CANTON, Ohio — A police officer accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her nearly full-term fetus made his first court appearance Monday and was ordered held on US$5 million bond.

Bobby Cutts Jr., 30, was expressionless as a judge reviewed his case. He stood behind a window separating him from the courtroom, with his girlfriend's family seated a few metres away.

Jessie Davis, 26, was missing for about a week before her body was found Saturday in a park. Cutts is the father of her two-year-old son, and Davis's relatives have said he is the father of the baby girl she was due to deliver July 3 and planned to name Chloe.

Davis's mother, Patricia Porter, stood in the front row of the courtroom and stared at Cutts as he surveyed the audience.

"I'm not sitting down when I see Bobby Cutts,'' Porter said later. "I wanted to make sure he knew I was there.''

Porter stood again when one of Cutts's former high school classmates appeared in front of the judge.

Myisha Ferrell, 29, is accused of lying to investigators about the case. She was ordered held on $500,000 bond.

Cutts' lawyer, Bradley Iams, declined to discuss details of the charges against his client or anything Cutts said to him during the court appearance. He said it was too early to say whether a trial would have to be moved out of Stark County, and that he was not surprised by the bond amount.

Cutts, arrested Saturday, is accused of killing Davis and the fetus June 14 at her home in nearby Lake Township.

Davis's mother last spoke to her daughter a day before authorities say she was killed. Davis was reported missing after the mother found her grandson home alone, with bedroom furniture toppled and bleach spilled on the floor. The boy, Blake, gave investigators some of their first clues, saying: "Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in rug.''

Her body was found nine days after authorities believe she was killed. Determining the cause of death will take weeks because of advanced decomposition, the medical examiner's office said Monday. The office will test the paternity of the fetus, and conduct toxicology and DNA tests and a skeletal analysis.

Ohio law allows a murder charge against someone accused of killing a fetus that would be able to live outside the womb.

Authorities have not said how the body was found was found about 40 kilometres from Davis's home in an area of a national park with a dirt road, a small dirt parking area and a couple of benches overlooking a grassy field. Thousands of volunteers searched for Davis for several days in the area around her home.

The sheriff's office, which is leading the investigation, has not released further information about the obstruction of justice charge against Ferrell, who was arrested Sunday. Her lawyer did not comment to reporters after the hearing.

Cutts, on administrative leave with the police department, is married and has a daughter with his wife. He has said he and his wife are separated and that she knew about his relationship with Davis.

Cutts also has a nine-year-old daughter with another woman, Nikki Giavasis, who now lives in Los Angeles. The two lived together for a while, but when she began seeing another man in 1998, Cutts was accused of breaking into her home while she was inside with former NBA player Shawn Kemp of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Cutts pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge and was sentenced to three years' probation. Giavasis told police she feared for her safety. The pair are involved in a custody dispute.

Giavasis told The Associated Press they were together about four months, and confrontations began after she broke off their relationship. Giavasis said the two had several physical confrontations.