On July 12, 2008, 34-year-old mother of two, Nancy Cooper supposedly went out for a jog never to be seen alive again. Who would want to kill this kind-hearted, fun-loving mother who got along well with everyone except maybe the person that ended her life? Listen to the story of who that person would turn out to be.
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Brad and Nancy Cooper were your picture-perfect family living in the peaceful suburb of Cary, NC.
Cary, North Carolina looked like the American dream. “A futuristic Pleasantville,” National Geographic called it once. A town of the young, affluent, and educated. Its streets are lined with sprawling houses, SUVs, and sports cars glinting in broad driveways. Cary boomed as North Carolina became a technology hub in the 1990s. It swelled from 15,000 people in 1990 to over 40,000 a decade later. In 2001, more than 80 percent of the population of Cary worked white-collar jobs. Nearly 90 percent of the households were comprised of married couples with children.
Though there were growing pains, Cary made lists of the Six Hottest Towns in America, the Best Small Cities in America, and prided itself on being one of the United States’ safest communities.
The couple and their two young daughters enjoyed their neighbors and the neighborhood. They went to group parties and spent time with other families. On the night of July 11th, 2008 they were at a neighborhood party enjoying their friends with kids running around playing together.
Nancy Cooper Goes Missing
The next morning Nancy’s friend Jessica Adams called her house looking for her. She was supposed to come over at 8 am that morning but never showed. When Jessica called she spoke to Brad. He said that she had gone out for a run around 6:30 – 7:00 am but wasn’t back yet.
It seemed very odd to Jessica because it was unusual for Nancy Cooper to not show up somewhere. Around 1 pm Jessica’s phone rang and to her relief it was Nancy’s number. She answered the phone, but it wasn’t Nancy. It was Brad telling her that Nancy still wasn’t back and he was starting to worry.
She began calling local hospitals and her twin sister in Canada but there was no sign of her. They reached out to her other siblings and parents, but no one had heard from her.
Since there was still no sign of Nancy, Jessica called the local police. When they arrived there was already a group forming with neighbors concerned for Nancy. Her family headed immediately to Cary and her husband made a public plea to the local media asking for information.
Let’s Take a Step Back and Meet Nancy Cooper
Nancy Lynn Rentz and Bradley Graham Cooper were born in Alberta about seven weeks apart in the summer and fall of 1973. She grew up in Edmonton, he in Medicine Hat. They met working for IBM in Calgary in 1999. They were both 26 years old and facing bright futures in the tech industry at the dawn of the new millennium.
Nancy is described as sporty and fun, and she was a ringette player.
Ringette is a girls’ non-contact winter team sport. It’s played on an ice rink using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces.
Brad Cooper grew up in a traditional middle-class family in Medicine Hat. He was one of two sons of Terry and Carol Cooper. Terry was a college chemistry teacher who went on to be vice-president of Medicine Hat College and sat on numerous community boards. Carol was a homemaker who liked gardening. Brad told a psychologist his childhood and teens years were uneventful. There were no significant problems in his family. He was an up-and-coming IT star, very intelligent, and focused on achievements.
Nancy and Brad Start Dating
When they met Nancy also had her own clothing store on top of working at IBM and was dating a prominent local businessman. She had always gone for outgoing men but Brad was more quiet and shy. She wanted to settle down and have a family and she thought Brad was a safe choice.
When they started dating Nancy’s family was impressed by how sweet he was. Hew was even willing to help the family business with IT. He was an IT guru. Within the year they were engaged and planning a big wedding. Meanwhile, Brad was being headhunted by Cisco for a position in the US in Raleigh NC.
So that Nancy would be able to come with him right away, they decided to move up the wedding to October 2000. It was very small with only close family and friends and after that, they moved to Cary.
Within just a few years they had not only a big house but two BMWs in the driveway. Nancy had a big circle of friends. They welcomed their first daughter, Bella in 2004 and their second daughter Katie 2 years later.
Nancy Cooper was described as the perfect mother. She didn’t go back to work when they arrived in the US. She spent her days playing with and raising their two beautiful little girls.
