A Queens mom found dead on Rockaway Beach was beaten so severely, cops initially thought she had been shot, police sources said Wednesday.
Althea Lewis and her boyfriend, David Lynch, were arguing during an early morning dip. Prosecutors said Lewis, 45, was beaten, bitten and then suspended by her legs as her beau of only three weeks submerged her in the ocean.
"He loses his mind," a police source said. "He beat her so bad that at first we thought she was shot - she's got four holes in her face, indentations."
Lynch, a member of the National Guard and an Iraq War vet, left the crime scene and police pulled him over on Far Rockaway Blvd. for driving erratically. He led police to his girlfriend's body a few blocks away, later claiming she committed suicide.
The evidence on her body spoke to the contrary.
The couple went into the ocean to fool around, sources said. The tryst turned violent when Lewis slapped Lynch because he wouldn't let her get out of the water. That's when he beat her repeatedly, the sources said. The medical examiner ruled the case a homicide, citing the beating and drowning as causes of death.
Lynch was awaiting arraignment on a second-degree murder charge on Wednesday night and faces 25 years to life in jail if convicted.
Relatives said Lynch did three tours in Iraq before enlisting in the National Guard in 2008, and was studying criminal justice at La Guardia College. The suspect's brother, Brian Lynch, 40, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, described the accused killer as hot-headed.
"I told my brother numerous times, because he did have anger issues, that he should see somebody," Brian Lynch said.
Lewis' grief-stricken relatives refused to comment at the family's Rosedale home.
Friends said the victim had a 20-year-old daughter and a young son.
"She was a very beautiful person and a great friend," said the victim's friend Blaine Ested, 39. "I can't believe this. It doesn't make sense."
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