An autopsy released months after the May 2025 death said Stephanie McCoy was choked and stabbed before her son was charged with first-degree murder.
DURHAM, N.C. — A 38-year-old Durham County man is charged with first-degree murder after authorities said 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.
New details in the case surfaced in February 2026, when an autopsy said Stephanie Donita McCoy was choked, stabbed and suffered injuries to her face and head. Investigators say her son, Alexander James Glenn Jr., became the main suspect after deputies returned to the house later that day and found McCoy unresponsive with an apparent puncture wound to her neck. Glenn was arrested days later and remains jailed as the case moves toward a scheduled April 16 status hearing.
According to investigators, deputies were first called to McCoy’s home in the 4500 block of Red Mill Road on the morning of May 15, 2025, after a disturbance inside the house. When they arrived, they found McCoy and Glenn in a verbal dispute. McCoy told deputies that her son would not let her leave the home and would not return her cellphone or the keys to a vehicle owned by her boyfriend. Deputies told Glenn not to take the keys and not to drive the car because his driver’s license was expired. The sheriff’s office later said Glenn left the house while deputies were still there. The case changed direction later that same day, when deputies were called back to the residence and found McCoy dead inside. Sheriff Clarence F. Birkhead later said investigators received public tips that helped lead to Glenn’s arrest on May 21, 2025, six days after the killing.
Authorities have laid out a narrow but disturbing set of facts about what they say happened between the first call and the second. The sheriff’s office said deputies returned shortly after 1 p.m. and found a deceased woman inside the home. In a later update, the office identified McCoy as the victim and Glenn as the primary suspect. Investigators said the vehicle tied to the earlier dispute was no longer in the driveway when deputies came back. Early accounts described a deep puncture wound on the left side of McCoy’s neck. The autopsy released in February 2026 added that McCoy had been choked to death, stabbed and left with other injuries to her face and head. Glenn, who was 38 at the time of his arrest, was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Durham County detention center. He was ordered held without bond. Authorities have not publicly described a full motive, and court records made public in news reports do not explain what happened inside the house after Glenn left while deputies were present.
The case has drawn attention in Durham because of how quickly a domestic dispute turned into a homicide investigation. The sheriff’s office said Glenn 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. That background was included in the agency’s public appeal for help while Glenn was still at large in the days after McCoy’s death. Investigators also said at the time that the killing appeared to be an isolated incident and that there was no immediate threat to the public beyond the search for the suspect. McCoy was 64 and lived at the Red Mill Road home where deputies twice responded on the same day. A relative who spoke to local television station WRAL without being named described the relationship between McCoy and her son as complicated and said the family was devastated, though not surprised, by what happened. That account offered a glimpse of long-running strain, but authorities have not released evidence in open court that would fully explain the family conflict or the sequence of violence described in the autopsy.
The legal case remains at a pretrial stage. Glenn was charged with first-degree murder after his arrest on May 21, 2025, and made an initial court appearance the next morning, according to the sheriff’s office. By February 2026, local reports said he was due back in court for a status hearing on April 16. Public statements from authorities have focused on the arrest, the autopsy findings and the broad outline of the investigation, but they have released few details about physical evidence collected inside the house, any statements Glenn may have made, or whether prosecutors plan to seek additional filings as the case advances. It also remains unclear from public reports whether a grand jury indictment had been returned by mid-February 2026 or whether any hearings beyond the April status setting had been calendared. What is clear is that the prosecution is moving forward on the most serious homicide charge under North Carolina law, and the next court date is expected to show whether the case will stay on a standard pretrial track or shift into a more defined trial schedule.
Outside the legal filings, the story is marked by the ordinary setting in which it unfolded: a county home on a rural road, a family argument, a missing set of keys and a second call that ended with detectives and forensic investigators at the scene. The sheriff’s office said members of its Criminal Investigation Division and Forensics Unit were sent to the home as the death investigation began. In announcing Glenn’s arrest, Birkhead said tips from the public helped investigators locate him. “We appreciate everyone who reached out,” Birkhead said, adding that several sheriff’s units worked together to find Glenn and take him into custody safely. The sparse public record has left neighbors and relatives with large gaps, including how long McCoy was alone before deputies returned and whether anyone else had contact with her in the final hours of her life. Those unanswered questions, along with the autopsy’s description of choking and stabbing, have kept the case in public view long after the original arrest.
The case stood with Glenn jailed without bond and a status hearing set for April 16, as investigators’ account and the autopsy remain the clearest public record of what happened inside McCoy’s home on May 15, 2025.