Going West: True Crime - Karen Barnes // 212

Episode Date: June 25, 2022

In August of 2012, a Georgia woman was living on a yacht in Saint Mary’s after a violent divorce. But when someone crept up to the boat while she was sleeping one night, she was murdered and the boat was set ablaze. Before her death, she had confided in a close friend about a stalker, and her fears of what they may do to her. This is the story of Karen Barnes. BONUES EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. News 4 Jacksonville: https://www.news4jax.com/news/2012/11/16/friends-look-for-answers-in-boat-murders/ 2. Passagemaker: https://www.passagemaker.com/trawler-news/dark-waters-burned 3. Power and Motor Yacht: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/blogs/revisiting-a-murder-mystery-on-a-yacht 4. Obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/myrtlebeachonline/name/karen-barnes-obituary?id=9721457 5. The Florida TImes-Union: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2012/08/15/skeletal-remains-found-burned-boat-suspect-killed-police-kingsland/987226007/ 6. News Herald: https://www.newspapers.com/image/482124804/?terms=%22david%20trauger%22&match=1 7. Passagemaker: https://www.passagemaker.com/lifestyle/latest-greatest-an-electronics-showcase 8. Insurance News: https://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/Insurance-Agent-Missing-After-Yacht-Burns-In-Florida-a-354163 8. News 4 Jacksonville: https://www.news4jax.com/news/2012/08/17/couple-divorced-over-boat-they-lived-on/ 9. Burned: Dark Waters: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10066410/?ref_=tt_mv_close Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to going west. Howdy folks. We were literally just dancing while we were saying the intro. We always do, just so you guys know we're always dancing into the intro. We're always getting it. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today. Hope everyone's having a good week. He's found today's case for us. I did. Yeah.

I was actually looking for cases kind of specific to summer since we are now in basically I think the full swing of summer now right? Is it officially summer? I think it's like June 20th. Yeah, yeah, it should be officially summer. So anyway, yeah, so I was just looking up like cases that involve boats and I came across this one and I hadn't seen a lot of coverage about it, but the story is really wild. It it seriously is.

It really is. It takes place in Georgia. So hopefully it's a new case to a lot of you, it is solved and it is crazy, so looking forward to hearing what you guys think, and again, thank you for tuning in. Alright guys, this is episode 212 of Going West, so let's get into it. In August of 2012, a Georgia woman was living on a yacht in St. Mary's after a violent divorce. But when someone crept up to the boat while she was sleeping one night, she was murdered and the boat was set ablaze.

Before her death, she had confided in a close friend about a stalker and her fears of what they may do to her. This is the story of Karen Barnes. Karen Shea Barnes was born on May 19th, 1959 in Marietta, Georgia and grew up alongside two brothers, Tony Barnes and John White, and then she also had a sister named Alicia White. Now, we couldn't find very much information about her early life, but there is no mention of a father, I'm sure she had one, but we're not sure his name. And we know that she did never have children,

and she has a different last name than two of her siblings, though the same last name is her brother Tony, so her mother Annette may have remarried at some point. Karen was described as having an adventurous spirit and a passion for life. Though Mary at a Georgia is just outside of Atlanta and about a four-hour drive from the ocean, her favorite place was the beach, and for years she collected seashells. Karen is remembered by friends as kind and charming and for being warm and friendly to everyone who is lucky enough to meet her.

Kareen eventually made the move to North Mertle Beach, South Carolina, to live by the sea, and they are she worked at Calla Hams, which was a gift shop for nautical souvenirs in nearby Callabash, South South Carolina for 15 years. After that, Karen's professional background veered into decorating an interior design. So I think it's really cool that she loved the beach and then she went to go work for like a little nautical gift shop and lived on the ocean, like totally living her truth.

Sounds like a dream, sounds like something I would do. It does. So when she was 50 years old, Karen was working as an event manager for a restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, which for reference is a four hour drive south of North Murdle Beach, so it appears that she moved back to her home state of Georgia. And of course, picked a coastal city, because again, she loves the beach. So this was a perfect place to be near family because her sister lived in Savannah as well, along with some of Karen's nieces and nephews, and their mother Annette in Brother John lived just about an hour away on the coast as well.

