Did a 'Pistol-Packing Cheer Mom' and Former Actress Plot the Murder of Her Ex-Husband's Mother?

Mar. 15, 2025

Leigh Ann Bauman.

Leigh Ann Bauman was a popular fixture in Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks region. The self-described “pistol-packing cheer mom” of two teenage girls was a well-connected realtor and businesswoman. In 2020, she and a partner set a speed boat record in the Rum Run Ocean Cup race around California’s Catalina Island.

The former actress, who appeared onDays of Our Lives, was always a firm believer in self-promotion.

“Her looks, her personality, her high energy — she does not fly under the radar,” Serafino Cazzani, 62, a boat racer who began dating Bauman in 2020, says in this week’s issue of PEOPLE. “If you show up some place and she’s there, you’re going to know it.”

Leigh Ann Bauman.Camden County Sheriff’s Office

According to a probable cause statement, Bauman believed that her ex-mother-in-law was “the reason there was a strain on her and her daughter’s relationship, and her ex-husband and [ex-mother-in-law] were possibly about to take Bauman to court to get full custody of the children.”

Bauman allegedly told her friend that “she knew it was wrong as a Christian, but she would go to church and ask for forgiveness after it was done,” according to the statement.

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When Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators approached Bauman at her home about the allegations, she insisted that talk of killing her ex-mother-in-law was simply venting to a friend, who she claimed tried to get money from her before reporting her to police.

“Bauman stated the witness was a ‘hustler’ and was just trying to get money,” the probable cause statement alleges.

For more on the shocking allegations against Leigh Ann Bauman,subscribe now to PEOPLEor pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.

Miranda Lambert on the cover of PEOPLE.

Some close to Bauman don’t believe the accusations leveled against her.

“Leigh was in her own house, venting to a friend,” says her mother, Janis Burgin. “She’s not that person. And anybody that know her knows she’s not that person. She finds people jobs. She gives people jobs.”

“I believe that she is completely innocent of everything,” says her friend, Cody Smith. “She’s a very compassionate person. She cares a lot about people in general. She’s one of the sweetest, most honest people I’ve ever met in my life.”

Bauman hasn’t spoken publicly about the murder-conspiracy case.

A hearing on the conspiracy charge is scheduled in Camden County circuit court later this year.

source: people.com