Lawyers for the husband of a North Carolina mother murdered earlier this month want the autopsy findings released, one of several motions filed ahead of Friday's scheduled custody hearing over the couple's two small daughters.
Brad Cooper's attorneys, Howard Kurtz and Seth Blum, took issue with a petition filed last week by Nancy Cooper's family claiming that Brad posed a danger to the children and was emotionally abusive to his wife, according to WRAL TV in Raleigh.
They believe the claim insinuated that 34-year-old Brad killed Nancy, also 34, while the couple was on the brink of divorce.
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Last week, a judge gave temporary emergency custody of the children to Nancy Cooper's parents Garry and Donna Rentz and her twin sister Krista Lister. Nancy and her family are from Canada.
Friends and family of Nancy Cooper and her husband Brad Cooper were heading to court at 2 p.m. EDT Friday to try to resolve the custody arrangement for the couple's two children.
Wake District Court Judge Debra Sasser was expected to hear testimony from friends and relatives of both parents as part of the hearing about the couple's two daughters, Bella and Katie.
Jessica Adam, a friend of Nancy's who reported her missing July 12, has suggested she believes Brad Cooper had something to do with his wife's death.
Nancy Cooper's family attorney filed several affidavits late Wednesday containing statements from friends and neighbors claiming Brad Cooper was emotionally abusive, controlling, absent and socially awkward, according to WRAL.
Police in Cary, N.C., haven't named a person of interest or suspect in the homicide, but have indicated they believe the crime was isolated. They say Brad Cooper has been cooperative in the investigation, which involved a search of the couple's house and two vehicles, and collection of DNA samples from Cooper.
Nancy Cooper was found dead, wearing little clothing, two days after she was reported missing. A man walking his dog found her body at the edge of a storm drainage pond in a cul-de-sac in Cary.
Her husband Brad Cooper said she went out for a run the morning she vanished about 7 a.m. and didn't return.
Among other allegations in the affidavits: Both Nancy and Brad Cooper had extramarital affairs and Nancy Cooper had run up a hefty credit card debt.
Also Wednesday, hundreds of family members and friends gathered in her Canadian hometown of Edmonton, Alberta for a memorial service.
Click here for more on this story from WRAL.com.
On Tuesday, newly released tapes of 911 calls made to report the disappearance of Nancy Cooper revealed her friend Jessica Adam's concern over the fact that she and her husband were going through a divorce. In the call, Adam wondered aloud whether "he might have done something, God forbid."
A second recording released by police was of the man who found Cooper's body calling to report the discovery.
Cary police were required to release the tapes to comply with state public records law.
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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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