SEATTLE — A man accused of killing and dismembering a mother in her suburban home then dumping her remains in a Seattle recycling bin pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murder and theft charges.
A King County judge also raised bail for John Robert Charlton, 37, from $2 million to $5 million at his arraignment.
Charlton was charged in the death of Ingrid Lyne, a 40-year-old mother of three from Renton. He is also suspected of stealing her vehicle.
Authorities say Charlton dismembered Lyne in her home before driving her remains to Seattle. Her head, arm with a hand, lower leg and foot were found in garbage bags by a homeowner, police say.
Additional remains have been found in a waste container and recycling center.
Lyne was reported missing on April 9. Charlton has told police the two went to a baseball game then back to Lyne’s home and he ended up spending the night on a street in Seattle. He said he couldn’t recall how he got back to Seattle because he had been too intoxicated to remember.
Seattle police detectives searched Lyne’s home on April 10 and found a 15-inch pruning saw near the bathtub, and an empty box of plastic garbage bags identical to the ones containing Lyne’s body parts.
Charlton’s parents sought a restraining order against him in 2006, saying he had taken the movie “Hannibal” — about a serial killer — from a shelf and told his mother she should watch it and “beware.”
The order was later dismissed at the parents’ request.
Gordon Hill, Charlton’s public defender at an earlier court hearing said no forensic evidence had linked any particular person to the crime.
King County judge Julie Spector on Wednesday ordered media to show Charlton from only the neck down in order to not prejudice a potential jury trial.
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