True Crime All The Time - Morgan Bauer

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

In February 2016, 19-year-old Morgan Bauer left her hometown of Aberdeen, South Dakota, and moved to the Atlanta area hoping to start a new life. Less than two weeks later, she vanished. For seven years, Morgan’s disappearance remained a cold case, with investigators struggling to determine exactly what happened during her final days. Then, in 2023, new information dramatically changed the course of the investigation and led authorities to a property in Porterdale, Georgia. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Morgan Bauer's disappearance, the years-long search for answers, and the disturbing evidence that ultimately broke the case wide open. What investigators discovered finally provided answers about Morgan’s fate and resulted in arrests connected to her disappearance and murder. The truth was more shocking than anyone could have imagined.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 539 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime. Mike Gibson, Gibby, how are you? Hey, I'm doing good, man, and how are you doing? I am doing great. Yeah? As always. That's just you, man.

Sometimes I want to mix it up, but I can't. You keep all that, you're like Teflon. You keep all that negative stuff away. Yeah, I love my life. What can I say? That's a way to do it. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Jessica Smith.

Hey, Jessica. Patrick Hill. What's going on, Patrick? Ann Edward. Hey, Ann. Paula Jordan. There's Paula. Michelle Dimbensky. Oh, man, I love that last name, DeBensky. Sarah. What's happening, Sarah?

And last but not least, Brett Eady. Or Ed. Could be. Don't know. Then if we go back into the vault. This week, we selected Cheyenne M. Hey, thanks, Cheyenne. Yeah, we appreciate the new support, the continued support.

So we have an episode out right now on Unsolved. We're talking about Polly Melton. She was hiking through the Great Smoky Mountains with friends in September 1981 when she disappeared under mysterious circumstances. And obviously it's been like 45 years since that point and no trace of her has ever been found. Yeah. Smoky Mountain. So we've both been there.

Yeah. Love the Smoky Mountains. And on next Thursday's T-Cat, we're talking about. 13-year-old David Reed. He went missing in August 1985 after failing to return home from a bike ride. His body was found four months later and his cause of death was listed as undetermined. It took till 2008. Too long. Too long for investigators to declare his death a homicide and then just

months later they made a surprising arrest. All right buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all this time? I'm ready. We're talking about Morgan Bowler. In February 2016, Morgan Bauer moved from a small town in South Dakota to the Atlanta area. Less than two weeks later, she disappeared. Morgan's case went cold for the next seven years when authorities discovered the shocking and disturbing circumstances surrounding her disappearance in death. That's a big move, man, going from a small town in South Dakota to Atlanta. which is a very, very large town.

I was thinking the same thing. You know, culturally, just population-wise, right? I live in a fairly small town. Right. I don't know how well I would do living in a big city. Probably not well. No. I lived in Detroit on the outskirts of Detroit,

nowhere near as big as Atlanta. Yeah. And declining every year since I live there. 19-year-old Morgan Bauer was originally from Aberdeen, South Dakota. On February 12th, 2016, Morgan flew into Atlanta, Georgia, intending to live there. According to her mother, Sherry Keenan, speaking to Fox 5 Atlanta, Morgan made a deal with someone she met on Craigslist to clean their home for room and board while she looked for a place to live, but the deal didn't work out.

Morgan stayed at various hotels and found work as an exotic dancer in Gainesville, Georgia. Craig's list is a little strange. I remember Craig's list was big at one point, but I know a lot of people felt like they were being scammed off of Craigslist, no matter what you were trying to do on it. Yeah, I really have never done anything on Craigslist. I just think everything's a scam. So I don't do a lot of like selling on those types of, um, marketplaces. Right.

Or, you know, just whatever anybody's offering. You know me. I'm not a very trusting person. You're very skeptical. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, how disappointed would she have to be?

I mean, you leave your hometown land in Atlanta thinking, I got myself. for a job, I'm going to get started. Things are going to go pretty good, right? And she finds out, nope, I don't have a place to stay. And I got to start from scratch. Investigators initially believed Morgan went missing. On February 25th, 2016, she worked at a nightclub in Gainesville, left the club with some people per 11 alive, and was dropped off at a Citgo gas station in Covington, Georgia. After Morgan wasn't heard from in the weeks following her disappearance, she was considered a missing person. And then her case went cold. That year Morgan's mom, Sherry Keenan, started the missing Morgan Facebook page. But unfortunately, it seems Morgan's case didn't receive a lot

of coverage in the years she was missing. In 2019, Sherry Keenan came to Atlanta to hand out flyers at a community event. She told 11 alive, there isn't a lot of information out there. Morgan is a cold case, but an active cold case with the Atlanta Police Department. So there's a couple of things here for me, Gibbs. One is, obviously, she's not going to have much family in this area. No. And I can't imagine she had too many friends.

