RALEIGH -- Police say a few days before Nancy Lynn Cooper's body was found dumped in a storm drain near her home, she and her husband, Brad, had met to review a draft of a separation agreement.
Police charged Brad Cooper with his wife's 2008 death after a three-month investigation. A search warrant application made public late Friday indicated that investigators are looking for more evidence of "marital discord" between the couple.
Investigators obtained the search warrant this week because they wanted to review five computer discs seized nearly two years ago from Bradley Cooper's office at Cisco Systems Inc., in Morrisville, and a Dell computer hard drive seized from his residence in Cary.
The material seized from the office includes four Sony CD-R discs and one Sony DVD disc that Cary investigators recovered on July 21, 2008, exactly one week after a resident discovered Nancy Cooper's body in a storm drain at a subdivision under construction, according to the court affidavit.
Police began looking for Nancy Cooper after her friends filed a missing persons report.
Cary police, during their investigation, learned that Nancy Cooper wanted to divorce her husband and that the couple was having financial difficulties.
A Wake County grand jury issued an indictment on Oct. 27, 2008, charging Brad Cooper with first-degree murder in his wife's death.
Cary police took him into custody that same day. He has been in custody at the Wake County Jail since his arrest.
His trial is scheduled to be heard by Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Gessner in October. Cooper could be sentenced to life in prison without parole if he is convicted.
