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| Nancy Cooper-Massive Search Underway for Missing N.C. Woman - Goto page Previous 1, 2 |
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gwen
 Posted:
Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:53 pm |
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Husband's Computer Searched in Nancy Cooper Case
Brad Cooper Cleaned House the Morning His Wife Disappeared, Documents Say
Sept. 3, 2008
The husband of a slain North Carolina woman told police he did the laundry and vacuumed and scrubbed the floors on the morning his wife disappeared, according to recently released court documents, which also revealed that he had unexplained red marks or scratches on his neck.
Nancy Cooper was reported missing July 12, and her body was found two days later in a drainage pond in an undeveloped subdivision a few miles from her Cary, N.C., home. Her husband, Brad Cooper, has told police that his wife went jogging and never returned.
No charges have been filed in the case, and Cooper has not been named as a suspect. Cooper's lawyers have denied that Cooper was involved in his wife's death. The warrants "contain nothing new and shed no light on who killed Nancy Cooper," his lawyers, Howard Kurtz and Seth Blum, said in a statement.
"Had substantial, credible evidence pointed to Brad Cooper, he would be in custody," they said.
Cary Police Chief Pat Bazemore downplayed the importance of the documents.
"When the details of search warrants do become public, everyone must remember that investigations are as much about ruling things out as ruling things in, and that it's the evidence that comes from a search warrant -- not the warrant itself -- that makes a difference in a case," she said in a statement.
But in the affidavits, filed in July and made public Tuesday, police appear suspicious of Cooper.
Police searched Cooper's computer, looking for documents that may have contained information on how to kill someone or dispose of a body. Police also apparently found Cooper's cleaning the morning his wife disappeared unusual.
"The information provided by Brad Cooper regarding the extensive cleaning of the residence ... is not consistent with information gathered from multiple interviews with individuals who knew Brad and Nancy extensively during their marriage," according to the police affidavit.
Although they were still living together, friends told police that the couple was planning to divorce and that Brad Cooper had admitted in an affidavit unsealed in July to having had an affair. Nancy Cooper wanted to return to Canada with the couple's two children, although Brad Cooper opposed her plan, the affidavit says.
Brad Cooper agreed to give Nancy Cooper's parents temporary custody of the couple's two young children after her death.
When police questioned Cooper on the day of his wife's disappearance, they noticed small red marks or scratches on the back of his neck, the affidavit says, but were unable to determine what caused them and Cooper "did not provide an explanation." Police said Nancy Cooper's cell phone and keys were inside the house, although her friends told police she always carried them with her.
Police also said Brad Cooper had cleaned the trunk of his wife's car but not the interior. Cooper told police he had spilled gasoline in the trunk, but police didn't smell gas or cleaning fluid, according to the affidavit.
In a statement Tuesday, Nancy Cooper's father, Garry Rentz, said, "Our family continues to have great confidence in the Cary Police Department and applaud their efforts on behalf of one of us."
In the affidavit filed in July, Brad Cooper addressed allegations that his failing marriage may have played a role in his wife's homicide.
"Three years ago, I made a mistake while married to Nancy," Brad Cooper said in an affidavit filed Wednesday in Cary, N.C., and obtained by ABCNews.com.
"I had a single indiscretion and slept with another woman one time," Cooper said. "I deeply regretted [and still regret] that it happened." Cooper also alleges in the affidavit that his wife admitted to having had an extramarital affair around the same time that he said he revealed his own indiscretions.
"Nancy admitted that she also had an extramarital relationship while married to me, four years ago," Cooper said in the document. "Nancy insisted that she did nothing wrong, that her relationship with the other man only happened once, it wasn't sexual and that no one even knew his name."
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=5715539&page=1
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
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| gwen
Posted:
Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:17 pm |
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Surveillance Videos, Receipts Released in Cooper Case
Husband of Slain Jogger Maintains His Innocence in New Documents Released Today
By EMILY FRIEDMAN
Sept. 16, 2008
The lawyers for Brad Cooper, the husband of a slain North Carolina woman, released store surveillance footage, receipts and photographs today in an effort to prove that their client was not involved in the unsolved July murder.
"It is our goal to restore reason to what has become an unreasonable and persecutory situation," Cooper's lawyers, Howard Kurtz and Seth Blum, said in a statement on their Web site.
Nancy Cooper was reported missing July 12, and her body was found two days later in a drainage pond in an undeveloped subdivision a few miles from her Cary, N.C., home. Her husband has told police that his wife went jogging and never returned.
While no charges have been filed in the case and Brad Cooper has not been named as a suspect, Cooper's lawyers said that "the line between fact and fiction" in the case had been "blurred" following the release of the search warrant affidavits Sept. 3, in which police appear to be suspicious of Cooper.
