Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Mennonite Murder Mystery: The Sasha Krause Case

Episode Date: July 5, 2026

Sasha Krause mysteriously disappeared after heading off to church in January 2020. The Mennonite woman and Sunday school teacher was missing for five weeks until a camper made a shocking discovery. Three hundred miles from her home, Krause's body was found. Investigators were puzzled about how Krause even disappeared in the first place and why she was murdered. Find out what happened to Sasha Krause on this episode of "Prime Crime with Jesse Weber." If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/PrimeCrime Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lcprimecrime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On prime crime. It's a single female. She's laying face down. A savage crime devastates a community. She wrote poetry in her spare time. Got along with everybody. It's just a sweet person by everyone's account. It was shocking.

Someone would want to do her harm. And the answers to this case lie in unexpected places. Is there something that happened to you in the Mennonite church that upset to you? I really is just a way of life. Our investigation now transitions to a criminal investigation. We have partnered with the Coconino County Sheriff's Office and federal authorities in trying to identify and apprehend the individual that's responsible. Hey there everybody, I'm Jesse Weber and welcome to Prime Crime,

where we break down some of the most compelling and memorable true crime cases from across the country. When 27-year-old Sasha Krause goes missing, police are at a loss. There's no blood, no body, no DNA, no known motive, just countless miles of remote terrain that don't seem to hold any clues. 9-11, what's the address of the emergency? It's on the Lampenlight compound. Okay. What it is is a missing person. Her name is Sanchuk Kraus.

January 18th, 2020, the Lamp and Light Mennonite compound in Farmington, New Mexico. It's a community so small that when 27 years, old Sasha Krauss doesn't come home from what should be a quick errand, people are immediately concerned. All right, come exactly what happened. Okay, he worked here on the compound. He's been missing since about 8 o'clock tonight. She left home to go down to the church house for Sunday school books and she did not return.

and one of the other girls that lives with her called... Sasha was, by all accounts, a light to her community, to her family. She was a teacher, and she dedicated her life to the faith and to making sure that the people within the faith felt welcomed and learned about the religion in which they served. She lived with other women of her faith, and they believed in being together, and being a community where they all helped each other to learn,

to learn, grow, and to lid. The Mennonite faith is all about being nonviolent and non-resistive. If they're met with violence, they will not respond with violence. They dress in very simple clothing, very long dresses. They also have a head covering. Okay. I don't know. I'm not sure what they see what I had to dress on.

Sasha Krauss had no known enemies, and for good reason, she was someone who was a devout Mennonite who believed in peace, and turning the other cheek and non-confrontation. Sasha Krauss was not the kind of person who would just up and vanish, especially out of a small town in Farmington. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere. There's only a couple theories that you could really follow, right? Is that she left on her own volition, and the police did look into that,

but she had left a lot of personal writings behind, a lot of her personal effects behind. So that seemed unlikely. There was a discussion of perhaps she had a romantic interest, had run off with somebody. Again, no indication that that was the case. And there's no spouse where there could be some kind of marital spat that led to a kidnapping or a murder or disappearance.

There's no altercations that were noted with Sasha and anyone else. But also no indication that she was taken. Her car was discovered at the church parking lot in the middle of that community. There was no dissoning. no disturbance. Her keys were found inside her car and so she just had disappeared. Over the last four weeks we conducted ground searches, aerial searches, canine search,

and entered Sasha's information to federal databases that would alert us if law enforcement had contact with her. Detectives didn't have much to go on so they did searches of the area and the searches came up empty. There was no body to be found, there was no motive and there was no obvious suspect. obvious suspect. So the police interviewed a number of people in that community. They had some leads, although I don't believe it ever, they ever had a suspect in the case. It was really a cold case for some time. We know for any investigation, time is an enemy because as time passes by, even if there's

some evidence left at the scene, you're talking about rain that may wash it away, you talk about DNA that now may be gone. So the longer it takes for an investigator to find a the less likely it is that they can connect it to whoever left that body there. Then, a month after Sasha's disappearance, a call comes in from someone almost 300 miles away from Farmington and the neighboring state of Arizona. On February 22nd, 2020, we were contacted by the Coquanino County Sheriff's Office in reference to the body of a female that was found just outside of Flagstaff.

