From Faith to Fatal Obsession: The Mennonite Murder That Shocked America
On a cold February morning in 2020, a camper searching for firewood in the desolate woods near Sunset Crater National Monument made a chilling discovery—a lifeless body dressed in a gray dress and white coat. This was 27-year-old Sasha Krause, a devout Mennonite woman who had vanished without a trace a month earlier from her quiet, conservative community in Farmington, New Mexico, more than 270 miles away.
But what made this case even more baffling? Her murderer, Mark Gooch, had once walked the same path of faith. Raised in a Mennonite family himself, Gooch had grown to resent the religion and, in a sinister turn, targeted a woman he had never met—simply because of what she represented.
A Digital Trail to Murder
While many Mennonite communities remain wary of technology, Krause owned a cellphone—a device that would ultimately lead police straight to her killer. Investigators discovered that the night she disappeared, her phone had pinged two cell towers. Only one other phone had done the same at the exact times: the phone of Mark Gooch, a 21-year-old U.S. Airman stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona.
Digging deeper, authorities found that Gooch’s cell phone had been tracked just a mile from where Krause’s body was later found. Even more suspicious? He had returned to that same remote location days later.
When detectives confronted him in April 2020, Gooch admitted he had driven seven hours to Farmington the night of Krause’s disappearance. He claimed he had been seeking fellowship at a Mennonite church, but he never attended a service. His timeline didn’t add up, and his phone records told a different story. He was arrested that same day.
A Mennonite Childhood Turned Resentment
Gooch had grown up in a strict Mennonite household in Wisconsin, attending a religious school until eighth grade before obtaining a GED. He never fully embraced the faith, feeling isolated and out of place. His resentment simmered for years.
Unlike the pacifist values of his upbringing, Gooch chose a different path—joining the U.S. Air Force at 18, a move that defied everything his community stood for. Experts say this was more than just career ambition; it was an act of rebellion.
His resentment toward Mennonites ran deep, as revealed in chilling text messages he sent to his brother, Samuel, just days before Krause’s disappearance. He had been surveilling Mennonites, calling them “a bunch of old people without much to live for” and lamenting that they were “another disappointment.”
His brother Jacob, a Virginia state trooper, was no stranger to these disturbing views. In early 2020, Jacob had texted about coughing on a Mennonite driver in the hopes of spreading COVID-19. Mark’s response? “Aha, that’s f***ing hilarious.”
The Evidence Piles Up
When authorities searched Gooch’s car, they found that it had been meticulously detailed the day after news broke that a body had been found in an Arizona forest.
The autopsy revealed the horrifying details of Krause’s final moments—her wrists were bound with duct tape, she had suffered blunt force trauma, and a bullet had been fired into the back of her head. The key piece of evidence? A .22-caliber rifle Gooch had given a friend for safekeeping. Ballistics matched it to the bullet retrieved from Krause’s skull.
Even after his arrest, Gooch attempted to cover his tracks. He asked his brother Samuel to erase his phone and SD cards remotely. Unaware that authorities already had the murder weapon, Samuel even tried retrieving the rifle—landing himself in legal trouble for interfering with an investigation.
Justice Served
Prosecutors painted a chilling picture at trial: a man consumed by bitterness, seeking vengeance against a community that had never harmed him. The jury was not swayed by the defense’s claims of circumstantial evidence. On October 13, 2021, Mark Gooch was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping. In January 2022, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A Community Forgives, but Never Forgets
Despite the horror of Gooch’s crime, the Mennonite community he despised has not turned its back on him. Experts believe that many within the faith continue to pray for him, extending forgiveness even to the man who took one of their own.
Ironically, behind bars, Gooch has reportedly turned to religion—but which denomination remains unknown.
From faith to fatal obsession, the story of Mark Gooch is a chilling reminder of how hatred can twist a person’s path, leading them to commit the unthinkable. And for Sasha Krause, a young woman devoted to her beliefs, the tragic price of that hatred was her life.
