Hello and welcome to dateline extra. Im craig mellin. This story involves a young mother who disappeared one morning. Her husband said she went for a run and never came home. It was a puzzling case. It happened in a safe suburban neighborhood, the kind of place where crime is unexpected. Even more unexpected, the tiny clue buried in a computer that unlocked a mystery. Heres keith morrison. Nothing about that morning made any sense. It all seemed like such a bad nightmare. This doesnt happen in our happy little world. It was a saturday morning in july 2008. The happy little world a sweet and leafy suburb of raleigh, North Carolina called cary. The sort of place a young family would aspire to. If you were someone like hannah pritchard, for example. Theres always lots of friend making going on through someone you meet. Lots of cookouts and family functions. Like the one in the neighborhood the night before. So hannah would have heard Party Stories that saturday morning. From her friend nancy cooper. Would have. Because nancy didnt show up. I hadnt heard from her. Maybe by like 10 00 i called her house. Brad answered. And he said, oh, she went for a run. Nancy was an athlete. Had been training for a half marathon. Brad cooper was nancys husband. I was like, oh, okay. When did she leave . And he told me, i dont know, 6 30 or 7 00. I was like, shes not back . Weird. If nancy had to cancel their meeting surely she would have cooled. Hannah cooled her heels. At 1 00 the phone rang. I saw on the caller i. D. It was her house. And i answered the phone, hey, where have you been . And he said, no, hannah, its brad. Nancys still not back. Now brad was worried. So i really started to panic. Especially when she learned nancy had also stood up another of their friends. So they called the local hospitals. No sign of nancy. They called nancys twin sister krista up in canada. Have you talked to nancy today . She went for a run and she hasnt returned yet. And were very worried about her. Can you call us back . You know about is this kind of stuff. Youd think. Krista calls her older brother jeff whos a Police Officer nedmonton, alberta. My first reaction was okay, shes somewhere. You just need some space or some time. Shell turn up. But when nancys parents gary and donna rentz heard she was missing, they were gripped by something dark and cold. Gary said to me, donna, this story is not going to have a happy ending. By afternoon, the cary police were involved. All i was told on the phone was it was a missing persons. When detective George Daniels arrived, nancys neighborhood was already filling up with a small army of her panicked friends. Nancys family rushed to cary to join in the search. Her husband brad made a public plea for help. If anyone knows anything, i just want them to contact the police with any information they may have and again, thank you to everyone that continues to come out and help out. Sir, do you have a flyer . Volunteers chased up and down the running trails where she loved to train. They combed the surrounding parks and lakes and woods for this woman theyd grown to love since she and brad moved down from canada. When she walked into a room, thats where people wanted to be. She and brad were like a lot of people in cary. Raising a family here, having got their start in another place and time. In brad and nancys case, calgary, canada. Thats where they met, back in 98. I really liked him. As did nancys younger sister jill. This is someone who is warm. You genuinely saw how much he cared for her. So brad became a helpful member of the family, even designed the Computer Systems in the family business. Our i. T. Guy would say i just want to meet the guy who did the networking system. He was kind of a legend in the i. T. World. He was so good that Cisco Systems invited him to move to raleigh and work for the company. Smart guy. Smart guy. Yes. Mensa or close i would say. But if nancy was to go with him to america, for immigration reasons they had to be married. So in the fall of 2000 they said their vows, an intimate family affair. How did she feel about going to North Carolina . A little apprehensive i think at first. Lots of tears at the airport. Fear of the unknown. But i think she was excited. And a few years later there were two bmws in the driveway, nancy had a vast circle of friends and brad a Bright Future at cisco where hed become an expert in the marriage of Internet Technology and telephones. One of just 152 such experts in the whole world. And best of all, two little girls, bella, born in 2004, katie, two years later. The best mother ive ever seen. She played and played and played. She was just so handson. And now they were putting up missing posters. Sunday went by, all day monday, then monday evening someone called 911. As the chief of the cary Police Department, it is my very sad duty to tell you that the search for our nancy is over. It was a man walking his dog who found her. Lying face down in water at the edge of a storm drain near a Housing Construction site several miles from the cooper home. Our investigation is now a homicide. Now they had to say goodbye. It was a measure of the woman that total strangers joined nancys family and friends to share in the sorrow. I continue to thank the community for their generosity and support. Its overwhelming. I am one of the luckiest people in the world. Im a twin. Sorry. I have a bond with nancy that no one in the world has. All i have to do to remember her is