LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A beloved nurse and mother from New Albany was found dead after days of searching, a thousand miles away from her hometown.
Police scoured Katie Baunach's ex-husbands property for four days before they found what was left of her body.
Carolyn McKinney, Katie Baunach's mother, says her daughter met Ian Baunach on Christian Mingle. He convinced her to leave her hometown of New Albany, Indiana and live with him in Florida.
"[He] cut her off from all friends and family, he would watch her phone, watch her IPad and bad things would happen if she ever tried to contact anybody," McKinney said.
After 8 years, a marriage and 2 children, Katie filed for divorce. Ian had a history of domestic violence and told police he was 'angry' Katie filed for and received an injunction against him, barring him from seeing their children.
On Sept. 30, she went back to his home to pick up her belongings. She left her children with a friend. When morning came, that same friend hadn't heard from Katie, so she called the police. She said nobody had been able to get a hold of Katie.
The probable cause affidavit showed investigators could not find Katie's body in his home but arrested Ian for illegal steroids they found.
Over the next four days, they used "luminol" a chemical that glows when it reacts with blood to investigate. It lit up in his trunk, the hallway of his remote Florida home and his office.
Inside Ian's home, investigators found a safe with Katie's wedding band and engagement ring along with multiple guns and illegally owned silencers.
Then, in the remnants of a fire, they found a jawbone. From there, a smell lead them to a fifty-gallon barrel with what officers described as 'decaying flesh.'
This was enough to charge Ian with pre-meditated murder, destruction/conceal of physical evidence, use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, cremate dead body 48 hours after death and failure to report death to medical examiner.
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McKinney wants people to hear her daughter's story to trust the survivors of abuse.
"She was wonderful, she loved everybody and everybody loved her," she said.
Katie's kids will now be raised by McKinney.
"I will love them with everything I have but I'm not her," she said.
The killer didn't just take their mother, McKinney says he took their world.
She is trying to raise money to help with legal fees and raising the two children. If you'd like to contribute, please visit her GoFundMe.
If you or someone you know are a victim of domestic violence, please click here for a list of resources that can help.
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Contact reporter Tom Lally at tlally@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@tomlallyky) and Facebook.