For 7 years, she was just listed as missing. 7 years of her family living in that awful space between hope and fear, not knowing, holding on, but also preparing for the worst, you know? And then one day the FBI showed up at what looked like an ordinary house. By that point, different people were already living there.
Nothing seemed out of place until agents started digging right there in the backyard. And what they uncovered turned the case of a missing 19-year-old girl into something far more disturbing than anyone had imagined. Her name was Morgan Bauer. She had come to a new city with just a couple of bags, $20 in her pocket, and this quiet hope of starting over.
She wanted freedom, a bigger life, a fresh start. But less than 2 weeks later, she was gone. Her phone went silent. Her social media just stopped. No posts, no messages, nothing. And the last people who saw her alive, they stuck to the same story for years, never changing it. So, what really happened to Morgan that night? And why did the truth stay buried for so long? This is the story of Morgan Bauer and how one trip meant to begin a new life ended in something hidden beneath the ground.
Morgan Bauer was just 19, but she carried herself with this kind of confidence that made her seem older, fearless, ready for change, like she was done waiting and just wanted to go, you know? She even had a tattoo on her wrist that said, “Whatever you love can be taken away, so live like it’s your dying day.
” And honestly, that kind of summed her up. Her friend Taryn said Morgan had always dreamed about life in a big city. It wasn’t even about a specific place, it was more about the feeling. The freedom, the movement, the chance to become someone new. That’s what she was chasing. Morgan left her hometown Aberdeen with almost nothing, just a couple of bags and $20 a friend had given her.
She got on a flight to Atlanta more than a thousand miles away chasing that idea of a fresh start. Before she left, her mom Sherry handed her a penny, told her to keep it in her pocket like a little piece of protection. And honestly, it felt like she knew how uncertain things were about to get. Because Morgan wasn’t moving in with someone she really knew.
She’d met this person on Craigslist answering an ad for a live-in house assistant. The deal was simple, help keep the place clean and organized until she could start contributing financially. But things fell apart almost immediately. Like barely a day after she started unpacking, she came back to find her belongings outside.
She’d been kicked out. The explanation? Just an argument. No real details. So now she’s alone in a new city with almost no money. She checked into a motel and even then she refused to give up. Going back home wasn’t an option for her, she was determined to make it work. She was waiting on a tax refund hoping it would give her a little breathing room.
In the meantime, she started applying for jobs. She had experience as a waitress, but without the right documents on hand, nothing really moved forward. So she adapted. She ended up working as a dancer at Top of Gainesville Club in Hall County, about 50 miles north of Atlanta. On February 25th, she finished a shift there and left with a fellow dancer and the dancer’s boyfriend.
And for a moment, it seemed like things might finally be stabilizing. But then just two weeks after she arrived, she disappeared. Her social media went completely silent. No replies on Snapchat, nothing. Her best friend, someone she talked to almost every day, suddenly couldn’t reach her at all. Her phone either died or was turned off.
And that wasn’t like Morgan. Her mom said she’d always wanted independence to move to a big city, spread her wings, build something for herself. But disappearing like that, cutting off all contact, that didn’t make sense at all. “I didn’t really want her to go to Atlanta,” her mom admitted. “It worried me. But Morgan, she does everything all the way. She goes big.
” At the time, Atlanta Police Department said there were no clear signs of foul play. She was independent, busy, always on the move, trying to figure things out. But still, this kind of total silence, it didn’t feel right. Not even close. Did she meet someone dangerous at one of the clubs? Did something happen at the motel? There were so many questions, and people started paying attention.
Thousands shared her story online. A Facebook group called Missing Morgan quickly grew to more than 13,000 members, all trying to figure out what happened to her. Hey guys, quick pause for just a second. I’m actually really curious where you’re all watching from, so drop your city in the comments and let me know what time it is for you right now.
Thanks for taking a moment to share that, and now let’s get back to the story. Exclusive new details in the search for a missing South Dakota teenager last seen in metro Atlanta. 19-year-old Morgan Bauer vanished more than a month ago. Tonight, we’ve learned a big-name private investigator is on the case.