to look in the mirror. She will always be half of me. Nancy, i love you and i always will. Now, of course, a Homicide Investigation was under way. But for detective George Daniels, only this to go on, shed been strangled. She was found only wearing a sports bra and diamond stud earrings. There were no marks on her body to indicate a beating. No struggle. No sign of Sexual Assault or robbery. It was a puzzle that landed in his lap. If she wasnt raped, if she wasnt assaulted in any kind of way, the earrings werent taken, then what was the reason for her to be over here . And then what was the reason for them to do this if nothing was done to her . When heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. It starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum tum tum tum smoothies only from tums my bladder leakage was making me feel like i couldnt spend time with my grandson. Now depend fitflex has their fastest absorbing material inside, so it keeps me dry and protected. Go to depend. Com get a coupon and try them for yourself. Returning to our story. Heres keith morrison. We had a homicide. We had no suspects. So were dealing basically with zero balance here. Nancy cooper had been strangled. Her barely clothed body found in a storm drain several miles from home. But why . There were no signs of rape or robbery or that any struggle had occurred. We start going back to where we started at saying, okay, lets look at everything again. There were reports from people who said they saw a woman who looked like nancy running that saturday morning. One man said he watched her for a good 30 seconds, then saw a van make a uturn to follow her. And there were other reports of mysterious vans. Friday night, one sped away from a culdesac with no lights on. Could any of this be tied to her killer . Were not walking away from anything at this point. Everything becomes important. Like his conversations with her husband brad that weekend of the search. Brad told detectives that he and nancy were up at 4 00 a. M. Saturday to calm their crying 2yearold, katie. Then 6 00 or so, he made two trips to the Grocery Store after which nancy announced she was off to run. Of course we went to find the video records of him going in and out of the store which we did in fact find. But one of those talks with brad struck detective daniels as odd when he asked brad, did you contact nancys family . He had told us no. But it could be because hes frantic about the situation and didnt have time to call them. But then a little more talking and the detective learned there may have been another reason altogether. Nancy and brad were having marital problems. And he told me the last two months it seemed like they were getting better. And so when i asked him why they had problems, he told me he had had an affair. So daniels tucked that tidbit away and went on with the search for nancy. But after her body was found, things were different. The cooper house became a crime scene. Police in and out turning the place upside down. And daniels kept his ears open because among nancys friends and family, people were certainly talking. Were getting all this information and having to separate whats important versus whats just part of a marriage. Brad, remember, told detective daniels that he and nancy were getting past the tension his affair had caused, but that wasnt quite the story he was hearing from nancys family and friends. She felt very trapped and she just didnt know what she was going to do. The marriage it turned out had been rocky from the start. Brad it seemed had been more married to his job than to nancy. Then in the spring of 2007, nancys close friend heather told her she had slept with brad. So nancy confronted her husband. She just wanted the truth so they could fix it and go on. And he said it didnt happen . For a very long time. Made her feel bad about thinking that it happened. Until months later, it was new years eve day, when brad finally came clean. Yes, he told nancy. It happened. But he said only once and really it meant nothing. So they went to counseling. And thats when nancy heard what she said was the real story. Brad says to the counselor, its been going on for a long time. Changes again from this onenight stand to i think i love the woman. So nancy came away from that and said im finished. They agreed to split. Sell the house. Nancy would move back to canada with the girls. And then suddenly brad canceled nancys credit cards, blocked her access to the bank accounts, put her on a cash allowance. I recall a time she was in the car with me and she called him and said ive got 2 and we dont have any diapers. Nancy couldnt get a job. She had no green card. She began painting a friends house to earn some extra money. And when she did, brad reduced her allowance. She must have been just furious at him. Furious would be an understatement. Shes very proud and shed feel guilty. Im not going to take your money. No, this isnt your job to support me and my kids. Nancy began locking important papers, including the girls passports, in her car. I went down in february of 08, and it was awful. I had never seen nancy stressed out before. I had never seen her raise her voice in the house, and she was just miserable. Miserable, stressed. Each day uncertain. A painful struggle. An angry contest. She said this is just, i think, a game to show me how difficult its going to be. Its his attempt to force me back into this relationship. Then, as nancy was