i know she's -- i know she's here. that's all for this edition of "dateline." . >> this is "dateline". >> this doesn't happen in our happy little world. >> their world shatters. a young mother strangled. >> we had a homicide. we had no suspects. >> also no evidence but police found a dark side. >> she slept with the children and the door locked. >> and finally a vital clue. what happened to nancy the day she disappeared?

>> welcome to dateline. a young mother disappeared one morning. her husband said she when for a run and never came home. the puzzling case happened in a safe suburban neighborhood where crime is unexpected. but sometimes there's secrets hidden behind closed doors. >> nothing about that morning made any sense. >> it all seemed like such a bad nightmare. this doesn't happen in our happy little world. >> it was a saturday morning in july 2008. the happy little world, a suburb of raleigh north carolina. a place a young family would aspire to if you were someone like hannah prichard for

example. >> there's lots of cook outs and family functions. >> like the one in the neighborhood the night before. so she would have heard party stories from her friend nancy. but nancy didn't show up. >> i hadn't heard from her. maybe about 10:00 i called her house and brad answered and said she went for a run. >> nancy was an athlete and had been training for a half marathon and brad cooper was her husband. >> when did she leave? oh, 6:30 or 7:00. >> well, she's not back? >> weird. if nancy had to cancel their meeting, surely she would have called. >> at 1:00 the phone range an a saw it was her phone and he said

no, hannah, it's brad. nancy's still not back. >> now brad was worried so. >> i started to panic. >> especially when she learned nancy also stood up another of her friends. so they called the local hospitals. no sign of nancy. they called her twin sister up in canada. >> have you talked to nancy today? she went for a run and she hasn't returned yet and we're very worried about her. can you call us back. >> you know about this kind of stuff? >> she called her older brother jeff that's a police officer in alberta. >> my first reaction was well, okay, she's somewhere. you just need some space or some time. she'll turn up. >> but when her parents heard she was missing they were gripped by something dark and cold. >> he said to me this story is not going to have a happy ending. >> the police were involved.

>> all i was told on the phone was it was a missing persons. >> when the detective arrived nancy's neighborhood was already filling up with a small army of her panicked friends. nancy's family rushed to cary to join in the search. her husband made a public plea for help. >> anyone knows anything i want them to contact the police with any information they may have and again thank you to everyone that continues to come out and help out. >> sir, do you have a flyer? >> volunteers chased up and down the running trails. they combed the lakes and woods for this woman they had begun to love. >> when she walked into a room that's where people wanted to be. >> she and brad were like a lot of people in cary. raising their family here having gotten a start in another place and time. in brad and nancy's place, calgary, canada. that's where they met in 98. >> i liked her.

>> as did nancy's younger sister, jill. >> this is someone who is warm. genuinely saw how much he cared for her. >> so brad became a helpful member of the family. even designed the computer systems. >> he's kind of a legend in the i.t. world. >> he was so good that cisco systems invited him to move to raleigh and work for the company. >> smart guy. >> smart guy. >> but if nancy was to go with him to america, for immigration reasons they had to be married so in the small of 2000 they said their vows. an intimate family affair. >> how did she feel about going to north carolina. >> she was aprehencive at first. lots of tears at the airport but i think she was excited. >> a few years later there were two bmw's in the drive way, a

vast circle of friends and brad a bright future at cisco where he was an expert in internet teletechnology and telephones. one of 152 experts in the whole world. and two little girls, bella and katie. >> the best mother i've ever seen. she played and played and played. she was just so hands on. >> sunday went by, monday, and monday evening. >> it is my very sad duty to tell you that the search for our nancy is over. >> it was a man walking his dog that found her lying face down in water at the edge of a storm drain near a housing construction site several miles from the home. >> our investigation is now a homicide. >> now they had to say good-bye. it was a measure of the woman

that total strangers joined nancy's family and friends to share in the sorrow. >> i continue to thank the community for their generosity. it's overwhelming. i am one of the luckiest people in the world. and the twin -- sorry -- i have a bond with nancy that no one in the world had. all i have to do is remember her look in the mirror. she will always be half of me. nancy, i love you and i always will. >> now, of course a homicide investigation was underway. but for detective george daniels only this to go on, she had been strangled. she was found wearing only a sports bra and her diamond stud

earrings. there were no marks to indicate a beating. no struggle, no sign of sexual assault or robbery. it was a puzzle. >> she one raped. she wasn't assaulted in any kind of way. the earrings weren't taken. what was the reason for her to be over here? and what was the reason for them to do this if nothing was done to her. >> dateline returns after the break. frequent heartburn waking him up. now that dream is a reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? ♪ toilet's clean, allowance please! new lysol power and blue 6 cleans with every flush, releasing lysol cleaning power in a wave of blue to leave the bowl clean and fresh. happiness is powerful flea and tick protection from nexgard.

