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An airman with the U.S. Air Force is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 19 following his October conviction for the kidnapping and murder of a Mennonite woman who was last seen in her community gathering materials for Sunday school.
Mark Gooch, 22, could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Gooch and Sasha Krause, 27, lived hundreds of miles apart and did not know each other before the events surrounding her death took place. Both were raised in the Mennonite religion, but Krause remained dedicated to the church while Gooch ultimately rejected it and joined the U.S. Air Force.
Krause was last seen alive in January 2020 at the church in her Mennonite community outside the New Mexico city of Farmington. More than a month later, a camper discovered her body nearly 300 miles away in a forest clearing outside Flagstaff, Arizona.
She had been shot in the head and her wrists were bound. A jury found Gooch guilty of kidnapping and first-degree murder in October, and an Arizona judge on Tuesday scheduled his sentencing for mid-January.
After Gooch's conviction, U.S. Air Force spokesperson Sean Clements said that the service would begin the process of discharging him.
Krause was a teacher for six years in another Mennonite community in Grandview, Texas, then moved to Farmington less than two years before her death. Bob Krause, her father, told the Associated Press that she loved learning, her faith and working with children.
"She was always studying something, especially languages, which came almost naturally to her," Bob Krause said. "She loved words: big words, funny words, poetry, classics and nursery stories — very word-oriented but not garrulous."
During the trial last fall, jurors heard 10 days of testimony from those who knew Krause and investigated her disappearance. They heard from ballistics experts who disagreed on whether the bullet taken from her skull was fired from a .22-caliber rifle Gooch owned.
Gooch's attorney, Bruce Griffen, tried to raise doubt by pointing to a lack of forensic evidence and to testimony about another car seen in the Mennonite community the day Krause went missing. He said Gooch was peaceful and volunteered information to a detective who interviewed him at Luke Air Force Base in metropolitan Phoenix, where he was stationed.
Authorities used cellphone and financial records as well as surveillance video to tie Gooch to the crimes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
About the writer
Zoe Strozewski is a Newsweek reporter based in New Jersey. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and global politics. Zoe ... Read more