02x01 - It Was a Religious Hate Crime

[bunniefuu]

[♪ eerie music playing]

[narrator] When you see a Mennonite woman,
like 27-year-old Sasha Krause,

you might be tempted to
judge a book by its cover.

A rural lifestyle is very much

what you think of when you
think of Mennonite culture.

[narrator] In a culture that's closed
to many 21st century influences,

Sasha is fearlessly open,

always reading, writing,

and feeding her curious mind.

Sasha was very brilliant.
Her education was beyond.

She was a teacher. She was a poet.

[narrator] But one cold,
dark night in January 2020,

Sasha just disappears.

We didn't know if we had
somebody from the outside

that was just preying on our citizens.

You don't hear of things happening
to Mennonites terribly often.

[narrator] But remember,
there's more to Sasha than meets the eye.

♪♪

And it's what makes Sasha unique.

Her curious mind
that leads investigators

to shocking discoveries...

We had a small breadcrumb, if you will.

[narrator]
...and ultimately helps catch her k*ller.

♪♪

♪♪

[speaker 1] She solved her own m*rder
from beyond the grave.

[speaker 2] The fitness app on the phone,
it was overwhelming evidence.

♪ I've been haunted by the visions ♪

♪ That I've seen with my own eyes ♪

♪ And the only way to find you ♪

♪ Is to go beneath the lies ♪

[speaker 3]
She did help catch this k*ller.

[♪ somber music playing]

♪ You just need to hold on,
you just need to hang on ♪

[narrator]
The Lamp and Light Mennonite Community

is a quiet and peaceful place.

It's a place 27-year-old
Sasha Krause calls home.

It's also a place bound
by strict religious rules.

No kissing before marriage,

no access to the internet,

and a dress code.

What's really obvious in our culture

and what people see is, like, the way

a Conservative Mennonite dresses.

Like a woman wearing
a covering on her head.

And women are gonna wear dresses

because that is considered
more modest and more feminine.

[narrator]
Sasha may dress modestly,

but she isn't afraid to
take a bite out of life.

That's why she loves
the Lamp and Light.

She's living on her own
for the first time,

working at a religious publishing house,

learning new things every day,

and she's thriving.

But one night after dinner,

Sasha goes out for just a minute

and never comes back.

♪♪

This isn't like her. She doesn't have
a pattern of disappearing.

♪♪

So for her to not come home
means something is wrong.

-[assistant camera] Take one.
-[claps slate]

[Bree Burkitt]
I'm Bree Burkitt.

I covered
the disappearance of Sasha Krause

for The Arizona Republic
as well as The Arizona Daily Sun.

-[insects chirping]
-[♪ eerie music playing]

It was a Saturday.

Sasha was planning to teach
Sunday school the next day,

so she left her apartment

where she lived with her roommates,
got in her car,

and drove down to the church.

♪♪

Wasn't that far. Very close.

She had to retrieve some materials.

[narrator] As per the rules, Sasha knows
never to miss her 9:00 p.m. curfew.

So when her roommates discover
that she's still not home at 1:00 a.m.,

they wake up the rest of the community,
grab their flashlights,

and start searching everywhere for her.

[Lucinda Horst]
I just woke up, and I said,

"Where is Sasha? I'm scared."

♪ There's a stranger in the dark ♪

[searchers]
Sasha! Sasha?

Sasha!

I imagine that was probably terrifying.

Here's this girl you live with,

you think is just going down the street,

and then she doesn't come home.

♪♪

[searcher]
Sasha!

[Lucinda Horst] We just headed
down to the church house,

just as quick as we could.

[searchers]
Sasha! Sasha!

[narrator] Things like this
don't happen here, until now.

♪♪

After four hours of searching,
the community breaks down

and contacts
the San Juan Sheriff's Office.

♪♪

[Sgt. Steven Strang]
My name is Steven Strang.

At the time of the Sasha Krause case,

I was in the detective's division,

and I was assigned to this case

as a lead investigator.

[narrator] Detective Strang is
a five-year veteran of the force,

but this call is different.

For him, this is new territory.

[Steven]
I had never been there.

Not one time, not one call.

