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 the mystery. Heres keith morrison. Reporter nothing about that morning made any sense. It all seemed like such a bad nightmare. This doesnt happen in our happy little world. Reporter it was a saturday morning in july. The happy little world suburb of raleigh, north carolina, called carey, a place where a young family would aspire to if you were someone like hanna prittchard, for example. Theres always lots of friend making going on through someone you meet. Lots of cookouts and family functions. Reporter like the one in the neighborhood the night before. So hanna 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, she went for a run. Reporter nancy was an athlete, training for a half marathon. Brad cooper was nancys husband. I was like oh, okay. When did she leave. He told me 6 30 or 7 00. Shes not back . Reporter weird. If nancy had to cancel their meeting, surely she would have called. Hanna cooled her heels. At 1, the phone rang and i saw on the caller i. D. It was her house. I answered the phone, hey, where have you been. He said no, hanna, its brad. Nancys still not back. Reporter now brad was worried. I really started to panic. Reporter especially when she learned nancy had also stood up another of their friends. They called the local hospital. No sign of nancy. They called nancys twin sister christa up in canada. Have you talked to nancy today . She wept for a run and she hasnt returned yet and were very worried about her. Can you call us back. You know about this kind of stuff . You would think. Reporter krista calls her older brother jeff, who is a Police Officer in edmonton, alberta. My first reaction, okay, shes somewhere. She just needs some space or time. Shell turn up. Reporter when nancys parents, gary and donna, 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. Reporter by afternoon the carey police were involved. All i was told on the phone it was a missing persons. Reporter when detective George Daniels arrived nancys neighborhood was already filling up with a small army of her panicked friends. Nancys friends rushed to join in the search. Her husband brad made a public plea for help. Anyone that knows anything, i just want them to contact the police with any information they may have. Again, thank you to everyone that continues to come out and help out. Sir, do you have a flyer . Reporter volunteers chased up and down the running trails where she loved to train, she combed the surrounding parks and lakes and woods. This woman they had grown to love since she and brad moved down from canada. Capacity to make her rather always group of friends feel they were best friends. Many ways they were. When she walked into a room, thats where people wanted to be. Reporter she and brad were like a lot of people in carey, 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 her. Reporter as did nancys younger sister jill. Its someone who is warm, genuinely saw how much he cared for her. Reporter brad became a helpful member of the family, even designed the Computer Systems in the family business. Our i. T. Guy would say i want to meet the guy who did this, the networking system. He was kind of a legend in the i. T. World. Reporter he was so good, that Cisco Systems invited him to move to raleigh and work for the company. Smart guy . Smart guy. Yes. 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. She was a little yap lensive. There was lots of tears at the airport, fear of the unknown, but i think she was excited. Reporter a few years later there were two bmws in the driveway, nancy a vast circle of friends and brad a Bright Future of cisco where he would become an expert in the marriage of Internet Technology and telephones. Best of all, two little girls, bela born in 2004, katie two years later. The best mother ive ever seen. She played and played and played. She was so hands on. Reporter and now, they were putting up missing posters. Sunday went by, all day monday, monday evening. Someone called 191. The chief of the Carey Police Department it is my very sad duty to tell you that the search for our nancy is over. Reporter 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. Reporter 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 you 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 look in the mirror. She will always be half of me, of nancy. I love you and i always will. Reporter now, of course, a Homicide Investigation was under way. But for detective George Daniels, only this to go on. She had been strangled. She was found wearing only a sports bra and her 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. She wasnt raped. She wasnt assaulted in any kind of way. The earrings werent taken. 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 . Reporter police soon discover possible reasons and a reality much grimmer than the smiling facade. I continue to thank the community for their generosity and support. Its overwhelming. I am you 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 look in the mirror. She will always be half of me, of nancy. I love you and i always will. Reporter now, of course, a Homicide Investigation was under way. But for detective George Daniels, only this to go on. She had been strangled. She was found wearing only a sports bra and her 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. She wasnt raped. She wasnt assaulted in any kind of way. The earrings werent taken. 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 . Whoooo. Looking for a hotel that fits. Your tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. Hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazi, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. Janice, mom told me you bought a house. Okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. Quiet. Im blasting my quads. Janice, look. Im in a meeting. Janice, look. [ chuckles ] look, look. Im looking. Its easy. You just answer some simple questions online, and you get Coverage Options to choose from. Youre ruining my workout. Cycling is my passion. Youre ruining my workout. We use our phones the same way these days. So why do we pay to have a phone connected when were already paying for internet . Shouldnt it all just be one thing . