Black Drug User Sentenced for Gruesome Bath Murder of White Woman

KMOV
August 18, 2015

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Lauren Bach had bite marks and strangulation marks, when her body was found in a bath tub.

A 43-year-old man who strangled a woman last year and left her to die in a bathtub admitted to the crime on Monday.

Raheem Thorpe appeared in St. Louis Circuit Court where he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

In early June 2014, Lauren Bach was found dead in a bathtub with blunt force trauma to her head, neck and back in the 6100 block of Alaska. Thorpe was arrested shortly after on charges of first degree murder.

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Raheem Thorpe has admitted strangling her to death.

“She was a lovely girl and fun and she belonged to something much bigger than her drug addiction: a family. She had nieces and nephews and she didn’t deserve to die in this way,” said Bach’s relative Thorpe’s first court appearance.

Thorpe had been held without bail when he was first arrested, but in January, St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Mullen lowered the bond.