For us to be contacted,

that is not something that
they would normally do.

[narrator] Mennonites prefer
to handle their own matters

and avoid involving
mainstream authorities.

And because this situation is so unusual,

the county sheriff is overseeing the case.

[Shane Ferrari]
My name is Shane Ferrari,

I'm Sheriff of San Juan County,
New Mexico,

and we were the agency
that took the initial report

on Sasha Krause being missing.

♪♪

When we have somebody that's missing,
the first question is

did they voluntarily leave,

or did they leave because, uh,
maybe somebody abducted them?

[narrator]
Sasha's roommates tell the detectives

that the last time they saw her
was after dinner.

She told them she was
driving down to the church,

literally just a few hundred feet
from her living quarters.

[Shane] Her vehicle was still there
at that church.

The parking lot was gravel,

so we didn't find any
disturbance in the ground,

looks as if somebody was
maybe drug from the vehicle.

[Steven]
I opened the vehicle up to look at it.

Between the rocker panel and the seat,

we find the keys for the vehicle.

♪♪

So, that was
the very first indicator to me

that something is wrong.

♪♪

[narrator]
The detectives now start looking for signs

that Sasha was taken against her will.

[Steven] I go into the church,
trying to find

you know, are there any
signs of-of struggle?

Any signs of foul play?

There was no blood, no nothing.

No pulled hair on the ground, no anything.

♪♪

It made it appear as though
she went willingly.

[narrator]
What Detective Strang doesn't yet know

is that if Sasha was attacked,
she might never have fought back.

Mennonite practices vary
from community to community,

but one thing is constant.

Their strong belief in non-resistance,

which means they live
a violence-free life

close to the land,
and are kind to each other.

That's partly what
attracted Sasha's family

to this way of life in the first place.

Sasha isn't born a Mennonite.

Her family converts
when she is 12 years old.

Chester Weaver knew Sasha's family then.

[assistant camera]
Chester Weaver, take one. Marker.

[Chester C. Weaver, Jr.]
My name is Chester C. Weaver Junior.

Most people who come just for culture
are here with us for a while,

and then they leave.

But people who come for the deeper matters

are the ones, like Krauses, who stay.

♪♪

We're not Roman Catholic.
We're not Protestant.

We're a third way.

[bikes rattling]

It has to do with humility

and quietness of heart, and forgiveness.

[narrator] Sasha comes to
the Lamp and Light in 2018

from Texas to work at their
in-house publishing company,

writing and editing Bible pamphlets.

And in her spare time,
she writes poems and songs.

[Chester]
Sasha had her own personality,

and she knew what she was doing.

She had such depth
in her creative writing,

and you could tell that she was writing
out of something within her.

The first thing you hear is "Mennonite,"
but quickly digging into it,

there was a lot more to her
than just that label.

♪♪

She spoke three languages.
She was very artistic.

She lived with roommates.
She had a job.

She was driving.
She was very independent.

I mean, if you ignore the dress,

she's just like any other
woman in her late 20s.

[♪ gentle music playing]

[narrator] As the hours pass,
and there's still no sign of Sasha,

investigators wonder
if this worldly young woman

decided she wanted to return

to a less restrictive way of life.

The thought process came to me that maybe
she just wanted to leave this lifestyle.

[narrator] Maybe Sasha was curious about
what it would be like working in the city,

going for drinks, swiping right.

[Shane] So, some of the questions
that we had for ourselves were

was she contacting
somebody, uh, via the internet?

Maybe she was possibly
involved in a relationship

or communication with somebody else.

[narrator] But the detectives soon learn
from her roommates

that in keeping with
Mennonite practices,

the girls aren't on the internet.

We've become accustomed to
looking for a digital footprint.

♪♪

People's social media,
people's internet history,

people's cell phones.
Who do they call? Who do they text?

And that is something that wasn't
at our disposal at that time.

♪♪

[narrator]
The detectives search Sasha's room

and find her purse and her bank card.

If she was planning on leaving,

she would have at least
taken her bank card, right?

And why sneak off
in the middle of the night?

We could not find it.
We-We couldn't find a letter

that said, "Meet me in Seattle."
You know? [laughs]

We couldn't find anything that
led us down the road to say

that she was planning this.

