Authorities say deputies were called twice to the same Red Mill Road home on May 15, 2025, before 64-year-old Stephanie Donita McCoy was found dead and her son was later charged with first-degree murder.
DURHAM, N.C. — A 38-year-old Durham County man is accused of killing his mother inside her home on Red Mill Road hours after deputies had already responded to a dispute there, according to sheriff’s officials and local reports that detail the fatal attack and the criminal case now moving through court.
Alexander James Glenn Jr. is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 64-year-old Stephanie Donita McCoy, whose body was found May 15, 2025, at the home in northern Durham County. The case drew renewed attention in February after an autopsy report described McCoy’s death as a choking and stabbing and noted other injuries to her face and head. Glenn was arrested May 21, 2025, and sheriff’s officials said he was being held without bond. A status hearing in the case is scheduled for April 16.
The case began with a domestic disturbance call on the morning of May 15, 2025, at McCoy’s home in the 4500 block of Red Mill Road. Deputies arrived and found McCoy and Glenn in a verbal dispute, the Durham County Sheriff’s Office said. According to reporting on the arrest warrant, McCoy told deputies her son would not let her leave the house and would not give her back her cellphone or car keys. The keys were for a vehicle owned by McCoy’s boyfriend, according to local reporting. Deputies told Glenn not to take the keys and not to drive the vehicle because his driver’s license was expired. Sheriff’s officials later said Glenn left the home while deputies were still there.
Later that same day, deputies were called back to the house. This time, they found McCoy unresponsive in what the sheriff’s office described as an apparent homicide. Early details from investigators said she had a deep puncture wound to the left side of her neck, and local reports said the vehicle that had been in the driveway earlier was gone when deputies returned. Investigators identified Glenn as the primary suspect that day and said he was at large. On May 21, the sheriff’s office announced that investigators had arrested him without incident. Sheriff Clarence F. Birkhead said tips from the public helped officers find him and credited the Criminal Investigation Division, the anti-crime and narcotics unit and the strike team with making the arrest safely.
In February 2026, an autopsy report released to local media added a more detailed account of McCoy’s injuries. WRAL reported that the examination found McCoy was choked and stabbed and had additional injuries to her face and head. That reporting gave the public a clearer picture of the violence alleged in the case, but several central questions remain unanswered in open court records and public statements. Authorities have not publicly laid out a full minute-by-minute timeline between the first deputy response and the second call to the house. They also have not publicly explained whether anyone else was inside the home during the killing, how long McCoy had been dead when deputies returned, or whether the missing vehicle was later recovered as part of the investigation. Investigators have also not publicly described a suspected motive beyond the dispute that deputies encountered earlier in the day.
The setting of the case is a home in northern Durham County, outside the city center, where sheriff’s deputies, not city police, handled the calls. Public statements from the sheriff’s office frame the killing as an isolated incident, but the case also turned attention to Glenn’s criminal history. In its public notice identifying him as the suspect, the sheriff’s office said he had a history of violent behavior and had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and other equal or greater charges. Authorities did not, in those statements, connect any prior case directly to McCoy’s death. A relative who spoke to WRAL on condition of anonymity 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 family member said. “But I’m not surprised.”
The criminal case now sits in the pretrial stage. Glenn was charged with first-degree murder after his arrest and, according to the sheriff’s office, was placed in the Durham County detention center without bond. First-degree murder is among the most serious charges under North Carolina law, and cases of that kind can move through months of hearings before any trial date is set. Public reporting to date points to a status hearing scheduled for April 16, which is expected to be the next visible milestone in court unless filings or scheduling changes come first. At that hearing, the court could address the progress of the case, attorney issues, evidence deadlines or later hearing dates. Prosecutors and defense lawyers have not publicly laid out their expected arguments in detail, and no trial date had been publicly reported in the materials available Monday.
The public record of the case is still built mostly from short official releases and local news reports rather than extended courtroom testimony. That leaves the story defined by a stark sequence: one deputy visit for a dispute, a second visit hours later, a mother found dead, and a son later arrested and charged. McCoy was identified by the sheriff’s office as 64-year-old Stephanie Donita McCoy. Glenn was identified as her 38-year-old son. The sheriff’s office first announced the death investigation on the afternoon of May 15, saying deputies had been called shortly after 1 p.m. and had found a deceased woman inside the home. By the next day, the office had named both McCoy and Glenn publicly, described Glenn as the primary suspect and said he should be considered dangerous. Those updates, followed by the arrest six days later and the autopsy details released months afterward, have steadily filled in the outline of a family homicide case that remains unresolved in court.
As of March 16, 2026, Glenn remained charged with first-degree murder in McCoy’s death, and the next reported court milestone was the April 16 status hearing in Durham County. The core facts of the case are public, but fuller answers about motive, evidence and the sequence inside the home are still expected to emerge, if at all, through future court proceedings.