She hadn't been there long at all. Basically all new to her. Yeah. I mean, so new that she couldn't. even find a place to go stay with friends or family, right? She had to stay at hotels and motels and things like that. Yeah. And obviously heartbreaking for her mom because she has no idea where her daughter is, she's got to fly to Atlanta as any parent would to hand out flyers to try to get the word out. My other thing is, you know, when you talk about a cold case, which there are a lot

of them out there. Some departments aren't really big enough to have their own cold case unit. Atlanta, I'm sure, has a massive police department. Oh, I would think. I would hope. One of the bigger ones in the country because Atlanta is huge. Now, it's not New York City, but I'm sure it's a pretty big police department. In February, 2003, Sherry did another interview with 11 alive, revealing investigators. had recently discovered that Morgan last posted on social media on February 26th, 2016, not February 25th, as originally believed. According to Sherry, this changes the entire timeline of events.

It also changes the last person known to have seen Morgan. I contacted Morgan's detectives. They hadn't heard any different dates other than the 25th either. As mentioned, investigators thought Morgan was last seen on February 25th when she was dropped off at a gas station, but a friend of Morgan's sent Sherry a screenshot of Morgan's last post dated February 26th. The video appeared to show Morgan in a park with a man walking behind her. Eleven Alive reported that this meant police might have been looking in the wrong places. based on an incorrect timeline.

Sherry noted that the police were having to recheck everything in the case. But that's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing. I just, I'm kind of wondering how they got that far into it without realizing that she posted on Facebook on the 26th. Yeah. You would think that that would be a part of any investigation, right? In the social media age,

combing through a person's social media accounts, especially if they're a big poster. I mean, they could look through mine. They're going to find anything. But, you know, a younger person, most of them use social media quite liberally. You would think they would have caught that. You would think, but maybe the person that was researching that

somehow overlooked it. Or maybe they didn't look past the 25th because that's what they were told. Oh, that's true. Sherry said she was holding on to hope that Morgan was alive, but feared she may have been trafficked. And that's always a fear in these types of disappearance cases. We talk about it a lot on unsolved, right? No one has heard from this person.

Could they have met with foul play? Could they, you know, be deceased and not yet found? Yes, that's always a possibility. But the possibility also exists that traffic. trafficking could be involved. Yeah, sadly. Sadly, it is much more prevalent than I think any of us want to imagine. On July 27, 2023, police executed a search warrant on a property in Porterdale, Georgia.

Police said new information led to the warrant, but didn't say if the video discovered by Sherry was what prompted the search. Several agencies were involved in the search, including the FBI, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Peoria, Illinois Police, and the Newton County Coroner's Office. I got a lot of people involved here. And it's interesting that Peoria, Illinois is involved. Investigators confirmed they found items of evidentiary interest, but did not say what those items were. The following day, Sherry said she had made peace with the unthinkable. She believed Morgan would have reached out to her or her grandmother if she was alive.

And that's what I always think. Yeah. If a person is alive and able to and they have a good relationship with their family, I just don't know how they don't reach out and at least say, you know, hey, I left. I wanted to start a new life, but I love you. I'm okay. Don't worry.

Don't worry. So when they don't do that, you have to think that some foul play happened. Or they're being held, trafficked, whatever it may be, and not allowed access to any type of communication. Sherry also recalled the last time she talked to Morgan saying, we didn't really talk. I gave her a penny, though. I told her to put the penny in her pocket and to keep it with her to keep her safe. She was with a friend, but I don't know who he was. They walked off, and that was the last time I ever saw her.

Morgan's friend, Terran Ryan, described her as someone with an infectious laugh who loved to have fun. She told Atlanta News first. The city life is what she wanted. It didn't really matter where. And maybe that answers the question. Yeah. Right? Of why she wanted to move from South Dakota, probably small town, South Dakota.

Yeah. Let's face it, South Dakota doesn't have a lot of big towns or big cities. And if she really wanted that big city lifestyle, Atlanta's the place you could get it. Taryn also said she last spoke to Morgan on the morning of February 26th, 2016. They talked for just five minutes over Skype before Morgan had to leave. On August 5, 2003, the Porterdale Police Department reported that it had obtained a rest warrant. for two suspects. Caitlin Goebel was arrested in Peoria, Illinois,

on charges of evidence tampering and concealing a death. Jonathan Alexander Alex Warren was arrested in Los Angeles, on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, and concealing a death. Alex Warren's previous address was the Porterdale property, where authorities executed the search warrant in late July. Additionally, the last video Morgan ever posted was taken at the Yellow River Park not far from the Porterdale address. So obviously, the search warrant proved valuable the month prior to this.