preparing to move back to canada and with brads blessing take the girls, one of those moments on which lives can turn. The arrival from nancys lawyer of a proposed separation agreement. Alimony, child support, private schools for the girls, brad would have to travel to canada for his twice monthly visits. He made no counteroffer, just told nancy the move was off. He saw what he was going to have to pay, and all bets are off. And then brad got a hold of the girls passports, found them in nancys car. Now they couldnt leave and nancy was trapped, too. But as the father, its his perfect right to prevent those kids from leaving. Yes. Its also a way to say if im doing half the child care then im not going to have an alimony issue. To get her away from her troubles, nancys family took her and the girls on vacation. And how was it at the end when you had to say goodbye . It was heartbreaking. I had nancy in my arms in the airport in charlotte, and she was sobbing. And she said, mom, i just want to come home. And ill never forget that day. It was the last time they saw her alive. And now that she was dead, nancys family was sure brad had to be involved somehow. But detective daniels knew the demise of a marriage, bitter though it may have been, did not prove murder. There was a lot more work to do. Statistics say we should go back and key on the husband, things like that. And were not going to walk away from that. But at the same time, were letting the investigation lead us wherever it goes. Hey, man. Oh nice man cave nacho . [ train whistle blows ] what . stop it mmhmm. Weve been saving a lot of money ever since we switched to progressive. This bar is legit. And now we get an even bigger discount from bundling home and auto. I can get used to this. It might take a minute. Swing and a miss slam dunk touchdown together sports returning to the day she disappeared, here again is keith morrison. In the days after nancy coopers killing, the police chief here in cary, North Carolina tried to calm her jittery town. But her message was curious. Seemed to imply that her officers knew something more than they were revealing. We still believe this is an isolated case. Cary continues to be one of the safest places to live in the nation. Isolated . How could she know really . And we still have not named a suspect or a person of interest. Oh, but nancys family had. The very day krista learned her twin sister was missing, she called brad. And i asked him point blank at that point, what have you done . Where is she . She didnt wait for an answer. She just hung up the phone. Then the day after nancys body was identified, her family went to court to try to get those two little girls away from brad. By 4 00 in the afternoon, we had papers in the judges hand for temporary custody of nancys children. The family acted so fast because, according to their complaint, brads behavior was so disturbing. Before she disappeared, theyd seen emotional abuse. And they were sure she never went jogging july 12th. And then after she went missing . He was very standoffish and aloof with the family and he didnt contact anybody, and he just didnt want anybody around, didnt want any help. And it was strange enough to be alarming. So they feared for bella and katies safety. Did you think they were in danger too . If hes in a place where he could do this, cobring harm to those kids . The answer to that was absolutely. You have a million conversations. Is this the right thing . Are we sure this happened . At the end of the day you have to live with the fact that if were wrong and this is way over the line, we did it for the right reasons. There was an emergency hearing. And the judge determined that the intense scrutiny brad was likely to face during a Murder Investigation put the children at risk. In late july 2008 the girls went back to canada to live with krista, their slain mothers twin, and her husband. Kind of in a hurry. But brad, remember, had not been charged with any crime. Wasnt even a declared suspect. And he fought hard to get his daughters back. Afterwards i thought about it which meant three months after nancys murder, sitting for a videotaped deposition in which brad answered questions under oath about his marriage, his affair and what happened the morning nancy disappeared. So were Police Investigators listening . Oh, yes, they were. Was nancy a good wife . I would say so, yes. She was supportive. Of myself and of the children. And very loving and generous. But there were two issues that troubled the coopers marriage. One was money. The couple had serious debts. Just this last week i looked at the American Express card from january 2007 to december 2007. And of that, 27,000 was credited to nancys credit card and mine was 17,000. It was to rein in nancys spending, he said, that he put her on a cash allowance. How much cash . At least 300. But nancy said brad was angry that they didnt have more money to spend. She referred to me as the budget nazi. So im sure she probably has said that once or twice in heated conversation. 