Brad was living his dream as well. He chronicled his accomplishments on his blog, Adventures of Brad, in a section entitled “Goals Completed.” In the spring of 2008, the list included multiple Ironman competitions, his master’s degree, and a technical work certification.
Choked and Strangled
That Saturday in July there were search parties all over Cary looking for Nancy Cooper. They posted flyers all over town. It wasn’t until two days later that a man walking his dog called 911.
He was walking and saw a woman floating in stormwater in an undeveloped area just outside of Cary. The spot was about 5 kilometers from Nancy’s home.
Nancy had been strangled and choked so hard a bone in her neck broke. She wore only a tangled sports bra and one diamond earring. There were no signs of sexual assault. The man who called 911 said he noticed the body because of the vultures hanging around.
The Investigation Begins
When Detective George Daniels began the homicide investigation there wasn’t much to go on. There was no sign of robbery or of her having been beaten or otherwise injured.
With nothing to go on, they start from the very beginning, going over the statements they got from Brad as well as friends and family.
Brad said that they were both up at 4 am because Katie had woken up crying. Around 6 am he made a trip to the grocery store. When he got home Nancy said she was going for a run.
Police did verify with surveillance cameras that Brad had gone to the grocery store at that time in the morning.
Brad also admitted that they had been having marital problems, but things had gotten better over the last couple of months. He admitted to having an affair which caused the rift in the marriage.
It had been the year before that a close friend of Nancy confessed to her that she had slept with Brad. Nancy confronted Brad who adamantly denied the whole thing. He made her feel guilty for even thinking such a thing could have happened. It wasn’t until months later, on New Years Day that he finally admitted that the affair had in fact occurred.
I Want a Divorce!
He said it was a one-time thing and hadn’t been anything more than that. Nancy was willing to go to counseling to try and fix the marriage. It was in their first session that Brad admitted that it wasn’t a one-time thing but an affair that had gone for “a while”. It was at that point that Nancy said she couldn’t handle it and wanted a divorce.
Brad agreed and they discussed splitting the house. She would move back to Canada with the girls and he would fly up every other weekend to visit. It all seemed amicable, but then Nancy’s credit cards were canceled. Then Brad put her on a cash allowance of $300/week for groceries, gas, etc.
They continued to share the same home, but things became more and more hostile. A couple of months later Nancy’s lawyer sent over a draft of the agreement. It laid out alimony, a custody agreement of every other weekend visits, and Brad’s need to provide funds for the girls including tuition for private school (5-6K /month).
Brad simply told Nancy; the move was off.
The relationship became more and more strained as Nancy felt more and more trapped. She hid important documents, including the girls’ passports. She would sleep in the girl’s room dressed with keys in her pocket.
The $300/week allowance wasn’t cutting it, so she started selling some of her clothes to make extra money. She couldn’t work because she didn’t have a green card and had never applied for a work visa. Brad hacked into her email and would listen in on phone calls.
I Just Want to Come Home
Shortly before Nancy Cooper went missing her family took her and the girls on a vacation. When she said goodbye to her family, she was sobbing and told her mother, “I just want to come home.” Her family was planning to help her find a better attorney to fight for her to come home with the girls.
The week leading up to her going missing Nancy had done some painting for her friend Jessica. She was trying to earn extra money but when Brad found out, he reduced her weekly allowance. Nancy was beyond furious.
Nancy’s friends and family all went to the police telling them that they thought Brad had something to do with the murder.
Nancy’s family went so far as to make a formal request to the court to take custody of the girls and take them to Canada. They made this claim based on the struggles in the marriage prior to Nancy’s murder and what they deemed as strange behavior from Brad following her murder. He didn’t attend her memorial service and didn’t seem very involved in the investigation. A judge agreed that the potential pending murder charges would cause strain and that the children were better off with Nancy’s family.
Any Suspects Other Than Brad?
