‘Kill him’: Text mom allegedly sent to lover, hitman in conspiracy to murder husband in The Bahamas
Lindsay Shiver is accused of telling a hitman to kill her husband, former Auburn football player Robert Shiver, in The Bahamas murder for hire plot.
A court document obtained by ABC News revealed the shocking text message Bahamian authorities allege a Georgia mother of three sent in a plot to kill her estranged husband while on vacation.
“Kill him” was the WhatsApp message authorities say 36-year-old Lindsay Shiver admitted in a police interrogation to sending an alleged hitman, along with photos of her husband, Robert Shiver, who Bahamian police say became fearful for his life and the lives of his children.
Detectives alerted the former Auburn University football player to that alleged murder plot only after Lindsay’s alleged lover, Terrance Bethel, became a suspect in an unrelated burglary, and his phone was obtained in a search warrant. Prosecutors say they discovered those text messages between Lindsay, Bethel and the alleged would-be hit man, Farron Newbold Jr.
All three declined ABC News’ request for comment.
“It’s been my experience, that people who plot to kill their spouses almost ultimately always get caught, because they don’t know what they’re doing,” said ABC News Contributor Brad Garrett.
Documents show the Shivers were divorcing after 13 years of marriage, with Robert citing adulterous conduct and Lindsey accusing him of physical and mental cruelty and acts of domestic violence.
In 2020, Shiver posting on social media: “The key to a perfect marriage, is having two imperfect people, who refuse to give up on each other.”
Dothan beauty queen charged in murder-for-hire plot thrown back in Bahamian jail after TV appearance
DOTHAN, Ala (WDHN) — A Dothan beauty queen and once Houston County resident accused of plotting to kill her estranged husband while vacationing in the Bahamas is back behind bars alongside her alleged lover after a Bahamian judge revoked their bail, a Nassau court clerk confirmed.
Lindsay Shiver and Terrence Bethel were taken into custody in Nassau Monday afternoon after Judge Cheryl Grant-Thompson revoked their bond.
In a court ruling obtained by WDHN, Judge Grant-Thompson claimed Shiver and Bethel violated the condition of the Bahama’s restrictions on pre-trial publicity by appearing on Good Morning America and Inside Edition in early October.
“Having reviewed the Good Morning America Interview, this Court is of the view that this is a blatant disregard for the Courts leniency and indulgence. This cannot and will not be tolerated,” Judge Grant-Thompson wrote.
The judge continued, saying, “What the Respondents have done can be seen by the Applicant as a spit in the face of Justice.”
In the segment aired on WDHN, Bethel spoke on the pending case, firmly stating his and Shiver’s innocence and saying the case had been blown out of proportion.
While Shiver did not speak in an interview, new footage showed her walking and talking to Bethel.
Shiver was also accused of failing to adhere to her bond conditions by moving from her court-designated address at her parents’ home in Abbeville without permission.
Shiver and Bethel have been placed in Fox Hill Prison, awaiting trial in March 2025.
The two, along with alleged hitman Faron Newbold Jr., were arrested in July 2023 after police in the Bahamas claimed they found messages on WhatsApp between Bethel and Shiver, which allegedly included photos of Shiver’s husband, Robert Shiver, along with the message “Kill him.”
The messages were discovered while authorities investigated a break-in at Grabber’s Bar and Grill on Guana. Police claim they came across the messages on the social media app while searching the phone of one of the break-in suspects.
In the GMA interview, Bethel explicitly denied there was ever a plot to murder Robert Shiver.
“Nobody ever wanted him dead,” Bethel said in the interview. “‘I’m definitely not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, and Faron’s not guilty of being a hired hitman. It’s time to let the world know we’re innocent.”
Newbold Jr. is still out on bail.
Shiver, whose maiden name is Shirly, was named Miss Houston County in 2005, according to Houston County Pagent Inc. She also placed second in the National Peanut Festival pageant.
She once wrote an essay on how to murder your husband. This week a jury found her guilty of murdering her husband
By Faith Karimi, CNN
5 min read
Updated 4:47 PM EDT, Thu May 26, 2022
Nancy Crampton-Brophy was accused of fatally shooting her husband in June 2018. Pool/KPTVCNN —
Unlike the antagonists in her steamy romance thrillers, author Nancy Crampton-Brophy did not get away with murder.
A jury found her guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder in the 2018 death of her husband, chef Daniel Brophy, who was gunned down at the culinary school where he taught cooking classes.
Crampton-Brophy, who once wrote a notorious essay titled, “How to Murder Your Husband,” showed no visible emotion as the verdict was read in a Portland, Oregon, courtroom.
Prosecutors argued the couple was struggling with debt – Crampton-Brophy’s self-published novels were not big sellers – and that his death could have left her with more than $1 million in life insurance policies and other assets.
