Child support suspended in Cooper custody case

Raleigh, N.C. — The family of Nancy Cooper and her husband, who is charged with her murder, have agreed to suspend an order requiring him to pay child support for the couple's two children.

In a consent order filed this week, both sides also agreed to keep in place a December injunction prohibiting Brad Cooper from selling any of his property or liquidating any of his assets.

The only exception is the couple's Cary home, at 104 Wallsburg Court. According to the order, it sold for less than was owed on it, and Brad Cooper received no equity from it.

Brad Cooper is charged with first-degree murder in the July death of his wife. A man found her body July 14 in an undeveloped subdivision about 3 miles from the Cooper home. An autopsy found she was likely strangled.

Last October, District Judge Debra Sasser awarded Nancy Cooper's parents, Garry and Donna Rentz, and sister, Krista Lister, temporary custody of the Cooper children after allegations that Brad Cooper was an unfit father and emotionally abusive to his wife prior to her death.

In May, both sides agreed that the Rentzes and Lister would permanently retain custody.

Brad Cooper, who is in the Wake County jail under a $2 million bond, has denied any role in his wife's death.

He has said in court filings and a videotaped deposition that he last saw her on July 12 before she went jogging. When she did not return, he has said, he went looking for her.