So it worked out because all of her family is most of her family is nearby. Right. And Savannah is where she met 64-year-old David Trauger. David worked in insurance and hailed from Pennsylvania, but it relocated to the coast of Georgia to fulfill his dream of living on a boat. And it's clear that both of them were looking for love because the two met on a dating site in September of 2009. Now Karen's friend Susan Graham said that he swept her off her feet with romantic gestures. Susan stated, quote, he brought her flowers and candy and wooed her from day one, then

painted this picture of the life that they could have together. And they headed off so well that within three months they were married and they hosted their wedding celebration on New Year's Eve of that year, which again was 2009. Susan also said that they were the picture-perfect couple inside and out, and David loved that she was such a good, kind person because it made him look good by association. So shortly after getting married, Karen moved on to David's boat with him, which seemed like a dream for her too since she loved the water.

A nod to his career in insurance, he called the boat the premium time. Now premium time was a 37-foot great harbor troller dubbed the GH37. GH, for the manufacturer, great harbor, and 37 for the length of the boat. Traillers for those who are wondering are described as power vessels that accommodate a cruising lifestyle, so it worked. Boat worked for them very well. Yeah, perfect. They could just hang out in the boat and just relax.

So David had his custom built, costing him a whopping $558,000, but it was his home after all. And it boasted two full baths, two bedrooms, a full kitchen with a double sink, a four-burner stove, stainless steel appliances, and a small motorboat attached to the aft side or the back of the boat. So this was like a great boat. And I think they call those dinghy. Yes. So when they weren't traveling, the boat was docked at the Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick, Georgia,

about an hour south of Savannah, Georgia. And Brunswick is a historic port city of about 16,000 people on the beautiful coast of Georgia situated right in between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida. It's famous for its Victorian era homes and buildings along with a bevy of posh resorts and golf clubs. The Great Harbor community was a small one with only a few select families and couples willing and able to live on their yachts full-time like David and Karen.

But that also meant that rumors spread pretty quickly and easily, and it turned out that David didn't have the sparkliest reputation after all. So in the fall of 2010, almost a year after they met, Karen and David sailed their boat down to the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas, along with a few other couples from the Great Harbor Yawding community. Susan and her husband sailed their boat, which was the same type of yacht, that they called the Odyssey down to the Bahamas alongside Karen and David Trauger.

So this seemed like a fun thing. There's a bunch of people that know each other going down to the same place, boating there together. Like, yeah, to be a good time. So yeah, you would think so. I mean, they're going to this yeah, to be a good time. So yeah, you would think so. I mean, they're going to this tropical island to have a good time, but David was notoriously disliked in this circle with fellow cruisers claiming

that he was prone to mood swings and volatile jealousy. Susan said after observing him and Karen in the abaco islands, he was quote, a mean alcoholic, and that he would curse terribly, which he didn't normally do when he was sober. Ken Fickett, who owned the manufacturing company that constructed David's yacht, told police later that it was well known that David had been abusive to his wives and girlfriends, and that he was quote,

a whack job. David also had a bit of a rap sheet. On November 28, 1999, David was arrested for a domestic disturbance involving him and another woman, and his ex-wife Linda had also filed a restraining order against him after their divorce. And this is so sad because he probably showed his best side

in the beginning of the relationship and there's Karen thinking, I've met this amazing man, only for them to get married very quickly and for him to turn out to be a terrible dude. Yeah, I mean, it seems like he was definitely hiding this violent side of him from Karen. Right, but as her friend said, like he seemed he swept her off her feet, he seemed like this amazing guy. So why not get married after three months if you feel like you found the love of your life?

