In Bradley Cooper's telling, Nancy Cooper was a shopaholic who strained the family's budget with an obsession for fashion, art and jewelry. Her friends, however, say Bradley Cooper was a neglectful husband who trapped, terrified and practically starved her.

Nancy Cooper, 34, vanished July 12; a dog walker found her body two days later. Cary police have hunted for clues to catch her killer but have shared little about their investigation and have not named a suspect.

Lawyers on Wednesday filed competing descriptions of Nancy Cooper's decaying marriage in a custody case set to play out in a Wake County courtroom Friday.

Nancy Cooper's father, Garry Rentz, and her twin sister, Krista Lister, are fighting to raise 4-year-old Bella and 2-year-old Katie; a judge granted them emergency custody last week. Bradley Cooper is fighting back, arguing in an affidavit that he was an involved, engaged father whom Nancy Cooper called "Superdad."

More than a dozen of Nancy Cooper's friends insist Bradley Cooper was distant, selfish and often absent.

Bradley Cooper described in his affidavit the morning his last saw his wife. He said he had gone to the store at 6:15 a.m. to get milk and returned to the store a short time later to fetch laundry detergent. While at the store, his wife called to ask him to grab juice, too, he said. Cooper said his wife darted out for a jog at 7 a.m, the last he saw of her. When she didn't return hours later, Bradley Cooper said, he fretted and began driving around looking for her.

He said that his wife was often gone for long stretches.

Bradley Cooper admitted that his marriage was in peril. He said he had an affair with one of his wife's best friends. The discovery drove him and Nancy to marriage counseling, he said, but eventually they decided their foundation was beyond repair.

This spring, they'd decided they would separate and share custody of their daughters, Bradley Cooper said in his affidavit. Both hired lawyers and nitpicked over furniture and visitation schedules with the children, custody records show. They slept in separate rooms, Nancy Cooper's friends said in affidavits.

Deep in debt

Bradley Cooper said he and his wife were buried in debt. Their credit card bills topped $45,000 -- an amount he blamed in the affidavit on Nancy Cooper's love of "$8,000 paintings, designer clothing, Tiffany jewelry."

The Coopers moved from Canada to Cary eight years ago as part of Bradley Cooper's transfer with Cisco Systems. Nancy Cooper's visa did not allow her to work, Bradley Cooper notes in his affidavit. Their finances were strained, so Bradley Cooper said he put her on an allowance, one she routinely blew through buying things they couldn't afford.

"Status was an important thing to Nancy, and I indulged her too much," Bradley Cooper said.

Nancy Cooper's friends say that Bradley Cooper was so tight with his money that she began selling her clothes at garage sales and painting friends' homes for money to help with groceries. They said that this spring, the Coopers' water was shut off in the home because the payment was late. Nancy couldn't get it turned back on, as he'd taken her name off their accounts, friend Diana Duncan said in an affidavit.

Nancy Cooper's closest friends describe her husband as a self-absorbed, awkward man they barely saw.

"Brad was never a family man," friend Michael Morwick said in an affidavit. "His priorities were always first, be it training for an Ironman event, his higher education pursuits or unexplained absences. Brad took care of himself first."

Several affairs

Nancy Cooper's friends say Bradley Cooper had several extramarital affairs, including one in which the mistress called Nancy Cooper to report the infidelity. Bradley Cooper reported in his affidavit that Nancy Cooper, too, had strayed, saying that "Nancy insisted that she did nothing wrong, that her relationship with the other man only happened once, it wasn't sexual, and that no one knew his name."

By spring, Nancy and Bradley Cooper were still living together but planning their separation. Before her death, Nancy Cooper grew scared of her husband, friend Theresa Hackeling said.

"She would sleep with the girls in her room, with the car keys in her pants pocket and the bedroom door locked from Brad," Hackeling said in an affidavit.

Bradley Cooper admits their relationship had soured toward the end, despite his efforts to help out more at home. "I loved Nancy very much and I wanted to stay married to her," he said.

Bradley Cooper said the custody battle had been destructive for their daughters. The day a judge signed an emergency order transferring custody of the Cooper girls to their grandfather and aunt, Bradley Cooper had already arranged to meet them at Bullwinkle's, a children's arcade and restaurant, so they might visit with the girls. Instead, police officers greeted him.

His oldest daughter came undone, wrapping herself around her father. Police had to pry her from him as she screamed, Bradley Cooper said.

(Staff writer Kristin Butler contributed to this report.)