Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Police Identify Body of Missing Winder Woman

A body found just off of Etheridge Road in Auburn is suspected to be that of 38-year old Tonya Faye Lynn, according to police. Saturday, her estranged husband was reportedly charged with murder.

Update - Saturday, July 30: Family members identified Tonya Faye Lynn's body late Friday, and on Saturday, police charged her husband, James Lynn Jr., with murder, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Original story: Officers suspect a body found in Auburn Friday to be that of , a Winder woman who was reported missing Wednesday. Her husband has been charged in connection with the case, according to a police statement.

In a collaborative effort between the , the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the , officers worked through the night Thursday interviewing Lynn’s friends and family after she was reported missing by her relative, Christa Royster.

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According to a media release from the Winder Police, Royster received an early morning text message Wednesday from Lynn’s cell phone asking her to take care of Lynn’s children. Unable to contact her, Royster found Lynn’s Chevrolet Tahoe abandoned at a local library and reported her missing at that time.

Around 4 p.m. Friday, the investigation led police to a deceased body in a well off Etheridge Road in Auburn, a few miles from Winder.

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The body will be taken to the Georgia Crime Lab for a positive identification and a possible autopsy.

Lynn’s husband, James Morris Lynn, Jr., 42, was taken into custody early Friday morning on a charge of obstruction after information he initially gave police was determined to be false, according to the police statement.

James Lynn, Jr. was being held at the and may face further charges, the release said. Police originally said in Tonya Lynn's disappearance.

“This has been a long couple of days for our department," Winder Police Chief Dennis Dorsey said in the statement. "We had a tremendous amount of help from the G.B.I. and the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office.”

report in the Athens Banner-Herald said Tonya Lynn had four children and worked at Athens Regional Medical Center. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that James Lynn Jr. was charged with battery in May in a domestic incident involving his wife.


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