This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Posted: 10:05 AM- A man charged with kidnapping a woman from a West Valley City care center and driving her to Missouri - with the body of his former girlfriend concealed in a container on the back seat - made an initial appearance in 3rd District Court this morning and appointed a lawyer to defend him.

Judge Michele Christiansen made the appointment for Michael J. Doyel, who appeared via closed circuit television from Salt Lake County jail and set another hearing for May 8.

Doyel originally was scheduled to appear Tuesday in court but refused to come. He is accused of kidnapping Patricia Murray, a 60-year-old who has been ruled incompetent by courts to care for herself.

A legal guardian said Doyel did not have permission to take Murray from the care center where she lives.

Doyel also is charged in federal court with kidnapping 50-year-old nurse Deborah Jones, whose body was discovered April 21 in the back seat of her Volkswagen Passat in Branson, Mo. The car was parked at a hotel, where Doyel and Murray were found.

Jones and Doyel lived together for six months until they broke up several weeks before her alleged kidnapping, police say. Soon after the breakup, Jones complained to authorities that Doyel was harassing her.

Jones was last seen alive in the company of Doyel at a Salt Lake City restaurant on April 16, according to a federal complaint. She was last heard from on April 18, when she called a friend on her cell phone.

Federal kidnapping charges do not require a person to have been alive before taken across state lines. Doyel faces up to life on that charge.

At a hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Magistrate Paul Warner ordered that Doyel be held in jail pending resolution of the federal kidnapping charge. During that hearing, Doyel kept looking around the courtroom and said, "She's alive. She should be here any minute."

Jones died of asphyxiation, according to a coroner. Salt Lake District Attorney Lohra Miller has said her office will work to develop a murder case and anticipates filing charges sometime in May.