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You can get up to 5 lines of talk and text included at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. See how you could save 400 or more a year. Plus, for a limited time, get a 250 prepaid card when you buy any new samsung. Xfinity mobile. Its a new kind of network designed to save you money. Click, call, or visit an xfinity store today. We had a homicide. We had no suspects. So were dealing basically with a zero balance here. Reporter 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. Reporter 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. There were other reports of mysterious vans. Friday 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. Reporter like the conversations with nancys husband brad during the search. He told detectives he and nancy were up at 4 00 a. M. Saturday to calm their crying 2yearold katie and 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. Reporter 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 wouldnt have time to call them. Reporter a little more talking and the detective learned there may have been another reason altogether. Nancy and brad were having marital problems. He told me the last two months they seemed like they were getting better. When i asked him why they had problems. He told me he had had an affair. Reporter so daniels tucked that tidbit away and went on for 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 were having to separate whats important versus whats just part of a marriage. Reporter brad remember told detective daniels he and nancy were getting past the tension that his affair had caused. That wasnt quite the story he was hearing from mansys family and friends. She felt very trapped and she didnt know what she was going to do. Reporter the marriage, it turned out, had been rocky from the start. Brad seemed more married to his job than nancy. Then in the spring of 2007, nancys close friend healther told her she slept with brad. Nancy confronted her husband. She just wanted the truth so she could fix it and go on. He said it didnt happen . For a very long time. Made her feel bad about thinking that it happened. Reporter until months later, new years eve day when brad finally came clean. Yes, he told nancy, it happened. But he said, only once. Really it meant nothing. 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 the onenight stand to i think i love the woman. Nancy came away from that and said im finished. Reporter 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 account. Put her on a cash allowance. I recall a time she was in the car with me and she called him and said, you know, ive got 2 and we dont have any diapers. Reporter nancy couldnt get a job. She had no green card. She began painting a friends house to earn extra money. When she did, brad reduced her allowance. She must have been furious at him. Furious would be an understatement. Also tried to help nancy and she is very proud, she would feel guilty. Im not going to take your money. This isnt your job to support me and my kids. Reporter nancy began locking important papers including the girls passports in her car. I went down in february 08 it was awful. I had never seen nancy stressed out before. I never seen her raise her voice in the house. She was just miserable. Reporter 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. Reporter 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 counter offer. Just told nancy the move was off. He saw what he was going to have to pay and all bets are off. Reporter and then, brad got ahold of the girls passports, found them in nancys car. They couldnt leave. 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 alley moweny issue. Reporter to get her away interest her troubles, fancys family took her and the girls on the vacation. How was it at the end . Heartbreaking. I had her in my arms at the airport in charlotte and she was sobbing and she said mom, i just want to come home. And ill never forget that day. Reporter 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 debt tifk danielss knew the demise of a marriage no matter how bitter it had been did not prove murder. There was more work to do. Statistic says we should key on the husband and were not going to walk away interest that, but at the same time were letting the investigation lead us wherever it goes. Reporter coming up brad cooper comes clean about his affair with nancys best friend. Took place in her home, the residence of nancy and myself. In the closet of the master bedroom. Reporter when dateline continues. Were about to move. Karate helps. 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Cary continues to be one of the safest places to live in the nation. Reporter isolated . How could she know, really . We still have not named a suspect or a person of interest. Reporter oh, but nancys family had. The very day christa learned her twin sister was missing she called brad. I asked him pointblank 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. Reporter the family acted so fast because according to their complaint, brads behavior was so disturbing. Before she disappeared, they had seen emotional abuse. And they were sure she never went jogging on july 12. Then after she went missing . He was very stunned, aloof with the family and didnt contact anybody and he just didnt want anybody around, didnt want any help. It was strange enough to be alarming. Reporter and so they fear for bela and katies safety. Did you think they were in danger too . If she was a place to do this, the answer to that was absolutely. Are we sure that this happened . At the end of the day you have to live with the fact that if were wrong, then this is way over the line. We did it for the right reason. As a family we decided, were going to take that step over the line. Reporter 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 the girls went back to canada to live with krista, their slain mothers twin and her husband. Brad 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. Reporter 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, yeah. She was supportive of myself and of the children. Very loving and generous. Reporter but there were two issues. The trouble with coopers marriage, one was money. The couple had serious debts. This past week i looked at the American Express card from january 2007 to december 2007. Of that, 27,000 was accredited to nancys credit card. And mine was 17,000. Of that, i think 3,000 or 4,000 was part of our monthly bills. Reporter it was to reign in nancys spending, he said, he put her on a cash allowance. How much cash . At least 300. Reporter but nancy said brad was angry that they didnt have more money to spend. She referred to me as the budget nazi. Im sure she probably said that once or twice in a heated conversation. Reporter the other issue . Brads sexual relationship with nancys best friend heather. The issue which finally brought the marriage to an end. He called it his indiscretion. I had sexual intercourse with heather once. Reporter it happened some time 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 would go away and we could remain as a whole family. Reporter 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. Reporter 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. Reporter 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. Reporter he was awakened briefly about 12 30 when nancy came home. When she opened the front door and i heard her come up the stairs. Reporter he was awakened at 4 00 a. M. By katies crying, took her downstairs followed by nancy. Nancy and i tag teamed off and on, trying to keep her occupied, calm her down. Reporter he said he made two trips to the store that morning. On the the second trip nancy called him. 