Well, it must have given them enough, right, to obtain arrest warrants, arrest these two individuals. It turned out that it was Caitlin Goplin, who approached investigators in the summer of 2000. She had information about a murder. Caitlin's estranged husband also revealed to investigators that she confessed to helping dispose of the body. Caitlin led investigators to Morgan's remains. At her and Alex Warren's previous address in Porterdale, the remains were charred and dismembered. In 2006, court TV also reported that Morgan's jewelry was found in the vents of a room where the, former couple had stayed.

So we're getting more information, right, about the evidence that they uncovered, that led to the arrest warrants. Not good when the charred and dismembered remains of a woman, along with her jewelry, is found at a residence where you, you know, once lived. It's not the kind of thing you want to hear if you're the family. No, tough for the family to hear that. But it's also not something you want to hear if you're the perpetrator. Well, that's true.

Yeah, both sides. Because, I mean, that's damning evidence, Gibbs, right? If you're on a jury and the prosecutor tells you that the victim's charred and dismembered remains were found at the perpetrator's previous address, along with some jewelry that was hidden, okay. I mean, that coupled with just a few other things is going to be tough to mount a defense again. Back in 2016, Kaelan was also working as an exotic dancer. She befriended Morgan and offered her a temporary place to stay. According to prosecutors, Katelyn claimed Alex Warren was solely responsible for the murder. She said she was present and helped dismember the victim.

before they put the remains in a suitcase and set it on fire in the backyard. Sounds really messed up. Well, obviously, this is brutal. I just don't get it. How can two people, let's say a couple, right, come to the conclusion that they're going to kill somebody. They're both going to participate in the dismemberment. They're going to put the body parts in a suitcase.

and then they're going to set it on fire. How does that conversation even come up? Yeah, I just don't know. And I don't know how you agree to that. Like, are you in a relationship and you love that person so much that they say, hey, I got a little crazy earlier today. I need you to help me take this body apart. Do you have your carry-on bag or something a little bit bigger so we can pack it up and then we're

going to burn it? It's just wild, right? even think about. Alex Warren confessed at his 2023 arraignment and he asked for the death film. But in his interview with investigators, Alex told a different story than Caitlin.

Alex said Caitlin was obsessed with the occult and the underworld and was interested in forensic pathology and had a desire to cut up the body. We've heard this before. Yeah. But here's another thing that we hear all the time. which is one perpetrator has a story,

the other perpetrator has another story, and shockingly they conflict. Yeah. And basically one is pointing the finger at the other and vice versa. It's interesting that he's actually saying, yeah, I took part in it and go ahead and give me the death penalty. I'm okay with that. Yeah, he's confessing,

but he's painting a different picture of how exactly it went down. I feel like he's saying, and don't forget to bring her along with me. Yeah, because he actually said Caitlin committed the murder. And then after the murder, they waited for Morgan's blood to coagulate before dismembering her. Alex claimed that he and Caitlin ate part of Morgan's genitals. Alex also confessed to committing acts of necrophilia with the body before they placed the remains in a suitcase. Three days later and burned it in the backyard. All right. It's all sick, but that's really sick. It is nasty. This is, it gets worse with every detail, right? We just got done talking about, you know, how do you have a conversation about murder? Well, now we've got to dive into how do you have a conversation about cannibalism and necrophilia? And how do you make the decision to move forward with that? And they didn't dismember and, you know, set the body.

on fire for three days. Yeah. So how long was some of this stuff going on afterwards? That's the problem. Because the body starts decomposing very quickly. Yeah. Definitely some sick individuals. And I feel bad for Morgan's mom, you know, she has to learn this.

Yeah. To learn these details. Yeah. Number one, that your daughter's dead, but the details of what she went through and what happened to her body post-mortem and all of that. In October, 23, Caitlin Goebel and Alex Warren were indicted on new charges. Alex was indicted for necrophilia and Caitlin was indicted on felony murder, malice murder, and aggravated assault charges. And this is interesting to me because it seems based on these new charges that authorities kind of took Alex's side as far as

as who was responsible for what and how this all went down. Maybe you got a little credibility when he said, hey, I'm guilty, give me the death penalty. They're like, well, he's not trying to hide anything. Or maybe when he confessed to, you know, cannibalism, necrophilia. According to the indictments, Morgan was last seen on February 25, 2016. When she was dropped off at a gas station, she posted on social. media the next day, but was never seen again. On February 26th, Morgan was strangled to death by Alex and Caitlin. They dismembered the body before burning it to conceal evidence. And like we said,

Alex Warren allegedly performed acts of necrophilia on the body. So weird. On January 10th, 2004. Alex Warren pleaded guilty to malice murder, evidence tampering, concealing the death of another, and necrophilia. But what is the one charge that you're not seeing with Alex Warren? It's the felony murder, right? There's malice murder. Yeah. But Kalin's charged with felony murder and malice murder. Alex Warren was sentenced to life without parole. In October 2025, a hearing was held so the prosecution and defense could present arguments about the admissibility of occult evidence. The state wanted to present Caitlin's social media posts about the occult, Satanism, and serial

killers to establish motive. The defense countered this evidence would be prejudicial and irrelevant. The evidence included TikTok videos, where Caitlin allegedly discussed her fascination with serial killers and the occult, and another of her appearing to hold a severed head. So when they say, hey, we don't think that this is relevant, they're wrong, because I would think that would be relevant. Well, and to me, the term prejudicial is always, you know, kind of interesting.

