The calls to local news offices began pouring in not long after Cary police announced last week that a body found at a construction site was that of missing jogger Nancy Cooper.

Callers to The Cary News included producers from Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, “Nancy Grace” and “On the Record with Gretta Van Susteren.”

The Today Show aired news segments Thursday and Friday morning, having flown reporter Michelle Kosinski to town. Grace aired a segment Friday night.

Susan Moran, spokesperson for the town, said she has not seen this much attention on a case “in the last 10 years, 11 months and 19 days that I’ve been with the Town of Cary.”

The murder of a young mother of two while reportedly on an early-morning jog is huge news in a town like Cary — affluent, safe, idyllic in many ways.

However dozens of murders happen in our country every day — an average of 45 a day according to federal crime statistics.

So why the national spotlight on Cary, and on this case?

Some local media experts say they can understand the interest.

“I was in the airport reading one of my suspence novels,” said Rhonda Gibson, a professor who teaches ethics and newswriting in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at UNC-Chapel Hill. “It struck me that this story has all the elements of a good suspense novel — attractive young family with young attractive children, relatively upscale community. He has a good professional job.

“It’s the stereotype of the American Dream,” Gibson said.

The Coopers, Canadians, moved to Cary about eight years ago and had two little girls, now 2 and 4. Brad Cooper works for Cisco Systems. Nancy was a stay-at-home mom. Their home is in Lochmere.

Cooper was reported missing July 12. Police announced positive identification of her body by the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on July 15. Police said there are no suspects named in the case, although details of marital problems have surfaced.

Gibson said it didn’t matter if the story happened in Cary or another “Suburbia, USA.”

“This story could be anywhere and be fascinating,” she said. “People are mediated voyeurs to a certain extent.”

Dr. Bob Steele, a scholar at the Poynter Institute and a journalism professor at DePauw University in Indiana, said a lot of factors play into how much attention a news story gets. One variable is how open the lead investigating agency is, how regularly it holds news conferences and how much detail it provides.

Cary police held regular press conferences last week and helped make family members available for questions, but they have not released many details of the investigation. For instance, they would not say last week what clothes were found on the body or how Cooper was killed. Being tight-lipped is “sometimes quite justifiable in order to protect an investigation,” Steele said.

Another factor that can influence coverage is whether the family is speaking — and Cooper’s family, who flew in from Canada when the young mother went missing, talked to the media during press conferences, using strict ground rules. Family members can provide details about their loved one and give more fodder for stories.

The same goes with friends of the victim. Two of Cooper’s friends appeared on “The Today Show” Friday, along with one of Nancy’s sisters. On the other hand, If very little information is flowing, that “might deter some news organizations from doing as much or any coverage,” Steele said.

Steele and Gibson said that the nature and circumstances of a crime play a factor in how much attention a story gets. The sensational, unusual or bizzare always will grab headlines. Certainly a murder in a quiet neighborhood is unusual.

If no arrest is immediately made — Cary police had not even named a suspect at press time — the speculation can fuel people’s interest and speculation and lengthen media coverage.

Cooper’s story also grabbed regional attention. Her story made the front page of the News & Observer three times last week.

The mother of two was white and apparently upper-middle class. Steele said socio-economic status and race “might prompt a certain degree of coverage.”

The prevailing thought is that news organizations are less inclined to have blow-out coverage of murder cases involving the poor or racial minorities. Steele said although hard to prove, “in some cases, that’s probably true.”

News experts say journalists can be influenced by statistics as much as their readers. The one or two murders that may happen in a quiet suburban town like Cary may be newsworthy by their low frequency alone compared with, say, several murders in the city next door.

Steele also pointed out that even though statistics give people certain ideas of what places may be dangerous and what places are safe, “dangerous things often happen in the nicest and wealthiest neighborhoods of our country.”

One of the reasons local media outlets may be seeing more attention from national news shows in recent years is that so many shows have been developed for niche audiences. For instance, Nancy Grace focuses on “the justice stories of the day,” according to her Web site. Similarly, Gretta Van Susteren on the Fox network focuses on court cases and has covered such high profile cases as the Scott Peterson trial and the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba. Naturally they would be scanning headlines for cases like the Nancy Cooper homicide.

But Steele said that some of the criminal justice and public safety issues that Grace, for example, explores are “very justified.” Grace is a former violent-crimes prosecutor.

It is when news organizations cross the line from substantive reporting to “salacious or speculative” reporting, that it becomes “very problematic ethically, journalistically and legally,” Steele said.