FLAGSTAFF, Arizona – A bullet fired from the skull of a woman whose body was discovered in northern Arizona was fired from a rifle owned by an Air Force Airman charged with her death, authorities said Wednesday.
Mark Gooch has investigated first degree murder and other charges related to the death of Sasha Krause, a 27-year-old who disappeared on January 18 from the Mennonite community where she lived near Farmington, New Mexico, not found guilty.
Her body was found on a forest road north of Flagstaff more than a month later. An autopsy revealed that Krause, who was previously a teacher in Texas, died of a gunshot wound to the head and suffered a violent blunt trauma.
State crime lab tests show the bullet matched a .22 caliber rifle owned by Gooch, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office said.
Gooch’s attorney Matthew Springer did not immediately respond to a message left in his office on Wednesday.
Gooch’s older brother Samuel was arrested in the Phoenix area in early May after flying from Wisconsin to Arizona to pick up the rifle he believed was used in the killing, authorities said.
A Coconino County grand jury later charged him with a single crime of trying to prevent prosecution.
Samuel Gooch is not on remand. It is unclear whether he has a lawyer who could speak for him.
Jon Paxton, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, said the indictment was recently served on Samuel Gooch and no court dates had been set.
One of Mark Gooch’s friends told authorities that Mark Gooch asked him to store a .22 caliber rifle because he was not allowed to have it on the Luke Air Force base where he was stationed. Authorities seized the gun, replaced it with an almost identical one, and waited for Samuel Gooch to pick it up before arresting him, the sheriff’s office said.
Samuel Gooch told a sheriff’s detective after his arrest that Mark Gooch had never asked him to get rid of the gun.
“I’ve made some tough decisions and we’ll see where this leads,” said Samuel Gooch, according to an audio recording of the interview.
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