There was a camper in the area of the Sunset Crater National Monument who was collecting firewood at the time. Something caught her eye and she approached the body just close enough to see that it was a body. Soon the sheriff's office from Coconino County arrived on the scene. So where is she? She's straight ahead of it. She said she was real stiff. Cold. I'll go check the camp.

We'll just try to see if maybe we can ID her. It's a single female. She's laying face down. police interview the camper who found the body. You're just willing to write a statement for me of what you saw and how this happened? Kind of what brought you there when you found her? I mean, at this point, what I'll probably do, I think, is I'm going to go down to Sedona after this and see my friend. Okay.

Because I don't want to be alone. At the time they discovered the body, they didn't even know if it was a homicide case. Initially, it could have been someone had wandered off, maybe died of exposure, but once they turned her body over and saw that her hands, her wrists were duct taped together, that was a good indication that there was some foul play. Our detectives were dispatched to that area to meet with their investigators in determining a positive identification and to share our investigation with them. After the sheriff's office came on scene, they took her body,

it was transported to the medical examiner's office. They discovered that she had blunt force trauma to the back of the her head and there was a gunshot wound to the back of her head as well. It was with a 22 caliber long rifle, which is a very small caliber bullet. It doesn't make a whole lot of noise. The Sunset Crater is fairly remote. I can see how nobody heard the gunshot. There's nobody to watch. There's nobody to listen. There's nobody out there. There's no lights. There's nothing. You know, if you wanted to hide a body, this is probably the place where not a whole lot of people would find it.

Then at the scene, police spot something unusual that brings them to a terrible conclusion. I think her dress really stood out a sergeant with the sheriff's office that that morning was just going through the missing persons notices and discovered this one from New Mexico that showed that the last things that Sasha was wearing was this gray plain dress. They did in fact confirm that it was Sasha through fingerprint comparison. And it's with a heavy heart that I now report that the body of Sasha Krause has been identified and There was no sign of a struggle, there was no blood trail, there was no drag marks necessarily,

which led them to believe that she was possibly killed right where she was found. So we're talking about a car ride that would have lasted multiple hours with Sasha being bound, not knowing what was going to happen to her. So not only did the victim go through the experience of being kidnapped, but you have multiple hours of fear of impending death. death. The day that Sasha Krause's body was found, that news was everywhere. It was all over the television. It was in the newspaper. It was everywhere. Our investigation now transitions to a criminal investigation. We have partnered with the Coconino County Sheriff's Office and

federal authorities in trying to identify and apprehend the individual that's responsible for Sasha's kidnap and murder. Who would do something like this to a young woman who was dressed in clear men and night clothing? He didn't pose a risk of threat to anyone. There was no money stolen, it was no financial motive. Why would someone kidnap and kill such an innocent, harmless person? Then, after Sasha's body is found, there's another major break in the case. The sheriff's office in Coconino County discovered that her cell phone had been communicating with certain cell sites or cell towers in New Mexico.

And they compared that to other devices that were communicating with those cells. same cell sites as well as a cell site near where Sasha's body was discovered. And it was at that point that the sheriff's office discovered that there was one device that was communicating with the same towers going the same direction at the same time. And that device belonged to Mark Gooch. At the time, we didn't know much about Mark Gooch. He was 21 years old. Visit BetMDM casino and check out the newest exclusive.

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BetMGEMGEMP operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Which means he hasn't been in the military for that long. Margooch was an airman down at Luke Air Force Base, a long ways away from where the body was found and from where Farmington is. Coquanino County Sheriff's Detective Lauren Jones, who now goes by her married name, Lauren Nagel, locates Mark Gouge at the air base. The detective came down to Luke Air Force Base, and they got him into the criminal investigation division on base, under the pretense of giving him a drug test.

