Naman Shrestha
Hulu’s ‘How I Caught My Killer: It Was a Religious Hate Crime’ takes the viewers to a Mennonite community in Farmington, New Mexico, from where a 27-year-old woman named Sasha Krause was abducted and killed in Arizona by a 21-year-old Airman named Mark Gooch, whose prejudice against the community is what drove him to commit murder. The disappearance of Sasha in January 2020 unsettled the rest of the community and led the detectives to launch an investigation into the case. The episode dives deep into the mind of the hateful killer in detail and covers the aftermath of his crimes.
Mark Gooch Grew to Resent the Mennonite Community
Mark D. Gooch, son of Jim Gooch, was brought up in Wisconsin as a Mennonite but did not quite fit in as the rest of his family did. He even attended a Mennonite school through eighth grade and obtained a GED instead of graduating high school. Feeling like an outsider since his childhood, Mark grew to resent the Mennonite community and even opened up about it to a friend. He also found life on his family’s farm quite dull and depressing. When he compared life in the Mennonite community with the lives of the people outside of it, he preferred the latter. Not only did he refuse to get baptized as a Mennonite, but he also went against his parents and enrolled in the US Air Force at the age of 18.
Despite being able to get away from the community, Mark’s grudge against it had not gone away. According to his brother, Samuel, the main reason behind Mark’s hatred towards the Mennonites was that he felt mistreated when he was a part of them. When he was stationed at Luke Air Force Base in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, he reportedly used to drive hundreds of miles to the Farmington church and surveil the Mennonites residing in the area. A few days before Sasha Krause’s disappearance, he sent various texts to Samuel, revealing the same. He wrote statements like “Even this morning’s surveillance was boring,” “A bunch of old people without much to live for,” and “Clearly not the people we grew up with. Sad to say another disappointment.”
Mark Gooch Abducted Sasha Krause and Killed Her Before Leaving Her Body in an Arizona Field
On January 18, 2020, Sasha Krause, an integral member of the Mennonite community in Farmington, disappeared. A month later, her body was discovered in Arizona with a blunt-force trauma injury and a gunshot wound to the back of her head. Since Sasha owned a cell phone — which was unusual for a Mennonite — and had it with her on the night she went missing, the investigators were able to track her phone and learned that only one other phone had pinged the same towers at the same time. It was Mark Gooch’s phone. When the investigation led the police to the 21-year-old Airman, they decided to observe his activities on and off base. After digging deep into the suspect, they brought him in for questioning on April 21, 2020.
During the interview, Mark admitted to driving down to Farmington on January 18, 2020, but denied any involvement in the disappearance and death of Sasha Krause. However, when the detective refused to believe him and asked follow-up questions, he could not help but ask for a lawyer. Thus, right after the interview, he was arrested and taken into custody. Later, the authorities found out that the bullet that caused the gunshot wound to Sasha’s head was fired from a .22-caliber rifle belonging to Mark Gooch. When Samuel tried to help get rid of the incriminating evidence against his brother, he was also taken into custody for interfering with the investigation.
Mark Gooch is Incarcerated at an Arizona Prison Facility
Soon after his arrest, Mark Gooch pleaded not guilty and stood on trial on September 24, 2021, for being responsible for the murder of 27-year-old Sasha Krause. While the prosecution argued that the defendant’s hatred and resentment toward the Mennonite community drove him to take the life of an innocent woman, the defense countered that the prosecution did not have any DNA or eyewitness evidence; all they had was circumstantial evidence. However, despite the best attempts of the defense to persuade the jury in favor of Mark, the jury returned with a guilty verdict on October 13, 2021. He was convicted of kidnapping and first-degree murder of Sasha.
A few months later, he received a life imprisonment sentence without the possibility of parole in January 2022. While the judge sentenced him, he displayed no emotion. However, he took the stand and addressed the court, “Firstly, I’d like to express my sincere condolences to the deceased family, and also, I’d like to express my thankfulness for the love and support from my own family in this difficult situation.” As per the parents of the defendant, Mark has given religion another try behind bars, but it is unclear which Christian denomination he chose to embrace. At the moment, he is serving his life sentence at ASPC Tucson, Cimarron Unit at 10000 South Wilmot Road in Tucson, Arizona.
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