Sure. Only for things to go south as soon as, you know, the nuptials are done. Yeah, and we know that that's how it was because Karen only began to realize who he really was just a few months into their marriage. While in the Bahamas, Karen had been Skyping with two friends catching up when David came home drunk. He demanded that she get off of the computer, but when she refused and continued her conversation, as she is more than allowed to do, he came up behind her and started strangling her with a cord while

her friends watched horrified and helpless. That's unreal to me. Yes, so they're watching their friend being strangled from behind. After Karen came too and confronted David about what he had done, the couple argued and David grabbed a hold of her arm, twisting it so hard that he broke Karen's arm. When that happened, Karen filed for divorce, understandably. As if you would have been able to come back from strangling her in front of her friends, he goes and breaks her bone.

So luckily she did not look past this and knew that he had gone way too far and she needed to get away from him. And that's like severe. Absolutely. And you know, earlier when we talked about the fact that he had some arrest records, one of which included an incident with a woman, I couldn't find the information, but I did see it when I was doing research for this case initially. But there was an incident, I think it was something involving him and a woman in a parking lot and how he struck a woman in the face.

I'm pretty sure that's what happened. I'd have to go back and look and check. I wouldn't be surprised. And just knowing that Karen filed for divorce after this, I know this is really hard because a lot of domestic abuse victims don't feel safe doing that, knowing how violent their partner is, and knowing that David has it in him to break her arm and strangle her in front of her friends. The fact that she filed her for divorce is something that a lot of women and men can't don't feel safe doing.

So this is a very scary situation. Well, this at least is what Karen did at first, filing for divorce, but as in many abusive relationships, sadly, David, tapping into this like charming and manipulative side, convinced her to get back together with him if he would go to alcoholics anonymous. Right, because again, he did this while he was drunk, so he probably told her that it was the only reason that it happened, and that he vowed to get sober, meaning that sort of behavior would just magically disappear, right? So David and Karen got back together for a time, and even settled in a different marina.

They relocated to Jekyll Island, which is very fitting for this scenario, and is just south of Brunswick, a small island off the coast of Georgia known for its beaches and popularity with tourists. David was attending AA and things actually seemed to be getting better between the two. In April of 2012, the trawgers took a vacation to Hawaii. It's unknown what happened while they were there, or what the official last draw was for Karen, but upon her arrival home, she finally filed for divorce from David Trauger, telling her lawyer that she was tired of the abuse.

David also obtained an attorney of course, but he was telling a very different story. David hired Crystal Ferryer of Brunswick, Georgia to handle his side of the divorce proceedings, telling her that this was just a part of a plan that Karen and David had. He explained that he and his former wife of 22 years Linda were still in the process of diving up their assets and that he was petrified of losing his prized possession, his boat, valued at a half a million dollars like I said earlier. So this is where the story gets a little murky. As it was depicted on the investigation discovery episode of Dark Waters Murder in the Deep on this case, David was under no assumption that the two would get back together again. They divided their assets and agreed that it was fair

that Karen got the boat and David got everything else. But according to David's attorney crystal, the divorce was presented to her as a sham to keep David's former wife Linda from obtaining the yacht and keep it in his and Karen's possession. In her words, quote, he thought it was going to be theirs forever, the two of them. Never did he think that he was going to just give it away. So that's kind of confusing, but basically the way that David is presenting this whole situation to his lawyer, the divorce from Karen Barnes, is that it's just a ruse, like it's, it's their way of keeping the boat and not giving up to his ex-wife, but on the other hand, Karen is like, I am being abused by this man, I want a divorce. So he's just completely lying.

Yeah, I don't know exactly the whole situation or what they talked about in private, but the fact that he's thinking that, you know, she's just gonna, after this whole thing is settled, they're gonna stay together. When in Karen's mind, she's like, no, you're abusive. I actually do want to have a real divorce with you. But I don't know, I don't know if he's in denial or if he's just lying to his attorney because I don't

know what would make him under the impression that this was not a real divorce. Unless again, he is not telling the truth. Well again, David thinks this is some sort of sham to prevent his ex-wife Linda from getting his boat. So he's like, well maybe if we do this scenario, I don't know how that would work legally. Right, but I mean, like, does he actually think that? Or is he lying?