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>> there were reports from people that said they saw a woman like nancy running. one man said he watched her for 30 seconds and then saw a van make a u-turn to follow her and other reports of mysterious vans. friday night one sped away from a cul-de-sac with no lights on. >> we're not walking away from anything at this point. everything is important. >> like conversations with nancy's husband brad. he told detectives that he and nancy were up at 4:00 a.m. saturday to calm their crying

2-year-old katie and then 6:00 or so he made two trips to the grocery store after which nancy announced she was off to run. >> of course we went to find the video record of him going in and out of the store which we did, in fact, find. >> but one talk struck him as odd when he asked brad did you contact nancy's family. >> he told us no but it could be because he's frantic about the situation and didn't have time to call them. >> but a little more talking and the detective learned there may have been another reason all together. nancy and brad were having marital problems. >> he told me the last two months they seemed to be getting better. so when i asked them why, he told me he had an affair. >> so daniels tucked that tidbit away and went on for the search for nancy but after her body was found, things were different. the cooper house became a crime scene. police in and out and turning the place upside down and

daniels kept his ears open because among nancy's friends and family people were talking. >> we're getting all of this information and we're having to separate what's important versus what is just part of a marriage. >> brad told detective daniels that he and nancy were getting past the tension his affair had caused but that wasn't the story he was hearing from nancy's family and friends. >> she felt very strapptrapped didn't know what she was going to do. >> the marriage had been rocky from the start. brad was more married to his job than to nancy. then nancy's close friend heather told her she slept with brad so nancy confronted her husband. >> she just wanted the truth so they could fix it and go on. >> he said it didn't happen. >> for a very long time. >> made her feel bad about thinking that it happened. >> until months later it was new year's eve day when brad finally came clean. yes, he told nancy, it happened.

but he said only once and really it meant nothing so they went to counseling and that's when nancy heard the real story. >> it's been going on for a long time. changes again from this one night stand to i love the woman so nancy said i'm finished. >> they agreed to split. sell the house. nancy would move back to canada with the girls and then suddenly brad cancelled her credit cards, blocked her access to the bank account and put her on a cash allowance. >> i recall a time she was in the car with me and she called him and said i have $2 and we don't have any diapers. >> nancy couldn't get a job. she had no green card so she began painting a friend's house to earn extra money and when she did, brad reduced her allowance. >> she must have been just furious. >> furious would be an understatement. >> she would feel guilty.

i'm not going to take your money. this isn't your job to support me. >> she began locking important papers including the girl's passports in her car. >> i had never seen nancy stressed out before. i had never seen her raise her voice in the house and she was just miserable. >> miserable, stressed. each day uncertain. a painful struggle. an angry contest. >> she said this is just, i think a game. it's his attempt to force me back into this relationship. >> and as nancy was preparing to move back to canada and with brad's blessing take the girls, one of those moments on which lives can turn, the arrival from nancy's lawyer of a proposed separation agreement. alimony, child support, private schools for the girl. brad would have to travel to canada. he made no counter offer.

just told nancy the move was off. >> he saw what he was going to have to pay and all bets were off. >> and then brad got ahold of the girl's passport. found it in nancy's car. now they cone leave and nancy was trapped too. >> but as the father it's his right to prevenn those kids from leaving. >> yes. it's also a way to say i'm doing half the child care then i'm not going to have an alimony issue. >> to get her away from the troubles nancy took them on vacation. >> it was heartbreaking. i had nancy in my arms in the airport and she was sobbing and she said, mom, i just want to come home and i'll never forget that day. >> it was the last time they saw her alive. and now that she was dead, nancy's family was sure brad had to be involved somehow.

but the detective knew that a marriage, bitter though it may have been, did not prove murder. there was a lot more work to do. >> statistics say we should go back and key on the husband and things like that and we're not going to walk away from that but at the same time we're letting the investigation lead us where ever it goes. >> dateline returns after the break. there's no way to hide from potentially deadly heartworm disease. just one mosquito bite can transmit it. so protect your dog with delicious heartgard plus. digestive and neurological side effects have rarely been reported.