♪♪

The more we learned, it was evident

that something foul had happened.

♪♪

[narrator]
Eight hours after Sasha goes missing,

the investigators call Sasha's parents
to let them know what's going on.

They're understandably upset and confused,

but the police have no answers for them.

They don't know where to start.

Her roommates say
there's no lover in her life,

and there's no digital footprint to track.

But then, while re-interviewing
one of Sasha's roommates,

a surprise revelation.

It turns out Sasha isn't
totally disconnected.

♪♪

We learned that Sasha
had a phone, a cell phone,

but it was not accounted for.

We had a-a small breadcrumb, if you will.

We immediately started
tracking that phone.

[narrator] The detectives learned that
while it's unusual for Mennonites

to interact with outsiders,

cell phones aren't forbidden.

Lucinda Kinsinger views her
phone as an essential tool,

just like Sasha does.

♪♪

[Lucinda Kinsinger] I would call myself
a Conservative Mennonite

or a Plain Mennonite.

My husband and I have a small farm.

My husband and I,
we both have smartphones.

We use them all the time.

You know, I have recipes,
I have pictures, I do emails,

whatever on my phone.
It's a tool.

Some Conservative Mennonites
would draw the line there.

They would be like, you know,
"Cell phones are fine,

but we don't wanna go to the smartphones.
We don't wanna allow the internet."

It's something that Mennonite churches
are dealing with right now,

and maybe how to keep their values

when there's this
inundation of information

and influence from,
from the world wide web.

[narrator]
Sasha uses a simple flip phone.

It's all she needs to maintain
her connection to the wider world.

It will take time to access
Sasha's phone records.

In the meantime, the detectives
start knocking on doors.

This is a very small community.
Everyone recognizes everyone,

and someone had recognized Sasha's boss.

They recognized his car
parked outside of the church

in about the same timeframe
Sasha was believed to have been in there.

[shutter snaps]

[narrator] Sasha's boss at Lamp and Light
is quite a bit older than she is.

His name is Sam co*n.

He was said to have been there at 7:50.

His van was seen there.

His van was also seen there
with the rear hatch open.

[narrator]
Her roommates told detectives

that Mr. co*n favored Sasha
above the rest of them.

[Steven] So, when I'm hearing this,
I'm thinking to myself,

"Okay, this sounds interesting."

[narrator]
Sam admits he was at the church

where Sasha went missing
at the exact same time.

I found it very odd that
that timeframe was so close,

yet there was no interaction.

[Sam co*n]
Hm...

He is very, very intelligent,

very direct,

and at the same token,

very closed off.

♪♪

[narrator]
When the investigators leave the room,

they notice something odd.

He starts to cry.

[crying]

Are these tears of sympathy
or the tears of a guilty man?

Or maybe, it's because
he just got caught.

[♪ dramatic crescendo]

[♪ somber music playing]

[narrator]
The Lamp and Light Mennonite community

is devastated
when Sasha Krause doesn't return

from a quick trip to
pick up Bible materials.

The detectives think that Sasha
may know her abductor

and are suspicious when
Sasha's boss, Sam co*n,

breaks down in tears.

[soft crying]

[soft crying]

[narrator]
Detectives remain suspicious of co*n,

but without further evidence,
they can't hold him.

♪♪

And with every passing hour,

the odds of finding Sasha alive

gets smaller and smaller.

♪♪

We're, at this time, still nonstop,

and when I say "nonstop,"
I mean little to no sleep,

exhaustive effort.

Time is critical, and I'm like,

"Okay, there has to be something."

[narrator]
Four days after Sasha goes missing,

her parents arrive from Texas,

and they're desperate for answers.

[♪ gentle music playing]

[Steven] So, I had several
conversations with-with Bob Krause,

Sasha's father.

He's trying to process it in his own mind,

his own way of what, what's going on?

Why is this happening?

If you were a parent,
you'd pray for your daughter's grace,

that she would have the strength,

that she would have the protection.

Bob told me himself, "We just prayed."

The Mennonite people are very
respected in our community,

so I think everybody in
San Juan County was very concerned

that we had a predator
at large in our community.