Hey, Mark, I'm Detective Jones. I'm with the sheriff's office. I have a couple questions for you. I was wondering if you would come chat with me over at the They interviewed Mark Gooch at the Air Force Base with the help of the Office of Special Investigations. So he went in for a drug test, the door opens, and the detective from Coquino County comes walking through the door and starts asking him about this case, which was a completely different reason than he thought he was there. Catches him off guard, I think. How long have you been in the Air Force work? I've been in the Air Force just over a year. Oh, right, not too long.

Not too long. Well, thank you for your service. first of all, I did not serve in the military myself, so I really admire people who choose to do that. It was one of the more polite interviews I've ever seen, one of the more non-confrontational interviews, and one of the more open police interviews I've ever seen on tape. She was basically just presenting what she had and waiting for him to walk into the trap. Coming up, Detective Nagel lures in her prime suspect. There was a girl named Sasha Krause that was killed. Did you hear about that case?

I've seen it in the news, yes, ma'am. Any idea now why I don't want to talk with you at all? The only thing I can think of it is maybe I'll drive it too fast in my bike. He told me to have heard about the Sasha Krause case because it's on the news. What did you think about that when you saw that? It was shocking. I wish I'd have seen something because on the news article they said, if you see anything, please call it. Luke Air Force Base April 2020, two months after,

the body of Sasha Krause is found in a remote park in New Mexico. Detective Lauren Nagel interrogates suspect Mark Gooch. Police linked his cell phone pings to Sasha's on the evening of her disappearance. But so far, there's no other connection between the two. Typically murder cases, we see that the murderer knows the victim. There's some relationship. I think this was an unusual case because there didn't appear to be any relationship between Mark Gooch and Sasha Krause.

I am working on homicide investigation. There was a girl named Sasha Krause that was killed. Tell me what you know about the case. It's basically the news report. She was from New Mexico, right? And she left home, left home one evening, and they found her in Northern Arizona, like Flagstaff area, right?

Right, right. So that's the case that I'm working. Any idea now why I'd want to talk to you at all? Probably because I was probably traveling up in the next area, probably. Mark Gooch seemed like an upstanding guy, 21 years old, serving in the military and had no priors, no rap sheet. Yeah, that's exactly it. So you're, so we've had these things called license plate readers.

Okay. And your vehicle hit a license plate reader in that area. Do you remember that day then when you watch New Mexico? Yeah, yeah, I think I remember some of it. He starts kind of answering questions. He seems a little suspicious, but also very calm, very quiet, very simplistic in his answers. By all accounts, a typical 21-year-old.

So here's the deal. So your vehicle was picked up on that license plate reader in the general area. On the same day, actually, that she went missing. I'm hoping really that maybe you have something that could help me. I don't know if you saw anything. Did you number or anything about the case? No man. From what I read online, it's terrible. Okay. So why were you in New Mexico that day? I was planning on going, so I was checking out Medanite churches. He said, yeah, he'd gone to New Mexico,

but he was looking for a menonite church, which was a strange explanation in and of itself. So you're checking out metamonite churches. If you don't want me asking about that, what kind of religion did you grow up in? Mainly, they were all Mennonites on Amish. Mark Gouge had actually grown up in the Mennonite faith up in Wisconsin. And he and his family were converts to Mennonites. It's interesting that Mark used his prior connection to the Mennonite community to try

and get out of trouble in this situation, because he would have known that that was the only connection to this crime. I notice you seem to be a lot of the crime. I just saw a little bit of emotion in you when we talked about that. Is there something that happened to you in the Mennonite church that upset to you? I really just a way of life. I didn't really like it.

I was happy to be out of it. His father was very staunchly religious and dedicated to the faith. But Mark was not someone who took well to the Mennonite religion in that community. Mark Gouche had some bitterness towards his uprored. bringing and some resentment towards the Mennonite Church. There was never any allegations of physical abuse, mental abuse, nothing like that in the case. And so we're just kind of left to guess

why the grudge against the Mennonite Church was there. Are you still Mennonite? I don't really know how to work that. I try to go to, I was trying to find a night church for a while to go to. Oh, really? Where's the closest Mennonite church in here? I think they had one over here

There were Mennonite churches in the Phoenix area where he worked, but this Mennonite church in the Lampenite community was nearly seven hours away driving time. And that seemed odd. I'm still trying to understand why that specific church you drove, you know, seven hours or so to visit. I figured I'd go check out another church and I had plenty in time, so I figured to go for a good drive. Okay, so let's just recap that, because that's obviously what we want to talk about here. It's just a trip to New Mexico. So you said, and this is January 18th we're talking about. So what time about would you leave here, Luke Air Force Base? Probably left fairly early in the morning.