I'm pretty sure he actually thinks that. How? Like, how would he think this? It's possible that he and Karen had talked about this divorce, you know, prior to them filing for it, and that they agreed like, hey, this is the plan. about this divorce prior to them filing for it, and that they agreed like, hey, this is the plan. But then Karen was like, maybe she was like,

this is a great way to get him to agree to divorce. To a divorce, yeah, if I tell him that this is, you know, because she's in an abusive relationship. So she's trying to think of the options in which she can get out of this relationship. How does she do it? She tells David, hey, you know, if we do this, like your ex-wife isn't going to get the boat, David says, oh, okay, let's do this plan.

I just wonder if that's how it actually went down, knowing that she told her attorney that she was tired of the abuse and that's why she was going forth with the divorce, because that's what it really seems like she was doing. So to me, it doesn't seem like she would come up with a scheme unless, like what you're saying is that this was kind of in her head the only way, but that's what's hard about this case as we don't really know. But Karen seems to be very, very serious. So Peter Swanson, a writer for boating publications, passagemaker, and soundings, covered the

case as it was happening, and was also interviewed in the Dark Waters episode. In his reports, he stated that David still owed his ex-wife Linda $235,000 from their divorce, but that through some fancy legal work, they would avoid her being able to take possession of premium time, which again is the boat. Linda had put a lien on the boat in February of 2012, so a handful of months before Karen Barnes filed for divorce. And this was in an attempt to take possession of it herself. And if you don't know, a lien is essentially a form of interest granted on an item or a piece of property to ensure the payment of a debt.

So Crystal maintained that the divorce proceedings between David and Karen were a sham and an ill-conceived scheme to put the boat out of his ex-wife's reach. But it was no scam. Karen really wanted this divorce and was simply trying to divvy up she and David's assets so that she could move on. But David alleged that he and Karen would continue with their relationship as usual and then remarries sometime in the future.

That this really was all just some sort of legal loophole and that he and Karen's relationship was just fine. Or at least, that's what David thought. According to his attorney crystal, instead of holding up her end of the bargain, Karen took off with the boat. Crystal said that he had been devastated and distraught at this and that he would have done anything for Karen. She said quote, Mr. Trauger said that she's the one that came up with the plan. Did he go along with it? Yes, he did. To get divorced, and in the divorce, she would sign the boat over to him, and they would

just continue living on happily ever after. That's just such a twisty plot anyway, especially considering, like I said, Karen is telling her attorney that her reasons for wanting this divorce were abuse. And I mean, this really just shows David's character even more that he is painting the relationship in such a false light. Yeah, and you know, it's so weird because a lot of times, a lot of times abusers feel like they haven't done anything wrong. Yeah.

And I'm curious if that's the situation with David. He just thinks everything is peachy and keen. Oh, yeah, I hit her a couple times, but it's no big deal. Right. He may be that guy. Yeah, we're going to touch on that later on in this episode actually because I fully believe that is the case. So of course, from Karen's perspective, she had filed for divorce after he had threatened and stalked her and she had submitted a report to the police about this. It was only then that she had the locks changed

and she claims this is when David tried to break in through the upper deck. She also filed a motion for him to be found in contempt for not paying alimony, but Crystal argued that he hadn't known where Karen was or where she had taken his boat. But you can't have been signed over to her. Yeah, and that's because she's trying to fucking hide from you, dude.

Right. Chris will also stated that none of this sounded like the David she knew and that she was mystified by these allegations, typical manipulative abuser, right? So in her words regarding the divorce settlement, she said, quote, Mr. Trauger is not a dumb man. He did make mistakes. One was signing this thing. Peter believes that Dark Waters, the show on this case,

got it slightly wrong, however, writing in an article published after the airing of the episode, quote, had it been a straightforward divorce with no secret side deals, David could have easily liquidated other assets to compensate Karen. It's hard to believe based on my reporting that with all the options at his command and his influence, that David would have chosen to sacrifice his beloved great harbour 37. For me, that just does not hang together.

