Suspect arrested after body parts in recycling bin ID’d as those of missing mother

Police said at a news conference late Monday afternoon that they had taken John Robert Charlton into custody in the slaying of Ingrid Lyne, 40, a nurse at Swedish Medical Center.

Charlton was taken into custody early Monday morning in Snohomish County, police said.
His criminal history includes convictions for misdemeanor assault in King County in 1997, felony theft in Montana in 2009,  second-degree aggravated robbery in Utah in 2006 and misdemeanor battery in a 2009 case in Idaho, according to court records. He also was found guilty of possession of marijuana in 1997, with the charge deferred if he completed alcohol school and other conditions.

Police were able to identify Lyne because one of the body parts found in Seattle was her head, according to a law-enforcement source familiar with the investigation.

Homicide detectives learned Saturday that Lyne had been reported missing to Renton police and obtained a photograph they used to tentatively identify her.

Lyne’s friends took to social media over the weekend with concerns about her welfare. They reported that the single mother went on a date in which she planned to attend Friday’s Seattle Mariners game with someone she had met online.

Some of the social-media posts identified Charlton as Lyne’s date. His name and photograph were posted on Facebook, before the announcement of his arrest, by people who identified him as Lyne’s date.

Lyne wasn’t home Saturday morning when her former husband planned to drop their children with her, police said. She was reported missing just after 10 a.m.

Her SUV was initially reported stolen and her cellphone, wallet and other personal items were found at her home in Renton, her friends said. Late Monday, police announced they found the SUV, a silver 2015 Toyota Highlander, in downtown Seattle.

Lyne’s neighbors along Camas Avenue Northeast, a middle-class cul-de-sac where she lived with her three daughters in Renton’s Upper Highlands, braced for the worst Monday before word of her fate was announced.

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