According to the affidavit, when police questioned Cooper on the day of his wife's disappearance, they noticed small red marks or scratches on the back of his neck but were unable to determine what caused them and said Cooper "did not provide an explanation" -- a claim Cooper's lawyers dispute.
The marks "were so insignificant" that they were "entirely gone a mere five days later," Cooper's lawyers said in a statement. The marks were never explained because he did not have them on his neck at the time of the questioning, and no one asked him about them at that time.
"Should he have had marks of any significance on his neck it is inconceivable that no other witness would have mentioned them, no officer would have photographed them and that no officer would have asked him about them," said Kurtz and Blum.
Some aspects of the affidavits were not addressed by Cooper's lawyers.
According to the affidavits, police searched Cooper's computer, looking for documents that may have contained information on how to kill someone or dispose of a body. Police also apparently found Cooper cleaning the morning his wife disappeared unusual.
"The information provided by Brad Cooper regarding the extensive cleaning of the residence ... is not consistent with information gathered from multiple interviews with individuals who knew Brad and Nancy extensively during their marriage," according to the police affidavit.
Police also said Brad Cooper had cleaned the trunk of his wife's car but not the interior. Cooper told police he had spilled gasoline in the trunk, but police didn't smell gas or cleaning fluid, according to the affidavit.
Countering rumors that Cooper bought bleach the morning of his wife's disappearance the lawyers posted surveillance footage from the local convenience store, Harris Teeter, as well as receipts for his purchases.
"What is clear from these images is that Brad Cooper went to Harris Teeter in daylight hours," the lawyers' said. "He did not purchase bleach."
According to the statement, Cooper made two trips to the market on the morning in question -- once to get milk to calm down his youngest daughter and another time to pick up laundry detergent and juice. Receipts that appear to show these purchases were posted on the lawyers' Web site.
"It bears mentioning that the Tide detergent did not contain any bleach at all," read the statement. Kurtz and Blum also addressed several allegations made by friends of Nancy's in the days following the disappearance, saying that "listening to only one side of such a deeply emotionally laden dispute creates a biased view only remotely related to the truth."
One of the best friends of the murdered jogger, Jessica Adams, told a 911 dispatcher on the afternoon of July 12 that she feared Cooper had something to do with his wife's disappearance.
"Her husband and her are in the middle of a divorce," Adams told the 911 dispatcher. "She supposedly went out for a run at 7 a.m. and nobody has heard from her."
"Maybe her husband has done something," said Adams. "God forbid."
But Adams' statements to authorities should be taken with a grain of salt, Cooper's lawyers argued.
"The folks who point fingers and who have shouted the loudest in the press are all people who became friends with Nancy after her relationship with Brad began to sour," Cooper's lawyers said in a statement. "Everything that Jessica Adam and her Cary Clique heard from Nancy was seen through divorce-colored glasses."
In an affidavit filed in July, Cooper himself addressed allegations that his failing marriage may have played a role in his wife's homicide.
"Three years ago, I made a mistake while married to Nancy," Brad Cooper said in an affidavit in Cary, N.C., and obtained by ABCNews.com.
"I had a single indiscretion and slept with another woman one time," Cooper said. "I deeply regretted [and still regret] that it happened." Cooper also alleged in the affidavit that his wife admitted to having had an extramarital affair around the same time that he said he revealed his own indiscretions.
"Nancy admitted that she also had an extramarital relationship while married to me, four years ago," Cooper said in the document. "Nancy insisted that she did nothing wrong, that her relationship with the other man only happened once, it wasn't sexual and that no one even knew his name."
A statement released by the Cary Police Department late today warned of the risks of releasing too much information during an ongoing investigation.
"Releasing the details of ongoing investigations can jeopardize our ability to find the truth and arrest the person or persons responsible for crimes, something I'm sure no one wants to see happen," Cary Police Chief Pat Bazemore said in a statement.
Before the search warrants were released in early September, Bazemore downplayed their importance.
"When the details of search warrants do become public, everyone must remember that investigations are as much about ruling things out as ruling things in, and that it's the evidence that comes from a search warrant -- not the warrant itself -- that makes a difference in a case," Cary Police Chief Pat Bazemore said at the time in a statement.
In a statement Sept. 2, Nancy Cooper's father, Garry Rentz, said, "Our family continues to have great confidence in the Cary Police Department and applaud their efforts on behalf of one of us."
"We hope that Brad will be afforded the same dignity and presumption of innocence that each of us would demand for ourselves," said Kurtz and Blum. "We pray that the distorted focus on Brad Cooper will not allow the guilty to escape detection." ABC News' Scott Michels contributed to this report.
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5816651&page=1
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
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| gwen
Posted:
Tue Sep 30, 2008 1:25 pm |
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Autopsy: Nancy Cooper Strangled
North Carolina Mother Died of 'Homicidal Violence'
A woman whose body was found this summer in a partially developed subdivision near her North Carolina home probably died of strangulation, an autopsy report has found.