6 the other issue . Brads sexual relationship with nancys best friend heather. The issue which finally brought their marriage to an end. He called it his indiscretion. I had sexual intercourse with heather once. It happened sometime at the end of 2004, early 2005, he said. And where did this sexual intercourse take place . It took place in our home, in the closet of the master bedroom. Did you initially deny the relationship . Yes, i initially denied it for approximately one year. Why . I thought that if by denying it it would go away and we could remain as a whole family. But when it became time for the family to split, brad said he found the monthly terms of the proposed separation agreement unreasonable. Child support, medical, private school, extra activities, you know, kind of added it up and i ballparked it at over 5,000 to 6,000. He also explained why he called off nancys move back to canada. I realized that seeing the girls every other weekend would not be sufficient. And brad gave his account of the hours before nancy went missing. They were at a party across the street friday night. He left about 8 00 p. M. Got the girls ready for bed. The kids fell asleep about 9 00 p. M. I probably fell asleep soon after. He was awakened briefly about 12 30, he said, when nancy came home. When she opened the front door and i heard her come up the stairs. He was awakened again at 4 00 a. M. By katies crying. Took her downstairs followed by nancy about 20 minutes later. Nancy and i kind of tagteamed off and on trying to keep her calm. Brad said he made two trips to the store that morning. On the second trip nancy called hime said. He remembers being at an intersection when the call came in. Do you know what time that would have been . I think, looking at the cell phone records, i think it said it came in at 6 40 a. M. When he came back from the store the second time, katie had calmed down, he said, and nancy told brad she was going for a run. I took katie upstairs. Went in front of my computer. Read some emails with katie in my lap. And then around 7 00, he said, nancy left. How do you know that she left the home . Im not too sure if she actually said goodbye. Either way i knew she left. Either the door closed or she said later or something. That, he said, was the last time he saw her. Three weeks after this deposition, three months after nancys body was found, in late october 2008, brad cooper was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife. So, was it something he said . Im dara brown with the hours top stories. Senator Elizabeth Warren is pushing back against president trumps selection of Mick Mulvaney to head the Consumer Finance protection bureau. Warren says that the law calls for the Deputy Director to run the agency when the director job is vacant. And former nba star and auburn alumnus Charles Barkley calls gop Senate Candidate roy moore a white separatist. Barkley made his comments at the iron bowl Football Game between auburn and the university of alabama. Auburn won 2614. Now back to dateline. Welcome back. Returning to our story, heres keith morrison. He was just the right sort of guy when she found him. Bright, quiet, stable. This computer genius so skilled, a multinational powerhouse had sought him out. And now brad cooper was on trial for murder. We are ready to have the opening statements. It began in march of 2011, 2 1 2 years after nancys death. Nancy rentz cooper never went for a run from her house. On july 12th of 2008. The prosecutors howard cummings, amy fitzhugh and Bob Zellinger had their own idea of what happened to nancy beginning the night before she disappeared. We think she came home from this party and she had said some things in front of him that might have upset him a little bit and that he choked her. Killed her then, their theory goes. Put her body in the trunk of his car, drove her to that drainage ditch, returned home to manufacture an alibi. Why . They started with that shredded marriage. Brads affair. His cutting off nancy financially, stopping her move back to canada. She was, testified nancys friends, increasingly desperate. She said, jennifer, hes breaking me. She said, i dont know how much i have left to fight. She told me when she slept at night she slept with her jeans on and the keys in her pocket with the children and the door locked. He never beat her. It wasnt physical, said the prosecutors, but he used financial power to exert absolute control. This, they said, was a form of domestic violence. She was in this abrasive, rough relationship at that point. He trapped her. He controlled everything about her life. But wait a minute. Nancys allowance, remember, was 300 a week. Would a jury think that was evidence of abuse . How do you tell a jury that hes depriving her . Its difficult but the facts still remain that there are these signs of control emanating from that cooper household. It doesnt matter whether its 1,000 a week or 10 a week. The fact of the matter is that it caused friction between the two of them. So the jury heard about that last week of nancys life. The week of war with brad. With nancys father on the stand, prosecutors played the phone message nancy left her parents after she returned home from that vacation with her family. The house was so dirty. There was an ant infestation on the table. Im aso furious at how disgusting the house was when i got there. The fighting escalated. On the friday, friend diana duncan said nancy was shaking with anger when she revealed brad withheld her allowance. Because she oearned her own money painting a friends house. Did she tell you what kind of day this was . This was an i hate brad day. She said that at least three times that day she said, i hate you, brad cooper. I hate you, i hate you, i hate you. She lived across the street. It was her party that friday at which brad and nancy fought openly she said. Her tone at that point was angry but also