It's an interesting term because how could it not be prejudicial to the jury? anything that damages the defendant's credibility, isn't it somewhat prejudicial? I understand what they mean legally by prejudicial. Right. Also, why are you holding up what appear to be severed heads on TikTok? Because she was fascinated by this subject. I get that, but it's that kind of conversation that you and I have had before, which is what are you doing on social media, right?

Why are you posting this? What are you, why are you posting that? And how do you think if you one day kill somebody that this is not going to come back to bite you in the ass? Yeah, I think she was posting just for the shock and all. Well,

I think a lot of people do that. Right. But it's not going to look good for her if people see these posts now. Yeah, and it's not going to be good for if it's a rule. admissible. Right. The judge granted the prosecution's motion, which is huge, right? It is. What's allowed in and what's not allowed in can make or break in some instances a trial.

Caitlin's trial started on August 25, 2006. The defense conceded that Caitlin helped dispose of Morgan's body, but she was not involved in the killing. And I always think, you know, some of these are hard, right? when you have two people who were both involved to some extent. Yeah. And each person is saying that the other person is the one who actually killed the victim. Well, there's a lot of he said, she said stuff here. You know, which way do you go? Yeah, it's interesting.

They're both okay saying they help dismember the body. And dispose of it. Yeah. But no one wants to take accountability for what happened before that. And Alex is even willing to concede necrophilia and, you know, things like that. In 2003, Caitlin was going through a divorce. Her estranged husband revealed to investigators that she confessed to helping dispose of a body. Caitlin then directed investigators to the area after her arrest.

And that's when investigators found Morgan's charred remains. In opening statements, prosecutors said Caitlin and her boyfriend, Alex, Lord Morgan, into their home with a promise of a safe place to stay before they killed her and spent three days mutilating her body, beheading and dismembering her remains. Well, for them, it sounded like they found the perfect victim because they wanted to experience some of this stuff. And they had somebody that wasn't from the area, didn't have any really contacts with anybody in that area. So. And didn't have a place to stay.

Yeah. Needed a place to stay. So it's kind of like the perfect scenario for them. But I think one of the questions we're going to have to answer is motive, right? Was this for some type of gain or Gibbs? Was this just because they wanted to know what it was like to kill someone? And it's kind of trending towards that. It really is.

According to Oxygen, Deputy Chief ADA Bailey Wilkinson. argued that the evidence would show that the couple planned the murder together. Caitlin saw Morgan as the perfect victim to feed her alleged obsession with serial killers, death, and dismemberment. The prosecution pointed to Caitlin's alleged interest in Satanism and said she believed she made a deal with the Duke of the Underworld to sell her soul. Okay. You ever sell your soul or think about selling your soul? Right into that one guy at the crossroads.

Mm-hmm. Decided not to. I said, nah. And I saw like a guy with a guitar pull up right after I left. So assuming that must have worked out okay for him. One thing that's really jumping out at me is obviously this is a very recent case in the terms of when Caitlin's trial is taking place. But also, this is a case that we could be talking about occurring in the 1980s. Easily.

Satanism, the occult. It just proves that, you know, that stuff hasn't gone away. Now, they don't blame every murder on Satan. No. Or Satanism. Not today. They don't. Which they did blame a lot of that stuff in the 80s.

That along with heavy metal music. I mean, you can just go down the list, right? Prosecutor Bailey Wilkinson warned the jury is quoted by court TV. The things you're going to hear about, they sound. like the things of horror movies. They seem unbelievable. But unfortunately, throughout this trial, you're going to learn that she did

these truly terrible things. And that is spot on. I mean, I'm thinking, yeah, that's exactly what they're going to go through. Yeah. I mean, if you saw this in some kind of movie, you would think, oh, wow, this is over the top. Yeah.

For a horror movie. This is real life. Wilkinson said that Alex Warren, would not appear in court. As part of the state's case, he said, we've decided that we don't need him to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed these crimes. We're not going to give him a platform to talk about the things that he did to Morgan, that he enjoyed that they did together.