Just hours ago, he spoke with CBS 46 investigative reporter Karen Greer. We just keep going and keep praying that she’ll be found sooner than later. The family of 19-year-old Morgan Bauer has set up temporary residence at a cheap motel in Atlanta, coming here last month from South Dakota. Her mother, Sherry, is pulling out all the stops to find her.
These donated billboards show the small-town teen’s innocence. Photos online from the Gainesville strip club where she was last seen publicly tell a much different story of a teenager looking for a new life in the big city. Private investigator T.J. Ward, perhaps well-known for his work in the case of missing high school student Natalie Holloway in Aruba, now hired to help find Morgan.
There’s a lot of Facebook activity, whether it’s her or friends or friends that know where she is. But, um there’s things that’s changed as late as last night on her Facebook, and we’re looking into that right now. The page Ward is referring to is not Morgan’s personal page, which hasn’t been updated since she disappeared, but rather a public site with thousands of people posting comments and alleged sightings.
Morgan was last seen and on social media February 25th. There was a lot of pressure on her, and in this day and time, kids, when they get pressure, they run. And uh they think the grass is greener on the other side, which it isn’t. And uh a short-term fix to making money is not the answer. This is Top of Gainesville. She came to work here that night and left and has not been heard from since.
That same night. The latest Facebook posts have sightings of Morgan in the Canton and Woodstock area. Ward is checking into it and adds nothing can be assumed. This is a serious criminal investigation, and uh the Cherokee County Homicide Unit is is responsible for this, and uh these people online need to be very serious about what’s going on. This is not a joke.
Ward says social media may be a blessing or curse in this case. With so many postings and so many people claiming to have seen Morgan, it keeps them busy, but they have to check into every lead because you never know which one will help them solve this case. And like it always happens online, for every bit of support, there’s also negativity.
Rumors started spreading, harsh comments, people making assumptions they had no right to make. Morgan’s mom, Sherry, had to step in and remind everyone what this was really about. She said, “This is not a story about a girl who asked for it or should have known better. This is about a girl who is missing and needs to come home safely. Nothing else matters.
” “She is priceless and she is deeply loved. We want the focus to stay on Morgan and on finding her.” That message hit hard. Because things were getting messy. From everything investigators could piece together, February 25th, 2016 became the key day. A deeper analysis of her phone and social media revealed something important.
The last signal from her phone was detected in Porterdale, and that raised a huge question. Why was she there? It was nearly 80 miles away from Top of Gainesville Club, nowhere near where she had been working that night. At that point, police knew she had left the club with two people, Jonathan Warren and Kaitlyn Goel.
Kaitlyn was another dancer. Jonathan was her boyfriend. They told investigators that the last time they saw Morgan was when they dropped her off at a Citgo gas station. After that, no one knew where she went. No confirmed sightings, no contact, nothing. And the investigation, it was big, but it moved slowly. Details didn’t always line up.
Some information even contradicted itself. The person she had met through Craigslist was, of course, questioned early on, but the FBI never officially named him as a suspect. Months passed. Leads were rare, and most of them went nowhere. And then, before anyone even realized it, a full year had gone by. This month marks 3 and 1/2 years since a woman moved from South Dakota to Atlanta and then suddenly disappeared.
She hasn’t been seen or heard from since. Today, Morgan Bauer’s mother came to downtown Atlanta to let people know about her daughter’s case. At a community event in downtown Atlanta, This is my daughter, Morgan. She’s been missing in Atlanta for 3 and 1/2 years. Sherry Keenan is handing out photos and missing persons flyers today of her daughter, Morgan Bauer.
I’m married to a lot of information out there. Morgan is a cold case, but an active cold case with the Atlanta Police Department. Keenan remains hopeful her daughter is somewhere in town or elsewhere and is safe. We hope that somehow she sees this on the news and she knows that we’re still searching for her and we’ll never stop looking.
Atlanta Police still have Bauer’s case listed online, but new leads are needed. Morgan is described as having her ears gauged, lips pierced twice, and has several tattoos. Keenan says a $10,000 reward is being offered in her daughter’s case. Anybody who knows anything or has seen anything, please just reach out.
It just takes one moment. Atlanta, I’m Joe Henke, 11Alive News. Seven years had passed since anyone last heard from Morgan. Seven years of silence, of unanswered questions, of a family still waiting. And just when it started to feel like the case might never move forward, something happened. Something that was about to change everything.
