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Update: BRANSON, Mo. (AP) -- A Utah woman probably was dead for three or more days when police discovered her body in a storage container in her car in Missouri, a coroner said Wednesday.
Deborah Jones of Salt Lake City, who disappeared last week after complaining to police about her ex-boyfriend, died of asphyxiation, Taney County Coroner Kevin Tweedy said.
Her body was found Monday night in her car at a motel in Branson, Mo. Her ex-boyfriend, Michael Doyel, and another woman were taken into custody.
Jones, 50, likely was dead for three or four days, said Tweedy, who could not provide any other details. He said it was consistent with a homicide.
Doyel, 47, was being held in the Taney County jail on a bond of $1 million. In Utah, he's charged with kidnapping Patricia Murray from an adult living center in West Valley City. Missouri authorities have released her.
Documents filed in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City say Murray cannot care for herself and has been living in assisted adult housing.
A resident told the Deseret News that Doyel began appearing a few months ago and tried to impress people. "He was constantly in the clubhouse," Mary Ann Griess said. Doyel "seemed very aggressive and obnoxious and he wanted to win me over," she told the newspaper. "He wanted to impress me with his computer skills ... told me he had a very impressive business background, bought a new car and told me he was from Iowa."
Murray told residents that a new boyfriend had invited her to take a trip, Griess said.
Jones and Doyel apparently were living together in Salt Lake City until just a few weeks ago.
Jones met with police on April 16 to complain about harassing phone calls by Doyel and improper use of credit cards.
She was supposed to meet with police the next day to discuss a protective order but didn't appear, Salt Lake City Chief Chris Burbank said.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Team coverage
Police are looking for answers this morning in the death of a missing Utah woman whose body was found in Missouri. Meanwhile, we're hearing from the mother of the man being held in connection with the death.
Fifty-year-old Deborah Jones' body was discovered stuffed in a storage container in her car at a Branson, MO., motel Monday night. Housekeeper Patti Wardynski said, "When they came out with the gloves and evidence bags, my boyfriend said, ‘There's a dead body in that car.'"
Michael Doyel, who is Jones' ex-boyfriend, and a West Valley woman, Patricia Murray, were at the motel and were taken into custody. They have not been charged in Jones' death. However, Doyel does face charges of felony kidnapping for taking Murray, who is mentally challenged, out of state without permission from her legal guardian.
Both Doyel and Murray are awaiting other possible charges and extradition to Utah.
Salt Lake City police have not classified Jones' death as a homicide. They are awaiting results of an autopsy. Branson police speculate she may have been dead before arriving in Missouri. Jones had been missing since last Thursday.
Michael Doyel's mother, Pauline, told the Deseret News her son is a habitual liar, and he suffers from what she called paranoid schizophrenia. Apparently he hasn't been taking his medication, either, she said.
Pauline Doyel said her last words to her son were, "Go away. Leave her alone and be good. Be good." Doyel made those comments before learning Deborah Jones' body had been found in Missouri.
E-mail: aadams@ksl.com