We're not going to turn this case into a circus. Good for them. You know, nobody wants to really hear that. I mean, are there a few people who like to hear that kind of stuff? probably, but nobody wants to hear it. The family definitely does not want to hear that. No, but does it surprise you that they don't believe they need Alex to testify against Caitlin? I feel like they think they have a pretty solid case. Well, they must because normally you want the other person to testify, right? He's already been convicted. Right. Wilkinson also said,

the evidence will show that although it doesn't matter, who exactly killed Morgan Bauer, that it was their playing together. This was something that they wanted to enjoy together. A little couple time. Which is so unbelievably wild. Yeah. Right?

What do couples like? Maybe, you know, let's sit and watch a Netflix show. Yeah. Let's go get some ice cream. Let's go have a nice dinner at a restaurant. Yeah, there's a ton of things that you, you can think that, oh, that's date night. That's that's a couple type thing.

Yeah. Right. Planning to murder someone, dismember them, eat parts of them, and then commit necrophilia, none of that should be something that a couple contemplates. Nobody should contemplate it. But let alone two people in a relationship talking about this. It blows my mind. And for me, it's weird that two people found each other that like the exact same thing.

It's not like, maybe he was into this and he's like, hey, I know you might not want to, but I think he might like it. No, it seems like they both were equally into this, which is even more bizarre. Well, this is not something you bring up to your significant other on a lark, right? to fish to see if they're into it. Yeah. It doesn't happen that way. Somehow they knew that each other had this desire. Social media would be central because Caitlin had been telling the truth online about what happened.

This is all right still according to the prosecution. The defense called the prosecution's argument smoke and mirrors. Well, that's something the defense likes to say. They do, don't they? Smoking mirrors. Smoking mirrors. Defense attorney Midei O'Loloye said, you can cosplay as an athlete. You can cosplay as cartoon characters.

You can cosplay as fairies or even cosplay as people who are dark. Does it make you a killer? The state wants you to believe that because Caitlin painted her face and had props and used fake blood, that all of a sudden that was her message. That was her saying, look at what I did. But that couldn't have been farther from the truth. I don't know if I agree with them.

Oh, I absolutely agree with them. People cosplay at stuff all the time. It doesn't mean that they are those people or they're doing the things that those people did in movies or television shows, right? I mean, people might cosplay as Harley Quinn. Yeah, yeah.

They're not out killing people like she did in the comics. or the movies. Now, you might be more talking about the second part, which is, okay, what does the props, the fake blood, the, you know, social media posts maybe about Satanism or whatever it is. Yeah. What does that mean?

And I think a jury could separate the two. According to the defense is quoted by oxygen. Alex essentially wanted the threesome with Caitlin and Morgan. But they were like, no, that's not going to happen. So Caitlin leaves the room and she sees Alex on top of Morgan. Caitlin freaks out. She just kind of leaves the room. Some time passes.

And she sees that unfortunately Alex has killed her. The defense went on to argue that Caitlin wanted to call the police. But Alex refused and Caitlin complied out of fear. She later helped dispose of the body. Now, the defense has to come up with something. We know that. Is it true? Is it not true?

That's up to normally the jury to decide. Could it have happened that way? Could have. Is that the most likely explanation with everything that we've learned? I would say no, probably not. But no doubt, people have gone along with something that they didn't want to do because they were fearful. That has happened. A lot. Many times. Over many, many years, I just don't know if it happened in this case.

Caitlin's defense attorney told the jury, Caitlin was a 19-year-old who had just witnessed her boyfriend kill someone. She tried to make an attempt. She tried to do the right thing, but she was scared. She was scared of her boyfriend. She was scared of the only person she knew. She had nowhere to go. she had no family. So Caitlin did what she thought she had to in that situation. Which was to help cut up a body? Yeah. Help dismember the body.

Help try to dismose of the remains. But her defense attorney urged the jury to consider the role Caitlin play. It noted that the only reason Morgan was found was because Caitlin came forward. And that is an interesting point. Yeah. You know, why did she come forward? Guilt? Or was it to get ahead of the situation?

Did she think that maybe the police were more likely to think she was telling the truth when she said that Alex was the one who committed the murder because she had come forward to tell him where the body was? Yeah. I mean, it typically benefits the person that comes forward. Normally it does. but we know based on the charges. It seems like the authorities in this case believed Alex more than they believed

Caleb. They thought she was the main driver of the murder or the person who actually killed Morgan, although both were complicit. Prosecutors argued that Caitlin came forward because her ex-husband knew the truth about what she did. And maybe she thought, well, it's just a matter of time. He's going to tell the authorities. Right. So I better get ahead of it.

Again, might be getting ahead of it. The jury heard testimony from Caitlin's ex-husband, David Settles the second. He met Caitlin in 2016. After Morgan's death, after her relationship with Alex Warren ended, they got married and had kids, but eventually got divorced. Months into his relationship with Caitlin, they went on a road trip to California where they met up with Alex Warren. Settles recounted a strange hush-hush conversation between Alex and Caitlin that went as follows.