Nancy Cooper, a 34-year-old mother of two, died of "homicidal violence," the report, released late Monday, says. Medical examiners found a faint mark near her throat.
No arrests have been made in the case, although the police investigation has apparently focused on Cooper's husband, Brad Cooper. Days after Cooper's body was found, according to court records, police searched Brad Cooper's computers to see whether he had looked up how to dispose of a dead body.
His lawyers have said he is innocent and earlier this month released evidence in an effort to prove that Cooper was not involved in his wife's murder. Cooper has said that his wife went running July 12 and never came home.
Nancy Cooper's body, clothed only in a sports bra, was found two days later in a drainage ditch a few miles from her Cary, N.C., home. Medical examiners tested her body for evidence of sexual assault, although the autopsy report did not include the results of their examination. ABC News affiliate WTVD reported that police said there was no evidence of sexual assault.
Garry Rentz, Cooper's father, said in a statement late Monday, "The journey to truth and justice can be long and arduous. Today's news marks a point that is particularly poignant and painful but necessary to further the evidentiary process leading to a conviction of the person or persons responsible for Nancy's murder."
Rentz and Brad Cooper are fighting over permanent custody of the couple's two daughters. A judge awarded Rentz and his wife temporary custody of the children and is scheduled to decide next month who will have permanent custody.
The ongoing murder investigation complicates the custody case. Wake Court District Court Judge Debra Sasser will have to decide whether Cooper is a danger to his children and may have to consider whether he killed his wife.
According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Sasser said during a court hearing Monday, "I am not going to avoid the elephant in the room: Did Brad Cooper kill his wife?"
"That's what I have to determine in this custody case if no one is charged and convicted in Nancy Cooper's death before the custody hearing."
Earlier this month, his lawyers released store surveillance footage, receipts and photographs, which they said showed that Cooper was not involved in his wife's death.
"It is our goal to restore reason to what has become an unreasonable and persecutory situation," Cooper's lawyers, Howard Kurtz and Seth Blum, said in a statement on their Web site.
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5919115&page=1
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
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| gwen
Posted:
Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:23 pm |
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Slain Jogger's Parents Win Custody Ruling
Brad Cooper Will Not Get Custody of His Two Daughters for Now
The family of Nancy Cooper, who was found murdered more than three months ago near her home in North Carolina, won temporary custody today of her two daughters.
The daughters, 2-year-old Katie and 4-year-old Bella, have been living in Canada with Nancy Cooper's twin sister, Krista, and her parents, Garry and Donna Rentz, since their mother went missing July 12.
The girls will remain there until a subsequent hearing is held to determine permanent custody. A copy of the judge's ruling wasn't immediately available.
"We could not have asked for a more fair or deliberate process and are confident that she acted in the best interest of not just our grandchildren but all children who may be in a similar circumstance," the Rentzes said in a statement released by the police department in Cary, N.C.
Calls that ABCNews.com made to lawyers for Cooper's husband, Brad Cooper, were not immediately returned.
Seth Blum, one of Cooper's attorneys, told ABC News affiliate WDTV reporter Ed Crump that his client is innocent is still deciding whether to appeal the custody decision.
Adding that his client misses his children, Blum told Crump that the hearing over full custody is a "different animal."
Wake Court District Judge Debra Sasser, who presided over the Cooper custody case, made it clear at the start of the hearing that the ongoing murder investigation would certainly play a role in her decision.
According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Sasser said during the court hearing Sept. 29, "I am not going to avoid the elephant in the room: Did Brad Cooper kill his wife?"
"That's what I have to determine in this custody case if no one is charged and convicted in Nancy Cooper's death before the custody hearing."
Nancy Cooper's family and Brad Cooper, the girls' father, have been fighting over custody of the two kids since she was found strangled in an undeveloped subdivision July 14.
Her husband, Brad Cooper, may have been the last person to see Nancy and told police that his wife went jogging and never returned.
No arrests have been made in the case and Brad Cooper has not been named a person of interest, but family and friends of his wife have said they are convinced that he was involved.
Police investigating the July murder say that parts of the sworn testimony made by her husband earlier this month are "inconsistent" with the statements he made to authorities immediately after her death.
George G. Daniels, the lead detective in the Cary, N.C., murder case, said in a sworn affidavit filed Oct. 9 and obtained by ABCNews.com, that not only did some of Brad Cooper's statements conflict with what he'd told investigators around the time of his wife's disappearance but that Cooper has stopped talking to police.
"Bradley Cooper has not fully cooperated with our investigation into the murder of Nancy Cooper and has not been willing to come to the police department to assist in the investigation and provide information despite formal requests from the Cary Police Department that he do so," said Daniels in the affidavit.
