BIG ADIOS: Death penalty sought for bodybuilder accused of killing wife

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A former U.S. Marine-turned-steroid-fuelled-bodybuilder now faces execution if convicted in the grisly slaying of his estranged wife.

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Cops say 43-year-old Ian Baunach incinerated his wife Katie’s remains in a 50-gallon drum that left his Florida property “reeking of decaying flesh” after he allegedly lured her there.

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State Attorney Amira Fox said the murder of Katie Baunach was “committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.”

And she wants the muscleman to die for murdering the 39-year-old nurse and mother of two.

According to cops, the beefy bodybuilder lured Katie to the remote home they had shared in Fort Denaud to get her things last Sept. 29.

Baunach — an International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness competitor — is charged with first-degree premeditated murder, illegally cremating a body, drug possession, and violating federal firearms law.

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And inside his rural southwest central Florida home, ATF agents seized a stockpile of steroids and unregistered silencers.

The macabre discovery was made after officers went to the house searching for Katie.

The pair’s relationship was fraught with violence and she accused the ex-Leatherneck of not only abusing her, but one of their children. She had asked for a restraining order, begging the court to get him counselling for his anger issues.

On the night she disappeared, detectives said she dropped the kids off at a friend’s house. Katie said she was going to her ex-husband’s home to get some of her things.

“This was the last time Katie Baunach was seen alive,” a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, wrote in a federal criminal complaint, according to Fox News.

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When investigators went to Ian Baunach’s residence, Katie’s car was in the driveway and her purse was on the front seat. Neither were at the home. A judge then issued a search warrant.

“At approximately 1 p.m., law enforcement executed the search warrant at the premises and discovered evidence that a homicide had occurred there,” the complaint reads.

Inside the trunk of Ian Baunach’s vehicle they discovered blood. In the garage doorway was evidence of a struggle, in his safe they found her wedding band and engagement band, which she had been wearing when she dropped off her children.

Cops also discovered silencers and several guns that had been threaded to accommodate them. In addition, they seized 15 vials of steroids.

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Ian Baunach reportedly waived his Miranda rights and explained to investigators that Katie had indeed showed up at his house but they had argued over another woman.

He claimed didn’t want to fight so he “went to sleep” and when he woke up, Katie had disappeared.

When asked about the blood soaking his trunks, he snickered: “You don’t have a body.”

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Chillingly, there was more — a “fresh burn pile.” Among the ashes were part of a jawbone and a tooth. A 50-gallon barrel “reeked of decaying flesh” and had more bone fragments inside.

His lawyer is disappointed that the Sunshine State wants to give his client the big adios. Baunach has pleaded not guilty.

“Mr. Ian Baunach is a former United States Marine, a war hero who sacrificed his body and his peace of mind for his country. It is disheartening that the government he fought to protect and preserve is going after him with the ultimate punishment,” Harris wrote in a statement.

“We maintain Ian Baunach’s innocence and will vigorously defend him in a court of law.”

Before she was murdered, a judge denied her request for a restraining order. The doomed woman was told to make peace with her musclebound husband — for the sake of the children.

Six weeks later, she was dead.

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