The Case of Sasha Krause

Sasha Krause, 27, disappeared from her Mennonite community near Farmington, New Mexico, on 18 January 2020 while gathering materials for Sunday school. Her body was discovered more than a month later near Flagstaff, Arizona. Mark Gooch was convicted of kidnapping and first-degree murder and sentenced to natural life imprisonment.

Sasha Marie Krause was born in Temple, Texas, and grew up in a large Mennonite family. She became a committed member of the Mennonite church as a teenager and spent six years teaching at Grandview Gospel Fellowship in Texas. About 18 months before her death, she moved to Farmington, New Mexico, where she worked for Lamp & Light Publishers, a Mennonite publishing ministry. Sasha was known for her love of books, poetry and languages. She spoke Spanish and was learning French, skills that were useful in her work with the publishing ministry. She also taught Sunday school within the Mennonite community. On 18 January 2020, Sasha went to the Farmington Mennonite Church to gather materials for a Sunday school class. She disappeared that evening and was not seen alive again. Mark Gooch, a U.S. Air Force airman stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, had been raised in a Mennonite family in Wisconsin but had rejected the faith. Investigators determined that he had travelled to the Farmington area on the day Sasha disappeared. There was no evidence that the two had previously known each other.

Sasha's body was discovered on 22 February 2020 by a camper gathering firewood in a forest clearing near Sunset Crater National Monument outside Flagstaff, Arizona, more than 270 miles from her home in Farmington. She was found face down beneath brush, wearing a grey dress, white coat and hiking shoes. Her hands were bound with duct tape and she had suffered blunt-force trauma and a fatal gunshot wound to the back of the head. An autopsy determined that her death was a homicide.

Investigators used cellphone records, surveillance footage, financial records and other evidence to establish Mark Gooch's movements around the time of Sasha's disappearance. Sasha's cellphone had communicated with cell towers in the Farmington area on the night she disappeared. Investigators determined that Gooch's phone had been communicating with the same towers at the relevant time. His movements also placed him in the Farmington area before he returned toward Arizona. A .22-calibre rifle belonging to Gooch was examined after his arrest. State crime-lab testing concluded that the bullet recovered from Sasha's skull had been fired from the rifle. Other evidence, including surveillance footage and financial records, further connected Gooch to the kidnapping and murder. Gooch was arrested in April 2020 and charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. He maintained his innocence, but a Coconino County jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and misdemeanor theft in October 2021.

Mark Gooch was sentenced on 19 January 2022 to natural life imprisonment for Sasha's murder, with an additional consecutive five-year sentence for kidnapping. He was also sentenced to time served for misdemeanor theft. An Arizona appeals court later affirmed his convictions and sentences.

The case attracted particular attention because Sasha and Gooch were strangers who had grown up in Mennonite communities in different states. Investigators never established a definitive motive for the killing, although evidence presented at trial showed Gooch had developed resentment toward the Mennonite faith and community.