For now, police believe that Morgan went missing 7 years ago tomorrow on February 25th, but our 11Alive investigators have discovered a discrepancy that could shift that timeline. On February 26th, Morgan posted a video on social media. It showed her in a park, Yellow River Park. And here’s the thing, that video only surfaced years later.
For 7 years, everyone believed Morgan disappeared on February 25th, 2016. But this, this changed everything. It meant she was still alive the next day. When investigators took a closer look at the video, they noticed something unsettling. There was a man walking behind her in the background. Who he was, no one knew. But combined with the data from her phone, which last pinged in Porterdale, it pushed detectives right back toward two people they had already questioned.
Because for all those years, the only solid lead had been this. Morgan left the club with Jonathan Warren and Caitlyn Goel, and they had stuck to the same story the entire time. They claimed the three of them left together, then for some reason drove about 77 miles to Covington, where they dropped her off near a Citgo gas station.
They said that was the last time they saw her. Later, they even added that they saw her get into a green Mitsubishi Eclipse with some unknown man. But now there was a problem, because investigators knew her phone’s last signal came from Porterdale, just a few miles from Covington, and more importantly, the same area where Jonathan used to live.
And then there was that Instagram video posted from Yellow River Park on February 26th, less than a mile from his house. That completely contradicted their story. So now detectives started considering a different possibility. What if they never dropped her off at that gas station at all? What if they all went to Porterdale to Jonathan’s house? Even though he had already moved to Los Angeles, that house became a key focus.
It had to be searched. From the very beginning, Jonathan and Caitlyn had been persons of interest. But now, with the phone data and that video, investigators finally had enough to get a warrant and really test their timeline. Seven years after Morgan vanished, the FBI was on site digging. Michael Anthony Walden with the Porterdale Police Department.
Uh today we’ve executed a search warrant, currently executing a search warrant. It’s part of an ongoing investigation into missing person Morgan Bauer at number two South Broad Street. So far, the search has located items of evidentiary interest. Forensic teams went through that house inch by inch, slow, careful, methodical.
They didn’t rush anything. Every surface, every corner mattered. Floors, walls, ventilatia, even the yard outside, everything was examined like it could hold the answer. Every step was documented, every sample was collected and sealed. Nothing was too small to matter. And the atmosphere, it was tense, quiet, focused, professional.
The kind of silence where everyone knows this could be the moment something finally breaks. The property itself was large with a lot of land around it, so the search took time. What looked like an ordinary peaceful home at first glance turned into a full-scale investigation zone. They worked the ground layer by layer, marking areas, searching, then going back and checking again.
Hours passed, then days, and time kind of stopped meaning anything. It wasn’t about minutes anymore. It was about how much ground they had covered. The current homeowners had no idea. To them, this was just a house, a new chapter, a fresh start. They didn’t know what had happened there, didn’t know what might have been hidden beneath the floors or buried in the soil just outside until the FBI showed up.
And in that moment, everything changed. What had been a normal home suddenly became part of a federal investigation. And with those agents standing in the yard, it was like the past came back with them, cold, heavy, and not something that disappears just because new people moved in. We don’t know if it’s Morgan or if it’s something else that they recovered.
They’re not really sharing that information publicly. And of course, Morgan is still considered a missing person. Morgan’s mother, Sherry, says authorities have kept her in the loop as much as they can. They’ve made it very comfortable for me to be able to feel um very much a part of what’s happening, even though there’s not a lot of information that they can give me.
They’ve They’ve been very inclusive. And within the whirlwind of emotions that came from yesterday’s breakthrough is sympathy for the owners of the property who authorities say have been cooperative. My heart just goes out to that family, and they must be going through a lot, you know, also.
And it must be very upsetting for them, and so my my heart just goes out to to everyone involved. At this point, after 7 years, I feel like, you know, in my heart I already kind of know if they found something. I’m going to do what I said I would. I’m going to go to Atlanta, and I’m going to bring my daughter home. For 7 years, Sherry never stopped.
She handed out flyers, organized vigils, talked to anyone who was willing to listen, just trying to keep Morgan’s name out there. “I’m not ready to say goodbye until she’s found,” she said. And she meant it. But then, everything changed. Because in that moment, the missing person case everyone had been holding on to became a murder investigation.
