00:00:04
[music playing] NARRATOR: Between 2005 and 2006,
the city of Phoenix, Arizona, became the hunting ground
for a prolific and violent
00:00:14
serial killer who was
targeting the community. SARAH MUENCH: What made
the Baseline Killer's
00:00:19
murders so terrifying
was the fact that they appeared to be random. Every single person
was different.
00:00:26
And it was in
different locations. And we had no idea when he
was going to strike next.
00:00:33
NARRATOR: Police
were baffled as women were snatched from the
street and the bodies
00:00:37
started piling up. The pressure was
mounting on detectives to find the elusive killer.
00:00:44
So you've got a ton of
information and a ton of deaths and a ton of multiple robbers
and shootings and rapes.
00:00:53
It overwhelmed the
police department. NARRATOR: A year after
it had been collected,
00:00:58
a DNA swab from
one of the victims would finally give the
terrorized city some answers.
00:01:05
They ran the DNA test. They ran the ballistics. And that was the match. And that's how they
connected all of the murders.
00:01:13
NARRATOR: A seemingly
mild-mannered construction worker, Mark Goudeau, had
unveiled himself as Phoenix's
00:01:19
notorious Baseline Killer. His hunger for kidnapping, rape,
and murder of his neighborhood
00:01:26
has made him one of the
world's most evil killers. [theme music] In 2011, 47-year-old
Mark Goudeau
00:01:58
was sentenced to
death after he'd been found guilty of nine murders. The prolific killer had
traumatized the city of Phoenix
00:02:08
for 12 months at the same
time as the Serial Shooters, a pair who collectively were
responsible for six killings.
00:02:18
Patrol Officer Clark Schwarzkopf
remembers the summer of fear. In the annals of serial
criminal behavior--
00:02:28
and I've done the research-- I don't know if there's ever
been a case where you had
00:02:32
two prolific serial
murderers operating in not only the same
city, but almost the exact same zip code
for numerous amounts
00:02:42
of their crimes. NARRATOR: The lone
gunman responsible for multiple murders in the
Baseline Road area of the city
00:02:50
was dubbed the Baseline Killer. DNA would eventually
lead to the unmasking of local man Mark Goudeau, who'd
been leading a double life.
00:03:01
At his trial, he
was keen to paint himself as the devoted husband
and respected neighbor.
00:03:09
SARAH MUENCH: It was robbing,
raping, murdering, whatever crime he could
commit at the time,
00:03:16
and to put on a friendly
face when he wasn't doing these crimes to
talk at his trial,
00:03:25
to the jury and say, that's
not me, I'm not a monster, and knowing everything that all
of these victims went through.
00:03:40
NARRATOR: This killer
story begins in 1964. Mark Goudeau was born
in Phoenix, Arizona
00:03:48
to parents Willie and Alberta. He was the youngest
of 11 siblings. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He came
from a very large family.
00:03:57
And when there are a lot
of children in the family, resources are stretched
even further, not just
00:04:03
in terms of finances and food
and those kind of things, also in terms of
attention and care.
00:04:09
And children from large families
often find their own ways of coping with childhood.
00:04:16
NARRATOR: Goudeau's childhood
didn't get any easier when aged just 11,
his mother, Alberta,
00:04:22
died suddenly from a stroke. I think the death
of Goudeau's mother would have had a significant
impact on this family unit
00:04:30
because there were 11 children. So when she dies, she leaves
quite a vacuum in terms
00:04:35
of her role within the family. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
There was a lot of alcohol abuse in the family.
00:04:41
It wasn't what you might
describe as a calm, affectionate childhood. And I think as he
got into adolescence,
00:04:50
he found it more
and more difficult. NARRATOR: Despite these
challenges, in his early 20s,
00:04:58
Goudeau secured a job working as
a valet at a car sales garage. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
He was blue collar,
00:05:06
relatively hard working,
but capable of pretending to be ordinary. One of the things that marks
him out throughout his life
00:05:17
was the fact that he
appeared to be normal. NARRATOR: The apparently
ordinary resident
00:05:24
had a sinister side to him,
as Patrol Officer Clark Schwarzkopf found
out in August, 1989,
00:05:32
when he was called out
to a domestic disturbance in Phoenix. CLARK SCHWARTZKOPF:
I'd been on a shift
00:05:37
probably most of the night. It was completely dark. And when I pulled into
this apartment complex,
00:05:43
as a patrol officer, one of
the safety things that you do is you always turn
your lights off.
00:05:47
And just as I was turning
my lights off and pulling in the parking
lot, I noticed what
00:05:51
appeared to be a white female. And she was completely naked. She's not worried about
running outside with no clothes
00:06:01
on and being judged by people. She simply wants to survive. So this shows just how
fearful this woman is.
00:06:07
She was in a state
of angst and panic. And she was having a very
difficult time communicating.
00:06:12
It was obvious that she
was traumatized severely. NARRATOR: The woman had
suffered severe injuries
00:06:20
and told Clark that she
believed her assailant was still in the apartment
she'd escaped from.
