A romance novelist charged with murdering her chef husband in Portland not only penned a treatise on offing one’s spouse — she also saved an online listicle detailing how to conceal such a crime, according to documents unsealed Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Detectives discovered Nancy Crampton Brophy kept “10 Ways To Cover Up A Murder” bookmarked on an iTunes account she shared with her husband, Daniel Brophy, a probable cause affidavit shows.

She also stood to reap more than $1 million from multiple life and accident insurance policies in the event of Brophy’s death, according to court documents.

The new details emerged more than seven months after authorities arrested the author, whose work includes the essay “How To Murder Your Husband,” on suspicion of killing her spouse.

The couple had been married 27 years.

While court documents don’t specify whether the listicle was used by Crampton Brophy, 68, for story ideas or for attempting to concoct the perfect crime, the newly released records show authorities had other reasons to believe she was behind her husband’s killing.

Despite telling police she was at home, surveillance video captured Crampton Brophy driving her car near her husband’s work around the time he was fatally shot there, prosecutors allege.

Court documents claim the author had also recently purchased multiple firearms and related gun parts that matched the same type of weapon used to kill Brophy, 63.

And then there was the windfall of cash Crampton Brophy stood to collect should her husband suddenly die, records show.

Police found her listed as the beneficiary on six life insurance policies taken out in Brophy’s name totaling nearly $800,000, according to a search warrant affidavit.

An additional accident insurance policy would pay Crampton Brophy up to another $440,000 if her husband died at work, the records show.

Authorities also claimed the author, who’s described her steamy books as featuring “rugged men, strong women and a good story,” sold life insurance policies in the past.

Brophy, a beloved instructor at the Oregon Culinary Institute, was found gunned down in a kitchen at the school June 2, 2018. He was shot through the back and chest with a 9mm handgun, police and the medical examiner found.

Both bullets pierced Brophy’s heart, according to court documents.

The early morning shooting baffled Brophy’s family, students and co-workers. Police found no apparent signs of struggle in the kitchen. The assailant never touched the chef’s keys, wallet or phone, records show. Nor was the chef known to have any enemies that would seek to hurt him, according to prosecutors.

But investigators soon zeroed in on Crampton Brophy, whose self-published novels include “The Wrong Husband” and “Hell on the Heart.”

Court documents claim she appeared on scene the morning of the shooting, telling police a friend had called her after seeing a news story about an incident at the culinary school.

Crampton Brophy said she had been in bed when her husband left for work and had stayed at home, records show.

Yet investigators soon found surveillance video that shows Crampton Brophy driving her Toyota minivan near the culinary school minutes before and after the shooting, according to search warrant affidavits.

“Nancy never offered any explanation as to why she lied about her whereabouts on the morning that Daniel was killed,” the probable cause affidavit alleges.

She did, however, give police a 9mm handgun she purchased the previous February at a Portland gun show, according to court records. Ballistics testing couldn’t tie that weapon to the murder.

But detectives would later discover she owned other weapons, records allege. One was a build-it-yourself 9mm Crampton Brophy purchased on Christmas Eve 2017. Less than a week after her gun show purchase, she also bought the slide and barrel for another 9mm off of eBay.

Though not mentioned in court documents, prosecutors believe Crampton Brophy swapped the parts of the different guns to carry out — and later cover up — the alleged crime, a source with knowledge of the evidence gathered by authorities told The Oregonian/OregonLive this month.

In September, three months after Brophy’s death, police took his wife into custody.

“You’re arresting me?” Crampton Brophy asked police while she was being detained, court records allege. “You must think I murdered my husband."

A Multnomah County grand jury later indicted her on one count of murder.

The case garnered national and international headlines after The Oregonian/OregonLive found a copy of Crampton Brophy’s “How To Murder Your Husband” archived online.

“As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure,” the author wrote in the 2011 essay.

“After all, if the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don’t want to spend any time in jail.”

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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