Alex, how much does he know? Caitlin says, what we've discussed. So he doesn't know anything? Correct. Alex says, so I think we got away with it. Okay. If this guy's telling the truth and that's exactly what was said, that's, that's, that's pretty damning. But I'm thinking if I was her partner at that time and I heard that conversation,

I'd be like, hey, we need to talk. Yeah, can you give me a little bit more information about what this is? Also, what would it be like to find out later that you were married to this woman who committed this really horrible act? It's going to be problematic. Now, I think they were divorced, right, by the time he found out, but still. It's going to be a problem. So days after this conversation, he and Caitlin came upon Alex fighting with his girlfriend. Alex shouted, she's going to talk, she's going to talk. Settle stayed back. But Caitlin allegedly approached Alex's girlfriend and said, you better keep your mouth shut

or else you're going to regret it. For months, he had no clue what the conversations were about until Caitlin called him one evening while she was drunk at the club. Where she worked, he testified. she had called me up one night and was having a really bad night. And she had basically confessed everything to me because I guess that she had reached her breaking point. She didn't want to hold it in anymore. And I'll be honest with you, Gibbs.

That is a lot to hold in. That's, yeah, not healthy. If you're not the kind of dead behind the eyes serial killer type where that stuff doesn't affect you at all, it's going to be hard. I think most people, you know, that's not them. Something like this, for most people, I think it would eat you up inside. But if you're her partner, do you really want to hear what she has to say? Well, you might be curious, right? After that conversation, you overheard, but when it really comes out, the full details, that's got to be the last draw, right? I would think. I would think it would be an issue for their relationship.

I don't think it could survive that. In this conversation, Caitlin blamed Alex for killing Morgan while she was out of the house. She said eventually she came back to the house. I'm assuming Alex wanted help with cleanup. In interviews with investigators, Settles said Caitlin described how they tried to dispose of the body. She admitted that they had chopped up her body and put it in asses. like dissolved it, Settles' testimony also contradicted the defense's claim that Caitlin was scared about. According to Settles, there had been times when Caitlin was talking about what she does

for her job, working at the club, and she was talking about how easy it is to manipulate men, to get what she wants. Part of her manipulation was using spells. Settles provided prosecutors with a photo of a manipulation spell. He found in his belongings, which he believed Caitlin tried to target him with. Okay, some witchery. The spell required ingredients such as a photo, hair, or nail clippings, vinegar, glass, and bugs.

The instructions recommended that the person who performed the spell follow up with a cleansing protection spell for self. This is why I Man This is why I always collect my hair At the barber Yep And sweep up my nail clippins

And I dispose of them myself Well first of all It has nothing to do with spells It's all about you not wanting the authorities To get your DNA We all know that That's true But I am just trying to

Put myself in the position Of this guy finding out all this stuff about the woman I'm married to or was married to, you know, however this thing went down. I mean, she's trying to cast a spell on me. Yeah. She's dismembering bodies? What is going on here?

You'd be like out with your friends are like, hey, you've ever made any bad decisions of your life? And he'd be like, well, let me tell you. Let me tell you about a few. That story would be hard to be, right? Absolutely. Caitlin's younger brother, Alexander Stafford, also testified that he had never seen Caitlin controlled by a boyfriend. He said, she's never been like the follower of a boyfriend.

She's always either been right there beside them doing what they're doing or the one making the decisions. He also said his sister was interested in serial killers in high school. One thing being interested in serial killers, right? Yeah, because let's face it. a lot of people listening are. Yeah. Obviously you and I are because that's what we do, right? We do a podcast about some serial killers and a lot of other killers.

But we know right from wrong. We're not going to try to go out and imitate a serial killer. No, I'm not fascinated from the standpoint that I want to do it. I, like most people, and I'm sure most people listening, are fascinated, like how people's minds work, how do they get to the point where they, they can do this stuff. But I want to go back to the defense for a minute, right? This defense of, yeah, Caitlin participated, but it was because she was so scared of this guy, Alex Warren. Right. Well, if you believe settles, they're having conversations well after the murder, well after they've even broken up. Yeah. Are you going to go

on a trip or meet up with somebody on a trip that you were so scared of that you decided you had to help this member of body and dispose of it. I think it's more like her brother said that she either led or she was side by side. And I think with Alex, she was side by side. Yeah, I'm with you at the very least side by side. And I'm not convinced she wasn't manipulating him. him into doing some things. Prosecutors shared a portion of Alex Warren's interview with authorities in which he said

Caitlin instigated the killing. He said, Katie said, I want to kill her. She said, I want to cut her up. Come on. It'll be fun. It will be fun. Wow. He said they tackled Morgan who was sleeping. He held her down and Caitlin killed her. Alex said, I got the wind out of her. She probably would have been brain dead the rest of her life. But Katie actually killed her. Immediately after killing Morgan, Caitlin sent him to get a utensil from the kitchen that she could use to dismember the body. He said the whole idea of this was to cut somebody up. Look what's inside of them. Know what it does. He said, Caitlin said, I want to cut somebody up. Well, here's your chance to do it. You know, we did a case, oh, maybe a year ago of a woman that wanted the same thing.

