DEADLY MATCH
Nancy wanted to leave her life, but her husband wasn’t willing to let her go easily...
Working for technology company, IBM, in Calgary, Canada, Nancy Cooper fell in love with her colleague, Brad.
Despite being polar opposites – Nancy sporty and popular and Brad shy and reserved – the two were head over heels for each other.
After Brad was offered a high-paid job in Cary, North Carolina – a place dubbed ‘Pleasantville’ after the 1998 film – the two settled down and had a picture-perfect life.
It was an affluent area with huge houses, well-kept gardens and gorgeous white picket fences.
Residents and neighbours would regularly gather for BBQ’S, board game nights and parties.
By 2008, Nancy and Brad had two daughters, Bella, four, and Katie, nearly two.
On the outside, they were living the American Dream, but little did anyone know, their marriage was falling apart.
At many of their community social gatherings, Brad was unfaithful to his wife, and sadly, Nancy was well aware.
She wanted to leave, but she found herself trapped and under Brad’s control.
Being Canadian, Nancy didn’t have a visa allowing her to work in Cary.
It would later turn out that Brad had deliberately not applied for Nancy’s visa, so she’d have to be dependent on him.
He even stopped her having access to their joint accounts.
Nancy had to sell her clothes in secret, or do odd jobs like painting homes, to make extra money on the side.
Brad would only fill her car up with enough petrol to make sure she never went further than they had planned.
Nancy wanted to end the marriage, but she’d been to a lawyer who warned her that if she walked away, she could lose a great deal in a divorce – including the custody of her children.
That was unthinkable to her.
Brad knew that Nancy was unhappy because he’d listened to her phone calls and hacked into her emails.
By the summer of 2008, Nancy’s family had now noticed that she’d become withdrawn.
They got in touch with a lawyer and started looking into the possibility of buying
Brad out – and getting Nancy custody of the girls, so she could return to Canada.
‘I just want to go home,’ Nancy sobbed to her mum.
A week later, on the warm, sunny evening of July 11, 2008, Nancy and Brad were at another traditional neighbourhood BBQ. As children played and adults enjoyed the food and chatter, it would be the last time Nancy’s friends would see her alive. The following morning, conscientious Nancy was due to help a close friend paint a room in her house, but she never arrived. Realising it was totally out of character, she was quickly reported missing.
Brad, 37, soon informed officers that Nancy, 34, had gone jogging with a friend and hadn’t come back.
Only, the friend denied any arrangement and police were puzzled why Brad hadn’t reported her missing himself. Nancy’s parents, Garry and
Donn Rentz, and Nancy’s twin sister Krista, were distraught as a huge search began for the young mum.
While they all made public pleas, Brad stayed out of the spotlight, seemingly unbothered by his wife’s sudden disappearance.
The case was quickly picked up by the media, but police were suspicious that Brad wasn’t calling them for updates or news.
As worried neighbours gathered outside the Cooper’s home, he stayed away in the shadows of the house.
Two days later, a man walking his dog just outside of Cary, saw a semi-naked body
Brad was controlling Nancy's every move
Brad had countless affairs and then strangled his wife
floating in a drainage ditch at a construction site.
It was Nancy.
She had been strangled so hard that a bone in her neck was broken.
The prime suspect was cheating husband, Brad.
He insisted that he’d never been to the spot where Nancy was found and yet on his computer, there was a Google Maps search of the area done the day before Nancy randomly went missing.
He’d even zoomed right into the spot where Nancy’s body had been discovered, just three miles from their home. Brad was charged.
At the trial in 2011, prosecutors said that Brad had either grabbed Nancy from behind, or while she’d slept, choking her to death.
Incredibly, Brad had a strong group of supporters who believed that he was totally innocent.
‘Free Brad’ T-shirts -shirts were even printed out.
People talked about the case on online forums – came up with their own theories, like the family were simply characters in a film.
The trial exposed the Cary social scene where extramarital affairs had been sparked at parties in their large, affluent homes.
After two months, Brad was found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Continuing to protest his innocence, Brad made his lawyers appeal and he was granted a new trial.
But in a shock twist, Brad made a deal.
He finally admitted killing his wife to get a lesser sentence.
In 2014, Brad pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years.
As part of the deal, Brad gave up the rights to his children who were being raised by Nancy’s twin sister.
‘It’s a total relief,’ Krista said shortly after the sentencing. ‘He doesn’t deserve them. He doesn’t deserve to know them, and I’m very happy about it.’ He’d happily given away his kids for less time behind bars. Nancy’s family were relieved to avoid another trial, especially with the girls now eight and 10 – old enough to understand more. But still, they were angry at having no apology or explanation. Brad simply replied ‘yes’ when asked whether he’d killed his wife and dumped her body in the sewage. Many thought Brad, then 40, had even smirked in court when agreeing to his heartless crime. With time served, Brad was aware he was likely to serve just a further eight years in prison before being deported back to Canada to walk free. When Nancy met Brad, she thought she’d found the love of her life.
Moving to the pictureperfect location of Cary, she thought she was living the American Dream.
But with scandal, drama and deceit at the very heart of its community, that dream came crashing down, with a deadly twist.