Authorities say deputies first responded to a dispute at the home hours before Stephanie McCoy was found dead.

DURHAM, N.C. — A 38-year-old Durham County man is charged with first-degree murder after deputies say his 64-year-old mother was found dead at her home on Red Mill Road on May 15, 2025, hours after deputies first responded to a disturbance there.

Investigators say the case turned on a short but critical timeline: deputies were called to the house during a dispute between Stephanie Donita McCoy and her son, Alexander James Glenn Jr., then returned later that day and found McCoy unresponsive inside the home. The case drew renewed attention in February 2026 after an autopsy detailed that McCoy had been choked, stabbed and badly injured in the face and head. Glenn remains jailed without bond, and a status hearing is scheduled for April 16.

According to investigators, deputies first went to McCoy’s home on the morning of May 15 after a disturbance call. McCoy told them she had been trying to leave the house, but Glenn would not let her go and would not give back her cellphone or keys to a vehicle owned by her boyfriend. Deputies told Glenn not to take the keys and not to drive because his driver’s license had expired. Authorities said he became upset and left the home on foot while deputies were still there. Later that day, deputies were called back to the residence in the 4500 block of Red Mill Road. When they arrived, McCoy was unresponsive inside the home. Investigators said she had a deep puncture wound to the left side of her neck, and the vehicle that had been in the driveway earlier was gone.

The sheriff’s office later identified McCoy as the victim and Glenn as the primary suspect. Sheriff Clarence F. Birkhead said after Glenn’s arrest on May 21, 2025, that tips from the public helped investigators find him. Birkhead said detectives, the sheriff’s office anti-crime and narcotics unit, and a strike team worked together to take Glenn into custody without incident. Court and sheriff’s records say Glenn was charged with first-degree murder and booked into the Durham County detention center without bond. Authorities have not publicly laid out a full minute-by-minute account of what happened inside the home between the first deputy visit and the second call. They also have not publicly described whether anyone else was present during the killing, what weapon caused the neck wound, or where Glenn went immediately after leaving the home.

New details emerged months later when an autopsy report was released in February 2026. The report said McCoy was choked and stabbed and suffered several other injuries to her face and head. Those findings expanded on the early statements from investigators, which had focused on the puncture wound in her neck and the fact that she was found dead during the second deputy response. The case has also drawn attention because of what authorities have said about Glenn’s past. In a public update issued while he was still being sought, the sheriff’s office said he had a history of violent behavior and had previously been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and other equal or greater charges. Officials did not publicly connect any earlier case to McCoy, but that history became part of the public picture as investigators warned that Glenn should be considered dangerous while he was at large.

The legal case is now moving through Durham County court. Glenn was arrested on May 21, 2025, six days after McCoy’s death, and authorities said at the time that he would make an initial court appearance the next morning. He is now set for a status hearing on April 16, 2026. First-degree murder charges in North Carolina can carry the most serious criminal penalties, but no trial date has been announced in the public accounts released so far. Prosecutors have not publicly detailed whether they plan to seek additional charges tied to the earlier disturbance, the missing vehicle, or any restraint described by McCoy before her death. It also remains unclear what evidence investigators will rely on most heavily if the case moves toward trial, including forensic evidence from the home, statements from family members, or phone and vehicle records connected to the hours after deputies first left.

The case has left a family and community grappling with both grief and unanswered questions. A family member who spoke to local television station WRAL but did not want to be named described the relationship between McCoy and her son as complicated. “Well, I’m devastated for what has happened and the way it has happened,” the relative said. “But I’m not surprised.” That brief account added a note of painful familiarity to a case already marked by allegations of violence inside a home. Public statements from law enforcement have been measured and narrow, focusing on the sequence of calls, the evidence found at the scene and the arrest that followed. McCoy’s death remains framed by those two visits to the same home in one day: first for a family dispute, then for a homicide investigation.

As of now, Glenn remains charged with first-degree murder in McCoy’s death, and the next public milestone in the case is his April 16, 2026, status hearing in Durham County court.