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Phoenix Police Arrest Ex-Convict Mark Goudeau in Sexual Assaults Tied to the "Baseline Killer"

DNA linked Goudeau to a 2005 attack on two sisters in a south Phoenix park. Three months later, police said evidence tied him to nine murders.

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Mark Goudeau in a dark suit and red tie beside his lawyer in a Phoenix courtroom

For nearly a year, a killer who often wore disguises spread terror across the Phoenix area. On September 6, 2006, police arrested Mark Goudeau, an ex-convict, in sexual assaults attributed to the "Baseline Killer."

Goudeau, 42, a former construction worker who lived near where many of the attacks happened, was arrested on DNA evidence. Police said the DNA linked him to an attack on two sisters in a south Phoenix park in 2005, and he was charged with 20 counts in those assaults. Police stopped short of saying they had the man responsible for the whole series, which had included shootings, rapes and robberies between August 2005 and June 2006. Goudeau had served 13 1/2 years in prison for three aggravated assaults, armed robbery and kidnapping before being paroled in 2004.

On December 7, 2006, police said DNA, ballistics and other evidence pointed to Goudeau in nine killings, at the end of what they called the largest investigation in the department's history. They recommended 71 counts, including nine of first-degree murder. "We couldn't and wouldn't say that we had a serial killer, but the community knew. You knew. And the attacks stopped," said Mayor Phil Gordon. Goudeau's lawyer, Corwin Townsend, said his client insisted he was innocent.

A jury later convicted Goudeau of 67 counts, including all nine first-degree murders, and returned death verdicts on each. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentences on June 17, 2016. The nine people killed were Georgia Thompson, Tina Washington, Romelia Vargas, Mirna Roman, Liliana Sanchez, Chao Chou, Kristin Gibbons, Sophia Nunez and Carmen Miranda.

The Associated Press reported that the series originally included eight deaths, while the killing of Sophia Nunez was not publicly linked to it until December 7, 2006.

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