Man charged with beating his girlfriend to death, leaving body on Queens beach

A Queens man has been charged with beating to death his girlfriend, whose body was found on the beach in Far Rockaway.

David Lynch, 30, allegedly killed Athea Lewis, 41 - then led police to the body early Tuesday morning. Police at first though Lewis, found near the shoreline at Beach 32nd Street, had been shot.

But the city medical examiner ruled she died from blunt-force injuries to her head, nasal fractures, a brain hemorrhage and submersion in water.

A man who identified himself as the father of Lewis' child called her "a beautiful person."

It was not yet clear why Lewis was killed. Lynch was stopped by police for driving erratically, not far from the crime scene, and told officers there was a body on the beach