They told jurors that Crampton-Brophy followed her husband to work and shot him with a Glock 9mm handgun. Investigators found two 9mm shell casings at the scene. She had also bought a “ghost gun” assembly kit that investigators later found at a storage facility. “Ghost guns” are unregistered and untraceable firearms.
She was the only person who had a motive to kill her husband, Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Shawn Overstreet said in closing arguments this week.
“This wasn’t working for Nancy,” Overstreet said. “It isn’t just about money. It’s about the lifestyle that Dan couldn’t give to her.”
Crampton-Brophy, 71, took the witness stand and rejected that assertion, saying she was better off financially with her husband alive. She also testified that she couldn’t remember all the details from the morning her husband was killed and that her minivan’s sighting near the culinary school that morning was a mere coincidence.
On why she had bought a gun and a ghost-gun kit, she said it was part of research for a new book.
“What I can tell you is it was for writing,” she said. “It was not, as you would believe, to murder my husband.”
The jury didn’t buy it. Crampton-Brophy faces a minimum of 25 years in prison at her sentencing, set for June 13.
She painted a picture of a perfect life with her husband
Crampton-Brophy’s books were tales of attempted murder, lust, crime and infidelity – all common themes for romantic suspense novels. In “The Wrong Husband,” a woman tries to escape her abusive husband by hiding in Spain during their anniversary trip.
“My stories are about pretty men and strong women, about families that don’t always work and about the joy of finding love and the difficulty of making it stay,” she wrote on her website.
Her husband’s killing was a plot twist that could have been ripped from one of her books. And when she became a suspect, it was a stunning development for a woman who had portrayed life with her husband of almost two decades as anything but wrong.
Chef Daniel Brophy, 63, was gunned down in 2018. From LinkedIn
The couple lived in a quiet suburb of Portland, where he raised turkeys and chickens, tended a vegetable garden and liked to whip up lavish meals for her.
“I’m a flawed person, Dan was a flawed person … together we made a really good team,” she testified.
Then came the morning of June 2, 2018, when someone shot Daniel Brophy in the kitchen of the Oregon Culinary Institute. Students arrived for class and found him bleeding on the floor.
In court documents, prosecutors said the 63-year-old man had been shot twice – once in the back as he stood at a sink filling ice and water buckets for the students, and then a second time in the chest at close range. Brophy’s wallet with cash and credit cards was found with him, and there were no signs of robbery or forced entry.
The slaying remained a public mystery for months. Then came Crampton-Brophy’s arrest in September 2018 – and the image of the couple’s happy marriage collapsed.
The couple was struggling financially, prosecutors said
Prosecutors allege in court documents that the Brophys were facing financial difficulties and had drained their retirement account two years prior to the shooting. Crampton-Brophy, whose books were not financially lucrative, hatched the plan to kill her husband to collect more than $1.5 million from multiple life insurance policies and other assets, prosecutors said.
“Dan Brophy was content in his simplistic lifestyle, but Nancy Brophy wanted something more,” prosecutors said in court documents. “As Nancy Brophy became more financially desperate and her writing career was floundering, she was left with few options ….
At the time of Brophy’s death, he was alone at the school, prosecutors said.
The school had no security cameras, but nearby traffic cameras showed Crampton-Brophy’s Toyota minivan on city streets near the institute around the time of the shooting, prosecutors said.
Nancy Crampton-Brophy was arrested in September 2018, three months after her husband’s killing. Multnomah County Sheriff
Investigators also discovered she was the beneficiary of “numerous” life insurance policies taken out on her husband, prosecutors said.
“Dan Brophy was worth almost $1.5 million to Nancy Brophy if he was dead and he was worth a life of financial hardship if he stayed alive,” prosecutors said in court documents. “Nancy Brophy planned and carried out what she believed was the perfect murder. A murder that she believed would free her from the grips of financial despair.”
But defense attorney Lisa Maxfield called the state’s case circumstantial.
She argued that Crampton-Brophy loved her husband and had nothing to do with the killing. The couple had taken several romantic getaways in the months before Brophy’s death and were planning a summer trip to Mount Rushmore, the defense said.
The murder drew new attention to Crampton-Brophy’s writings
News of the killing and resulting criminal charges made headlines everywhere – partly due to an essay Crampton-Brophy wrote seven years before her husband’s death.
In 2011, she published it in a notorious blog post titled, “How to Murder Your Husband.”
Nancy Crampton-Brophy, left, watches proceedings in court on April 4, 2022. Dave Killen/Pool/The Oregonian/AP
“As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure,” the 700-word post began. It was published on a blog called “See Jane Publish” that has since been made private.
The essay was split into sections detailing the pros and cons of killing a villainous husband.
“If the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don’t want to spend any time in jail,” Crampton-Brophy wrote. “And let me say clearly for the record, I don’t like jumpsuits and orange isn’t my color.”
The trial judge ruled that the essay would not be permitted as evidence because it was written years ago as part of a writing seminar and could unfairly prejudice the jury.
As it turns out, jurors didn’t need to read it to reach their verdict.