On that property, they found her remains. Breaking news at 9:00, we just learned two people arrested in connection to a metro Atlanta cold case from 7 years ago. Well, Tori, we’ve been reporting on this since a little over a week ago, and this is a major break in a case that her loved ones feared A few weeks after the investigation ramped up, things moved fast.
Two people were arrested. 33-year-old Jonathan Alexander Warren was taken into custody in Los Angeles, thousands of miles away from where everything had happened. His girlfriend, 27-year-old Katelyn Goell, was was arrested in Illinois. Two different states, two completely separate locations, but one case pulling them both right into the center of it.
Neither of them was granted bail. The court decided the risks were just too high, so they remained in custody with no chance of release while the case moved forward. And that honestly said a lot about how serious this was. Katelyn admitted she had been inside the house. She didn’t deny being there, but her version of events, it was very different.
She claimed that when she walked into the bedroom, she found Morgan already dead, cold, not breathing. Like everything had already happened before she even got there. According to her, she didn’t do anything, she just stumbled onto what was left behind. That became the core of her defense. The story she stuck to even as investigators clearly doubted it.
Then, in August 2023, formal charges were filed against Jonathan. Malice murder, aggravated assault, concealing a death, tampering with evidence. Each one of those charges painted a pretty clear picture of what prosecutors believed happened and how serious it was. Katelyn, on the other hand, was charged with concealing a death and tampering with evidence.
Not murder, but still those charges carried weight. Because even without accusing her of killing Morgan, investigators were making one thing clear. They believed she knew more than she was saying. Last night, we first reported that the two suspects in the 2016 disappearance of Morgan Bauer are facing new charges in that investigation.
Jonathan Warren and Katelyn Goell are both facing murder and aggravated assault charges. But then, things took a sharp turn. After additional interrogations, new witness statements, and a deeper analysis of the evidence, the entire case shifted. About 2 months later, a grand jury made a decision that changed everything.
Both of them were formally charged with murder. What once looked like a confusing story full of gaps was now officially treated as an intentional crime. And then it got even darker. Jonathan Alexander Warren was hit with an additional charge, necrophilia. Even seasoned investigators were shaken by that. Because now this wasn’t just about violence, it pointed to something far more disturbing.
Something that crossed into a much darker, more twisted space. As for Katelyn Goold, the charges against her expanded significantly. Malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, concealing the death of another. On paper, those are just legal terms. But behind each one, there are actions, decisions, consequences.
Malice murder meaning intent. Felony murder, a death that happens during another serious crime. Aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, concealing a death. Put together, it formed a very clear picture. One where coincidence didn’t really have a place anymore. Prosecutors made it clear they did not believe Katelyn’s version of events.
The idea that she simply walked in and found Morgan already dead, it didn’t hold up. The details didn’t match. The timeline didn’t make sense. And some parts, according to them, just defied logic. Then there was another claim, one that added even more tension to the case. After his arrest, Jonathan told investigators that Katelyn had been interested in forensic pathology and had supposedly talked about wanting to kill someone to dismember a body.
Now, whether that’s true or not, that’s a huge question because if it is true, then this wasn’t impulsive. It was something that had been forming over time. And if it’s not, then it could be an attempt to shift blame. Either way, those words are now part of the case and it’s up to the court to decide what they really mean.
A quiet river I just can’t even believe I’m just saying 7 years. A Yellow River Park came full It’s been difficult. is the last place Morgan Bowers phone pinged. There are times where I do feel alone just because I you It’s hard for anybody to understand what this feels like. But tonight, Sherry Keenan isn’t alone.
And we just pray that These people joined in hand and spirit to remember Morgan at a vigil. And I hope that it connects to somebody. I just am trying to just be really here um humbly and just saying prayers. I’m so grateful that you all took time out to be here today. She’s been waiting to find her daughter for 7 years.
Thank you. Never giving up hope of a happy ending. And I think just that collective moment of everybody just making the same wish or the same prayer or the same thought in the same intention, you know, can can create miracles. At some point, Jonathan Alexander Warren made a decision that changed everything again.
