SEATTLE (AP) — Human remains that sanitation workers found in a Seattle neighborhood are likely those of a woman killed by a man who dumped some of her other body parts in a recycling bin last weekend, authorities said.
The crew uncovered the remains in a waste container Friday in front of a house in the same neighborhood where a homeowner found a head and other body parts nearly a week ago. Police said they then pulled several garbage trucks off their routes to be emptied and searched for possible additional remains.
“We’re confident that it is connected to last week’s homicide investigation, which was only three blocks away from where we are standing now,” Detective Mark Jamieson said of the grisly discovery.
John Charlton has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ingrid Lyne, a 40-year-old mother of three, in her suburban Renton home.
Authorities say he dismembered the woman he recently started dating, then drove her head, an arm with a hand, a lower leg and a foot to Seattle, where a homeowner found them last Saturday.
Gordon Hill, Charlton’s public defender, has said no forensic evidence links Charlton to the crime.
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Charlton told investigators that he and Lyne attended a baseball game a week ago Friday and then returned to her house, but he was so intoxicated he couldn’t remember what happened. Medical examiners have not said how Lyne died or when.
Lyne’s ex-husband reported her missing Saturday morning when he arrived to drop off their kids and saw she was not home. Seattle detectives discovered a 15-inch pruning saw near the bathtub at the house.
Charlton is in jail on $2 million bail and faces at least 28 years in prison if convicted. He also is charged with stealing Lyne’s vehicle, which was found in downtown Seattle on Monday night.
Misty Speck, who lives a few doors down from where the remains were found Friday, wondered why police had not found the parts on their own or asked people to help.
“How hard would it be to ask people to please check your cans? Of course they can’t check every can in the neighborhood,” Speck said.
When she saw the garbage truck stopped in the middle of the street, Speck first thought it was having mechanical problems.
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“But in the back of my mind I’m like, ’I hope this isn’t what I was reading about last week’ with that lady,” Speck said.
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