A Wake County judge has given temporary custody of two girls to the family of their murdered mother, according to the family's lawyer.

"We are grateful that their mother's family will retain temporary custody of Bella and Katie," said attorney Alice Stubbs in an email. "But we cannot release any details until a written order is entered."

Bella and Katie Cooper are the daughters of Brad Cooper and the late Nancy Cooper, who was found strangled in July.

Full Coverage And Timeline: Nancy Cooper Murder

Brad had been fighting for custody of his daughters with Nancy's parents, Garry and Donna Rentz, and her identical twin sister, Krista Lister.

Attorneys for the family had said from the beginning that their goal in the custody hearing was to prove that Brad Cooper killed his wife.

Brad has not been named a suspect or a person of interest in the criminal investigation.

His attorneys did not make any formal comments, but Seth Blum told NBC17, "We are disappointed. Brad wishes he was welcoming his daughters back home."

When asked if they planned to appeal, Blum added, "We need to review it.  It hasn't been filed yet, we haven't seen the findings."

The Town of Cary released a statement saying they will not answer questions or provide updates on the criminal investigation, per Chief Pat Bazemore.

Included in that release, however, was a statement from Nancy's family:  

"This is a very good day for Nancy, her children, and our entire family.

We are extremely grateful to Judge Sasser for her careful and thorough attention to our case. We could not have asked for a more fair or deliberate process and are confident that she acted in the best interest of not just our grandchildren but all children who may be in a similar circumstance.

Of course we want to thank our fantastic legal team for helping us work within the system to achieve the appropriate outcome.

And we want to reiterate our continuing support of the Cary Police Department and the Wake County District Attorney's Office for the unending attention they are giving to bringing Nancy's murderer to justice.

We also want to thank the people of this area and those throughout the nation and in our own home of Canada that continue to support us and keep our family in their thoughts and prayers. It really does make a difference.

And we want to express our family's deep gratitude for the respectful and professional manner in which the media have been telling our story, and we appreciate your continued interest. As you know several months ago we declined requests for interviews for at least until the time when the custody matter was somewhat resolved. We've talked about it as a family, and we've decided to maintain that position until our story has an end. We're not sure at this point if the ‘end' is when there's an arrest or after a trial, but for us we know we're just not there yet. We think ours may become a story that could be beneficial to tell, but it's too soon to know. So, as has been the case since we arrived in North Carolina in mid-July, we ask that if you remain interested in possibly sitting down with us at some point in the future to tell our story, please make sure that the Town of Cary Public Information Office has your contact information. Susan Moran and Deanna Boone have exceeded our expectations for support throughout this trying period, and we plan to continue to work with them on the best way to meet our goals on telling our story when the time comes.

Again, thank you very much for all that you've been doing." - Garry and Donna Rentz and family