A close friend and neighbour of former Albertan Nancy Cooper, whose body was found beside a drainage pond near her North Carolina home in 2008, took the stand at the first-degree murder trial for the victim's husband, Brad Cooper.
Brad's trial got underway Wednesday afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina
Nancy's body was found just five kilometres from the couple's North Carolina home in 2008. Brad was arrested three months after her body was found.
Nancy was reported missing on July 12, 2008. A man walking his dog found the woman's body two days later. Nancy had been asphyxiated by strangulation.
Brad's attorney, Howard Kurtz, told jurors that his client did have an affair, and that it was with a woman who he described as a very close friend of Nancy's. And because of the affair, according to Kurtz, was the reason the marriage was dissolving.
But Kurtz said his client was upset, and not over his monetary obligations in a divorce, but over the children and visitation issues if they were moved to Canada.
The defence has portrayed Nancy as a heavy spender with a flair for story-telling and exaggerating. They also claim that she too was in a relationship with a man from their neighbourhood.
Kurtz told jurors Nancy had a relationship with a man named John Pearson from their community.
On Friday, a close friend of Nancy's testified that Nancy had told her about Brad's affair, and although she was upset, she maintained she was going to try to save her marriage.
Diana Duncan claims the affair was allegedly with Nancy's best friend, Heather Metour.
Duncan testified Nancy couldn't stand to enter her master bedroom walk-in closet because that was where the affair allegedly took place.
Duncan says Nancy and Brad were sleeping in separate rooms.
Duncan claims Nancy told her Brad found out money details of a possible divorce settlement and he changed his mind about going forward with it.
Duncan says she had believed Brad hired a lawyer and said his demeanour had changed for the better.
But she says Nancy would go out with friends and reiterate her hatred for her husband.
The defence told jurors on Thursday that eight months and 24 days after Nancy's encounter with John Pearson, Brad and Nancy's second daughter was born.
The defence also said that after a long time without contact, Nancy got in touch with the man and that something she told him got him "very mad".
Kurtz said 16 people saw Nancy jogging on the morning she disappeared and he said one man claims he saw two Hispanic men in a van turn their vehicle around and follow her.
