NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. — Prosecutors say what Katelyn Goble did are the things of horror movies.
The 30-year-old defendant was just 19 back in 2016 when she met Morgan Bauer—just 19 herself—who had just moved to Metro Atlanta from South Dakota.
Investigators say the women were trying to make a living as exotic dancers, but on a night in February of that year, prosecutors say Goble lured the victim to a home in Newton County that she shared with her boyfriend, Alex Warren, where prosecutors say the pair strangled Bauer to death.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“But it didn’t stop there. Over several days, they mutilated Morgan’s body, they beheaded her, and they dismembered her,” Assistant District Attorney Bailey Wilkinson said.
During the trial’s opening statements on Tuesday, the defense said Goble helped dispose of the victim’s body, but had no part in the murder, and only took part in some of what followed because she was afraid of her boyfriend.
After Bauer was not heard from in the weeks following her murder, she was considered a missing person and the case went cold.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Teachers questioned about walking out of superintendent’s speech
- Dolly Parton dies at 80: Remembering an icon
- Georgia teen told investigators she planned a school shooting. Instead, she killed her mother
The defendant’s lawyers say the victim’s remains were finally found—with the facts coming out in 2022—because Goble came forward.
“The person who brought all this information out was Katelyn. The body that was found when police went to search the home, they found because of Katelyn,” Defense Attorney Mide Olaloye told jurors.
Goble’s co-defendant Jonathon “Alex” Warren was sentenced to life in prison in 2024. Goble’s malice murder trial is expected to go into next week.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2026 Cox Media Group