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. Reporter 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. Reporter and then, around 7 00, he said, nancy left. How do you know that she left the home . Im not too sure if she said goodbye. Somehow i knew she left. The door closed or she said later or something. Reporter 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, brad cooper was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife. So, was it something he said . 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. He was just the right sort of guy when she found him, bright, quiet, stable, this computer genius so skilled a National Powerhouse had sought him out. Now, brad cooper was on trial for murder. At this time we are ready to have the opening statements. Reporter it began this past march, 2 1 2 years after nancys death. Nancy cooper never went for a run from her house on july 12th of 2008. Reporter the prosecutors howard kum, amy fitz and boz had their own idea of what happened to nancy the night she disappeared. We think she came home from this party and said some things in front of him that might have upset him a little bit and he choked her. Reporter killed her then, their theory goes, put her body in the trunk of his car, drove to that drainage ditch, returned home to manufacture an alibi. Why . She started with the shredded marriage, brads affair, cutting off nancy financially, stopping her move back to canada. She was, testified nancys friends, increasingly desperate. She said hes breaking me. I dont know how much left i have 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. Reporter 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. Reporter 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. The facts still remain 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, is that it caused friction between the two of them. Reporter and 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 a phone message nancy left her parents after she returned home from that vacation with her family. The house was so dirty. There were ants infesting on the table when i got there. As that last week went on, the fighting escalated. On friday, her friend testified, nancy was shaking with anger when she revealed brad withheld her allowance that day because she earned her own money painting a house. Did she tell you what kind of day this was . This was an the hate brad day. She said three times that day, i hate you brad cooper, i hate you, i hate you, i hate you. Describe your demeanor for us if you would. She clenched her fists and spat the words out. Reporter diana lived across the street. It was her party that friday at which brad and nancy fought openly, she said. Her tone was angry but also there was a tone of youre an idiot. Reporter brad went home with the girls answered 8 00. Nancy stayed on, bitterly complaining about brad, to strangers like donna lopez. 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 is going to happen over there. Its really bad. Reporter so, when 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 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. Reporter as a marriage gone bad, its hardly proof of murder. Nor was brads conspicuous absence from her memorial service, nor his apparent lack of interest or cooperation as the police sought 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. What was the best evidence against brad . Ironic, perhaps, given the defendants particular expertise. We knew we had this fabricated alibi we needed to address. Reporter the issue was the 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. Reporter in testimony that was, frankly, mind numbing. That leverage is something called either tappy or j tappy. Reporter 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 into your computer and delay it so that a phone call can be made from your computer from the computers modem. Reporter to do that, brad needed a certain router. One prosecutor said conveniently disappeared from the cooper home. We know he had this router. Reporter 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 that 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. Reporter but it was brads own computer examined by the fbi which coughed up the most accusing evidence of all. Evidence he had already lied under oath. The kid fell asleep about 9 00. I probably fell asleep soon after. Reporter in his deposition, brad said she 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 ensued and thats when he strangled her. Reporter and then . The closest thing the prosecution had to a spoking gun. A google map search. Brad typed in the numbers 27518 the zip code for cary and zoomed in to the exact location where nancys body was found. When did he do this . 1 15 in the afternoon on friday, july 11th. The day before nancy went missing. This is the most pointed piece of premeditation, if you will. Reporter 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 mapping, you 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. Reporter 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. She, too, the defense suggested, had been unfaithful, and they found a witness to prove it. She began taking her clothes off, i took my clothes off. Reporter but did that have anything to do with the day she disappeared . You wouldnt accept an incomplete job from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. Flonase. 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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. Reporter 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 that they did not have. Reporter no physical evidence, said Defense Attorneys kurtz and robert trankle to tie brad to nancys murder. The awful scenes from the cooper marriage the jury heard no witness from either side had seen brad physically violent toward nancy. For the 300 a week allowance there was a reason, the defense argued. Remember the couple had serious debt. 