You drove straight to Flagstaff where you say you got gas. Correct. You say then you drove straight to Farmington where you got gas. Okay. And then it's around 2 p.m., you went to the Mennonite church there, drove around a little bit looking to see if they had church service. Why would you drive seven hours across state lines to the middle of nowhere, to a town that you can't find on a map? Most people don't know where this is. To a Mennonite church, it didn't really make any sense.

And to this day, I don't know why he would have done that or did do that. About how long you think he were in that, in the area of the church. Literally just swung by it. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19-speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac.

Find out more at Cadillac Canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. time they were going to have their service, no Saturday services. I left the area. I mean, I left the church. From what I'm understanding, it doesn't sound you were there for very long. No, man. There was no evidence he ever went inside a church. In fact, he didn't even go that close to the church. But based on the pings of their cell phones, police believe that this must have been when he kidnapped Sasha. Maybe he was just driving down the street, saw someone in Mennonite dress, and that was the trigger?

I don't know. Unfortunately, nobody will ever know. And then what? What was the next thing you remember? Talk to my friend. He wanted to go hiking on Sunday, and I really wanted to make it for that. And then you think that you just drove straight back. You did not. Did you say you stopped for gas again? I'm sorry, I forgot. I cannot recall if I did. Okay. She knew exactly what she had before she went in to talk to him about it.

And she knew that he was not telling her the truth in that interview to begin with. Did you guys end up going hiking that day? No, we didn't. I got back too late. As I said, I got back around one of those got dark, like eight or nine. I want to make sure we're on the same days. So you said you get home at 8 or 9 p.m. on Saturday night. That's correct.

Surveillance video from Luke Air Force Base, though, provides a very different timeline. Having that surveillance video was probably one of the first holes in his story that she could latch on to. she could latch onto and confront him with. There definitely are some inconsistency that I've seen, you know, from your story to what I already know. So first of all, the time that you got back that night, so what if I told you that the time that you came in the game that morning was 6.53 in the morning?

I guess it was that late? That's a long time? Yes, ma'am. No, you came back to base the next day, seven in the morning. seven in the morning. We have tape of you going through the front gate at Luke Air Force Base. We have surveillance tape of you walking up to your barracks room right after that. We know what time you were back at base. She had all of those details, as she should, before she ever got Mark Guch in a room. So how do you explain that?

I stopped and slept in the car. On the way back, I had trouble staying away, try to stop and sleep multiple times, but it's... couldn't really sleep. It was cold. I just want to slow it down here because I can tell you're getting, you know, a little nervous or whatever. But again, all they ask is that you tell me the truth. I understand. All right. So if there's anything that before you kept from me that now is going to come out, now I'm in time.

So again, you saying that you came home at even two in the morning compared to almost seven in the morning, that's five, almost five hour difference. Correct. I understand. Okay. Well, probably stopped and stuff. something bigger longer than I thought. I came in later and I thought. Okay.

Then I remember. It almost seemed like the interrogation was to get some additional information. They already had the evidence for him. And they were just waiting to see what he would do at that point. I'm just going to ask you straight, were you involved with Sasha Krause, Wisconsin? No, man. Did you abduct Sasha Krause?

No, man. Did you know somebody who did? who did? No, ma'am. Did you know anything about her leaving that church? No, ma'am. Okay. Did you kill Sasha Krauss?

No, ma'am. Do you know who killed her? No, ma'am. All right. So, from when you're saying, you know nothing at all about Sasha Krauss being abducted, killed nothing about her case. Correct. They had enough evidence to get them, and that's why they didn't want to play around with them much longer.