She wanted to know what it felt like to kill somebody. And she did. And then she dismembered the body, put it in the suitcase and was seen walking down the street, you know. I do remember that. Yeah, pulling the suitcase behind her. And when she was caught, she said, she just wanted to know what it felt like. Yeah. Fascinated by it.

Yeah, we've done some cases. I know where people have said that. to me, if this is true, right, what Alex is saying, it's a little bit different. Yes, there's the, I want to know what it's like to kill somebody, but also Caitlin is saying, I want to know what's inside a person, what it does, how it works. Did you get into biology here? I want to cut somebody up. On August 31st, 2006, the jury took less than an hour to convict Caitlin of murder, felony murder, assault, and other charges. The following day, she was sentenced to Life Without Pearl, plus concurrent 10-year sentences

for evidence tampering and concealing a death. During the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor told the judge, she has not shown a single bit of remorse through the entirety of this ordeal. The heinous nature of this crime and how incredibly despicable it is shows that she does not deserve to see the outside of the prison walls ever. And that is hard to argue with, right? If she did this the way the prosecution laid it out, and obviously this is what the jury believed, it's hard to make an argument that this is a person who should ever be free,

ever. The court heard that in jailhouse phone calls, the night before sentencing, Caitlin joked that the prosecution had unleashed a monster. Okay, what does that mean? Let the truth out. She can be who she wants to be. I don't know. Well, she's been found guilty, but she hasn't been sentenced.

She knows it's not going to be good. No. I would think most people who felt they were wrongfully convicted wouldn't be joking on a phone call the night before sentencing about them unleashing a monster. You think they'd be sad. And they'd be saying, I can't believe this happened. I didn't do that. You know, that's not what you're hearing in this phone call. Caitlin's attorney told the court, right now the world sees her as a devil.

But there's people that know her as someone that's genuine, that's sweet, that's kind, that's a loving mother that takes care of her grandma. Well, you know, we've talked about some of the most heinous killers to ever roam this earth. Right. And for a lot of them, there was someone in their life, multiple people in their life. in their life that saw them as someone else, right? A loving brother, a loving husband, a loving wife. It doesn't mean that they didn't kill. It just means they didn't show the monster to everyone.

To everybody. And for me, I hear what she's done. And I think she was so fascinated by it. Does that just go away? Or do you continue on doing this? things like that that you just never got caught. Or would you have if you had not been caught? Yes.

Yeah. I think you can definitely ask that question. Morgan's stepmother said at the sentencing hearing, we'll never be able to unhear, unsee, or unknown. The things that happened to her, this has taken a huge toll on our mental health, not just processing her death. Over time, a wound will scab and heal. We've not been able to heal.

The scab that was formed while Morgan was missing for seven years has been ripped off over and over and over again in the last three years since she was found. Salt poured in our wounds with every horrific detail that we had to hear. I mean, it just had to be rough. I mean, nothing easy about this at all. No, I don't. It would be hard, right? I think for a family member to sit through all the parts of this trial, I'm sure some of them maybe had to stop. outside during parts of it because it had to have been horrific.

I feel like if I was a part of the family, I'd want to reach across the aisle and just strangle them for what they did to my family member. Yeah. Caitlin's fiancé, Aaron, said he disagreed with the verdict, saying she was, in my opinion, too gentle, quite frankly, as a parent, often caving into her children's desires. It's my genuine opinion that she's too fragile of a person to commit a serious act of violence, even one that would be justified for that matter. I worry about the experiences she could be exposed to in long-term incarceration.

Yeah, but a jury of her peers found that she was guilty, found that she was guilty pretty quickly. I think they only took an hour. But again, just because he didn't see the monster. Yeah. doesn't mean that it wasn't there. That's very true. Prosecutors asked her fiancé about his statements and a recorded call after Caitlin's conviction

saying, are you the one who is on jail calls with Ms. Gobel saying, it will be you who will bring unending misery to those who put her there by your own hands? He acknowledged making the statement, but said prosecutors miscontextextualized it. prosecutors played a portion of the call at sentencing where Caitlin said they scratched to me so now they get to see the monster that's beneath the surface the DA thinks that she was putting the monster away in reality she just created two or more because my son and daughter are just like me. Oh okay so we got the son and daughter thing but let's go back to her fiance right he's saying oh.

she's too meek. She's too mild to have been able to do this. But yet they're on a call talking about she's going to be the one to bring unending misery to those who put her behind bars. I don't know. That sounds like. It's not very meek. It sounds witchy, right? It does.

