Who was Daniel Brophy and what was his cause of death?

HOW to Get Away with Murder writer Nancy Brophy was convicted of murdering her husband on June 8, 2022.

Daniel Brophy was getting ready to leave for work on the morning of June 2, 2018, when police say his wife, Nancy, shot and killed him.

Who was Daniel Brophy?

Daniel Brophy was getting ready for work at the Oregon Culinary Institute in southwest Portland - where he had worked since 2006 - when he was killed.

Daniel was a chef at the school, and each term he greeted his students with a teasing speech, "warning students against whistling or grinning in the kitchen" saying, "smiling could sully food," a profile in said.

His faculty biography called him "the resident encyclopedia of knowledge" and with each class he taught, he would take them to the forest to forage for mushrooms or to the Ocean to dig for clams.

Daniel was known for his kindness and affinity for others, according to former student Travis Richartz.

“He would go and deliver hot meals to people,” Richartz told . “Every Thanksgiving we would do a big bake-off, and all the pies he would personally go and deliver them.”

He said the students recognized Daniel's wife almost as well as their professor, calling her "the management" around campus.

“We knew that they loved each other very much, that she was his best friend,” Richartz said.

Daniel and Nancy had been married for 27 years and no one, not neighbors, family, or friends, would have believed that Nancy could be responsible for her husband's death.

Nancy was arrested on September 5, 2018, three months after her husband was found in a pool of blood on the school's campus.

Karen Brophy, Daniel's mother, told  in September 2018 that her family “is just in shock," and Nancy's sister, Holly Crampton, said, “None of us believe it. It’s craziness and it’s just not true.”

After Nancy's arrest, the couple's neighbor, Jeff Hutchinson, told PEOPLE he was caught off guard by the idea that Nancy could have killed her husband.

“I think everyone in the neighborhood is surprised and shocked,” Hutchinson said. “It’s more disbelief.”

How did he die?

Nancy claimed she was at her home on June 2 when she received a call to rush down to the institute where her husband had been found at approximately 8.30am by students.

Police reported that Daniel had been shot once in the chest and once in the back, but by the time first responders arrived it was too late.

Both bullets had pierced his heart, according to police reports, and first responders' attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

He was found with all personal effects on his person, including his wallet, car keys, cell phone, and his 2010 Toyota Tacoma was still parked in front of the building.

Nancy posted a tribute to Daniel on Facebook the following day, writing, “For those of you who are close to me and feel this deserved a phone call, you are right, but I’m struggling to make sense of everything right now."

She added, “While I appreciate all of your loving responses, I am overwhelmed. Please save phone calls for a few days until I can function.”

In the days that followed, Nancy started confiding in neighbors, telling them she was considering moving and that "(Dan's) side of the bedroom was haunting her," Hutchinson's wife, Heidi, told PEOPLE.

“The memory of him was upsetting her, and she wanted to move pretty quickly,” Heidi added. “She wanted to get out of the house.”

Nancy is the author of the 2011 book How to Get Away with Murder, and in an interview with the blog in 2012, she said her affinity for romance-suspense novels was simple.

“Murder, mayhem, and gore seem to come naturally to me,” she told the outlet, adding, “which means my husband has learned to sleep with one eye open.”

What was Nancy Brophy charged and convicted of?

Nancy first became a suspect in the murder of her husband three months after he was killed.