Opening Statements

[ncsu95]

He said he gave her 80% of what was left after bills...$300 /wk was for EVERYTHING.

$300/wk is plenty to live off for most people, especially since it didn't include bills. Of course, they were the Joneses.

 

[johnfear]

I am thinking the phone and the DNA would be what I would convict on.

His DNA under her nails and the spoof/switch-up on the phone.

 

[SleuthyGal]

The garage is very much connected to this murder. There's access to the garage from the house. That's how he moved her body into the trunk of his car (through the little laundry room and then into the garage). He couldn't very well carry her out the front door and the 20 or so ft. down the driveway.

 

[ncsu95]

What are we calling bills then?

Groceries included in that?

This part gets tricky for me AND I think it's what a great big bulk of domestic violence is based on (interpersonal financial disagreements, right next to cheating)

And the leading cause of divorce (money fights and money issues). That's why my wife and I follow Dave Ramsey's plan. Debt free (except mortgage) living for us. We don't even own a credit card.

 

[Just the Fax]

I went back and listened a second time - heard more than the first time. Two things have really peaked my interest:

1. A description of the green dress. Not only did LE look for it the day Nancy was reported missing but Diana Duncan looked for it - it was nowhere to be found in that house. Brad produces it the next day. (Where was this dress while everyone is looking for it ? They don't find the dress but they do find her running shoes. Brad feels compelled to give the dress to LE the next day, after they have her shoes for the canine needs. Interesting)
.

....and after he washed it.
He knew he was in deep doo doo at that point.

 

[otto]

Right...and they were big time in debt. Going to a cash basis at that point made sense. Stop the bleeding before the divorce instead of racking up more bills.

Unfortunately, I married the wrong person in my early 20s. We didn't have kids, but she did cheat (but I didn't kill her). Once it was apparent that we were moving forward with the divorce, we stopped all joint credit cards, etc. so there wouldn't be more debt.

Nancy would have been trying to establish that she spent or needed a certain amount of money per month for herself and the children, so she may have overdone it with spending. Spending could also have been Nancy's way of lashing out at Brad ... hitting him in the pocketbook. Cash basis is most definitely one way to curb overspending, and $300 pocket money per week should have been manageable.

 

[ncsu95]

The garage is very much connected to this murder. There's access to the garage from the house. That's how he moved her body into the trunk of his car (through the little laundry room and then into the garage). He couldn't very well carry her out the front door and the 20 or so ft. down the driveway.

No, but he could open the garage, turn the lights out and carry her through there. Or he could have put her in something and carried her out. If it is the middle of the night, it wouldn't have been too much risk.

 

[SleuthyGal]

$300/wk is plenty to live off for most people

Except he didn't give her the money that last week. That's one reason she was doing the painting at J.A's house. And he was (allegedly) angry when he learned she was doing side work to earn money. Imagine that! He claims she's a spendthrift but when she deigns to earn some extra cash on her own, and by her own initiative, he's doesn't like it and refuses to give her the cash.

 

[otto]

The garage is very much connected to this murder. There's access to the garage from the house. That's how he moved her body into the trunk of his car (through the little laundry room and then into the garage). He couldn't very well carry her out the front door and the 20 or so ft. down the driveway.

He could have opened the back of the car, opened the garage door, and carried her out in the darkness of night.

 

[CyberPro]

It seems like a lot of work to murder someone, dump their body like trash, spend HOURS cleaning a house and doing loads of laundry, make 2 trips to the grocery store within a 40 min period, and then go out 'looking' for them for a couple hrs, when you could (you know) just divorce them and be done with it and (bonus!) get to keep your life and still have your children, at least part of the time, and find someone more compatible to have a relationship with, in time.

But that's just me and I'm kinda lazy that way.

SG,

Well as sad as this situation is, I had to laugh at that one. Nobody ever said murder was easy. It does kinda sound like a lot of work.

I am usually pretty detached from this stuff. I can't honestly say why I have been following this case so closely, other than it was pretty close to my house. What keeps running around in my mind was what it was like in that house from 6ish until a bit after 2PM. If he had anything to do with it... think of it. From 6ish (and yes, he had ALREADY been a pretty busy boy that morning) the kids get up. Presumably he had to get them something to eat, then entertain them some way, clean up, do laundry, answer the phone, answer questions about "where is mom?" and have the mice of doubt and the guilt of what he had done eating away at the story he had created. How many stories did he concoct before he found one he thought would work? How many times did he re-trace his actions? How many situations did he develop and play out in his mind? Unless he is a total sociopath, he would have been a total wreck before he even had to speak to anyone about NC being gone, and then to face the skeptical friends and LE, keep the story straight and not get tripped up. That is a pretty tall order.