Daniels did not specify in the court papers what information provided by Brad Cooper was reportedly inconsistent.
Daniels didn't respond to a call seeking comment.
But in eight hours of videotaped sworn testimony given by Brad Cooper, 34, earlier this month for use in the custody hearing over the couple's two daughters, clips of which were viewed by ABCNews.com, he asserted his desire to assist the investigation into his wife's murder.
"My primary focus [in the months since Nancy's murder] has been trying to get to see my girls again and helping in the investigation about Nancy," he says.
"I have answered every question [the police] have," Cooper says on the tape. Cops have visited his home at least five times since his wife's death, he said.
Jennifer Ball, Brad Cooper's former fiance, expressed doubts about him, according to an affidavit filed Oct. 13 in which she says he "constantly belittled" her and was "emotionally detached" and "mentally cruel."
Similar allegations of belittlement were made by Nancy Cooper's parents in a custody petition filed in July, according to court documents.
Brad Cooper "engaged in a pattern of emotional abuse," frequently yelled at Nancy Cooper and belittled her in the presence of the children, according to the petition.
In her affidavit Ball also said that when her relationship with Brad Cooper ended in December 1998, she "became fearful for her physical safety."
Brad Cooper's videotaped testimony -- the first time in more than three months that he has spoken on the record about his wife's murder -- gives details about where he was the morning of his wife's death. He also continues to maintain his innocence.
According to his testimony, Nancy Cooper went jogging at around 7 a.m. and when she hadn't returned almost two hours later he assumed that she was "punishing him" for not cleaning.
"I thought maybe she had been punishing me by not coming back because the floors weren't clean and weren't washed," he says.
"I washed the floors with hot water and vinegar," he says in the testimony. "I was trying to make her happy as best I could."
Asked by investigators whether he had ever visited the area where his wife's body was found, Brad Cooper said that he had not, adding that he didn't think she would run in that area.
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=6089443&page=3
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
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| gwen
Posted:
Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:45 pm |
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Brad Cooper charged in wife’s death
Raleigh, N.C. — The husband of a Cary mother of two who was discovered dead in an undeveloped subdivision in July was indicted Monday on murder in his wife's death.
Cary police arrested Bradley Graham Cooper, 35, at his home at 104 Wallsburg Court, shortly before 6 p.m. and took him to the Wake County jail, where he was being held without bond.
He is scheduled to make his first appearance before a Wake County District Court judge Tuesday at 2 p.m.
A man walking his dog on July 14 found the body of Nancy Cooper, 34, on the bank of a storm pond near a cul-de-sac near Holly Springs Road and Fielding Drive — less than three miles from the Coopers’ home in the Lochmere subdivision of Cary.
Cary police have said nothing about how Nancy Cooper died, though a state medical examiner's autopsy suggested she had been strangled.
Cary police Chief Pat Bazemore is expected to hold a news conference at 8 p.m. (Watch it live on WRAL-TV, WRAL.com or the WRAL NewsChannel.)
One of Brad Cooper's attorneys, Seth Blum, declined to comment on his client's arrest but said he would have surrendered to authorities if he had been given the chance.
Brad Cooper, who admitted to police that he and his wife were having marital difficulties after he had an extramarital affair, came under public scrutiny in the days and weeks following her disappearance and death.
Last week, a judge awarded temporary custody of the couple’s two young daughters to Nancy Cooper’s parents and identical twin sister, who alleged Brad Cooper was mentally unstable and emotionally abusive to his wife and children in the months prior to her death.
Wade Smith, an attorney representing Nancy Cooper's family in the custody case, said Monday afternoon that they are relieved an arrest has been made.
"No one can take pleasure or joy in this. It's a tragedy – just a tragedy beyond belief," Smith said. "And on behalf of the family, we are grateful that the police have pursued this (case) to the point where there is an arrest."
"They have felt all along that (an arrest) might happen, and it confirms some of the thoughts and ideas that they have had," Smith continued. "At the same time, they know that the presumption of innocence applies, and they will not be making any comments that interfere with his rights to a fair trial."
Brad Cooper told police Nancy Cooper went jogging around 7 a.m. on July 12 and never returned. A friend reported her missing later that afternoon after she failed to show up for a planned meeting.
Meanwhile, in the Lochmere neighborhood, friends of Nancy Cooper's said they were relieved to hear the news of an arrest, but they reserved further comment until after talking to her family.
Stay logged on for more on this breaking news story as it becomes available.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3359064/
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
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| DocTar
Posted:
Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:03 pm |
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Thanks, Gwen. This case is so sad.
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 1916
Location: one toke over the line
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| gwen
Posted:
Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:06 pm |
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| DocTar wrote: | | Thanks, Gwen. This case is so sad. |
Y/W, DocTar. It really is...I feel so sorry for the children. I just don't get why men just don't divorce rather than killing... 
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 14329
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