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the police chief here in cary, north carolina tried to calm a jittery town but her message was curious. >> we still believe this is an isolated case. cary continues to be one of the safest places to live in the nation. >> how could she know, really. >> and we still have not named a suspect or a person of interest. >> oh but nancy's family had. the very died she learned her twin sister was missing she called brad. >> and i asked him point blank at that point, what have you done? where is she? >> she didn't wait for an answer. she just hung up the phone. then the day after nancy's body was identified her family went to court to try to get the two little girls away from brad a. >> i filed for temporary custody

of nancy's children. >> the family acted so fast because according to their complaint, it was disturbing before she disappeared they had seen emotional abuse and they were sure she never went jogg g jogging. >> and contact everybody and just didn't want anybody around hill. . >> so they fear for bella and katie's safety. >> he's in a place where he can do this. then the answer to that. >> at the end of the day you have to live with the fact that if we're wrong and this is way over the line, we did it for the right reason. >> the judge determined that the intense scrutiny brad was likely to face during a murder investigation put the children at risk. in late july 2008 the girls went

back to canada to literature with crystal, their mother's twin and her husband. but brad had not been charged with any crime and wasn't even a declared suspect and he bought ha -- fought hard to get his daughter's back. three months after nancy's murder sitting for a video taped deposition in which he answered questions under oath about his marriage and affair and what happened. so they were. >> was nancy a good wife? >> i would say so, yes. she was supportive of myself and of the children. loving. >> but there were issues that troubled the marriage. one was money. the couple had serious debt. >> i looked at the american express card from january 2007 to december 2007. and of that $27,000 was credited to nancy's credit card and mine

was 17,000. >> it was to reign in nancy's spending that he said that he put her on a cash allowance. >> how much cash? >> at least $300. >> nancy said brad was angry that they didn't have more money to spend. >> she referred to me as the budget nazi so i'm sure she probably said that once or twice in the heated conversation. >> the other issue, brad's sexual relationship with brad's best friend heather. the issue finally brought the marriage to an end. he called it his indiscretion. >> i had sexual intercourse with heather once. >> it happened in 2004, 2005. >> where did it take place? >> in her home in the closet of the master bedroom. >> did you initially deny the relationship? >> yes, i actually denied it for

one year. >> why? >> i thought that by ignoring it it would go away and we could remain as a whole family. >> but when it became time for the family to split brad found the terms of the agreement unreasonable. >> child support, medical, private school, extra activities, you know, kind of added it up and ballparked it at over 5,000 or $6,000. >> he also explained why he called off nancy's move back to canada. >> i realized that seeing the girls every other weekend would not be sufficient. >> and he gave his account of the hours before nancy went missing. they were at aparty across the street. he left and got the girls ready for bed. >> the kids fell asleep about 9:00 p.m.. i probably fell asleep right after. >> he was awakened about 12:30. >> i heard her come up the stairs. >> he was awakened again by katie crying and took her

downstairs followed by nancy about 20 minutes later. >> trying to keep her occupied and trying to calm her down. >> brad made two trips to the store on the second trip nancy called him. he remembers being at an intersection when the call came in. >> do you know what time that would be? >> i think looking at the cell phone records i think it said it came in at 6:40 a.m. >> when he came back from the store the second time katie had calmed down he said and nancy told brad she was going for a run. >> i took katie upstairs. went to my computer, read some e-mails with katie in my lap. >> and then around 7:00 he said, nancy left. >> how do you know that she left the home. >> i'm not sure that she said good-bye. i somehow knew that she left. either door closed or she said later or something. >> that was the last time he saw her. three weeks after this deposition, three months after nancy's body was found in late

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a teacher at a middle school is plead guilty called a hero. the 13-year-old student was critically wounded. the teacher was shot but is in good condition. >> in hawaii authorities say lava destroyed 82 structures including 37 homes. lava flow is block escape routes leaving hundreds in danger of becoming stranded. that's what's happening. now back to dateline. he was arrested for the death of his wife nancy. he admitted to having an affair.