CyberPro

 

[SleuthyGal]

No, but he could open the garage, turn the lights out and carry her through there. Or he could have put her in something and carried her out. If it is the middle of the night, it wouldn't have been too much risk.

Except he didn't. He decided to put his car in the garage and load her body in there.

 

[otto]

Except he didn't give her the money that last week. That's one reason she was doing the painting at J.A's house. And he was (allegedly) angry when he learned she was doing side work to earn money. Imagine that! He claims she's a spendthrift but when she deigns to earn some extra cash on her own, and by her own initiative, he's doesn't like it and refuses to give her the cash.

He found out that she had already done the painting and was paid for the work before the Friday. They had debt to reduce, so he may have thought that she had contributed to the family finances so they could reduce their debt.

 

[ncsu95]

Except he didn't give her the money that last week. That's one reason she was doing the painting at J.A's house. And he was (allegedly) angry when he learned she was doing side work to earn money. Imagine that! He claims she's a spendthrift but when she deigns to earn some extra cash on her own, and by her own initiative, he's doesn't like it and refuses to give her the cash.

Honestly, this kind of behavior (not giving her the money) is completely childish...but I kind of understand given her over the top ridiculous demands in her separation agreement.

 

[otto]

Except he didn't. He decided to put his car in the garage and load her body in there.

That appears to be the prosecution theory ... that he cleaned out the garage so he could put a body into the back of the vehicle rather than backing the car right up to the garage and doing it that way.

 

[johnfear]

They both look like lunatics in the sep. papers. But, they really had been through a lot at this point....I think their story is very sad overall. Particularly the miscarriages, etc.

 

[CyberPro]

Honestly, this kind of behavior (not giving her the money) is completely childish...but I kind of understand given her over the top ridiculous demands in her separation agreement.

Yes, it was childish, but many divorces are like that. My wife did some work for a family law attorney and there are couples who have big fights over the dog. One of them might HATE the dog, but they fight about who gets it just to create strife in the other one.

As far as the Separation Agreement, this is just a standard negotiating thing. Shoot for the moon. Put down stuff that you don't really care about, so you can give it up later as a concession. I don't see that as any great shakes. The lawyer helped her with it, and those are usually done from a standard template. In the end, the equitable distribution would have been used.

CyberPro

 

[SleuthyGal]

Well as sad as this situation is, I had to laugh at that one. Nobody ever said murder was easy. It does kinda sound like a lot of work.

That's my sarcasm at work once again! (guilty as charged). It sure sounds like a lot of effort to me.

I have a feeling that this murder may not have been as much of a spur-of-the-moment thing as I once believed. I think there was some planning to it. I think he may have been plotting something for a few days. Maybe it wasn't all that well-formed, and maybe the exact timing wasn't completely worked out, and we surely know he made mistakes and never imagined how quickly Nancy's friends would spring into action. He clearly didn't understand what normal human behavior was. He didn't understand that as the estranged spouse he would be uno primo suspect, as all spouses are in such cases.

I think lots of little things caught him off guard and there is no such thing as a perfect murder. He thought he outsmarted everyone and he came up with excuses for everything.

 

[SleuthyGal]

Honestly, this kind of behavior (not giving her the money) is completely childish...but I kind of understand given her over the top ridiculous demands in her separation agreement.

The verbiage in the separation agreement was merely a starting point. It was in no way final. That's just how negotiation goes. The lawyers work out the details and the amounts get adjusted. The first draft(s) probably have some high numbers to them. In this case you had a spouse who didn't work (couldn't work) the entire time they lived in North Carolina and 2 small minor children. He made a decent salary for this area. It was going to cost him. Probably not quite as much as first requested, but he would be giving up some assets, yes.

 

[Albert]

Regarding the landline - Brads call history shows a total of three calls from the landline to his cell phone - 3 - but yet Brad only tells LE about one. (These calls IMO will sink him if it can be proven that he somehow initiated these calls via VOIP).

I need help understanding this idea. I understand call spoofing can be used to mask the caller id and if done then the receiving phone would show a call received by the spoofed number. However, the call records for the landline would not have any records of these calls, correct? So, is it possible to remote control the landline in order for it to place a call? This would then have the landline have a call record that would match the call record of the cell phone. I assume the call records of the landline have been retrieved?

 

[ncsu95]

I need help understanding this idea. I understand call spoofing can be used to mask the caller id and if done then the receiving phone would show a call received by the spoofed number. However, the call records for the landline would not have any records of these calls, correct? So, is it possible to remote control the landline in order for it to place a call? This would then have the landline have a call record that would match the call record of the cell phone. I assume the call records of the landline have been retrieved?

Hasn't been made public yet. As someone pointed out, you could do it with a fax machine (ie have a fax machine set to make a call at a predetermined time.