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 on this bandwagon to paint this as an abusive relationship. Reporter 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 plans 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 you had played with the coopers before is this. Nancy introduced us to that game. Reporter when nancys friend jessica testified they had plans to paint her house at 8 00 saturday morning she had to be 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 it indicate she had any other plans . There was talk she was going to jog and she would be back by then. Reporter 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, good shape. Reporter 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 an elongated face. Thats what drew my attention. Reporter 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. Reporter those suspicious vans, said the defense. It was clear that the police had focused on brad to the exclusion of other people. Reporter it wasnt just brad who had been unfaithful. Implied the defense. Could someone else have wanted to silence nancy permanently . Someone suggested the defense like john pearson who at first didnt tell the police about an indiscretion with nancy. He said he held back to protect his family. It happened after a very tipsy Halloween Party back in 2005. She began taking her clothes office, 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 looked 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. Reporter and there may have been other secrets, the defense charged, clues to nancys life theyll never know because, and this was big, a cary detective erased the contents of her blackberry accidentally, said the prosecutors. Nonsense, said the defense. Its not something that happens accidentally. Reporter a prime example, the defense said, of shocking allegations 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 towards 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. You think it would have been exculpatory evidence for your client . I dont know what it was. Because we never did get in that phone. Reporter and that call saturday morning from brads house to his cell phone, the one the prosecution allege brad actually 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. Reporter hard drives dont lie. Or do they . That was the question the defense raised when it came to those apparently damming results of the fbis search of brads computer. Youre talking about a computer that we know was tampered with. Youre alleging what . Im not alleging. Im stating as fact the computer was tampered with. There were significant anomalies that we found in the computer itself. Reporter meaning, he says, that brads computer was hacked. The 41 second 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 had testified that he saw no evidence of tampering, but the defense said, it had experts who didp. 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 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. Reporter could those 41 seconds put brad cooper in prison for the rest of his life . E ignores me while i drive. Its fine. Because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months im accident free. 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Switching to allstate is worth it. 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, applied the prosecution. Besides, they claim, they already found what they needed from that phone through other sources. We lad her phone records. We knew everything she had done. We had the billing to know how much texting she did or didnt do. We knew her friends. The idea the police might have inserted the google map search on brads computer, they couldnt have, said detective daniels. None of the people that work for me or work in the department would have had the knowledge to go in and do Something Like that. Reporter the defense charged that Police Ignored those possible sightings of nancy and mysterious vans for months. The defense was thinking that jury wasnt listening. The police indicated that they followed up with every one of those people. Reporter 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. Very same woman behind brad and nancys breakup. At the beginning of the case reporter still, as the long trial finally wound down, the defense hammered home its claim that the police and prosecution bought into a whispering campaign when nancys friends against brad. It made it easier for them to simply let the gossip about brad became 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 done begun in essence for the rest of his life. Reporter but there were facts said the prosecution to send brad cooper away. The defendant googled where he was going to place his wifes body. Fact, the router that could help him automate a phone call is now missing. Fact, nancy cooper never left that house the morning of july 12th. Reporter so, the jurors adjourned to deliberate. Guilty of firstdegree murder, Second Degree or not guilty . And nancys family, having listened to weeks of confusing 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 . Reporter 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 firstdegree murder. I cried for hours. I cried for hours. Relief, yes, its over. Theres a conclusion and its justice for nancy. Now we can all go home. Reporter and brad . Obviously brad was upset, but he knows and feels this is not over. Reporter brad will appeal, based possibly on the judges ruling excluding his expert computer witnesses. Certainly these attorneys have strong views about the damage that ruling may have caused. It was crippling. Reporter nancy, theres a bench in a park, the place she once ran, her adopted towns way of remembering. The cooper girls, bela and katie, are growing up in canada with nancys twin sister krista and her husband jim. Theyre doing great. Its like every other normal little toddler and little kid. Reporter their cousins were with them the day we came to call so seven of the little girls scampered about, their pleasure infectious. For the adults, bittersweet. Its sad nancy is 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. Brad . She knows this may sound weird. I told them hes traveling because he worked so much, its actually pretty easy and plausible and that hes in a tent and has no phone. You know theyll ask some day. They will ask when theyre ready and us, as a family unit, will sit down with them and it tell them what happened one day. Reporter tell them the tragic story of a man and a woman who sank in the undertone of what once was love. We got an outcome that nancy disde serves, 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 now. Im lester holt. For all of us at nbc news, thanks for joining us. I cant believe that your babys lying there lifeless. She was everything to me. She was so sweet to everybody. State troopers said bonnie had died in a hiking accident. They said she fell off a cliff. Her mother said they were wrong. I was screaming to them, these are defensive wounds. No witnesses, no weapon, nothing left behind but a strangers dna. We no longer have some accidental death. This was a homicide. They had no suspect, but for years