Deepra SarkarKatie Autry, a 2003 freshman at Western Kentucky University, was brutally murdered in her dorm room. Police were quick to identify the two primary suspects, one of whom, Stephen Soules, mentioned his and the other suspect, Lucas Goodrum’s involvement in the crime. Investigation Discovery’s ‘Murder in Bowling Green’ unravels the dreadful crime in an almost hour-long feature. And we are here to answer your queries about Lucas Goodrum, who was later acquitted of Katie’s death.
Who Is Lucas Goodrum?
Lucas Goodrum was one of the primary suspects to be charged with the capital murder of Katie Autry in 2003. The authorities said Goodrum, a native of Scottsville, Kentucky, was not enrolled as a student of the West Kentucky University in which Katie had recently started as a freshman. Goodrum, along with the other suspect, Stephen Soules, had attended the same fraternity party as Katie the night before she was assaulted.
Goodrum was arrested and brought to Warren County Regional Jail, where he was charged with Katie’s death. After him, Soules was arrested, who then changed his story several times before implicating himself and Goodrum in the murder of Katie Autry. While in custody, during his interrogation, Goodrum consistently denied being connected to Katie’s death. Before his alleged involvement in Katie Autry’s rape and murder, there was an unrelated report against Goodrum from another girl.
The police received a complaint from a teenage girl alleging that Goodrum had hit her twice in the face with a cell phone at his apartment, following which he had held her down in her car and had refused to let her go. The officials informed the girl that since she was a minor, she would require the signature of her parents to issue an arrest warrant. No warrant was issued thereafter. But then Goodrum was arrested for the murder of Katie Autry. Goodrum, allegedly unaware of the situation, assumed he was being arrested for assaulting the teenager that registered the complaint earlier.
Where is Lucas Goodrum Now?
In Goodrum’s 2005 trial, the prosecution was majorly dependent on the testimony of Goodrum’s former co-defendant, Stephen Soules. After pleading guilty to charges of rape, murder, and robbery in 2004, Soules extended his help in Goodrum’s trial through his testimony against Goodrum. The testimony implicated Goodrum in the rape and murder of 18-year-old Katie Autry. Moreover, a third man, a former fellow inmate of Goodrum’s, said while recounting a jail conversation that Goodrum had reportedly admitted to raping and beating Katie Autry.
However, the defense argued that Soules’ testimony could be based on lies, especially since there was no evidence to link Goodrum to the crime scene or the crime. Besides, Goodrum’s father and stepmother testified that he had been home in Scottsville by the time the fire alarms in the university dorm had gone off. After the jury deliberated for 2.5 hours, Goodrum was acquitted of all the murder, rape, sodomy, and arson charges levied against him. In 2010, Goodrum appeared in an episode of ID’s ‘On the Case with Paula Zahn’ titled ‘Voices in the Dark,’ which also featured Autry’s murder case. After the acquittal, he was living in Aubrey, Texas, for a long time. His current whereabouts are not publicly known.
Read More: Where Is Stephen Soules Now?