00:06:28
Officers went to investigate
and came across 24-year-old Mark Goudeau. CLARK SCHWARTZKOPF:
We knocked on the door
00:06:36
and a younger Black
male answered, not disheveled, very calm. I asked him to step out.
00:06:44
And I immediately handcuffed
him, noticed that there was blood on his hands. And, obviously,
that was incident
00:06:51
of some type of a violent act. Took him back
inside, sat him down, and then noticed
that the apartment
00:06:59
was in an order of disarray,
like there had been a struggle. It wasn't a lot
of blood evidence,
00:07:06
but enough to know that
it looked like there had been some violence. NARRATOR: The account Goudeau
gave in the back of the patrol
00:07:13
car was somewhat
different to the scene they were presented with. It was like, I'm
not really sure what
00:07:20
happened kind of thing. I'm not really sure why
she ran off kind of thing. It was obvious that he was
very calculated in what he
00:07:28
was going to say and not say. NARRATOR: On the 29th
of November, 1989, Goudeau was charged
with sexual assault,
00:07:37
kidnapping, five counts
of aggravated assault, and attempted murder. But shockingly, he
was released on bail.
00:07:47
The charges didn't put
off his girlfriend, Wendy, who remained loyal
to Goudeau throughout
00:07:52
and maintained he
was a good man. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
All the neighbors that knew he and Wendy
said how likable he was.
00:08:02
He was the chap next door,
this agreeable, slightly shy, not particularly bright, but
nevertheless perfectly ordinary
00:08:13
chap. But beneath that lurked
something much darker. CLARK SCHWARTZKOPF:
There was something
00:08:20
awfully sinister about him
in my contact with him. And I mean that in a way
that you just don't, you
00:08:28
commit these types of crimes
and keep that type of a posture or that type of an attitude
or that type of demeanor
00:08:36
without being very callous. And that's how he came across
to me, as very callous.
00:08:46
NARRATOR: Undeterred by
the charges against him, Goudeau continued committing
crimes as he awaited trial.
00:08:53
After a series of robberies and
assaults between November 1989 and July 1990, Goudeau
went on to brutally attack
00:09:03
another woman on August the 6th. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He assaulted
a woman using a shotgun.
00:09:11
He beat her with it,
as well as raping her. This is a man who found
fulfillment, if that's
00:09:20
the right word, in violent sex. NARRATOR: The
young woman managed to escape despite
Goudeau's attempts
00:09:29
to drown her in the bath. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
The fact that Goudeau puts his victim in the
bath is an interesting one
00:09:37
because if you think about
the bathroom in relation to the rest of the house,
it's the smallest room
00:09:42
in the property very often. It's a room in which you
don't have a lot of space to move around.
00:09:48
So it's a good
location to put someone when you want to control them. NARRATOR: Despite
significant head injuries,
00:09:56
the woman survived the attack. Goudeau's reign of terror
culminated in an armed robbery
00:10:03
on the 8th of October,
1990, before he was finally imprisoned. There was an armed robbery
charge, kidnapping charge, and
00:10:14
an aggravated assault charge. He was convicted of
the charges involved in my case and another
case and sentenced
00:10:21
to 21 years in the
Department of Corrections. NARRATOR: Goudeau
married his girlfriend
00:10:26
while he was in prison. And she would
prove a useful ally in convincing a parole board
that he was rehabilitated.
00:10:34
In 2004, after serving 13
years, he was released. GEOFFREY WANSELL: It was an
extraordinary turn of events
00:10:43
because this
likable enough model prisoner returned to his
family home and to his wife.
00:10:54
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I
don't think that this is a turning point for him. If anything, the fact
that he's been released
00:11:00
sends a message out to him. It sends this message out that
actually, we don't consider
00:11:05
that you're that dangerous. We don't consider that
your crimes were that bad. NARRATOR: By 2005, 40-year-old
Goudeau was leading
00:11:14
an apparently normal existence. Even the neighbors
were understanding of his criminal past.
00:11:21
He was an ex-con
who had apparently turned himself around. And yes, he was a
construction worker.
00:11:28
The neighbors would see him
out you cutting the grass, taking care of the lawn,
and just saw him as a very
00:11:33
stable, nice neighbor. GEOFFREY WANSELL: It's
probably the most terrifying of all killers, someone
who doesn't appear slightly
00:11:45
mad or a loner or doesn't
have a tail or horns or wear a black cloak. He's the chap next door.
00:11:56
NARRATOR: Phoenix
saw its crime rates soar over the summer of 2005. Law enforcement agencies
worked double time to keep up.
00:12:08
So the Phoenix
Police Department was in the trawls of this
massive violent crime spree,
00:12:15
I mean, shootouts
on the streets where dozens and dozens of rounds
were fired, gangs prevalent.
00:12:23
It was ungodly hot. There had been wildfires
that were raging on. It was like this perfect
storm and a police
00:12:31
force that was just overwhelmed
with all these violent crimes. NARRATOR: One of the hundreds
of crimes reported in September
00:12:42
2005 involved two young sisters
who were attacked as they walked home from a park.