The reason I asked is, again, we talked earlier in Men & Night, so I wondered if maybe you've ever been encountered her anywhere? No, we haven't invited that last name back in our community. We have a detective talking to Sam right now. Sam is one of Mark Gooch's brothers. Sam's telling us some stuff, and you're talking to me, and I want to just make sure what both you guys are killing us lines up. And what I know a little bit about from what Sam said is,

sounds like something's going on here as far as like, maybe you have hard feelings against the Meta-Nine Church or maybe like a grudge or something like that. So let me get to start. You're trying to, you're talking to Sam right now. So it sounds like I need to get a lawyer because you're trying to pin something with me. So this wasn't like, well, a whodunit.

There was no one else who would have committed this crime. They arrested him the day they brought him. in for questioning. Mark Guch was arrested on first-degree murder charges. He was arrested on kidnapping charges and also theft charges. Over the last few months, San Juan County has lived in fear, not knowing if we had a predator living inside of our community or somebody that was praying upon it. I can assure you we have our man. Up next, once behind bars, Mark Gouche does something that adds a new layer to this case. Mark Gouge was communicating with his brother Sam through the jail communication service. And that information is recorded.

By the way, as you're watching the Sasha Krause case, and in fact, all of our cases on prime crime, the unfortunate truth is sometimes we have no idea what people are about. But it would be good to get some information about the people in our lives, right? New dates, friends, people you meet online. Well, that's where our sponsor, Truthfinder, comes in. It's one of the largest public record search services in the United States. You type in a name, In minutes and a paid subscription service, you can get access to unlimited reports about almost anyone. And within a report, you can also pull up registered sex offenders in an area too, which is super

helpful for peace of mind. And right now, you can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just go to truthfinder.com slash LC Prime Crime. Hope you can check it out. The parties in this conversation are Jake, Gouche, Sam Gouch, and Mark Guch. Just gave a metanite a ticket. I said, yeah. Also from Mark. I hope you treated them like shit. Ha ha. Hell yeah. Tell them the VA state police doesn't like cultists. I did, L.O.L. As Mark Gooch awaits trial for the murder of Sasha Krause, detectives find a bounty of information on his cell phone. Ironically, his phone pings were what led police to him in the first place. And now, his texts help build the case against him, despite his best efforts to hide them. Mark reached out to his brother and asked him to clear his data from his cell phone remotely.

Before he hoped investigators would find all of that information and be able to use that and piece together exactly how he was involved in what he did. But it was too late, law enforcement had already acquired the texts. One of the text messages he sent with his brother Sam Gooch indicated that he was surveilling some Mennonites in the Phoenix area. He didn't go on in those text messages to explain what that meant or why he was doing it, but that word surveillance really stood out to detectives. W.Y.D. Making some breakfast might do some cleaning. Bored as f***.

Hmm. Same for some reason. Even this morning surveillance was boring. A bunch of old people without much left to live for. And clearly not the Mennonite people we grew up with. Sad to say, another disappointment. And then later, there was a text exchange with Two of his brother, Sam Gooch and Jacob Gooch. Jacob was a Virginia state trooper, and he, in a text exchange with his brother, said that he had pulled over a Mennonite.

And this was around the time that COVID was at the top of everyone's mind. I coughed on him, so he would spread Corona to the wedding they were going to, L.O.O.O. Jacob Gooch said that he coughed on the person he pulled over so that he would spread that to the other people in his community. And Mark Gooch found that hilarious and really leaned into that conversation. He seemed to be gleeful about the fact that this person, perhaps he would get COVID and spread it to people he knew. Uh-huh, that's hilarious.