but wasn't capable of her murder. once again. >> he was just the right sort of guy when she found him and now brad cooper was on trial for murder. >> we're ready to have the opening statements. >> it began in march of 2011. 2.5 years after nancy's death. >> nancy cooper never went for a run from her house on july 12th, 2008. >> the prosecutors had their own idea of what happened to nancy. >> we think she came home from this party and she said some things in front of him that might have upset him a little bit and that he choked her. >> killed her then. put her body in the trunk of his car, drove her to that drainage ditch and returned home to manufacture an alibi.

why? they started with that shredded marriage. brad's affair. his cutting off nancy financially. stopping her move back to canada. he was increasingly desperate. >> she said he's breaking me. i don't know how much i have left to fight. >> she told me that when she slept at night she slept with her jeans on and her keys in her pocket with the children and the door locked. >> he never beat her, it wasn't physical but he used financial power to exert absolute control. this they said was a form of domestic violence. >> she is in this abrasive rough relationship at that point. he trapped her and controlled everything about her life. >> wait a minute, nancy's allowance was $300 a week. would a jury think that was evidence of abuse? >> how do you tell a jury that. >> it's difficult but the facts still remain there's these signs

of control emanating from that household. >> it doesn't matter if it's $1,000 a week or $10 a week, the fact of the matter is that it caused friction between the two of them. >> so the jury heard about that last week of nancy's life. the week of war with brad. with nancy's father on the stand prosecutors played the phone message nancy left her marriage after she returned home from that vacation with her family. >> there's an ant infestation on the table and it's how disgusting our house is. >> as the last week went on the fighting escalated. on the friday diana duncan testified nancy was shaking with anger when she reveal brad withheld her allowance that day because she earned her own money painting a friend's house. >> did she tell you what kind of day this was? this was an i hate brad day. at least three times that at a

she said i hate you brad keeper. i hate you, i hate you i hate you. >> her tone at that point was angry but also there was a tone of you're an idiot. >> brad went home with the girls around 8:00. nancy stayed on bitterly complaining about brad even to strangers like donna lopez and once in awhile said donna, nancy nervously looked across the street to her own house. >> how did you feel when you left that night? >> i was very worried for someone who i didn't noknow wel. i thought i met someone really, really nice and i told my husband something really bad is going to happen over there. it's really bad. >> so nancy disappeared. her friends eyes all turned to brad. after all they knew about the conflict and jessica adam knew nancy was supposed to be at her house at 8:00 a.m. that saturday to paint. when nancy didn't show up she

called the police. >> i was very concerned. i had seen brad in my house and he was agitated that week related to the painting. >> nor was brad conpicuous absence from her funeral. there was no physical evidence linking brad to the crime. maybe a prosecutor would saw it's because he cleaned the house. he covered his tracks. what was the best evidence against brad? ironic perhaps. >> we knew we had this fabricated alibi that we needed to address. >> the issue was that phone call. brad's cell phone registered a call from home at 6:40 a.m. when

he went back to the store. nancy was alive at 6:40, unless brad placed the call himself. brad is a world class expert in internet phone technology. >> if anyone could do that, it was the defendant. ultimately, he had the potential to make that phone call. >> in system that was frankly, mind numbing. >> that leverages something called either tap piapy. >> he explained about ten different ways someone could have remotely made that call. >> the main ways are using a computer where you can program something in your computer and delay it so that a phone cull can be made from the computers modem. >> but to do that he needed a certain router. that prosecutors said disappeared from the cooper

home. >> we know he had this router. >> in fact, this cisco chat blog proves he borrowed that router. took it home, months before the murder. >> we know the defendant had one of those 3825 reuters. >> that's correct. >> and you never got that back. >> no, sir. >> cisco doesn't have it back, where did it go? we know it was never returned. >> but it was brad's own computer examined by the fbi that coughed up the most accusing evidence of all. evidence he already lied under oath. >> kids fell asleep about 9:00 p.m.. i probably fell asleep soon after. in his deposition brad said he was asleep with his daughters when nancy came home from that party friday night. but brad's computer said otherwise. he was online until about midnight when nancy came home. >> he's been awake on his computer and when she comes in shortly after midnight we think they argue and a fight ensues

and that's when he strangled her. >> the closest thing the prosecution had to a smoking gun, a google map search. prosecutors alleged he typed in the numbers 27518. the zip code for cary and then zoomed into the exact location that nancy's body was found. when do they claim he did this? 1:15 in the afternoon on friday july 11th, 2008. the day before nancy went missing. proof of intent? maybe. maybe not. it one much of a search. it lasted just 41 seconds. >> he didn't look anywhere else. he searched a whole bunch of different places and this is one place. >> i don't think it would take very long if you look at the map and you immediately recognize this desolate area, this beige area in a sea of green and zoom into it and zoom into it and see

where it is. >> of course every prosecution has its flaws. and this one, maybe said the defense, they didn't have the right man at all. and maybe they didn't know nancy so well either. dateline returns after the break. there's no way to hide from potentially deadly heartworm disease. just one mosquito bite can transmit it. so protect your dog with delicious heartgard plus. digestive and neurological side effects have rarely been reported. ask your vet for more information. heartgard plus, the vet's #1 choice

