Johnathan Alexander Warren, one of the suspects in the killing of 19-year-old woman who went missing in 2016 in Georgia, has pleaded guilty to murder and necrophilia.
Morgan Bauer was reported missing two weeks after moving from South Dakota to Georgia. Seven years after she vanished, police arrested two suspects in the case in August 2023.
Warren pleaded guilty to the charges of murder, concealing death, tampering with evidence, and necrophilia on Wednesday, according to the Newton County district attorney’s office.
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole by the court.
Warren, who was arrested from Los Angeles and extradited to Georgia, entered a guilty plea, pleading with the court to allow him the possibility of parole.
However, the prosecution argued that life without parole was the appropriate sentence based on the facts of the case, the attorney’s office said.
A second suspect, Katelyn Goble, was arrested in Peoria, Illinois, at the same time as Warren and was charged with two felonies of concealing death and tampering with evidence. She is believed to be of the same age as Bauer.
Ms Goble’s indictment remains pending.
The teen’s last known sighting was in a video posted on social media on 26 February 2016, showing Bauer walking through a park, and a man can be seen behind her.
Bauer, who graduated from Central High School in Aberdeen, South Dakota, moved to Atlanta on 12 February 2016. Upon arriving she made a house arrangement with someone she met on Craigslist but the deal fell on the second day, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.
Bauer had agreed to clean their home for room and board while she continued to find a place to live in the city.
She stayed at motels and found work as an exotic dancer in an adult entertainment club in Gainesville and she was last seen by her colleagues a day before she posted the video.
Her mother Sherri Keenan told Dateline via NBC News in 2016 that she moved to Georgia for a new life.
“She wanted to be her own person, move to a big city, and spread her wings,” her mother said. “For her to go completely silent on all counts is not her.”
In July last year, the FBI and a number of law enforcement agencies searched a Georgia property for the human remains of a teen. Police said they uncovered “items of evidentiary interest”. Her remains have not been found.
