Kriti Mehrotra
When the remains of Sasha Krause were found in Sunset Crater National Monument outside Flagstaff, Arizona, on February 24, 2020, it raised more questions than answers. That’s because the 27-year-old had gone missing weeks prior, on January 18, 2020, from her small conservative Mennonite community hundreds of miles away in Farmington, New Mexico. Investigation Discovery’s ‘People Magazine Investigates: The Grudge’ carefully chronicles this harrowing incident in detail, shining a clear light upon what transpired and why.
Sasha Krause Sustained Blunt Force Trauma and a Gunshot Wound to the Head
Born on April 8, 1992, in Temple, Texas, to Laura Krause and Robert Krause, as one of seven children, Sasha Krause grew up in a big, beautiful, loud, loving, and supportive family. She was just 11 years old when her parents joined the Mennonite church, resulting in her and her siblings – Amanda, Megan, Emma, Robert, Evelyn, and Sara – becoming devoted Christians. It was thus no surprise when she began writing poems and hymn lyrics, or when she became an educator at Grandview Gospel Fellowship for over 6 years.
Sometime in 2018, though, Sasha relocated to New Mexico, where the Spanish, French, and English literature enthusiast began working at Lamp & Light Publishers. She was leading a good, happy life, which is why it was strange to her community and loved ones when she suddenly disappeared after last being seen at her local church at around 7 pm on January 18, 2020. According to records, she never returned to her home, nor she did contact her m, her elders, or her family, driving them to ultimate file a missing person’s report.
Thus began an extensive investigation, but despite the officials’ best efforts, it was only Shasha’s remains that were found over a month later near Flagstaff, Arizona. It was February 21, 2020, when a camper at Sunset Crater National Monument found the 27-year-old’s remains while they were looking for firewood, and they immediately contacted the local authorities. According to records, her hands were bound with duct tape, she had signs of blunt force trauma, and her cause of death was a shot in the head with a .22-caliber weapon.
Sasha Krause Was Killed Over a Grudge Against Her Community
When Sasha’s remains were found, investigators wondered if she was specifically targeted or if she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, owing to the evidence present. There were no signs of sexual assault on the 27-year-old and no traces of any biological/DNA evidence nearby, despite the fact that she was transported hundreds of miles. Moreover, she clearly had left her home to visit church, pick up some books for an upcoming Sunday school class, and return home because she had left with only her cellphone. Her purse, cards, cash, and all other personal belongings were still in her room, untouched and in place.
Therefore, investigators had little to go on, leading them to check her cell phone data in hopes of determining precisely what happened after she left church. As per records, it turned out that her cell pinged by the church before suddenly pinging at a location 60 miles away at 8:58 pm, and then near the spot where her remains were finally found. It was a strange pattern, so officials decided to find any other cell phones that followed it to a tee, which led them to Mark Gooch, a US Air Force mechanic stationed in Phoenix, Arizona.
It came to light that although Mark also grew up in the Mennonite community in Wisconsin, he rejected the religion after he grew up and then joined the military. However, as per his loved ones, he was still bitter about the religion and its community, and it was to such an extent that he was surveilling the community in New Mexico. With all this, his past troubles, and a search of his vehicle yielding gloves and binoculars, it was hypothesized that he killed Sasha in a fit of rage simply because she belonged to a religious community he begrudged. With a friend of his later also contacting officials to reveal he was asked to hold a .22 caliber rifle for him, not long after the incident, he was arrested on charges related to kidnapping, murder, and theft.
Mark Gooch is Currently Incarcerated in a State Correctional Facility
When authorities initially began looking for Mark, they discovered that he had a complicated past with potential criminality. He was suspected of a string of burglaries in Wisconsin when he was younger and had allegedly been involved in minor theft and the vandalization of property. This, combined with his cell phone data showing he took a suspicious route on January 18, 2020, did not help his case. According to her cell, he left his base and traveled 400 miles to New Mexico, where he remained for a while before moving north to the place Sasha was found.
Mark’s cell last pinged there at 1 am on January 19, but he also returned there a few days later. So, with all these aspects, he was found guilty of theft, kidnapping, and murder in connection with Sasha’s disappearance and death on October 13, 2021. A few months later, in January 2022, the then-22-year-old was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional consecutive term of five years. All the evidence suggested he and Sasha did not know one another, so he killed her in a rage because he held a grudge against her community. Therefore, today, at age 26, he is incarcerated at the maximum-security Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman in Florence, Arizona, where he is expected to remain for the rest of his natural life.
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