A former Marine and bodybuilder pleaded not guilty Monday to murdering his ex-wife and mother of his two children who went missing late last month.
Ian Christopher Baunach, 43, is accused of killing 39-year-old Katie Baunach who was last seen alive on September 29 when she left her kids with a friend.
The woman told the friend that her ex-husband said she could come over at his LaBelle home to “retrieve some of her personal items.”
But Katie never returned despite promising to be “right back” prompting the concerned friend to call police.
A search of Baunach’s home revealed evidence of a struggle, blood stains, three rifles and two guns. Detectives also discovered human remains.
“[Officers] discovered the fragment of a human mandible with an intact tooth in a fresh burn pile, and discovered a blue fifty-gallon barrel near the burn pile which reeked of decaying flesh,” court documents said.
“Inside the blue fifty-gallon barrel, law enforcement discovered an additional human bone fragment. Law enforcement discovered other suspected human bone fragments in the area surrounding the burn pile.”
Baunach admitted that he and Katie got into an argument and that he was “angry that she filed for and received a domestic violence injunction against him” but he did not admit to the gruesome murder.