there was a tone of, youre an idiot. Brad went home with the girls around 8 00. Nancy stayed on. Bitterly complaining about brad, even to strangers like donna lopez. And once in a while, said donna, nancy nervously looked across the street to her own house. How did you feel when you left that night . I was very worried, for someone who i didnt know well. I thought i met someone really, really nice and told my husband something really bad was going to happen over there. Its really bad. So nancy disappeared. Her friends eyes all turned to brad. After all, they knew about the conflict, and jessica adam knew nancy was supposed to be at her house at 8 00 a. M. That saturday to paint. When nancy didnt show up, she called the police. I was very concerned. I had seen brad in my house, and he was agitated that week related to the painting. But evidence of marriage gone bad is hardly proof of murder. Nor was brads conspicuous absence from her memorial service, nor his apparent lack of interest or cooperation as the police saw it in the Murder Investigation. These were suspicions. But there was no physical evidence linking brad to the crime. The prosecutor would say it was because he cleaned the house. He covered his tracks. Well, but there it was. So what was the best evidence against brad . Ironic perhaps, given the defendants particular expertise. We knew we had this fabricated alibi that we needed to address. The issue was that phone call the morning nancy disappeared. Brads cell phone registered a call from home at 6 40 a. M. When he went back to the store. Proof surely that nancy was alive at 6 40. Unless, that is, unless brad placed the call himself. Brad, the worldclass expert in internet phone technology. If anyone could do that, it was the defendant. Ultimately, he had the potential to make that phone call. In testimony that was frankly mindnumbing that leverages something called either tapi or jtapi. An expert from cisco, brads former company, explained about ten different ways someone as accomplished as brad could have remotely made that call. The main ways to do it are using a computer, where you can program something in your computer and delay it so that a phone call can be made from your computer, from your computers mod modem. But to do that, brad needed a certain router. One prosecutors said conveniently disappeared from the cooper home. We knew he had this router. In fact, said the prosecution, this cisco chat log proves brad borrowed that router. The 3825, its called. Took it home months before the murder. You know the defendant had one of those two 3825 routers . Thats correct. I only had two. And you never got that 3825 router back . No, sir. Cisco doesnt have it back. Where did it go . We know it was never returned. But it was brads own computer examined by the fbi which coughed up the most accusing evidence of all. Evidence hed already lied under oath. The kids fell asleep about 9 00 p. M. I probably fell asleep soon after. In his deposition brad said he was asleep with his daughters when nancy came home from that party friday night. But brads computer said otherwise. He was online until about midnight when nancy came home. Hes been awake on his computer. And when she comes in shortly after midnight, we think they argued and that a fight ensues and thats when he strangled her. And then the closest thing the prosecution had to a smoking gun, a google map search. Prosecutors allege brad typed in the numbers 27518. The zip code for cary. Then zoomed into the exact location where nancys body was found. When do they claim he did this . 1 15 in the afternoon on friday july 11th, 2008. The day before nancy went missing. But proof of intent . Maybe. Maybe not. It wasnt much of a search. It lasted just 41 seconds. He didnt look anywhere else. Generally you search a whole bunch of different places, and this is one place and its only 41 seconds long. I dont think it would take very long if you look at the map and immediately recognize this desolate area, this beige area in a sea of green and then zoom into it, zoom into it, zoom into it and see where it is. Of course, every prosecution has its flaws. And this one, maybe, said the defense, they didnt have the right man at all. And maybe they didnt know nancy so well either. What i want, y but it might be hard to handle like the flame that burns the candle the candle feeds the flame topped steak twisted potatoes at applebees. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. But it might be hard to handle like the flame that burns the candle the candle feeds the flame topped steak twisted potatoes at applebees. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Returning to our story now, heres keith morrison. The idea that theyre in a bad marriage. That theyre contemplating divorce. It gets you to the point where you say, i need to take a second look at this. This is howard kurtz, defense attorney. And heres what he thought about the murder case against his client, brad cooper. You need actual evidence to convict. And actual evidence is something they did not have. No physical evidence, said the Defense Attorneys kurtz and robert trinkle, to tie brad to nancys murder. And those awful scenes from the cooper marriage the jury heard . No witness for either side had ever seen brad physically violent toward nancy. As for the 300 a week allowance, there was a reason the defense argued. Remember, the couple had serious debt. And the defense offered contrasting scenes