The FBI and several other law enforcement agencies descended on a small town in Newton County on Thursday after new evidence was uncovered in the case of a woman who went missing in Atlanta more than seven years ago, authorities said.
South Dakota native Morgan Aryn Bauer disappeared less than two weeks after moving to the Atlanta area in February 2016 at the age of 19, according to the Atlanta Police Department. She was last seen Feb. 25, 2016, at Tease, a strip club on Cheshire Bridge Road where she briefly worked. A few days later, Bauer posted on social media but has not been heard from since.
On Thursday, police in Porterdale announced that authorities were searching a property on South Broad Street adjacent to the Yellow River in connection with Bauer’s case.
“So far, the search has located items of evidentiary interest,” Porterdale police said.
The current owners of the property are cooperating with the investigation, police said, but it is not clear how the area is connected to Bauer’s disappearance. Officials said the search warrant was obtained “based on credible information and evidence gathered during the course of the investigation,” but did not describe the evidence.
Several agencies are assisting in the search, including Atlanta police, the GBI, the Newton sheriff’s office, the Newton district attorney’s office and the police department of Peoria, Illinois. Porterdale police Chief Jason Cripps also thanked the Newton coroner during a news conference.
Video from the scene showed officers and FBI agents slowly walking in an evenly spaced line over a well-trimmed lawn. The FBI set up a mobile command center in the police department’s parking lot.
“It’s been a very long and arduous day for all of us,” Cripps said.
Cripps and other officials were not able to answer further questions as the search continued through Thursday afternoon.
Bauer left her small hometown of Aberdeen, South Dakota, with plans to “move to a big city and spread her wings,” her mother, Sherri Sichmeller, told “Dateline.” According to Sichmeller, her daughter had arranged to stay with a man she met through Craigslist. She agreed to clean the house and do other chores in lieu of paying rent until she found another job, Sichmeller said.
In an interview with Channel 2 Action News, Sichmeller said Bauer’s living arrangements quickly fell apart. Bauer left the house after a disagreement with her roommates.
“From what I understand, she’d left her clothes there because she didn’t know what to do,” Sichmeller said. “And then she went to go try to find a place to stay, a hotel, and that’s what brought her to dancing.”
Tease, the strip club where Atlanta police say Bauer was last seen, is located in DeKalb County just inside the Atlanta city limits. The club is nearly 50 miles from the Porterdale property where the search warrant was executed.
FBI Atlanta officials have not responded to questions about the case.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