He pleaded guilty, no deal with prosecutors, no negotiation. He admitted to malice murder, tampering with evidence, concealing a death, and necrophilia. In return, the charges of felony murder and aggravated assault were dropped, but what prosecutors revealed next was deeply disturbing. They stated that Morgan had been strangled.
After that, her body was dismembered and burned and it didn’t stop there. According to them, Jonathan sexually abused her remains over the course of several days. Then came another claim even more shocking. Prosecutors said that during questioning, Jonathan alleged that he and Caitlyn Goel had consumed parts of her remains.
Now, that part was never independently confirmed and it wasn’t included in his official guilty plea. But still, it became part of the case narrative. The prosecution also tried to introduce social media evidence including TikTok videos where Caitlyn allegedly talked about her interest in serial killers and the occult. There was mention of another video, too, one described as disturbing.
Some sources claimed she appeared to be holding something resembling a severed head, but that footage was never publicly shown or verified. Beyond that, prosecutors wanted to bring in her posts, personal writings, and notes along with Jonathan’s statements about her alleged fascination with death and occult themes.
They argued it all pointed to an obsession with violence. But the judge didn’t immediately decide whether those materials would be allowed in court. So, that question remained open. Meanwhile, Jonathan, having pleaded guilty without any deal, requested a life sentence with the possibility of parole someday. But given the nature of the crime, the brutality, the details, it was hard to imagine the court seeing it that way.
Jonathan Alexander Warren was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to his part in the 2016 disappearance of 19-year-old Morgan Bauer. In the end, the court made its decision. Jonathan Alexander Warren was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For him, that was the final chapter, but for this story, not even close. The Newton County prosecutor confirmed that the case against Caitlyn Goel is still ongoing. It hasn’t been closed. It’s still there in court files, in evidence, in testimony that hasn’t yet been heard. Her trial is still ahead. There will be witnesses, cross-examinations, cold, clinical, legal language trying to explain something that honestly doesn’t feel explainable.
And Jonathan, from what we know, is now cooperating with prosecutors. He’s ready to testify against her. He claims she was the one obsessed with the the idea of killing of dismemberment, that the initiative came from her. That he wasn’t the one directing what happened. But is that the truth? Or is that just someone trying to save himself? Right now, there’s no clear answer.
And even if everything comes out in court, it might still be incomplete, fragmented, different versions that don’t fully align. What we do know is this. The people accused of Morgan’s disappearance and death are now in custody. They’re no longer hiding. They’re no longer controlling the narrative. But that doesn’t bring back what matters most.
When Morgan suddenly went silent in February 2016, that was the first sign something was wrong. Her phone stopped responding, messages went unanswered, her social media just froze. For her family, it wasn’t just a pause. It was a silence that grew louder with every passing day. And that silence lasted 7 years. 7 years of waiting.
7 years of hope slowly turning into fear. Even now, with Jonathan behind bars and Kaitlin awaiting trial, the full truth might never be known. And even if it is, it won’t change the outcome. Because no version of the truth can bring her back. Her life stopped at 19. Her dreams, her plans, everything she could have become, they’re frozen in time.
They won’t grow, won’t evolve, won’t get a second chance. All the things she should have experienced, a career, new cities, love, mistakes, victories, they exist now only in the imagination of the people who loved her. Morgan’s story is about a young life that wanted more, more freedom, more experiences, a chance to discover herself somewhere new.
She wasn’t afraid to step into the unknown, to leave everything familiar behind and start over. She lived boldly and she followed her dreams. Her stepmother Lea once said something that really stays with you. Morgan has now been gone from our lives longer than she was ever physically in them. And in that one sentence, you can feel the weight of it.
The time, the loss. She later added, “Everything that was taken from Morgan was taken from us, too. We never got to see her grow up, to watch her live an adult life. Her brothers will never have that relationship with her as adults. And the horrible things that came out during the investigation, that’s all we’re left with.
No parent should ever have to hear things like that. And honestly, there’s nothing you can really add to that. Guys, I just want to say thank you truly for staying with this story all the way to the end. It’s incredibly heavy, deeply painful, and I wanted to share it with you as honestly as possible.
If this story stayed with you, please don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share. It really helps bring attention to cases like this. Take care of yourselves, and I’ll see you in the next one.