[narrator] Although the community
is respected in San Juan,

Mennonites have suffered
persecution for centuries

because their beliefs don't
fit into mainstream culture.

But this is different.
This feels personal.

[Lucinda Kinsinger]
Yeah, I remember praying for Sasha

in our prayer circle at church.

I felt like this happened to her,

you know, this could happen to me
or someone like me, too.

♪♪

[narrator]
The only lead investigators have

is Sasha's missing phone,

and they're hoping it
will help them locate her.

Eight days after Sasha goes missing,

her phone records are finally released.

You'll hear people refer to as a "ping."

People will tell you,
"Oh, they're gonna ping my phone."

Well, basically what that means is,
in some circumstances,

we can utilize
a location service on a phone

to show an approximate area
at least of where it may be.

[wind blowing]

And so, I get down to
the last pages of the report,

and I find a set of numbers
that are completely off,

and I'm like, "Okay, well, what is this?"

♪♪

[narrator] These numbers
are coordinates which show

Sasha's phone traveling


into a remote area of Arizona.

How did she end up there?

Even for a young woman as curious
about the world as Sasha,

it just doesn't make sense.

♪♪

You are, what people would say,
in the middle of nowhere.

-[insects chirping, hawk screeches]
-[♪ gentle music playing]

It is at least 100 square miles
of reasonable search area.

I don't have anything else
in that area to indicate to me

possibly where she may be.

And I'm thinking to myself,
"Where do you start?"

♪♪

♪ Are you trying to k*ll? ♪

♪ Are you trying to k*ll me? ♪

At this point in time
in the investigation,

the reality has surfaced that

we're likely not gonna find Sasha alive.
A-And...

as much as you wanna hold out hope,
you know.

You know that this is likely
not gonna have a good outcome.

[narrator]
Days turn into more than a month,

and with no movement on the case,

it seems like no one will ever know

the fate of Sasha Krause.

Then, a chilling discovery.

We received a phone call
from Coconino County.

-[siren blaring]
-[police radio chatter]

"We may very well have found Sasha."

[narrator] A hiker has found a body
that fits Sasha's description.

♪♪

[pained sigh]

[narrator]
But it's 250 miles away

from where she was last seen
in a completely different state.

[siren blares]

[narrator]
If this is Sasha's body,

then investigators have been looking
in the wrong places for weeks.

What else have they been wrong about?

-[phone ringing]
-[♪ dramatic crescendo]

[♪ eerie music playing]

[narrator]
One month after Sasha Krause goes missing

from her Mennonite compound
in Farmington, New Mexico,

a body is found on the top of
Sunset Crater National Park

just outside of Flagstaff, Arizona.

[echoing camera click]

[Ammon Barker]
I got a phone call.

The detective on the phone
described finding a body.

My name's Ammon Barker.

I'm currently
the Chief Deputy County Attorney.

I was one of the senior
trial attorneys during the case.

-[assistant camera] Marker.
-[claps slate]

[Ammon]
They were not sure who it was at the time.

They described it to me as a young woman

in a prairie dress
is what you might call it.

And thought at first it might
have been a sexual as*ault.

Her underwear was missing at
the time her body was recovered,

and that's unusual.

[narrator] As soon as Detective Strang
hears about the discovery,

he and his team race to Flagstaff.

I was kinda like, you know,
"Is this for real?"

You know, "Is-- This is really happening?"
I mean, it's been a month.

[breeze blowing]

[narrator]
When they arrive at the crime scene,

the Coconino County homicide detective

rolls the body over
and reveals the woman's face.

♪♪

An autopsy has confirmed that
the body found in Arizona

is that of a local missing
Mennonite woman.

San Juan County Sheriff's deputies say

they are now turning this case
into a m*rder investigation.

[♪ eerie music playing]

[narrator]
While the Farmington community

notifies Sasha's parents
of the grim discovery,

the investigators parse the evidence.

[♪ solemn vocalizing]

She had her hands bound
together with duct tape

in front of her, um, by the wrists.

Medical examiner performed
an autopsy on her body

and found that she suffered blunt force
trauma to the back of her head,

as well as a g*nsh*t injury
to the back of her head.

