Published July 23, 2008 10:04 am -
911 calls released in mother’s slaying
Associated Press
RALEIGH
—
A friend of the North Carolina mother whose body was found near her suburban Raleigh home told authorities in a 911 call that her disappearance did not “make any sense.”
Nancy Cooper was found dead last week after a two-day search, her body left in an unfinished cul de sac just outside the town limits of suburban Cary. Police there released tapes of two 911 calls Tuesday, one from a friend named Jessica Adam reporting Cooper missing and another from a man who found her body while walking his dog.
“Her name is Nancy Cooper,” Adam told 911 operators at 1:50 p.m. on the day Nancy Cooper disappeared. “Her husband and her are living together, but they’re in the middle of a divorce.”
Adam also said a conversation she had with Bradley Cooper the morning of his wife’s disappearance was full of holes.
“He said she’d left this morning early, he believed with her friend, Cary,” Adam said. “I was not aware of her running with any friend this morning. ... I think basically she left the house at 7 a.m., assuming her husband’s telling the truth, and she’s not returned, which would not make any sense.”
Attorneys for Bradley Cooper, who police have consistently said is not a suspect or a person of interest in his wife’s death, said the decision to release the recordings was “just plain wrong.”
“The release of these recordings serves no investigative purpose whatsoever,” lawyers Howard Kurtz and Seth Blum said in a statement. “Today’s leaks appear calculated to do nothing more then inflame already raw emotions. They instigate a rush to judgment at a time when reason and restraint should prevail.”
Such recordings are considered public record under North Carolina law and are available for review upon request.
Authorities have described Bradley Cooper as cooperative, and his attorneys have said he has repeatedly answered questions from police and allowed them to search his home and vehicles.
Late last week, Nancy Coopers’ parents and twin sister won temporary custody of the couple’s children. They claimed in court filings that Bradley Cooper was having an affair, was emotionally unstable and posed a danger to the girls.
They also said he recently threatened to commit suicide and prevented his wife and daughters from returning to her native Canada by taking away the children’s passports.