Is it a ticket that he has to appear in court? Yep, it's reckless. Hell yes. This was someone who had some real darkness, some evil in his heart. Someone who hated his upbringing and wanted to lash out. lash out at the people he blamed for his youth. All three of the brothers seem to have some sort of resentment for the Mennonite community. It seems that Mark Gouche's brother Sam knew about the crime

as early as the day Sasha's body was found. The investigators also found that that exact day, he took his car to get cleaned, basically detailed. It was scrubbed inside out, it was taken to the car wash. Any evidence that was in that car could have been scrubbed. rubbed away immediately upon taking it into such a detailed thorough cleaning job. Law enforcement found receipts for that detail. In fact, Mark Gooch was communicating with his brother, Sam Gooch, at the time that it was getting detailed and talking about how it was really getting

steam cleaned and getting worked over. So the timing of that was very interesting. I'm getting car done right now. Cool. Should be all fresh and clean then. But things didn't work out as planned when Mark Gooch seemingly tried. to hide a key piece of evidence. The gun that was used in this crime was a 22 long rifle. It was a gun that was not allowed on the military base. It was not registered. Well, in the military, you're not allowed to keep an unregistered firearm.

You're not allowed to keep a firearm on base that doesn't belong to the U.S. military. Investigators found out that Mark Gooch had contacted a friend to take this gun from him, take it off base, and hide it for a while. After Mark Gooch asked his friend, to hold the gun for him. There was communication between Mark Gooch and his brother Sam and where he asked Sam to get his property, including this firearm. Now the friend was aware that there was an investigation

and knew that Mark Gooch was arrested for the murder of Sasha Krause. And so he contacted police on his own and told the police, I have this firearm. And his brother, Sam Gooch, is going to try to collect it. And so the police arranged the state. The police arranged a sting operation in the Phoenix area. Sam Gooch went to the Phoenix area to pick up this firearm. The police were waiting for him.

They took the real gun, supplied a dummy gun. The handoff was completed. Police saw the entire thing and arrested him for basically trying to help him cover up the crime. And then that brother ended up turning state's evidence against Margooch. The state had a strong circumstantial case. They had the video surveillance of his car in the area at the time. They had his lies. They had the gun that was used in the crime that was tied directly to Mark Gooch.

They had the conscience of guilt where he was trying to get the gun away from the police, trying to use his brother to conceal the gun. And you had the motive. Even with the gun, the texts, the cell phone pings, this case is not a sure thing for either side as they prepare for trial. Jurors, they expect some evidence, something like they see on TV, they expect DNA evidence or fingerprint evidence, and we didn't have that in this case. So that was the biggest challenge. So the defense certainly highlighted the fact that we had no direct evidence. We had no eyewitnesses to the case.

They also wanted to highlight that he didn't have a history of violence. Up next, as Mark Gooch's trial begins, there's no shortage of surprises. some from his very own family. Did Mark Gooch hold any grudges against the Mennonites? I can't necessarily speak to what Mark's feelings might have been. Well, that's what you told police, right, that he had a grudge against the community? At the time, that's what I said. Hey, guys, thank you so much for following the Sasha Krause case with us.

We're going to get right back to it in a minute. But look, one of the reasons we're able to bring you these stories and shine a light on what's going on is because of the incredible support we get from our sponsors. And that includes our proud partner, Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. If you should get injured, this firm may be who you want in your corner. They have an army of over 1,000 attorneys, an amazing track record. In fact, recently, Morgan and Morgan won verdicts like $12 million in Florida, $26 million in Philadelphia, and $6.8 million in New York.

And mind you, these are all considerably higher than the highest insurance offers in these. cases. Truly, your case could be worth millions, and even if it's not, why not start a claim and get the money you deserve? And seeing if you have a case can be done in eight clicks or less. You don't even have to leave your couch. Also, their fee, absolutely free unless you win. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash prime crime. Were you aware of the defendant referred to the church and members of it as a cult? Not to my knowledge. out in Arizona, Mark Guch's trial for the murder of Sasha Krause begins on September 24th, 2021.