[narrator]
Why would anyone want to m*rder Sasha?

And how did she end up so far from home

near this sleepy mountain town?

The news rocks the whole community.

♪♪

[Levi Stallings]
Murders are very rare in Flagstaff.

And to have a m*rder happen

I think was both shocking and disturbing

to a lot of people.

My name is Levi Stallings,
and I was the videographer

for the m*rder trial of Sasha Krause.

Somebody who kills somebody like Sasha

I can only see as
an extremely evil individual.

♪♪

[narrator] Strangely, the medical examiner
can't find evidence of sexual as*ault

despite her missing underwear.

What could be the motive for such a crime?

♪♪

When we didn't find any
evidence of a sexual abuse,

where's the crime of opportunity?

There's not one.

Why would you take someone that far?

Why? Because people
don't wanna get caught.

[narrator]
Detective Strang and his team

bring Sam co*n, Sasha's boss,
back in for questioning.

Last time they spoke with him,
he broke down crying,

raising the obvious question.

Did he have an inappropriate relationship

with his brilliant young protege?

[narrator]
Detectives don't buy his story,

so they check his cell phone records.

They're surprised to learn that...

he's telling the truth.

♪♪

[Ammon] That data showed that Sam co*n
was traveling in a different direction.

It actually corroborated his account about
where he was that night

and gave him an alibi,
and that was irrefutable.

[narrator]
Now that co*n is no longer a suspect,

the investigators start
listening more closely

to his theories.

♪♪

[narrator] co*n explains that
since Sasha enjoyed writing,

she spent hours each day

reaching out to people in
disenfranchised communities,

and some of those people were inmates.

[Steven]
One thing that we learned is

one of Sasha's duties
was an outreach program

that was done from the Mennonite community

to the prison system.

We considered the fact that
what if this was someone

in that system that wanted to harm her?

[gate clanging]

[narrator]
The San Juan Detention Center

is less than four miles
from Lamp and Light,

and it houses thousands
of possible suspects.

Did one of them become
obsessed with Sasha,

and, upon release, steal her away
in the middle of the night?

♪♪

[♪ somber music playing]

[Steven] And so, we found all
of these letters within her room.

We don't find anything in those letters

that sends us down the road that

there has been someone
from the prison system

who wished to do harm.

So again, now we're dead-ended again,
and we're like, "Okay, where else?

What other possibilities
could-could come into play here?"

♪♪

[narrator] The detectives go back
to the cell phone tower logs,

thinking that maybe they missed something.

♪♪

They analyze the cell towers
all along Sasha's known route

and miraculously discover
one other phone pinging in tandem

until her phone goes dead.

♪♪

I remember getting
a phone call from detectives,

and they said, "Sheriff,
uh, we got all the tower dumps back.

We've went through all the data,
and there's one number that matches."

♪♪

[narrator]
The matching number is traveling

at the same rate and the same time
as Sasha's cell phone.

This means someone was with her.

Investigators track
the number to a 21-year-old

Air Force mechanic named Mark Gooch.

[jet engine roars]

Mark Gooch was enlisted in the Air Force.

He was stationed within Phoenix.

[narrator] Detective Strang's team
joins forces with the Flagstaff PD

and travels to the Air Force base
to question the airman.

♪♪

And he at first believes
that he's being called in

because he was speeding
on his bike, on his motorcycle.

[narrator] To detectives, Mark just
doesn't fit the profile of a predator.

People who enlist
in the military take an oath

the same way in law enforcement does,

and Mark had dedicated his life to serving

for the betterment of
the community and country.

♪♪

[narrator] But then, he tells them
something that takes them by surprise.

♪♪

[narrator]
It seems like a big coincidence

that both Sasha and Mark are Mennonite.

But Mark claims he hasn't traveled
out of state in the last six months.

[exhales sharply]

♪♪

[narrator]
Did he just make an innocent mistake?

Is there a simple explanation

for their overlapping cell phone data?

Or is he lying through his teeth?

-[♪ dramatic crescendo]
-[thunder rumbles]

♪♪

[narrator]


is being questioned
in the m*rder of Sasha Krause,

a brilliant member of
the Farmington Mennonite community.

