Sunday, June 3, 2012

Lynn Haven, FL: UPDATED: Husband charged in wife's death

LYNN HAVEN — On Sunday, Gary Wesley Tennyson told police he planned to explore his options for a separation or divorce from his wife.

On Wednesday, he was charged with an open count of murder after police recovered the body of 28-year-old Glenda Tennyson in a shed behind the couple’s 19th Court home.

Lynn Haven Police Chief David Messer said her body showed signs of severe injury to the back of her neck and at least two stab wounds in her back. Her body was wrapped in a blanket and placed in the shed, and police believe her body was moved after her death. Messer didn’t know how long she had been dead. Gary Tennyson, 35, wasn’t cooperating with investigators, Messer said.

“It could have been a day; it could have been two days. We don’t know,” Messer said. “That’s the medical examiner’s call.”

The Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy this week.

Glenda Tennyson was reported missing by her father just after midnight Tuesday, according to police records, and police had been called to a dispute between the Tennysons early Sunday.

Christopher Stokes told the Lynn Haven Police on Tuesday that he had not seen his daughter in several days. An officer who attempted to contact her spoke with a neighbor who said he had last seen Glenda Tennyson around 8 a.m. Sunday, authorities reported. Stokes declined to comment Wednesday.

Earlier Sunday, police responded to the couple’s home after Glenda Tennyson called police to report a domestic dispute around 2:30 a.m. Both Tennysons told police the dispute had not become violent, but there had been violent fights in the past, according to police records. Lynn Haven officers put Glenda Tennyson on the phone with representatives from the Salvation Army Crisis Program, but Tennyson refused to go to a shelter and said she would spend the night with a relative instead.

Lynn Haven Police had come into contact with Gary Tennyson on at least eight occasions since January 2011. Police reports indicated he acted erratically on several of those occasions.

He served about a year in prison on several burglary-related charges before he was released in 2008, according to the Department of Corrections’ website, but there were no records of the case on the Bay County Clerk of Courts’ website. Tennyson’s only arrest on the clerk’s site was in January, when he was arrested in Lynn Haven for resisting an officer. He pleaded no contest in that case and was sentenced to five days in jail.

According to Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Nicole Stookey, DCF officials responded Thursday morning and removed two children from the home.

Earlier versions of this story are posted below:

LYNN HAVEN — Police have arrested a Lynn Haven man and charged him with an open count of murder in the death of his wife, whose body was discovered in a shed on their property Wednesday morning.

Police have not identified the woman, but property records indicate the house is the residence of Gary Wayne Tennyson and his wife Glenda Tennyson, who was reported missing by her father just after midnight Tuesday, according to police records.

Christopher Stokes told the Lynn Have Police Tuesday that he had not seen his daughter in several days. An officer who attempted to contact her spoke with a neighbor who said he had last seen Glenda Tennyson around 8 a.m. Sunday.

Earlier Sunday, police responded to a domestic dispute between Glenda and Gary Tennyson at the address where police conducting an investigation Wednesday.

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