Photograph Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Each day Beast; Fb; Courtesy of Annie Moore
A Florida bodybuilder accused of killing his ex-wife in a homicidal rage displayed disturbingly violent tendencies all through the doomed couple’s eight-year relationship and as soon as shattered a window throughout an argument, a member of the family who witnessed the outburst instructed The Each day Beast.
However whereas the relative mentioned ex-Marine Ian Christopher Baunach “was all about himself from the get-go,” and had as soon as been arrested for strangling his then-spouse, nobody thought it might ever finish in homicide costs.
Baunach, 43, is now dealing with a slew of costs, together with first-degree homicide, within the loss of life of 39-year-old registered nurse Katie Baunach. The couple’s two younger kids, ages 4 and 6, have been taken in by their grandmother within the aftermath of their mother’s stunning loss of life, Annie Moore, Katie’s cousin, instructed The Each day Beast on Wednesday night time. The household has been talking with a therapist about how you can break the information to the youngsters and assist them by this, she mentioned.
“It’s someway equally stunning, and never fully stunning,” Moore, who had been very shut with Katie, mentioned Wednesday night time. “Like… he’s not a very good individual, and we’ve recognized that. But it surely’s nonetheless, like, a surreal factor. And the truth that we will’t choose up the cellphone and name her is not going to be actual for a very long time.”
Katie, who had obtained a restraining order towards Baunach for allegedly abusing one of many youngsters, dropped the kids off with a buddy on Sept. 29 and went to her ex’s dwelling in Fort Denaud to select up a few of her belongings. She by no means returned. The following day, police say they found a human jawbone in a burn pile on Baunach’s property, together with decaying physique elements stuffed right into a 50-gallon barrel.
Photograph Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Each day Beast; Fb; Courtesy of Annie Moore
Baunach can also be charged with possessing a managed substance and not using a prescription, for a stash of anabolic steroids allegedly present in his dwelling. He was additional hit with further federal counts over 13 unregistered silencers investigators reportedly found there. Among the many gadgets seized when Baunach was arrested embody an AR-15 higher receiver, two Glock Mannequin 27 .40 caliber pistols, three rifles, and a shotgun. Katie’s marriage ceremony band and engagement ring, which she had been carrying when she left for Baunach’s the night time she died, had been present in a protected Baunach stored in his dwelling workplace, in keeping with authorities.
The trunk of Baunach’s automotive, which had apparently been cleaned after Katie’s loss of life, glowed blue when investigators sprayed it with luminol, a chemical that reacts to the presence of blood, the federal grievance towards Baunach states. A hallway connecting the storage with the lobby of Baunach’s dwelling bore “indicators of a bodily wrestle,” and the presence of blood was detected over a “massive floor space on three completely different partitions” inside, in keeping with the grievance.
Baunach “admitted to being indignant that Katie Baunach filed for and obtained a home violence injunction towards him,” it says.
“It’s past comprehension,” Moore mentioned on Wednesday of the costs. “I knew he wasn’t good eight years in the past… However that is one thing completely completely different. This isn't an actual factor that actual people do. It’s actually, actually troublesome to course of, that somebody that you simply broke bread with, and frolicked with, might do these items.”
Moore mentioned Katie instructed her that Baunach, who attended Jerry Falwell’s Liberty College, “was violent their whole relationship—whereas they had been relationship, throughout their engagement, all the things,” including that Baunach “usually quoted scripture” throughout outbursts. She additionally mentioned she as soon as personally witnessed Baunach, who met Katie on the relationship website Christian Mingle, throw a sippy cup “so onerous it broke a window” throughout a get-together at her aunt’s home whereas the 2 had been relationship.
“He simply wasn’t proper,” she recalled. “He wasn’t regular. And it wasn’t simply that he was massive and a bodybuilder and all of that. There was one thing lacking.”
Final November, Baunach was arrested on costs of home battery by strangulation, however prosecutors didn't pursue the case, and the costs had been dropped in January, in keeping with jail information.
Katie was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and grew up in Indiana, in keeping with Moore. She received her bachelor’s in nursing and labored as an RN at a retirement dwelling in Fort Myers, having moved to inland Florida at Baunach’s urging.
“They lived in the course of nowhere… away from everyone,” Moore mentioned. “And I actually hadn’t talked to her in months, as a result of he had gotten her away from me. And different cousins and associates, it was the identical manner. Her mother, her sister, everybody… [we] weren’t allowed round there. It was actually poisonous… Advised us all we had been loopy and that he was the one one which cared for her.”
Though Baunach appeared fully self-involved, Katie “liked him and needed a household and was keen to do no matter,” in keeping with Moore. She helped Baunach put together for bodybuilding competitions, which Moore mentioned was “all-consuming” for him.
When issues lastly turned an excessive amount of to bear, Katie left. She took the kids, moved into a brand new dwelling in Fort Myers Seashore, and set off on a brand new, impartial path.
“She had simply gotten out, she was dwelling her life, she had an excellent job, she was going to get her nurse practitioner [certification],” Moore mentioned. “She had the youngsters in a very good college, she had her personal place, and now it’s all gone.”
Photograph Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Each day Beast; Fb; Hendry County Sheriff's Workplace
Moore mentioned she was talking out so her cousin’s story might get instructed in mild of a lot consideration being paid to Baunach and the heinous allegations towards him. The final she heard from him was in February, when, “out of the blue, [he] texted angrily on the whole household how he and Katie had been getting again collectively, no because of her household.”
Now, Moore simply hopes Katie’s kids will bear in mind her.
“She was a dancer, she had the most effective snicker,” Moore mentioned. “She lower all of the tags out of their garments in order that they didn’t have something bothering them. She was born to be a mother. She was so maternal, and so good… She gained’t ever get to see them get married, or graduate, or turn into complete individuals. And I do know she would’ve liked that.”
Moore has launched a GoFundMe marketing campaign to assist Katie’s mom elevate her grandchildren. It has to this point raised almost $30,000 of its $50,000 aim.
“Rising up, some individuals need to be an astronaut or a health care provider or a vet,” mentioned Moore. “Katie needed to be a mother… And her youngsters had been her complete world… She actually was a stupendous individual, and never that anyone deserves this, however man, she didn't deserve this.”
If convicted on the first-degree homicide cost, Baunach faces life in jail or the loss of life penalty.