Poppy Bilderbeck
A novelist who wrote a blog post titled 'How To Murder Your Husband' has claimed she is too senile to remember being at her husband's murder scene.
Nancy Crampton Brophy is on trial for the murder of 63-year-old husband Daniel Brophy, who was fatally shot on 2 June, 2018 while preparing for work at the Oregon Culinary Institute.
On Monday, 16 May, 2022, Crampton Brophy was questioned over surveillance footage which appeared to show her driving close to the crime scene around the time of her husband's murder.
The 71-year-old's response was that she couldn't remember being there because the impact of her old age on her memory.
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Crampton Brophy agreed that the woman in the footage - first shown by prosecutors early in the trial - did resemble her.
However, she said she couldn't recall ever being there: "You know what they say, old age isn't for sissies.
"I turn 65, I'm starting to lose my eyesight, I'm looking at this thinking, 'Oh man, I'm starting to lose my mind. How can this have happened and me not remember this'.
"Even now, my mind kind of goes blank with the horror of it."
However, the author did reportedly remember seeing a suspicious man in a 'white van' who she believes could have been involved in her husband's death.
"I am seeing myself sitting at this park, writing. The reason why this sticks out, it was a parking lot, it looks empty, but there was a white van there. But there was some guy that kept walking back and forth, walking back and forth. It was just enough to throw me out of there that I moved," she said.
When questioned by her attorney as to the authenticity of her supposed recollection, Crampton Brophy argued that she remembered having a 'pad of paper' with her and 'jotting things down'.
"It's a pleasant day, I can remember that because it wasn't raining. It's shady, I'm sitting here pulling it together. It would be a place I would have felt very comfortable writing, so I'm sure it's a true memory," she said.
On Monday, Crampton Brophy was also questioned about a 'ghost gun' kit which was discovered in her possession. She purchased it online on Christmas Eve in 2017.
She also bought a gun in February 2018 from a Portland gun show.
However, both items were cleared as not having fired the bullets which killed her husband.
The author testified that her purchase of a ghost gun was inspired by her interest as author and from reading about them in the New York Times.
She said she bought it to help with a novel she was working on, where pieces of a gun were used to introduce each chapter.
The gun, she said, was for self-protection in response to a school shooting in Florida.
On Tuesday, 17 May, Crampton Brophy went on to admit to District Attorney Shawn Overstreet she had indeed been 'driving around' near to the cooking school 'for a full hour before Dan got murdered'.
However, while she claimed to be 'in the vicinity for six minutes' she 'wasn't parked in front of the building'.
She also explained she was basing her statement on 'putting this together, not based on actual memory,' but by 'reconstructing' the events.
Despite having 'no memory' of the events, the author said it was 'impossible' she could have gone into the building even to 'use the bathroom'.
Crampton Brophy - who has pleaded not guilty - concluded: "I know I didn’t go into the building because I didn’t kill Dan. I know that for a fact."
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