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the idea that they're in a bad marriage. that they're contemplating divorce, it gets you to a point

where you say i need to take a second look at this. >> this is the defense attorney. here's what he thought about the murder case against his client. brad cooper. >> you need actual evidence to convict and actual evidence is something that they did not have. >> no physical evidence said the defense attorneys to tie brad to nancy's murder and the awful scenes from the cooper marriage, the jury heard, no witness had ever seen brad physically violent toward nancy and as for the $300 a week allowance, there was a reason and the defense offered contrasting scenes of the cooper marriage from another set of friends. >> people who had known the couple for years did not jump on this band wagon and paint this as an abusive relationship. >> remember that i hate brad day? the day the prosecution said the marriage hit it's boiling point, on that very day, nancy was making plans for saturday night.

the day she disappeared. >> she wanted my husband and i to come over and play with her and brad. >> was that a game you played with the coopers before? >> oh, yeah. nancy introduced us to that game. >> and when her friend jessica said they plans to paint her house at 8:00 saturday morning she had to have been mistaken because nancy knew brad had a tennis game at 9:00 a.m. >> i specifically sought out nancy to make sure that it was okay with her. >> did she indicate that she had any other plans? >> no. there was talk that she would be back by then. >> and people claim they saw a woman they believe was nancy running and it was proof that she was alive that morning. >> she was about 5'9", good shape. >> this witness said she reported her sighting to the police after she saw nancy's missing poster. >> how is it that the next day when you saw the flyer you believed it was her?

>> because she was so close to me and she had an elongated face. that's what drew my attention. >> she wasn't the only one. this man said he got a 30 second look at her as he was driving to work. >> i saw a lady jogging on the right hand side of the road. jogging toward the bridge. >> but did the police follow up? after a long time, said these witnesses. >> they ignored everybody that believed they saw nancy for three months. >> same with with the suspicious vans. >> it was clear that the police had focused on brad to the exclusion of other people. >> it wasn't just brad who had been unfaithful implied the defense. could someone else have wanted to silence nancy permanently? someone suggested tom pearson who at first didn't tell the police about an indiscretion with nancy. pearson said he held back to

protect his family. >> taking her clothes off and i took my clothes off and we started to have sex. i believe we stopped and got dre dressed and decided to never speak about it again. >> it seemed to observers somehow looking for other people she may have had relationships with. >> the reason people look to the spouse first is because affairs of the heart frequently lead to crimes of passion. so anyone with whom she had a relationship should be the subject of a police investigation. >> and there may have been other secrets the defense charged. clues to nancy's life. a detective erased the contents

of her blackberry. >> it's not something that happens accidentally. >> it's shocking allegation that the police investigation. >> why would they have seen motivation whatsoever to get rid of evidence in this case. >> not only did they start building a case against her, they also started protecting it to preserve nancy's reputation and that phone was carry e-mails, text messages. >> and it would have been --

exculpatory evidence. >> the prosecution alleged he made the phone call with that router. >> the question is did he generate a phone call? not did he have the technological skill. they also took photographs of the house. they searched the house. and they have not once introduced any evidence that new router was in the house. >> hard drives don't lie. or do they? that was the question the defense raised when it came to those results at the fbi search of brad's computer. >> you're talking about a computer that we know was tampered with. >> you're alleging what? >> i'm not alleging, i'm stating this fact, the computer was tampered with. there were significant anomalies

that we found in the computer itself. >> meaning, he says, that brad's computer was hacked. the 41 second google maps search was planned. the prosecution had no smoking gun. >> so you're saying he didn't even search for that map. >> that's right. >> somebody else put it on his >> an fbi agent testified he saw no evidence of tampering, but the defense said it had experts who did. two of them. both of whom wrote reports. but trials have referees. and in this case, the judge ruled that neither one of those defense experts could testify about tampering. one, said the judge, wasn't sufficiently qualified. the other was brought in too late in the trial. but even if they had testified, there was one question they couldn't answer. if it was a hacker, who was it? >> i can tell you that police had access to it. i can tell you that anybody within wireless range had access