of the cooper marriage from another set of friends. People who had known the couple for years did not jump this to bandwagon to paint this as an abusive relationship. Remember that i hate brad day . The day the prosecution said the marriage hit its boiling point . On that very day, said laura hiller, nancy was making a plan for saturday night, the day she disappeared. She wanted my husband and i to come over and play sequence with her and brad. Was that a game youd played with the coopers before . Oh, yeah. Nancy introduced us to that game. And when nancys friend jessica testified they had plans to paint her house at 8 00 saturday morning, she had to have been mistaken said the defense because nancy knew brad had a tennis game at 9 00 a. M. With mike hiller. I specifically sought out nancy to make sure it was okay with her. Did she indicate she had any other plans . There was talk she was going to jog. And she would be back by then. And there were people who claim they saw a woman they believed was nancy running. And it was proof, the defense says, that she was alive that morning. She was about 59, in good shape. This witness said she reported her sighting to the police after she saw nancys missing poster. How is it that the next day when you saw the flyer you believed it was her . Because she was so close to me and she had elongated face. Thats what drew my attention. She wasnt the only one. This man said he got a 30second look at her as he was driving to work. I saw a lady jogging on the righthand side of the road. Jogging towards the bridge. But did the Police Follow up . Not for a long time, said these witnesses. They ignored everybody that believed they saw nancy for three months. Same with those suspicious vans, said the defense. It was clear that the police had focused on brad to the exclusion of other people. It wasnt just brad who had been unfaithful, implied the defense. Could someone else have wanted to silence nancy permanently . Someone suggested the defense John Mcpherson who at first didnt tell the police about an indiscretion with nancy. It happened after a very tipsy Halloween Party back in 2005. She began taking her clothes off. I took my clothes off. And we, i believe, started to have sex. I believe we stopped and got dressed and decided to never speak about it again. It seemed to observers as if you two were somehow blaming the victim. You were looking for other people she may have had relationships with. Why was that important . The reason that people look to the spouse first is because affairs of the heart frequently lead to crimes of passion. So anyone with whom she had a relationship should be the subject of a Police Investigation. And there may have been other secrets, the defense charged. Clues to nancys life that theyll never know because and this was big a cary detective erased the contents of her blackberry. Accident, said the prosecutor. Nonsense, said the defense. Its not something that happens accidentally. A prime example, the defense said, of its shocking allegation that the Police Investigation was dishonest. Why would the police have any motivation whatsoever to get rid of evidence in this case . Not only did they start with an eye toward building a case against brad. They also started with an eye toward attempting to preserve nancys reputation. And that phone would carry emails, text messages, pictures, videos. And you think it would have been exculpatory evidence for your client . I dont know what it was because we never did get to get in that phone. And that call saturday morning from brads house to his cell phone . The one the prosecution alleged brad made himself with that now missing router . They claim that he checked out a router and never returned it. The question is, did he generate a phone call, not did he have the technological skill. They also took photographs of the house. They searched the house. And they have not once introduced any evidence that the router was in the house. But hard drives dont lie. Or do they . That was the question the defense raised when it came to those apparently damning results of the fbis search of brads computer. You are talking about a computer that we know was tampered with. Youre alleging what . Im not alleging. Im stating as a fact, the computer was tampered with. There were significant anomalies that we found in the computer itself. Meaning, he says, that brads computer was hacked. The 41second google map search was planted. The prosecution had no smoking gun. So youre saying he didnt even search for that map . Thats right. Somebody else put it on his computer . Yes. An fbi agent testified he saw no evidence of tampering, but the defense said it had experts who did. Two of them. Both of whom wrote reports. But trials have referees. And in this case, the judge ruled that neither one of those defense experts could testify about tampering. One, said the judge, wasnt sufficiently qualified. The other was brought in too late in the trial. But even if they had testified, there was one question they couldnt answer. If there was a hacker, who was it . I can tell you that police had access to it. I can tell you that anybody within wireless range had access to it. What possible reason would the police have to put that map on his computer . I cant say that the police put it on the computer. I dont know who manipulated the computer. What i can say is, that a possible reason is if you believe somebodys guilty, and that you dont have any evidence