Crystal Faryr agrees and said that no judge would ever have awarded her the boat in their divorce proceedings regardless of the circumstances. She said, quote, he had this boat custom built before he ever met Karen. And then she also said, I have the bill of sale, he paid $558,000 for it, and he signs it over to her, no way and hell. She claims that the two were still living amicably together on the boat, at least as far as David knew, when he came home to find the locks changed. David told his attorney crystal later that he had returned to the boat one afternoon with flowers and wine to find himself locked out and argued that this was out of the blue as she had just given

him a birthday card and was still using his credit cards. Karen of course told a very different story, but either way when Karen took possession of the boat herself, David was livid. The way she related in June of 2012, about two months after Karen initially filed for divorce, David showed up to the Jekyll Island Marina with wine and flowers, trying again in vain to win her back, and escorted himself onto the boat as usual. And this is frustrating on its own because, you know, David can say, oh, I brought flowers and wine, I'm such a good guy, it's like, that doesn't mean shit, you know.

He's the quintessential, I'm going to abuse you and then try and, you know, smooth things over by buying you gifts or something. Right. So David found that the locks had been changed and police officers were there waiting for him. Karen had filed a restraining order against David, and police have dashed camera footage of his reaction, snapping at the officer saying, quote, I got really fucked. Jesus Christ, what am I going to do? A police officer asked if he still lived in Florida

where his legal address was located, and he responded angrily, quote, no, that was the whole deal, pointing to the boat. That is my home. That's just a mailing address. I have no house and I got no money and I got no assets. It's all in that fucking boat that she just took off in. If she says I make her asking phone calls to her, bull, I don't know what to do. I can't believe this."

An officer then asked him what his intention was in coming down to the Marina and he said quote, To live on that boat till the day I die. As he was being escorted off, he uttered one final threat. This is my boat and I will kill you guys. Heron was so terrified of David at this point that she navigated the boat 50 miles south to the St. Mary's boatyard in St. Mary's Georgia. Just minutes from the border of Georgia and Florida, and she docked it there, tucked away from the coastline on the St. Mary's River. She's like, I gotta get out of here, I gotta get away from David.

Karen and her sister, Lisha, even treated in her car for a new one so that he couldn't recognize her when she was out driving and follow her home. This is like how intense this is getting. She's like, I gotta get a new car, I gotta move this boat like far away. Like, I do of course understand why David wants his boat, but this whole divorce is so complicated. Like, if he didn't want her to have the boat, then she shouldn't have gotten the boat. Like, he shouldn't have agreed to give it to her when he knew there were issues. Like, that's your bad, dude. Yeah, like, you're kind of a dumbass. But the scary part in all of this is that all of this stuff did not stop David from finding her. Crystal Faryr said that David called her one day and said,

Quote, Crystal, I found her. I just ran into her inside of Walmart. I followed her out to see where she was going and she ran like you had never seen somebody run. That's kind of a red flag, dude. Why are you telling your attorney? Oh, yeah, I followed my ex-wife and she ran from me like she acts your scary. She also has a restraining order against you.

Right. And you're telling your attorney that you're following her around him. Pretty sure the advice Crystal probably gave him is dude stop. I hope she did. So Karen filed yet another police report that same day. And by the way, there is footage of David following her around Walmart. It's really creepy.

You can see the footage she's shopping and he's just like creepily stalking behind her. Is this in that episode of Dark Waters? It is. We'll try to find it off of that episode and post it. But if we didn't post it, it's because we couldn't find it otherwise, and so you should just watch that episode. So the next day, a resident reported seeing someone who fits David's description at the dock at the St. Mary's boatyard. Karen also reported to police that mysterious things were

happening on the boat. Items were being moved or knocked over when she was not aboard, and that she was even finding handprints left behind. She assumed that this was David sneaking on to scare or threaten her. At one point, she even found that the steering lines had been cut, removing the ability to steer completely. Stranded and floating in the marina, she was an easy target for David to continue to terrorize. So Karen was alone and terrified. Now a friend of hers, 71-year-old Larry Ford, came to stay with her to keep an eye on her.

