An Arizona jury has convicted a U.S. Air Force airman charged with the kidnapping and murder of a Mennonite woman who was living in New Mexico at the time of her disappearance.
Mark Gooch faces life in prison on charges he murdered Sasha Krause. He was also convicted of kidnapping Krause in January 2020 from her Farmington Mennonite Church. A verdict was reached in the case after less than a day of deliberation, KRQE reported.
“The jury drew this conclusion from the facts and the evidence presented by the Coconino County Attorney's Office and Sheriff’s Department. Through some hard work, the community will be a safer place tonight,” Coconino County Attorney Bill Ring said, according to the AZ Daily Sun.
U.S. Air Force airman Mark Gooch
| Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
Krause was only 27 at the time of her death and had spent six years teaching at Grandview Gospel Fellowship in Grandview, Texas, prior to moving to Farmington. She was missing for more than a month before her body was found outside of Flagstaff and had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and had her wrists tied with duct tape. She had also suffered a bullet wound to the back of her head from a .22-caliber rifle.