against them, well, its perfect evidence, isnt it . Could those 41 seconds put brad cooper in prison for the rest of his life . Hes told that joke a million times. And you always laugh like youre hearing it for the first time. At lincoln financial, we get there are some responsibilities of love you gotta do on your own. And some you shouldnt have to shoulder alone. Like ensuring hes well taken care of. Even as you build your own plans for retirement. See how lincoln can help protect your savings from the impact of longterm care expenses at lincolnfinancial. Com. And now for the conclusion to our story. Heres keith morrison. For two long months attorneys for both sides hammered at the question, what happened to nancy cooper . The defense charged the police more than dropped the ball, their investigation was dishonest. The erasing of nancys blackberry, for one thing, had to be intentional, said the defense. Nonsense, replied the prosecution. Besides, they claimed they already found what they needed from that phone through other sources. We had her phone records, so we knew everything she had done. We had the billing, so we could tell how much texting she did or didnt do. We already knew all her friends. And the idea that police might have inserted the google map search on brads computer, well, they couldnt have, said detective daniels. None of the people that work for me or worked in the department would have had the knowledge to go in and do Something Like that. The defense charged that Police Ignored those possible sightings of nancy and those mysterious vans for months. The defense was thinking that the jury wasnt listening. The police indicated that they followed up with every one of those people. As for john pearson, whose indiscretion with nancy should have made him a suspect, at least according to the defense, he had an alibi. On that friday night pearson spent the night with heather. The very same woman behind brad and nancys breakup. At the beginning of the case still, as the long trial finally wound down, the defense hammered home its claim that the police and prosecution bought into a whispering campaign by nancys friends against brad. It made it easier for them to simply let the gossip about brad become their reality even when the facts and the evidence did not fit it. And now, the Police Department and the prosecutors are willing to send an innocent man to rot in a dungeon in essence for the rest of his life. But there were facts, said the prosecution, to send brad cooper away for life. Fact, the defendant googled where he was going to place his wifes body. Fact, the router that could help him automate a phone call is also now missing. Fact, nancy cooper never left that house the morning of july 12th. So the jurors adjourned to deliberate. Guilty of first degree murder, Second Degree, or not guilty. And nancys family, having listened to weeks of confusing and circumstantial evidence, worried. If i was hearing this for the first time, would i feel comfortable sending someone to prison for the rest of their life . The jury stayed out for two days. And then has the jury reached a unanimous verdict . Yes, sir. The verdict of the jury reads, we the jury, by unanimous verdict, find the defendant, Bradley Graham cooper, to be guilty of first degree murder. I cried for hours. Yeah, i cried for hours. Relief, yes, its over. Theres a conclusion. And its justice for nancy. And now we can all go home. And brad . Obviously, brad was upset. But he knows and feels that this is not over. In 2013 an Appeals Court overturned bradley coopers conviction, deciding the judge should have allowed more defense testimony regarding the laptop evidence. A new trial was ordered. But while awaiting his second trial, cooper pleaded guilty to Second Degree murder and was sentenced to approximately 12 to 15 years. And nancy, theres a black granite bench in a cary park, a place she once ran. Her adopted towns way of remembering. Scratch. Scratch. The cooper girls, bella and katie, are growing up in canada with nancys twin sister krista and her husband jim. Whoo their cousins were with them the day we came to call, and so seven little girls scampered happily about, their pleasure infectious. And for the adults, bittersweet. Here we go. Sad that nancys not here seeing it. Absolutely. Thats the tough part for me. What do they understand about mother and father . Well, what weve told them is that mommy nancy was killed by a bad man. And that shes in heaven. And the man went to prison. You know theyll ask someday. They will ask when theyre ready. And us as a family unit will sit down with them and tell them what happened one day. Tell them the tragic story of a man and a woman who sank in the undertow of what once was love. We got an outcome that nancy deserves. But its also not a winning hand for anybody. And brad lost his life as well. Theres many things that were lost. Lives that have been forever changed. Thats all for this edition of dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Thank you for watching. He said, no, i asked you to leave. The man put handcuffs on me. Shes on probation for battery and theres some type of impulse control that leaves me very concerned. Perfect situation for the family meeting my dad. He left letters for me when i was growing up. Sounds like a nice guy. Youre very immature, like a kid that dont want to grow up. I wanted to plead guilty and get it over with. She never steered me wrong, she knows whats best