I don't know whether it's witchcraft, the spells that we talked about earlier, satanic. I have no idea. But then when she talks about that her son and. daughter are just like her and are going to be monsters as well. It's chilling. It is chilling and concerning. To say that about your kids. Oxygen reported last month that Caitlin's legal team has filed a motion for a new trial. So as we wrap this one up, Gibbs, obviously this is a very horrific case. Morgan Bauer was murdered in what can only be described. as, you know, just a torturous way.

And then the things that were talked about that were done with her body post-mortem, right? I don't want to get into all the details, but the cannibalism, the necrophilia, I don't understand any of it. No. I don't understand how people can form these thoughts, think that these are good ideas, and then act on them. I mean, they took advantage of the situation early on, right? They seen that this young lady needed the place to stay.

So they prayed on her and said, okay, let's bring her home, let her stay with us, and do that thing you've been wanted to do for a while. Well, and then one of the things that interested me the most about this case is this dynamic between Alex and Caitlin, right? they're in a relationship. Who's the instigator? Because I think the prosecution and the jury were of the mindset that it was Caitlin. Yeah.

Now, did Alex do a bunch of horrible things? Yeah. Is he going to pay the price for what he did? Absolutely. But this is not generally what you see, right? In most couple situations, I would say by and large, the male is the most. is the more aggressive of the two. Sometimes the female goes along

because she wants to. Sometimes it is because she's scared. I wonder if Alex would have said, yeah, it was just me, solely me, if he would have got any more additional time, if he wanted to try to protect her? Oh, I think he would have. Yeah.

Because he would have then been charged with more like felony murder, as Caitlin was. But he has life, so would he have gotten more than that? Oh, I don't know about time. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I'm thinking he must have not, I'm thinking he really wasn't happy with her

to make sure he dragged her down. They weren't together by that point. Yeah. So isn't it every person for themselves? Yes. But that makes it tough, right? How do you tell who's really speaking the truth? Well, that's a difficult thing to do.

The one thing I will say is Caitlin didn't do herself any favors with her phone calls. You know, you've got ex-husbands testifying. Right. That, no, she's not meek and mild. She's an instigator. She's the one who leads other people. I don't know.

I really do think that if not for her, this probably doesn't happen at all. Remember, she worked with Mork. That's true. She's the one who knew the situation. The situation with her housing. and all of that. So I can really see where she was the one who had this murderous intent, and maybe it was more Alex that went along with her than the other way around.

Might have been. Because that's at least what the prosecution and the jury thought. And I think you were right on your other statement earlier that she probably made the call and told them where the body was because she was trying to get ahead of it. Yeah, I think so too. But that's it for our episode on Morgan Bauer. Tough one. No doubt about it.

We got a voicemail. You want to check that out? Let's hear it. Hi, Mike and Gibby. My name is Alexis Maloney. I'm a college student. I graduate in May with my accounting degree. And I got my first office job earlier this year.

And as you can imagine, as an office job, it gets quite boring sometimes. So I absolutely love listening to you all. podcast to help pass the time. I listen to quite a few different true crime podcasts, but you guys are definitely my favorite. I absolutely love how silly both of you guys can be, and you guys crack me up. I also spend quite a lot of time alone. My boyfriend works third shift, so I spend a lot of time at home by myself, and I just really enjoy having you guys as company. I listen to you guys. so much and I just, oh, yeah, I love both of you guys. Thank you so much for making the show. And yeah, keep your on time kicking. Thank you. Oh, well, that's an awesome voicemail.

Yeah, this is great. Makes me feel good. And congrats on the upcoming graduation. Accounting. I wonder if she has one of those ball things that smack against each other. Did you just say balls smacking against each other? What are you talking about? Oh, wait. That's a different thing. I'm talking about me. Maybe when she has one of those things that you slide left and right, the little... An apicus? Yes. Okay.

I did not know where you were going with that. I have to be completely honest. The ball thing is... You could have described it way better than you did. That ball thing is like to keep you calm, right? Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I don't know the name of that. I know what an abacus is.

I don't think many accountants use that nowadays. You don't think they... And I don't think they have for a very long time. Let's break those advocates out. Yeah, don't think so. But we had mailbag this week. Dionysus Davis sent us each a book called Running Sideways. It's on the first woman from the Caribbean to get an individual running gold medal.

That's amazing. Yeah, it's very cool. Cool. To read it. We appreciate that very much. We do. All right, buddy, that is it for another episode of True Crime All the Time. So for Mike and Gaby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.