For the first time, the family of the slain Cary woman took questions this morning, Thursday, at a press conference at the Cary Police Department. The family has attended nearly every press conference since their arrival from Canada on Monday.

The memories brought them — mother and father Garry and Donna Rentz, sister and brother-in-law Krista and Jim Lister and brother Jeff Rentz — both smiles and tears.

Garry Rentz recalled a time during Cooper’s adolescence when she started wearing jackets hanging off one shoulder. As the family walked through its hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, they formed a line behind her, wearing their jackets the same way. Cooper did not notice until bystanders laughed.

“Good fun, good fun,” Garry Rentz said.

As girls, Cooper and her identical twin sister Krista Lister would fight over clothes.

Lister said her sister “had an eye for fashion” and that Lister would take advantage of that by taking the clothes for herself — with predictable results.

“We had many screaming matches over clothing,” Lister said.

Those petty differences had no effect on the bond between the sisters, who still talked every day.

Lister spoke through tears as she talked about their intimacy.

“All I have to do to remember her is look in the mirror,” Lister said.

“She’s my biggest supporter, she’s my biggest fan, she’s my soul mate … Nancy, I love you and I always will. … She will always be half of me.”

Cooper was training for a half marathon when she was reported missing on Saturday. Sports and physical activity had always been part of her life.

“Running, I know, was a passion,” Garry Rentz said.

“I think running was basically her outlet.”

Garry Rentz said Cooper had run a couple of half marathons and some 10-kilometer races.

Lister said, “I tried” to run with her.

Krista Lister said Cooper was trying to teach her how to run again and had bought her a stopwatch.

Though running was her sport as an adult, as a girl she had played soccer and ringette, a game similar to hockey, and had been a ballerina, Donna Rentz said.

A knee injury in a regional competition ended her ringette career, Donna Rentz said.

She also skied, but her father conceded she was “not exactly the world’s safest skier.”

Cooper’s devotion as a mother to her two daughters, Isabella, 4, and Gabriella, almost 2, made an impression on her family.

“Nancy took very naturally to motherhood,” Garry Rentz said.

“Her main concern was her children and their needs. … She was a good one.”