The detectives have just learned
that Mark is also a Mennonite

who left the church for reasons unknown.

♪♪

[wind blowing]

[Bree]
The Mennonite faith is built on

this foundation of pacifism.

But, when Mark Gooch turned 18,

he opted to leave the faith

and pretty much go to
the opposite end of the spectrum

by enlisting in the Air Force.

[narrator]
Initially, he said he wasn't in

the Farmington area
the night Sasha went missing.

But the detectives know that's not true

because his cell phone was
pinging alongside Sasha's

until her phone went dead.

[glitching]

Law enforcement pulled
the surveillance footage from the base.

♪♪

And they spotted Mark
arriving early in the morning

the day after Sasha had been abducted.

[fast forwarding]

[narrator]
This is all investigators need to hear

to believe that Mark k*lled Sasha.

They arrest him on the spot.

But they won't be able
to hold him for long

if they can't figure out
why this young man

with a promising military career

would target a Mennonite girl



♪♪

Once investigators really
zeroed in on Mark Gooch,

they did everything they
could to learn about him.

[jet humming]

[narrator]
Mark's military commander leads them

to his best friend on the base,
Alex Golab.

♪♪

[narrator] Alex says that
Mark has three brothers,

and even though they don't
live in the same area,

they're close. They text all the time.

They did subpoena his cell phone records,
including his text messages.

[text bloops]

And within those text messages,

they found him having conversations,

particularly with two of his brothers,

that very quickly indicated

a strong hate for people
within the Mennonite faith.

[phone dings]

One of his brothers was
a Virginia State trooper,

and he texted Mark about
pulling over a Mennonite family

on their way to a wedding,
and this was during the early days

of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mark Gooch seemingly relished in

the suffering of Mennonites,
even Mennonites he did not know.

[narrator]
The text messages indicate

that Mark had been surveilling Mennonites
in the Phoenix area for months.

♪♪

He was using terminology like,
"I'm on servo,"

which is surveillance.
Why would you do that,

and what are you planning?

[♪ dramatic crescendo]

[narrator]
The investigators are now convinced

that Mark targeted Sasha
because of her religion.

But just because they believe that,
doesn't mean they can prove it.

Mark has no history of violence,

and there's no obvious reason
he's targeting Mennonites.

We did not find any DNA in this case.

♪♪

We know that Sasha was
k*lled with a .22 caliber g*n

because the medical
examiner's office found

a .22 caliber round

lodged in her head near her neck.

And it wasn't until later
that police found

that Mark Gooch had taken

his .22 caliber r*fle to a friend

that lived off base to
hold that weapon for him.

[narrator]
When they tracked down his r*fle,

they're one step closer to finding
the truth of what happened to Sasha.

Tonight, ballistics confirmed that
the b*llet pulled from Sasha's body

was from Gooch's g*n.

[narrator] Now, the police think
they have all the pieces of the puzzle.

For some inexplicable reason,

Mark Gooch had been prowling
the Four Corners for months,

searching for a Mennonite person to k*ll.

I think Mark Gooch was
building to this point.

♪♪

There was a deep burning hatred.

I'm convinced of that.

[narrator]
After months of hunting,

he happens on the perfect opportunity.

A young woman alone in the dark,

outside an empty church.

♪ What came first,
the devil or the curse? ♪

He approaches her,
asking if there might be

a Saturday night service he could attend.

Just one Mennonite talking to another.

He would know how to speak to someone.

He would know how to dress appropriately,
to not come off offensive.

♪♪

[Shane]
Mark Gooch was laying in wait

and found an opportunity.

He decided to act on it that moment.

[narrator]
Once he's close enough,

Mark overpowers Sasha,

binds her hands,

and throws her into
the backseat of the car.

[door slams]

I have to imagine that Sasha's faith

certainly helped her get through
what must have been

an extremely frightening moment.

♪♪

At some point,

he bashed her head so hard,
it caused skull fractures.

[narrator] He drives west,
looking for a place to k*ll her.

But then, from the backseat,
a phone rings.

-[phone ringing]
-This isn't part of the plan.

