Mark Gooch
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - The trial for a U.S. Air Force airman charged in the kidnapping and death of a Sunday school teacher is set to begin next year.
Mark Gooch has pleaded not guilty to the shooting death of Sasha Krause, 27. The Mennonite woman disappeared from her church community outside Farmington, New Mexico, in January as she was gathering material for a Sunday school class.
Her body was found more than a month later in a forest clearing outside Flagstaff.
Sasha Krause (San Juan County Sheriff's Office, NM)
Gooch faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in her death. A three-week trial is scheduled to start in August 2021, according to the Arizona Daily Sun.
Gooch is being held at the Coconino County jail in Flagstaff on a $2 million cash-only bond.
Authorities used cell phone records to tie him to Krause, but they have not said what led him to her. Testing of a bullet that was taken from her skull determined it was fired from a rifle owned by Gooch, authorities said.
Gooch grew up in a Mennonite family in Wisconsin and told authorities he joined the military to escape a difficult, sheltered and restricted life.
Report: Bullet that killed woman fired from airman’s rifle
The airman has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in the death of Sasha Krause, a 27-year-old who's body was found north of Flagstaff.
Brother of suspect in murder of Mennonite woman arrested in Phoenix
Officials with the Coconino County Sheriff's Office say another arrest has been made in connection with the murder of a Mennonite woman whose body was found off a forest road in northern Arizona.
Man charged in Mennonite woman's death grew up in the faith
A U.S. Air Force airman stationed near Phoenix has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges. Raised in a Mennonite family in Wisconsin, Mark Gooch joined the military to escape what he told investigators was a difficult, sheltered and restricted life, according to sheriff's records.