Nancy Godfrey (Judith Hoag) is the main villainess in the Murder, She Wrote episode "To Kill A Legend" the third episode of the eleventh season. Nancy, along with her husband Tom Godfrey own an antique shop in Cabot Cove.
Nancy was going through rough times in her marriage with Tom, and they are low on money. One day, while Nancy was shopping in Boston, she met director Richard Hawkes. The two had begun a relationship and Nancy has settled an agreement to be together with wealth. Nancy and Richard conspired together to come up with a scandal that involves Cabot Cove's hero — Joshua Peabody.
The scandal was to make a hoax that Joshua Peabody betrayed the American Army during the Battle for Independence and have Richard direct the documentary, making it a big hit. Nancy flew to London to have forging expert Alexander Sansby forge George Washington's writing on the letter supposedly sent to Peabody during the Battle. But when Alexander became an obstacle in Nancy's plan, she killed him immediately and burnt down any evidence.
Back in Cabot Cove, Richard Hawkes arrived to film the Joshua Peabody documentary to proceed their plan. He had Jessica Fletcher discover the letter jammed in Peabody's music box, but this was a bad move since Jessica was having doubts. Richard was worried about Jessica's suspicions and expressed it to Nancy, who did not know she had just confessed making the hoax in an ongoing recording.
After Richard had been taken down as director, ruthlessly ambitious camerawoman Amelia Farnham took over and discovered their scheme in the recording. Amelia bragged to Nancy how she was going to reveal their plan and advance her career. So, Nancy attacked Amelia to obtain the recording, resulting to Nancy bludgeoning Amelia with an antique pistol. Just like Sansby's death, Nancy had set the studio on fire to dispose of evidence.
However, Nancy was outsmarted by Jessica who deduced she was the killer of both Sansby and Farnham. Nancy's first mistake was the drawer that she bought in London that left the tag with Britain's country code, indicating that she was in London when Sansby was killed. As for Amelia's murder, Nancy's wrist had a cut that came from her silver bracelet, which had also cut Amelia's thumb during the struggle. Nancy admitted that she was the murderer and stated Richard never took part in the killings. Nancy was arrested for two murders.
Trivia[]
- This is Judith Hoag's second portrayal as a villainess in Murder, She Wrote. She first portrayed as the conniving Gretchen Price in the episode "Programmed To Kill".
- Judith Hoag also appeared as the evil Cynthia Hamilton on Castle, villainous kidnapper Sandra Boatwright on The Mentalist and greedy villainess Dr. Raine Van Aiken on Women's Murder Club, as well as hidden villainess Patricia Reid in the film Sexting in Suburbia.