder is that everybody has it
21:37
Speaker 1: in them if they're pushed far enough. But the most
21:40
Speaker 1: damning thing about the confession was that the killer posted
21:43
Speaker 1: it on a romance blog under the title how to
21:47
Speaker 1: murder your husband. Dan's killer was his own wife, Nancy.
21:56
Speaker 1: After she wrote that blog post, Nancy would spend the
21:59
Speaker 1: next ten plus years writing romantic thrillers about powerful women
22:04
Speaker 1: who fell in love and then murdered their enemies. Now,
22:08
Speaker 1: to be clear, Nancy really did love Dan, and she
22:11
Speaker 1: did think they had this beautiful life together, but Nancy
22:14
Speaker 1: ultimately loved writing more than she loved Dan, and so
22:17
Speaker 1: ultimately Nancy killed Dan basically to one live out the
22:22
Speaker 1: sort of fantasy that she played out in all of
22:24
Speaker 1: her novels about these powerful women killing their enemies. And
22:27
Speaker 1: you know, Dan was not her enemy, but he sort
22:30
Speaker 1: of represented a hurdle between her and the life she wanted,
22:33
Speaker 1: which was to be a writer full time, which meant
22:35
Speaker 1: she needed more money. And if she killed Dan and
22:38
Speaker 1: got rid of him, she could collect on his life
22:41
Speaker 1: insurance policies and fund the lifestyle that she wanted. And
22:44
Speaker 1: so in a way there was a parallel there, and
22:47
Speaker 1: so she was able to literally live out a fantasy
22:50
Speaker 1: and also finance this lifestyle that she dreamed of to
22:53
Speaker 1: be a writer.
22:54
Speaker 2: And so on that day that.
22:55
Speaker 1: Nancy was driving around Portland, you know, clearing her mind
22:58
Speaker 1: to think about what she was going to write, she
23:00
Speaker 1: really was doing that. But then she realized her big
23:03
Speaker 1: solve was just go shoot Dan to death in his school,
23:06
Speaker 1: and all your problems are solved. But because Nancy had
23:10
Speaker 1: done all this writing in the years leading up to
23:12
Speaker 1: the crime about how to kill your husband, that was
23:15
Speaker 1: a central theme and a lot of her writing, it
23:17
Speaker 1: made her look really suspicious, and they brought that to Nancy,
23:21
Speaker 1: and quickly, you know, her story fell apart and she
23:24
Speaker 1: was found guilty. Nancy was ultimately sentenced to life in
23:28
Speaker 1: prison for the murder. Thank you so much for watching
23:35
Speaker 1: today's episode. Let me know what you thought of it.
23:37
Speaker 1: In the comments below, and remember we have a whole
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23:44
Speaker 1: to binge right now, So go ahead and click here
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23:50
Speaker 1: see it.