to it. >> what possible reason would the police have to put that map on his computer? >> i can't say that the police put it on the computer. i don't know who manipulated the computer. what i can say is, that a possible reason is if you believe somebody's guilty, and that you don't have any evidence against them, well it's perfect evidence, isn't it? >> could those 41 seconds put brad cooper in prison? for the rest of his life. >> "dateline" returns after the break. in terms of treating sensitivity,

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>> for two long months attorneys hammered at the question who murdered nancy cooper. the defense charged the police more than dropped the ball, their investigation was dishonest. the erasing of nancy's blackberry, for one thing, had to be intentional, said the defense. nonsense, said the prosecution. besides, they said they already found what they needed from that phone through other sources. >> we had her phone records so we knew everything she had done. we had the billing so we could tell how much texting she did or didn't do. we already knew all her friends. >> and the idea that police might have inserted the google map search on brad's computer, well, they couldn't have, said detective daniels. >> none of the people that work for me or worked in the department would have had the knowledge to go in and do something like that. >> the defense charged that police ignored those possible

sightings of nancy and those mysterious vans for months. >> the defense was thinking that the jury wasn't listening. the police indicated that they followed up with every one of those people. >> as for john pearson, whose indiscretion with nancy should have made him a suspect, at least according to the defense, he had an alibi. on that friday night pearson spent the night with heather. the very same woman behind brad and nancy's breakup. >> at the beginning of the tapes -- >> still, as the long trial finally wound down, the defense hammered home its claim that the police and prosecution bought in to a whispering campaign by nancy's friends against brad. >> it made it easier for them to simply let the gossip about brad become their reality even when the facts and the evidence did not fit it. and now, the police department and the prosecutors are willing to send an innocent man to rot in a dungeon in essence for the

rest of his life. >> but there were facts, said the prosecution, to send broad cooper away for life. >> fact the defendant googled where he was going to place his wife's body. fact the router that could help him automate a phone call is also now missing. fact, nancy cooper never left that house the morning of july 12th. >> so the jurors adjourned to deliberate. guilty of first degree murder, second degree, or not guilty. and nancy's family, having listened to weeks of confusing circumstantial evidence, worried. >> if i was hearing this for the first time would i feel comfortable sending someone to prison for the rest of their life? >> the jury stayed out for two days. and then -- >> has the jury reached a unanimous verdict? >> yes, sir. the verdict of the jury reads, we the jury, by unanimous verdict, find the defendant,

bradley graham cooper, to be guilty of first degree murder. >> i cried for hours. >> yeah, i cried for hours. relief, yes, it's over. there's a conclusion. and it's justice for nancy. and now we can all go home. >> and brad? >> obviously brad was upset. he knows and feels that this is not over. >> in 2013, an appeals court overturned bradley cooper's conviction. deciding the judge should have allowed more defense testimony regarding the laptop evidence. a new trial was ordered. but while awaiting his second trial, cooper pleaded guilty to second degree murder, and was sentenced to approximately 12 to 15 years. and nancy there's a black granite bench in a cary park,

the place she once ran. her adopted town's way of remembering. the cooper girls bella and katie are growing up in canada with nancy's twin sister krista and her husband jim. their cousins were with them the day we came to call, and so, seven little girls scampered happily about, their pleasure infectious. and for the adults, bittersweet. >> here we go. >> sad that nancy's not here seeing it. >> absolutely. that's the tough part for me. >> what do they understand about mother and father? >> what we've told them is that mommy nancy was killed by a bad man. and but she's in heaven, and that man went to prison. >> tell them the tragic story of a man and a woman who sank in the undertow of what once was love. >> we got an outcome that nancy deserved. but it's also not a winning hand for anybody.

and brad lost his life, as well. there's many things that were lost. lives that have been forever changed. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. we were in love. >> they were so happy at first, sharing a lover's perch high atop a cliff. but romance turned to danger. she fell from the edge. >> i would call this an accidental death. >> but was it? >> she said that, if anything happens to me, you will know who did it. >> a mystery of nearly 20 years heads into court, and the husband is on the precipice. >> did you kill your