Coffee County was rocked over the weekend by a brutal killing that has been named the area’s first criminal homicide of the year.

James Rick McCoy, 54, was charged with first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, domestic violence and abuse of a corpse in connection with the death of his 46-year-old wife, Lisa McCoy.

Manchester police responded to a call at the couple’s Duck River Road home around 4:30 a.m. Sunday after someone reported a possible domestic situation at the resident.

Upon being dispatched, Coffee County District Attorney General Craig Northcott said, Manchester police officers made contact with McCoy, an electrical engineer, at his home.

When they entered the home, he said, they found Lisa McCoy's body inside.

Officers took McCoy into custody without incident.

Shock to the neighborhood

Neighbor Lisa Teroy has lived in the same neighborhood as the McCoys for last seven years.

From her back porch, she can see the McCoy house — built by James McCoy himself, Teroy said. Teroy didn’t hear gunshots or any disturbance Saturday night or Sunday morning, when authorities say Lisa McCoy died.

The quiet cul-de-sac is close, a tight-knit community that watches each other’s pets while neighbors are on vacation.

“We try to look after each other,” Teroy said.

James McCoy often helped Teroy with handiwork around her house. Just last week, he came over to fix her garage door, she said.

“You don’t know what happens when the door closes,” Teroy said.

On and off again marriage

According to Coffee County court records, the couple had been divorced and remarried at least twice.

The couple divorced in Coffee County May 18, 2011. The filing came roughly a month after Manchester police reports show McCoy was accused of elbowing a man in the face at the Manchester Post Office—because the man was speaking to Lisa McCoy, according to the report.

It did not appear from court records that the victim pressed assault charges against McCoy.

The couple remarried in Coffee County Sept. 15, 2012, and then divorced again on July 29, 2013, court records show.

According to Facebook, Lisa McCoy graduated from Huntland High School and possibly remarried McCoy in 2014. Most recently, she worked as a pharmacy technician.

Brutal killing

After a search warrant was obtained and executed, officers reported that McCoy shot his wife several times in the head and then "made efforts to clean the crime scene."

"It appeared that he also cut Ms. McCoy's legs from her body in an apparent attempt to conceal evidence," Northcott said.

A motive in the killing was not immediately known, authorities said Tuesday.

"We're are still talking to friends and family attempting to piece together what lead to this," Northcott said.

Her death marked the county's first criminal homicide of 2018.

On average, the county sees one to two killings each year, Northcott said.

McCoy, who remained jailed without bond on Monday, is slated to appear in Coffee County General Session court Tuesday morning to be arraigned on his charges.

Mariah Timms contributed to this story.

Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund. Reach Brinley Hineman at bhineman@gannett.com or 615-278-5164 and on Twitter @brinleyhineman.