Man with local ties passes with rare cancer, and now family reveals experience he kept secret for decades

RIGBY – A Utah immigrant who was a prisoner of war in Bosnia decades ago passed away Saturday morning.

Anto Bauman died at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City with a rare form of muscular cancer. He was 73.

Jordyn Bauman, his daughter-in-law, lives in Rexburg with her husband, Kristijan. She tells EastIdahoNews.com it’s been an arduous battle for Anto over the last 16 months. The cancer was aggressive and painful and she’s amazed with his “incredible strength.”

“We knew this would come eventually, but we just weren’t expecting it to be now,” Jordyn says. “It’s hard for my husband to lose his dad. He’s still trying to wrap his mind around that.”

Anto was diagnosed with bladder cancer in August 2023. After having his bladder removed, Jordyn says the cancer spread to his lungs and mutated into a rare muscular cancer. Anto was one of about 174 people in the world who had it, doctors told Jordyn.

By July 2024, cancerous nodes had spread throughout his body and Jordyn says there was a small cist on his back. He succumbed to the disease five months after the second diagnosis.

Life in Croatia and war imprisonment

Jordyn says her father-in-law was no stranger to hardship.

He grew up in what is now Croatia and spent four years in the Navy before meeting his wife, Dimitrina, in Bulgaria.

“They met and didn’t speak each other’s languages. But they liked each other so much that they made it work,” Jordyn says, smiling. “They learned each other’s languages, got married and settled in Bosnia.”

The Bosnian War, a three-year religious conflict involving several European forces that resulted in the breakup of Yugoslavia, broke out years later in 1992.

Jordyn says Anto’s city was invaded around this time. Anto refused to fight and was taken from his home while his wife was shopping for a loaf of bread.

He and some of his neighbors and friends were initially held captive in the basement of a prison.

“The guards were ruthless and did Russian Roulette on them everyday,” says Jordyn, meaning their death was left up to chance. “Somehow, my father-in-law survived.”

One of his best friends, along with multiple neighbors, were shot to death right in front of him.

U.S. troops came to the prison at one point to try and get people out. Anto and his group were kept under heavy guard in the basement out of sight from U.S. forces. They were told to be quiet or they would be shot.

Shortly after that, Anto and his group were taken to a concentration camp in Bosnia.

“They were stripped of all their clothing and were forced to stand. Prisoners were pushed in like sardines,” says Jordyn.

When they were given food, it was usually moldy bread. Guards gave them water by splashing it on them.

“He saw people beaten. Women were raped (before his eyes),” Jordyn says.

After more than a year of captivity, Anto eventually escaped.

He returned to his wife looking “like a walking skeleton,” says Jordyn, but it would be another quarter of a century before he ever told anyone about his experience.

Jordyn says she learned about it for the first time about five years ago.

“I asked him questions about his past and he opened up about it,” she says. “He’d been holding on to it for over 20 years.”

Hearing this for the first time was shocking to Jordyn, but it helped her better understand her father-in-law’s behavior.

“He definitely had PTSD,” she says. “Loud noises would sometimes rattle him. Crowds were also an issue. We didn’t know why (for a long time).”

But despite his silent suffering through the years, Jordyn says Anto was always a “sweet man.”

Life after the war

After the war, Anto and his wife immigrated to the U.S. and lived in Texas for several years before settling in Salt Lake. It was here where they came in contact with missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Baumans were eventually baptized and raised a family together.

He made a living as a house painter and he and his wife lived a quiet lifestyle.

In the wake of Anto’s passing, Jordyn recalls many fond memories of her father-in-law. Though he mostly spoke Croatian, Jordyn says he was “so giving” and she enjoyed making him laugh.

“He would give you the shirt off his back. He was always helping people in the community,” says Jordyn. “When Kris and I were dating, we’d visit Salt Lake and he … would make food for everybody. He loved to cook. He would have a full spread (of Croatian dishes). He would make baklava (a pastry filled with chopped nuts and honey) and crepes.”

Jordyn tears up when she thinks about Anto’s kindness and resilience and she wishes more people would’ve had the opportunity to know him.

“He was someone I admired so much and I’m so grateful for the opportunity I had to know him,” she says, holding back tears.

Jordyn launched a GoFundMe on Anto’s behalf to raise funds for his funeral expenses. If you’d like to donate, click here.

WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH JORDYN IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.

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