Eldon man now faces murder charge in March death

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

An Eldon man charged in March with abandoning a corpse was charged this week with murder.

Miller County prosecutors charged Kendrick Cook, 34, with second-degree murder on Monday. Cook has been jailed since March in the death of his romantic interest, whom investigators have not named publicly.

Court documents allege an autopsy showed the woman from strangulation. Cook was the only person with the victim at the time of her death and a probable cause statement says investigators found evidence that he strangled her.

Investigators also found a baggie with cocaine at the apartment where the death occurred.

Cook has separate cases for abandoning a corpse and drug possession in online court records. He was in the Miller County Jail on a $352,000 bond Tuesday, according to online jail records.