Suspect in fatal yacht fire killed ; St. Marys police shoot Trauger when he raised firearm, authorities say [Florida Times Union]

BRUNSWICK | David Trauger, the primary suspect in a Monday morning yacht fire in which two bodies were found, was killed Wednesday by police who confronted him at a Kingsland apartment.

After a citizen reported seeing Trauger, police went to a residence at Willow Way Apartments in Kingsland where they located him just outside the complex, St. Marys police Lt. Shannon Brock said in a prepared release.

When officers attempted to take Trauger into custody, he refused their instructions and raised a firearm toward them prompting the officers to fire on Trauger killing him at the scene, Brock said.

No officers were injured, Brock said.

It was not until Wednesday that a medical examiner concluded that charred skeletal remains found aboard a yacht that burned in St. Marys at 3:20 a.m. Monday were those of two people. It was then that Trauger, the 67-year-old ex-husband of Karen Barnes, who lived on the yacht, was named the primary suspect in deaths and the arson of the boat.

"The examination also revealed sufficient evidence to conclude the deaths are deemed to be homicides,'' the St. Marys police said.

St. Marys police Lt. Johnny Guy declined late Wednesday to reveal the evidence that led police to say the deaths were homicides, but there is a police family violence incidence report saying that a dispatcher heard suspicious sounds from an open 911 call from the boat.

It is still unknown if the remains found in the burned-out yacht were those of Barnes, 55, and her friend Larry Ford, who was known to be on a boat tied up next to the yacht, and who was seen with Barnes over the weekend, police said earlier.

Trauger had been seen wearing black clothing and a black ball cap in a residential area near Exit 1 off Interstate 95 where a resident spotted the dingy Monday that police determined had been tied to the yacht. The dingy was partially sunk in a marsh off the St. Marys River and its bow and mooring rope were charred.

A day after the $558,000 custom-built yacht burned, Trauger was due in Glynn County Superior Court to ask a judge to set aside his divorce and give him back the boat, Trauger's lawyer said.

Crystal Ferrier, who represents Trauger, said he was prepared to go into court Tuesday and testify that his divorce, in which he signed over the boat to Barnes, was a sham.

"He was supposed to be in my office at 2 p.m. Tuesday to prepare for the hearing. Obviously, he didn't show up,'' she said Wednesday morning.

Until their divorce this summer, Trauger and Barnes had been married about 2 1/2 years, Ferrier said.

Their divorce was contrived as a way to get the boat into the legal possession of Barnes so that Linda Trauger, whom Trauger divorced after 20 years, couldn't lay claim to the boat as payment for money he owed her.

Had not Trauger willingly signed the boat over to Barnes, there is no possible way under Georgia law a judge would have awarded it to her in a divorce settlement, Ferrier said.

"He had this boat custom built before he ever met Karen. I have the bill of sale. He paid $558,000 for it. And he signs it over to her? No way in hell,'' Ferrier said.

Barnes and Trauger had agreed to remain living together aboard the boat when it was still at Jekyll Island, she said.

"He came back with flowers and wine in hand and all the locks are changed,'' all after she sent him a birthday card and as she was still using their credit card, Ferrier said.

Instead of living up to that agreement, Barnes took off with the boat, she said.

"He's just been devastated and distraught ... He would do anything for this woman,'' Ferrier said.

In her own court filings, Barnes asserted that Trauger had been stalking her, had threatened her and that when he found the locks changed he tried to climb into the boat from the top. She called the police and there is a report.

Barnes had also filed a motion for the court to find Trauger in contempt for not paying alimony, but Ferrier said, "He didn't know where she was."

When they were still together, the yacht had been docked at , but Barnes had moved it south and anchored at the St. Marys Boat Yard off New Point Peter Road. She claimed in her court filings she had to hide from Trauger.

Ferrier said she is mystified by the entire episode. None of it sound like her client, who did well in the insurance business in Pennsylvania before diminishing his role and moving aboard his boat, she said.

"Mr. Trauger is not a dumb man. He did make mistakes. One was signing this thing,'' she said of the divorce settlement.Terry Dickson: (912) 264-0405