St. Bernard Parish man booked with murder of man killed in N.O. and found buried in St. Bernard on Feb. 26; Michael Vicknair now in NOPD custody after his arrest by St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office

New Orleans police booked a 35-year-old St. Bernard Parish man Friday night, March 1, in the beating death of Jeffrey W. Bonck Sr., who was murdered in the city last August and whose remains were found buried in eastern St. Bernard on Feb. 26.

Michael Vicknair, 35, was booked into the Orleans Parish jail on counts of second-degree murder and obstruction of justice. Vicknair had been in custody in St, Bernard on an unrelated charge, arrested by the Sheriff’s Office, when NOPD took custody of him before he was booked in New Orleans.

Bonck, 55, was beaten to death in New Orleans last August but his body was buried several feet below ground, off Florissant Highway, in eastern St. Bernard and unearthed after another man tipped off police in New Orleans about where the body was located.

Vicknair is a native of eastern St. Bernard who grew up in the Kenilworth community and has a lengthy arrest history. Sheriff Pohlmann said Vicknair had been under arrest in the St. Bernard Parish Prison since deputies arrested him Feb. 21 on an unrelated count of domestic violence after NOPD informed the Sheriff’s Office hewas a suspect in a possible homicide in the city.

“We assisted in the case from the point where we were informed of the New Orleans investigation,’’ Sheriff Pohlmann said, including arresting the suspect on a warrant involving the unrelated charge and obtaining the search warrant to dig on the property where the body was found.

New Orleans police took custody of Vicknair from the St. Bernard Prison on Friday, March 1, a day after police identified Bonck as the man whose body was recovered and said they had a “person of interest’’ in the case, who was Vicknair.

New Orleans police also said at a news conference Thursday there was at least one other possible suspect in the case, saying the person who tipped off authorities to the location of the body could also face charges. His identity hasn’t been revealed. LSU’s Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services — the FACES laboratory – worked to unearth the body, with the help of an excavating machine from St. Bernard Parish government.

Bonck’s identity was confirmed after the body was sent to the Orleans Parish coroner’s office, according to authorities.

Bonck was reported missing on Aug. 14, 2012, when his brother contacted police to say the last he had heard from him was in the form of a voicemail that Bonck had left on his phone on Aug. 11 about 3 a.m.

Bonck’s brother told police he checked Bonck’s house in the 7500 block of Michigan Street in eastern New Orleans later that day but couldn’t find him and grew concerned because it was uncharacteristic of his brother, he said.