I didn’t know Tonya Faye Lynn.
In fact when we received word here at the paper that she had been reported missing and that a search was under way for her by various law enforcement officials, her name was not even familiar to me.
However, as the events unfolded during the next several hours I hoped for the best. Unfortunately, the worst outcome possible played itself out as it often does in situations similar in nature.
I can’t sit here and pretend to know what her family members are going through. I can’t pretend to even begin to comprehend the tragedy, the loss, the grief, the anger or the hole that has been left in their lives. It’s a wound that will never heal. It won’t go away in a year, a decade or even several decades. This type of pain cuts too deep to the heart.
Domestic violence is an ongoing disease that plagues Barrow County just as it does every corner of our state, country and world. I’m not smart enough to dissect what led the relationship between Lynn and her husband to the point it had reached. As of this writing, her husband sits in jail, arrested initially for giving false information to police and then later with her death once her body was discovered.
It’s easy to pretend things like this don’t happen or at least not to people who we know or in the place where we live. In reality, we know that’s not the case. Barrow County is no different than anywhere else. People do bad things here. People who you sit beside in church or pass on the street or perhaps someone you’ve even voted for once in a while do bad things. Human nature dictates as much.
Yet knowing that does not make the death of Tonya Faye Lynn any easier to take, any easier to accept or any easier to understand. If anything, it makes it more difficult because in viewing pictures of her we see a vibrant person with a warm smile. She was a loving mom with family members who cared. Now she has been taken, violently so, and while the cold facts may be known, the unanswered questions remain and haunt those left behind.
While it will be some time before they can appreciate it, at least an answer was found for family members to the mystery surrounding their loved one’s disappearance. It wasn’t the answer anyone wanted, but I’ve often thought not having any answer at all would have to be worse. Never being able to say goodbye is always a terrible footnote in many cases such as this which despite the best efforts of law enforcement do not produce a final outcome.
The decent people who make their home in Barrow County continue to grieve today for Tonya Faye Lynn. Even those, like me, who did not know her, have had her on our minds in recent days. We think of her loved ones and are thankful for family members who will care and provide for them moving forward.
The place we live in does turn ugly on occasion. It leaves an ugly taste in our mouth that no amount of spitting will remove. We can only ponder why and hope that it doesn’t happen to someone we know or to a family member.
We are often rattled from our protective existence when things of this nature take place. Our mind tries to convince us it won’t happen here, not to us, not in our world, not on our street. Yet, the realistic part of us knows different.
Barrow County is a little less whole today. Incidents of this kind are too ugly and too vile to ignore. I wish I had the answers but all I’m left with are more questions than before it happened. My condolences go out to Tonya Faye Lynn’s family during this most difficult of times.
Chris Bridges is editor of the Barrow Journal. You can reach him at cbridges@barrowjournal.com.
On behalf of the family we do thank you for your kind words. Tonya, aka Tonnie, was like none other. She had a contagous laughter & a heart of a servant.
My family and I hope the Royster's find some peace that Tonya is in a better place, her children be cared and loved for and justice be brought down harshly on her husband for this horrible crime. Our prayers are with the victims and we wish anyone suffering in an abusive relationship find professional help.