Newly released tapes of 911 calls made to report the disappearance of North Carolina mom Nancy Cooper reveal her friend's concern over the fact that she and her husband were going through a divorce.
""Her husband and her are in the middle of a divorce," the caller said. "She supposedly went out for a run this morning at 7 o'clock ... and no one has heard from her. She was supposed to be at my house at 8. Because of the situation with the divorce, I was just wondering if you can help."
A second recording released by police in Cary, N.C., in the Raleigh suburbs is of a man calling about the discovery of a woman's body in a cul-de-sac that later was identified as Cooper.
Click here for audio of the 911 call made to report Nancy Cooper missing.
Click here for audio of the 911 call made to report the discovery of Cooper's body.
Detectives haven't yet named a person of interest or a suspect in 34-year-old Cooper's murder.
She and her husband Brad Cooper, also 34, were having marital problems and were, according to her family and friends, on the brink of separation or divorce. The couple are the parents of two small girls.
Cary Police are required to release the tapes to comply with state public records law.
The first call placed to emergency operators in Cary came in at 1:50 p.m. Saturday July 12 to report Cooper missing; the second about the discovery of the body was made at 7:35 p.m. the following Monday June 14.
A friend of Nancy Cooper's phoned in the missing persons report. She said she'd called area hospitals but they didn't have records of anyone admitted because of an accident or other emergency.
The caller wept and had trouble speaking at times during the conversation. She reiterated several times that the Coopers were in the midst of a divorce.
At one point, the friend said she wondered whether "her husband has done something, God forbid."
The operator asked whether Nancy's husband had ever been violent. The friend said he hadn't been physically violent "but there's been a lot of tension."
In the call two days later, a man walking in a neighborhood cul-de-sac told the dispatcher that he'd made a grisly discovery.
"I'd like to report a body I found. I was out walking my dog," he said, just after coming across a dead woman later identified as Nancy Cooper.
Dispatchers asked him whether the victim was beyond help.
"I think she's dead," the man said.
The tapes were released after a judge sealed search warrants conducted during the investigation.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens said in an order issued last week that releasing information contained in the warrants could jeopardize the prospects for a fair trial.
Click here for photos.
Nancy Cooper's family filed for and were granted emergency custody of her two children last week, saying Brad Cooper posed a danger to them and had been emotionally abusive to his wife. Brad Cooper's attorney has maintained his client's innocence.
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