Larry was described as an old hippie and a gentle, kindhearted man who made Karen feel safe. Love Larry, he sounds like such a great guy. So while all publications refer to him as a friend only, friends and family remember a totally different story that they had unexpectedly fallen in love and they were more of an item than just friends. And he couldn't have been more different from David, and that was surely refreshing for Karen. A friend of Larry's said that he'd never seen Larry smile or laugh as much as he did with Karen, which is so sweet. He also took protecting Karen very seriously,

even purchasing his and hers guns. The same weekend that David's doctor at Walmart, a friend of Larry's approach to him telling him that he was worried about Larry involving himself in the situation, but that Larry had replied with, quote, I've got to help her. After Karen's public run in with David, she filed a protective order against him, but he was never served papers because the police were never able to find him. And just three days later, something terrible happened aboard the premium time. On Monday, August 13, 2012, authorities received a 911 call at around 3.20 a.m., but no one

on the line spoke to the operator. However, the call recorded screams and sounds of what appeared to be an altercation. And as terrifying as this call sounds without even hearing it, it makes sense that this horrific call still haunts the officers that were forced to listen to it. The operator reported that it sounded like someone was being hit. Police described the call as such, quote, The male on the recording sounds to be in great distress and agony. The male screams audible words occasionally such as,

You bastard and why? At the end of the recording is a deep voice which says, how do you get in here? The police were able to trace the 911 call to Karen's phone, and they knew where she was because they had obviously responded to calls made from her boat a few times before. But when officers reached the boatyard at St. Mary's, they found the yacht engulfed in flames. Once the flames subsided, investigators did a sweep of what was left of the property and collected what they believed to be bone fragments, which were sent off to a lab

to be identified. Aside from the fragments, police found a bullet, two shells, and parts of a handgun in the charred remains of David and Karen's beloved boat. And by the way, I haven't heard the entirety of the call, but on Dark Waters, they do have part of the call in that episode. And basically, it's just the part where you can hear someone say, you bastard and why. Right, but not the other parts of the call and probably the more disturbing parts of the call.

Right, because I'm assuming that the call was probably longer than what they showed on Dark Waters. Right, of course. So, police believe that David took a skiff, which is a small shallow, flat-bottomed boat out to the yacht, where Karen and Larry were asleep aboard. He crept onto the boat and shot Karen and Larry, enough to hurt and disarm them, but not badly enough to kill them. Much of the paneling on the boat was this varnish

finish coating, and that isn't very flammable, so investigators believe that David doused the entire yacht in gasoline or anotherant, and burn the couple alive. Yeah, basically, he shot them to injure them, but wanted them to like suffer in this fire, which is so fucking evil. It's just so extreme. So police said the blaze was so strong that the interior of the boat reached temperatures up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, or almost 1,650 degrees Celsius. Karen's friend Susan said later in an interview quote,

If you'd asked me if he was capable, I would have laughed in your face and said, this is ridiculous. I know him well enough to know he's not a murderer. Well, I guess I didn't know him that well. And I understand that his mindset was probably like, if I can't have the boat neither can you and maybe a bit of, if I can't have Karen no one can, but he was clearly in denial about their divorce in general. And this is such a brutal way to kill her and her innocent friend and possible partner Larry. And David didn't even get the boat out of it. Yeah, exactly, and David didn't even look no Larry.

Right, and the fact that David was capable of doing this just gives us a peek into what kind of husband he really was, alongside what horrible things we already know, but this just proves Karen's point further. Exactly. So please now have two potential murder victims, and the ashy remains of one boat, but no murder suspect. Although David was obviously believed to be the perpetrator, he was nowhere to be found. Someone matching David's description, clad in all black and wearing a baseball cap,

was spotted in a residential area off the Interstate 95 later in the day on Monday. Police later located the dinghy determined to have been tied to the yacht. It was partially sunk in a nearby marsh off of the St. Mary's River, and the rope used to tie an anchor it had been burned. On Tuesday, August 14, 2012, the day after the premium time burned, David was set to be in Glyn County Superior Court to ask a judge to set aside his divorce and give him back possession of the boat, according to Attorney Crystal.