He didn't think Sasha would have a phone,

given Mennonite beliefs about technology.

♪♪

But it doesn't stop him.

[Steven]
He went to the National Park, in my mind,

because that was what was
convenient at the time.

That was a necessity to not get caught.

[Ammon] I can't imagine
what she was going through,

what that must have felt like for her,

to be taken by a stranger

and marched to a location

where she was eventually
shot in the back of the head.

[echoing g*nsh*t]

[crickets chirping]

♪♪

[narrator]
With the m*rder weapon in hand

and Sasha's cell phone pings,

investigators hope
it's enough to convince a jury.

But Mark is going to fight them
to the bitter end.

Mark Gooch has pleaded not
guilty to first-degree m*rder.

[lawyer 1]
No one saw Mark Gooch at the church area.

No one saw Mark Gooch at
or near Sasha Krause's car.

Nobody saw Mark Gooch's car at any time.

[narrator]
Could he get away with this?

[♪ dramatic crescendo]

[♪ discordant music playing]

[narrator]
On September 24, 2021,

Mark Gooch goes on trial
for the kidnapping

and first-degree m*rder of Sasha Krause.

Mennonites from across the country
come to witness the trial.

[Levi] At the time, it was
my biggest gig as a videographer.

♪♪

The courtroom was very calm,

but also there was such
a sense of sadness

in a big room that I don't think
I've personally seen outside of a funeral.

[♪ somber music playing]

[narrator] Without a confession,
the prosecution needs to convince

all 12 jurors that Mark is guilty

using only circumstantial evidence.

People want DNA.
They watch the TV shows.

But we didn't have that forensic evidence

that people wanna see.

At the surface, he might have thought
it was the perfect crime, you know?

♪♪

[narrator] The prosecution has one hope
at proving Mark's guilt.

The fact that his cell phone
and Sasha's phone

were moving at the same rate
in the same direction

and at the same time
the night she disappeared.

♪♪

[lawyer 2] How many devices were
hitting off those towers at that time?

There's only one device that hits
all three of those locations

and corresponds with those time periods.

♪♪

[narrator]
And once Sasha's phone goes dead,

Mark Gooch's phone tracks to 1.37 miles

from where her body is found.

[Sev Dishman] It passes Sunset Crater.
We see it out there at 1:03.

And then it turns around

and comes back to the east, and we see it.

The last time we see it is at 1:13,

east of Sunset Crater.

[narrator] The evidence is convincing,
but will the jury agree?

[♪ somber music playing]

Then, after six hours of deliberation,

the jury finds Mark...

guilty.

♪♪

And it's Sasha's cell phone pings
that helped catch her k*ller.

If Sasha hadn't been
so curious about life,

so willing to keep one foot
in the mainstream world,

she wouldn't have had that phone at all.

♪ Are you listening? ♪

[Levi] I can't get inside of
Mark Gooch's head, and nobody else can.

In my subjective view,
this was a religious hate crime.

♪♪

[Shane] He felt by-by targeting
somebody as precious as Sasha,

that in some way he was getting revenge

or some type of vindication
off of his experiences

with the Mennonite community
when he was younger.

[muffled chatter]

[narrator]
In an act of supreme forgiveness,

Sasha's parents ask the judge

to take the death sentence
off of the table,

and Gooch is sentenced to life in prison.

That's another aspect of forgiveness,
is to realize that justice will be done.

You know, there is not evil

that will be let loose
without being rectified

because God,
God hates to see people hurt.

And if we, we get angry
when we see injustice,

we get that from our Creator, you know?

Um... but

I cannot rectify wrong
by choosing wrong.

[emotional sigh]

♪♪

Certainly, this case
wouldn't have been resolved,

uh, the way it did without
that cell phone data.

If Sasha didn't have
that cell phone with her

at the time she was abducted,

I'm not sure we'd ever
find out who did this.

♪ I can feel you, too ♪

♪ I don't know where my head is lately ♪

♪ Have I lost my mind? ♪

♪♪

♪ But I know that I have a secret ♪

♪ That is only mine ♪

[♪ vocalizing]

♪ And the only way to find it ♪

♪ Is to go beneath the lies ♪

[♪ song fades out]