Police say the boyfriend of Desheena Kyle, missing Tennessee woman found dead, has been indicted on murder charges

• A grand jury indicted John Bassett on murder charges in the death of Desheena Kyle, police said Thursday.
• Kyle had been missing for three months before police found her body on September 28.

The boyfriend of Desheena Kyle, a Knoxville, Tennessee, woman who was found dead last month, has been indicted on murder charges, police announced Thursday.

A grand jury indicted John Bassett on charges of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence, according to a news release from the Knoxville Police Department. The Knoxville Medical Examiner's Office ruled Kyle's death a homicide, but has not yet determined a cause of death, according to the release.

Bassett's attorney, David Skidmore, did not immediately respond Thursday to Insider's request for comment.

Kyle's grandmother first reported her missing on June 28, after no one in her family had seen her for at least ten days.

A Knoxville activist who helped organize searches for Kyle previously told Insider that community's perception of the police investigation into her disappearance was not good. Fahd Wali said that national media coverage of Gabby Petito's disappearance helped galvanize the search for Kyle in Knoxville because it provided an example of how a police investigation was "supposed to go."

Police began investigating Kyle's disappearance as a potential homicide on September 23, and named Bassett a person of interest in her disappearance on the same day.

Police then found Kyle's body on September 28, at a home reportedly owned by one of Bassett's relatives.

Bassett had been arrested in July on probation violation charges, and was subsequently hit with unrelated gun and drug charges while in custody, police have said.

Police records also show that in 2014, Bassett had been arrested and charged with domestic assault against Kyle, stemming from an incident in which he smashed her car window while she was inside. A judge later dismissed the charge.

Kyle's aunt, Rita Thomas, told Insider her family is still reeling from their loss.

"While we are headed in the right direction to obtain justice for DeSheena the pain hasn't lessened," Thomas wrote in a text message. "She was a major piece of our close-knit family and we love her dearly. The charges appear just, but the bond amount does not."

Police said Thursday that Bassett is being held in jail on a $500,000 bond.

Michelle Mark contributed reporting.