He was supposed to meet Crystal in her office to prepare for the hearing at 2pm that day, but of course he never showed up. Yeah, because the boat doesn't exist anymore. Exactly, he burned it to the ground. So worded spread like wildfire in the small coastal communities dotted on the shore. While the boat debacle was supposedly being ironed out, David had been renting an apartment in Kingsland, Georgia, just a 15-minute drive from St. Mary's.

David had been reported as a person of interest in the arson of the yacht and the probable deaths of the couple who were likely aboard. On the morning of Wednesday, August 15th, a neighbor spotted him at the Willow Way apartments and reported the sighting to police. When officers arrived on the scene, David was outside. When they attempted to take him into custody for questioning, he rebuked their instructions and raised a gun to them. At this point, the officers opened fire, killing David on the spot.

Thankfully, no officers were injured, but this also meant that the families of the two victims would never really know exactly what happened. And I wonder if this was a suicide by cop situation considering he knew he was caught and he didn't have anything in life anyway? I mean, it seems like that's a pretty likely scenario. Basically, his boat is gone.

He killed his ex-wife, and then he raised a gun at police. I'm assuming that he knew what was going to happen. And coincidentally, later that day, the medical examiner officially concluded that the charred skeletal remains found on board the premium time were those of Karen Barnes and Larry Ford. After his death, David's daughter Darcy reached out to Peter Swanson, again the reporter covering the case in the cruising lifestyle magazines, and said this. Quote, I need the public to know his whole story, not just the murders. It's so easy for

people to read that he was just a jealous alcoholic husband and chalk up his murders to a violent rage. No one knows how violent he was his entire life, how he treated my mother and me, and how his actions led my oldest half-sister to suicide. Damn, that is deep. And this is why it's so important for police to take domestic violence seriously, just knowing that he ruined so many people's lives, including his own children with his violence, and then he murders two innocent people. So in his article covering the demise of the relationship of Karen Barnes, Peter wrote that we will never know exactly what happened between the former couple to get

to this point, or who was supposed to have the boat in the divorce proceedings and why. He said quote, In line with such a possibility, even if Karen had effectively committed fraud within a fraud, who can blame her? She was fighting for her life. Acque essence to Trowger's fake divorce strategy may have seemed like the least bad option available. Take the boat and run.

Burn chose to portray Karen Trauger barns in a saintly fashion. My original reporting has been more nuanced. Regardless, the bottom line is that nothing this lovely woman did justified her murder. David Trauger was a monster. A note that David left found after his death, red quote, As the end gets closer, I am becoming more and more at peace. I am so tired of fighting mostly Linda and now Karen. So how can I do so good in business

and so lousy with wives? All I ever wanted was someone to love me as much as I loved them. David. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. Okay, now we can talk about that letter. God, what a toxic letter to write, just absolving himself of any responsibility regarding what he did to those women throughout his relationship with them, as if it were all like out of love

when it was just pure anger and senseless violence. Yeah, poor pedophile me, David, who abuses my wives. Shut up. Yeah, just love me as much as I love you. That wasn't love, dude. So frustrating. He's a coward. He's definitely a coward. Agreed. So please let us know what you think of this episode. If you want to see photos of Karen, if you want to see what the boat looked like to kind of get a visual, we posted photos of that. And for every case we cover on our socials, our Instagram is at Going West Podcast, Twitter at Going West Pod, and Instagram

are not Instagram. Facebook, we have Going West True Crime, and then our discussion group is going West Discussion Group. Yeah, I think right now we have like 7,000 people in our discussion group. So there's tons of true crime talk that you can be involved with. Also, if you're looking for more going West episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast. We have full length ad free episodes for you guys to binge. Yes, and we're about to release a brand new episode on there as well, which is insane and heathen i really get into it with that one so we'll discuss what that episode is in the next

episode of Going West. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% dextr. 1.5% dextr. 1.5% dextr. 1.5% dextr. 1.5% dextr. you