Based on the testimony, the police knew they needed to look at Brad, but they also had some other leads that they had to follow. Witnesses said they saw Nancy jogging that morning and also saw strange vans in the neighborhood. Police followed up but didn’t find anything.
With Brad as their only suspect, police brought him in. They requested a deposition so he could walk them through his relationship with Nancy and the events leading up to her disappearance.
Brad admitted to the affair but said it was a 1-time thing. He also admitted to the cash allowance but said that it was because they were in debt and he needed to control Nancy’s overspending. Looking at their credit cards in 2007 they had wracked up close to $40K between them.
He also went through the events of the night before and the morning of the disappearance. Brad and Nancy were at the neighborhood party but he took the girls home around 8 pm. He got them home and went to sleep by 10 pm. Nancy came home later around 12-12:30 am and Brad says he was sleeping but heard her come in. Around 4 am he says he woke up to their youngest Katie crying. He got her and took her downstairs with Nancy following.
They took turns soothing her. He went to the store twice, the first time around 6 am, then again shortly after.
When he got home she said she was going out for a run. She left the house around 7 am, which would be the last time he saw her.
Brad is Charged With Murder
Police had searched the home previously and found Brad’s computer which was processed by the FBI. There, they found the most damming piece of evidence. A google maps search of Cary zoomed in on the exact location where Nancy Cooper was found. This search was performed at 1:15 pm the Friday before Nancy went missing.
With this evidence, in Oct 2008, Brad was charged with 1st-degree murder.
The trial began in Cary in March 2011. Brad’s lawyers asked that it be moved to another city. Arguing the intense publicity would make it impossible for him to get a fair trial. The application was denied.
The scenario that emerged at trial was of a murder both calculated and cruel. Brad came home early from the party and secured their children inside a room. He then sat on his computer with his records showing he was still up when Nancy returned home. Prosecutors believed that they got into an argument that escalated to Brad strangling Nancy in the home.
He put her body in his trunk and dumped her body at a spot he had already chosen. Then he cleaned the house and the car and washed his clothes. The problem with this scenario was a phone call at 6:40 am the morning Nancy went missing. The call was from the home to Brad’s cell.
Experts testified that with Brad’s IT skills and equipment he borrowed from his employer Cisco he would have been able to program a call to come from his home at that time.
Brad’s Defense
The defense did present their own witnesses. Friends said that they didn’t see the tension and problems with Brad and Nancy Cooper. Other witnesses said they saw Nancy jogging the next morning, so she couldn’t possibly have already been dead. There was also another potential suspect. A man Nancy had relations with on Halloween the previous year (but he had an alibi).
The trial lasted two months, with 36 days of testimony from dozens of witnesses. It was the longest and most expensive trial in the history of Wake County. Jurors came back with a unanimous verdict. Guilty of first-degree murder. Brad Cooper was sentenced to life in prison.
Cooper Takes a Deal
Brad Cooper’s lawyers appealed his murder conviction, and he was granted a new trial in September 2013. Instead, he accepted a plea deal.
Appearing in court in Cary, Cooper plead guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison. A key part of the plea bargain was that he give up the rights to his children. They are being raised by Nancy’s twin sister, Krista, in B.C.
“When we started this process years ago, one of the first things I said was that I would wish the person who was responsible for this crime would come forward and acknowledge their guilt and own up to their behaviour,” Garry Rentz told reporters after the hearing. “That’s happened today.”
The family supported the plea bargain. Though the sentence didn’t seem long enough, they were relieved not to have to go through another trial. Nancy’s daughters are now 10 and 8, old enough to find out what would be said about their mother at another trial.
Brad Cooper was released from prison in November 2020.
Resources
- Brad Cooper completes prison sentence for wife’s murder, will be deported :: WRAL.com
- Albertan Brad Cooper, who murdered wife in North Carolina, released from prison | Globalnews.ca
- Brad Cooper pleads guilty to second-degree murder of wife | CBC News
- Woman’s body determined to be Nancy Cooper | ABC13 Houston
- Missing the signs: Nancy Cooper began to disappear long before she was declared missing (with video) | Edmonton Journal