He pleads not guilty to all charges, including first-degree murder and kidnapping. Ladies and gentlemen, you will hear from over 30 witnesses in this case. Of course, you won't hear from Sasha. She won't get to tell her story. But the evidence in this case will tell a story about who intruded on. Sasha's community, who ambushed her at her own church, who duct-taped her wrists together, who bashed her head, and who ultimately shot her in the back of the head, murdering her. And the answer to every single one of those questions, as you'll hear in this case, is Mark

Gooch, the defendant. I think the prosecution had a very strong case. When you look at all of the evidence they had to show that, in fact, there was Mark who committed this crime. So I want to talk to you a little bit about Mark Gooch and his character. And the evidence that will be presented is that he is a peaceful, non-violent person. Looking at the defense case for Mark Gooch, he had no criminal history, no issues or bouts of violence that were known or reported. You tell the jury, you look them in the eye and say, my client would not do this.

He has no other acts of violence. Well, no one saw Mark Gooch at the church area. No one. No one saw Mark Gooch at or near Sasha Krause's car. No one saw Mark Gooch in the church building. No one saw Mark Gooch leave the area. Nobody saw Mark Gooch's car at any time. So all of that's important.

There was no eyewitnesses to say that they saw Mark either take her from the church or with her in Flagstaff or near Flagstaff, Arizona. And I think they leaned into that. Among the witnesses brought by the prosecution is Mark Gooch's brother, Sam. Did you know that Mar Gouche was surveilling Mennonites? I'm assuming you're basing that on the text message in exchange between us. Based on that text message, which I took at face value, yes. The brother who took the stand because of a plea deal, the one who is trying to confiscate the gun

protect his brother wasn't the best witness. He was not forthcoming and had to be prodded by prosecutors. Do you remember having a conversation about him getting his car cleaned? I do. Okay. Do you remember him talking about getting it detailed? Yes. After his arrest, did Mark ask you to remotely wipe his phone?

Yes, I believe so. And not just his phone, but the SD cards. as well? Based on the transcripts, that is correct. You remember when that conversation occurred? I believe it was shortly or within a few days of his arrest. The other good piece of evidence we had in this case, of course, was that 22-caliber bullet that was found in Sasha's neck, and that 22-caliber rifle that Mark Gouche had asked his friend to hold off base for him. Based on my training and my experience, that was something that was a little bit of his friend.

that was sufficient for me to say those markings are the same from one to the other. Therefore, I could say that the evidence bullet was fired from the rifle that was submitted. The firearms expert for the defense comes to a different conclusion. But in general, there are overwhelmingly more differences and similarities.

And so the conclusion that I have to reach is that the rifle, at least in its current condition that was given to me, did not produce those same stri-to-match to match that of the evidence bullet. Your conclusion obviously is different than the conclusion of Ms. Pelosi. That is correct.

But when prosecutor Barker cross-examines this expert, he seems less certain. Let's just be clear about your conclusion. It's inconclusive, is your conclusion, right? That is correct. It would be what's called by AFDI isn't inconclusive. You're not eliminating this bullet from being fired from item 44, right?

Correct only because I do not know what condition this firearm would have been in if it were the correct firearm at the time it was fired. And then the trial becomes a family affair. Father took the stand in full Mennonite garb and here he is testifying how they grew up as converts into the Mennonite faith. And how he raised his children up in Wisconsin as Mennonites and how his son did not love being involved with the church. I want to talk a little bit about an aspect of Mark's personality or character. If you tell us, sir, whether you have an opinion or whether Mark has a reputation for being a peaceful, non-violent person. Yes, sir, he is non-violent.

I mean, that was the expectation from very little. It's the expectation of the school. I mean, to the best of my knowledge, he was never involved in any physical altercation at school. In your presence, did he ever exhibit any indication of violent behavior? Yes, sir. And that kind of gives you a little bit of maybe a motive as to why this happened. Mark didn't actually want to be a Mennonite. I don't know how you go from Mark didn't want to be a Mennonite to killing a woman.

That's not really a leap that most people would make. But for whatever reason, that happened. In cross-examination, the prosecution probes further. The defendant, Mark, he doesn't have a converted heart. What is a converted heart? What the scripture says is you've turned from darkness to light. What it says is you've decided to follow the Lord with your entire heart. So he had not yet turned from darkness to light.

