Oxygen is re-airing the Deadly Waters With Captain Lee investigation into the murders of Karen Barnes and Larry Ford by Barnes’s ex-husband David Trauger in St Marys, Georgia.
In August 2012, the remains of 51-year-old Barnes and her friend, 71-year-old Ford, were found in a yacht that had been set ablaze by 67-year-old Trauger. Ford had been aboard the vessel in the hope of protecting Barnes from her violent ex-husband.
A few days later, police officers from Camden County and Kingsland Police Department tracked down Trauger at his Kingsland, GA, apartment. He opened fire on the officers and was killed when they returned fire.
Trauger and Barnes met online in September 2009, and the pair got married a few months later. They had met late in life, but from their friends’s perspective, it looked like a perfect match.
The couple moved into Trauger’s 37-foot custom-built yacht, the Premium Time. He had paid over half a million dollars for the yacht and hoped to live out the rest of his life on the boat with Barnes.
However, the marriage soon went very wrong. Barnes hadn’t realized that Trauger had an alcohol addiction, and he would often become abusive when drinking.
On one occasion, during a vacation in the Caribbean, he wrapped a telephone cord around her neck and twisted her arm so hard it broke.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelKaren Barnes put a restraining order on the abusive David Trauger
Barnes left him after that incident, but regrettably, they rekindled their relationship a few months later. Around this time, Trauger put the Premium Time in Barnes’s name, supposedly as a ploy to prevent a previous ex-wife, who he owed money, from getting her hands on the yacht.
However, a short time later, Barnes had had enough of her husband’s continuous abuse, so she filed for divorce. She changed the locks on the boat and issued a restraining order against Trauger.
In June 2012, Trauger turned up at the boat at the Jekyll Island marina with wine and flowers only to find the police waiting for him. Trauger was furious when the cops sent him away, telling them he had nowhere else to go. As he was led away, he said, “This is my boat, and I will kill you guys.”
David Trauger killed Karen Barnes and Larry Ford
Barnes fled with the boat 50 miles south to the marina in St Marys. Unfortunately, in August, Trauger bumped into his ex-wife by chance in Walmart. He followed her home to the marina, and a few days later, Barnes and Ford were killed in the fire.
Trauger was dead a couple of days later after witnesses reported seeing near or at his apartment in Kingsland. Trauger fired a single shot at the officers who surrounded him and was killed by return fire. His cause of death was recorded as suicide by cop.
This episode of Deadly Waters With Captain Lee re-airs Thursday at 6/5c on Oxygen.