Seattle police on Monday arrested 37-year-old John Robert Charlton in connection with the killing of a local nurse whose dismembered body was found in a recycling bin over the weekend.
Chief Kathleen O’Toole said at a press conference Monday night that Mr. Charlton was arrested earlier that day in Snohomish County, north of Seattle, amid an investigation into the recent death of Ingrid Lyne, a 40-year-old mother of three whose body parts were discovered on Saturday roughly 10 miles from her house.
Lyne had planned to go on a date to a Seattle Mariners baseball game on Friday night with an individual she had met online, her friends told police. She was nowhere to be found when her ex-husband arrived to drop off their kids the following morning, however, prompting him to report her as missing to authorities.
Separately, a homeowner called 911 later in the day after discovering body parts in his recycling bin. Police that evening connected that investigation to the missing person report and “tentatively identified” the remains as Lyne’s, according to a statement from law enforcement.
“All evidence leads in the direction of that missing woman,” Chief O’Toole of the Seattle Police Department said during Monday night’s press conference. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office will later make an official determination.
Social media posts made by Lyne’s friends after she went missing suggested she had planned to attend the Mariners game with Mr. Charlton, the Seattle Times reported.
“We used some forensic evidence dealing with telephone calls and cell towers and the usual investigative shoe leather. Utilizing those, we were led to a suspect early on,” said Seattle Police Assistant Chief Robert Merner.
The suspect was interviewed by Seattle Homicide Detectives on Monday and booked into the King County Jail for “Investigation of Murder,” police said in a statement.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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