Police say Michelle Lee McCoy died over an argument over a stolen phone.  This comes nearly two years after her body was found dead on February 3, 2011.

Police have charged McCoy’s acquaintance Kenneth Lee Thompson with murder and kidnapping.  Thompson is already serving a life sentence for stealing cell phones in a January 2011 armed robbery.  He was returned to Jacksonville on Tuesday from Suwannee Correctional Institution and charged.

Lt. Rob Schoonover with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said in a Wednesday press conference that McCoy was in possession of a stolen phone, and “for whatever reason,” Thompson was trying to get it back.

According to the arrest report, Thompson and his uncle Larry Wayne Thompson, 52, lured the 20-year-old woman into a Chrysler minivan the night of January 10, 2011.  A witness saw a “slender black female” attempted to get out of a van behind the Eveready Lounge at 8917 Washington Street, on that same evening.  She was screaming and trying to get out, but a black male was able to force her back into the van.

The report says the witness later recognized the female as McCoy on a missing person flyer.  In February 2011, Kenneth Thompson confessed his involvement in the incident and told police that he and Larry Thompson lured McCoy into a van at her home on Church Hill Drive.

They then drove to the Eveready Lounge and later ended up in the 3900 block of Ribault River Lane.  The report says Kenneth Thompson told police that Larry Thompson then strangled McCoy, struck her with a pistol and ran her over with the van.

Schoonover said they then buried her body.

McCoy’s body was found on February 3, 2011.  The tips of her fingers and thumbs had been cut from her hands and one leg was nearly amputated, according to a report from the medical examiner.

 “Whatever happened out there that night, there was blunt-force trauma and then killed her and buried her in the ground,” Schoonover said at the conference.

Larry Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot during a SWAT standoff just eight days after McCoy’s body was found and a week after a kidnapping warrant was issued for him.

The State Attorney’s Office decided to prosecute Kenneth Thompson on the robbery charges first.

“That was what they wanted to proceed with, get that outta the way, and move on with the murder charge,” Schoonover said.

Kenneth Thompson’s first court appearance is early next month.