Correct. I think the thing that stood out to me in this case was really how innocent and pure and what a light Sasha was. And so that contrast of dark and light, which I mentioned in my closing argument, that Mark Gooch did everything under the cover of darkness. He concealed evidence, tried to cover up his tracks. Sasha, on the other hand, was that contrast, that light to our community, to our family.

Sasha Krause was a light to the world. This defendant snuffed it out. We won't be able to bring that light back. There's nothing we can do to stop Sasha by going to that church, prevent the defendant from doing what he did. There's something that you can do. today to hold him accountable.

That's why the state's asking you to find the defendant guilty in all charges. So it all pieced together. I mean, there was no other person in this world who had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to commit this heinous crime. The defense, of course, sees it differently. The states worked hard to try to suggest to you that there is motive in this case because of two text message scenarios over a four-year period that have some relationship to a Mennonite topic,

wouldn't you think it would be just the opposite, that there would be bunches and bunches and bunches of references to Mennonites and hate in Mennonites and spew and vile and making plans if that was the intent here? That's not the situation. You must be transferring not guilty because the case has not been proved. No tape, no evidence, fingerprints on any of that kind of jury, whether that could be linked to mystery.

That's the problem. All of that's missing. I think this defense did a good job of explaining that and trying to get the jury to focus on that. Ultimately, the jury didn't buy that. Jury has returned guilty verdicts on count one for screen murder and count two kidnapping. The court finds the defendant guilty of count three,

theft, a class one misdemeanor in the indictment. After the verdict, the next phase of this legal process gets underway. The judge had a decision to make at that point, whether to send Marguz to prison for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole, or if he would be eligible for parole after 25 years. And I thought it was important for the judge to hear a little bit more about Sasha, to have that understanding about who... This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you.

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And it's entitled, If I Die Young. It says, If I die young, think not the hours wasted. I spent preparing for some future day. My God is not unrighteous to forget it. He will completely recompense some way. If I die young, pray, mourn me not, my friends. You did not see the tears that washed my soul. you did not see the tempest fierce within me,

nor how I burned with longing for the goal. I've read this poem several times now. Again, I'm struck by the sense of strength in her writing, her sense of faith. Sasha began writing poetry as a teenager. She enjoyed her life, but she had a lot of responsibilities. I believe those responsibilities deepened her, emotionally and spiritually.

So why did this happen? Why was she kidnapped and murdered? I will never understand that in this life. But God will use her death for his glory, and I am convinced he has eternal purpose for Sasha that we can only guess. Your Honor, this has been a difficult situation for our family. To be, know that through it all, Mark has been loved

and has been supportive. their support for his family, his siblings, all seven of them. And so as the sentencing will be pronounced, we just pray for your leniency on it, that Mark may return to society and be a contributing member to society. This is a very tragic case when you're talking about Sasha's death because she was living in life to help other people.

And because she dedicated herself to the Mennonite religion, to helping other people, she became a target. Yeah, this is a case that would have qualified for the death penalty, but the Mennonite faith does not believe in it. In fact, they are praying for Mark Gooch. They wanted him to find his way. We were seeking natural life.

That means he would be sentenced to prison for the rest of his life without possibility of parole. I've been a judge for quite some time. This case is truly the most senseless case. I have ever... decided over, this horrific abduction and murder of an innocent person that he didn't, I mean, even if he knew the person, it wouldn't be justified, but the fact that he didn't even know her is also so very senseless. It is this court's sentence that the defendant is sentenced to natural life in the Arizona Department of Corrections.

He wished that someone in Mark Guch's life had turned him away from the hate that was enveloping his heart and his soul. His brothers seemed to encourage it and enable it just to murder someone so innocent, so kind. There was no reason for the hatred that Mark Guch had to culminate in this brutal murder. Mark Gouche tried to silence someone who brought so much beauty to the world. Like this song, Sasha wrote that her friends sing in her memory. Through Sasha's songs and poems, her life. Through Sasha's songs and poems, her light continues to shine. But for the young airman who killed her for no reason other than an irrational hatred of a religion he'd already abandoned, he faces a dark future of his own making. That's all we have for you here on this episode of Prime Crime, everybody.

Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Jesse Weber, and as always, stay safe.