Friends Strangled And Mutilated 19-Year-Old Exotic Dancer In Georgia

A nineteen-year-old woman from South Dakota died in a manner so horrific it belongs only in horror movies, prosecutors told the court. Morgan Bauer was just two weeks into moving to Atlanta when her friend and her boyfriend turned against her. Katelyn Goble, also nineteen at the time, met Bauer after they both arrived in Georgia in 2016 to work as exotic dancers.

The killing happened fast. In February 2016, strangers lured Bauer to a house in Newton County where she never left alive. Alex Warren and Katelyn Goble strangled her to death that month. Assistant District Attorney Bailey Wilkinson explained the grim details during trial testimony. Over several days after the strangulation, they mutilated the body. They beheaded Morgan Bauer. Then they dismembered her remains.

Defense lawyers argue that Goble did not commit the murder itself but helped get rid of the evidence. Court records from earlier hearings suggest prosecutors made disturbing claims about what happened next. Some allegations stated that Warren had sex with a torso for days. Others claimed he told police that the couple ate the victim's clitoris. A jury convicted Warren in 2024 and sentenced him to life in prison without parole for these crimes.

Morgan Bauer was last seen leaving Top of Gainesville nightclub on February 25, 2016. She walked off with a group and someone dropped her at a Citgo gas station in Covington. Her mother, Sherri Keenan, told the news channel 11Alive that she gave her daughter a penny before they parted ways. I told her to keep it in her pocket for safety, Keenan said. They walked away together and that was the final time she saw her child alive.

It took years to find proof of what happened next. FBI agents and local officers discovered Morgan Bauer's bones in 2023 near Porterdale, Georgia. Defense attorney Mide Olaloye told jurors that Goble gave officials tips leading directly to those remains. The prosecution presented social media posts as key evidence too. Court TV reported that prosecutors showed TikTok videos where Goble allegedly discussed serial killers and the occult. Her boyfriend also allegedly said she wanted a body because of her interest in forensic pathology.

Goble did not face arrest until 2023. Authorities initially charged her with tampering with evidence before a grand jury returned a five-count indictment in October 2023. The charges include malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and concealing a death. Her trial is expected to continue into next week. This case exposes how easily trust between friends can turn deadly when darkness takes hold of human hearts. Communities must remain vigilant because crimes like this often happen quickly after new relationships form.