00:12:52
They were in their early 20s. One might have been
in her late teens. The older one was
six months pregnant.
00:12:58
He took them into the
bushes, forced them to strip, and sexually assaulted
both of them.
00:13:07
At one point, one of
the sisters noticed that he had put the gun down. And she grabbed it.
00:13:11
And she tried to shoot him. And she couldn't
get the gun to work. And then he tussled with her.
00:13:17
The other sister
got a hold of it. She couldn't get
it to work either. He got the gun back.
00:13:21
He took that gun. He put it between the
pregnant woman's legs and made her beg for
the life of her baby.
00:13:31
GEOFFREY WANSELL: But
he's sufficiently wise-- after all, he has spent
a long time in prison--
00:13:35
to know that he wants
to cover his traces, particularly these days DNA. And he realizes that
he may have left DNA.
00:13:44
And so he tries
to cover that up. NARRATOR: The attacker
forced both girls to spit in their
hands, mix mud into it,
00:13:53
before rubbing it all over
their breasts in an attempt to destroy the DNA. And he abandons the
girls, disappears back
00:14:02
into his sheep's
clothing, if you like. The wolf is gone. NARRATOR: As more reports of
sexual assaults and robberies
00:14:10
around the Baseline
Road area flooded in, police began to link the crimes
to a single perpetrator whom
00:14:17
they dubbed the Baseline Rapist. On September the 8th, the serial
rapist would strike again.
00:14:26
But this time he
was out to kill. Then the murders
started showing up. The first was an
exotic dancer in Tempe
00:14:36
named Georgia Thompson. SARAH MUENCH: Georgia
Thompson was 19 years old. She moved from Idaho to Arizona.
00:14:42
At one point, she decided to be
a dancer at a local strip club here. The night of her death,
she went with a friend
00:14:54
to Acme Roadhouse in Tempe,
which is just a fun bar. I had been there
myself during college.
00:15:02
NARRATOR: After work,
Georgia Thompson set off on the 10-mile drive
to her apartment in Tempe,
00:15:09
but she never made
it to her front door. The only thing we really
know is that a neighbor
00:15:17
heard someone screaming. And then there was a gunshot
that sounded like fireworks
00:15:23
or a backfire of a car. The police were
called to the scene. And they found Georgia Thompson
laying there on the ground
00:15:36
in the parking lot, her
keys still in her hand and shopping bags strewn about. Her pants were unzipped.
00:15:46
And she was shot point
blank in the head. MICHAEL KIEFER: That was
the first of the murders,
00:15:55
but they didn't
connect it to anyone. I mean, this is the fifth
largest city in the US.
00:16:00
NARRATOR: The city
didn't know it yet, but the Baseline Rapist had
become the Baseline Killer.
00:16:06
And he was about to
hunt his next victim. MICHAEL KIEFER: Tina Washington
was a preschool teacher.
00:16:14
She was waiting for a bus. And all of a
sudden, she was just snatched right off the
street at rush hour
00:16:21
down at Southern and
40th Street and was dragged behind a building,
where he was assaulting her.
00:16:29
It's December. It's nevertheless
in plain sight. And he's not doing
this in a remote area.
00:16:37
There was a guy who
had a studio there. And he heard the noise. And he opened the back
door and found himself
00:16:45
looking into the barrel of a
gun and slammed the door shut and then called the police.
00:16:52
They came. And he was gone
and she was dead. This is how fast this was. He knew the alleys.
00:17:01
He knew how to get away quickly
and get back to find cover. NARRATOR: Police recovered
two 38-caliber shell casings
00:17:10
from the scene but no DNA. Detectives suspected
the Baseline Rapist had now escalated his crime spree.
00:17:19
The Baseline Rapist
became the Baseline Killer when Phoenix Police
started putting
00:17:24
these puzzle pieces together. And we realized
that we didn't just have a rapist on our hands.
00:17:30
We had a murderer. NARRATOR: The Baseline Killer
was quick to strike again when in February 2006, the
bodies of two food vendors
00:17:41
were discovered in the
back of their truck on Lower Buckeye Road. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Romelia
Vargas was a mother of six,
00:17:51
including four-month-old twins. Mirna Roman was a mother of five
between her and her partner.
00:18:01
These were two upright, cheerful
women who enjoyed their job. NARRATOR: When the
women failed to open up,
00:18:11
customers began to worry. A worker from the nearby dairy
was the first to investigate
00:18:18
the eerie scene. MICHAEL KIEFER: They
were all waiting. The lights were on, but
the women weren't there.
00:18:24
So after a while they got a
little wondering what was going on because it seemed strange.
00:18:30
And the man went into the wagon. And he found both women. They were bleeding to death.
00:18:36
He called 911. He came out when
the police came. And he's covered with blood. And he was trying to do CPR.
00:18:44
SARAH MUENCH: It's just horrible
to think of what Romelia and Mirna went through
and just the shock
00:18:51
that they must have been in in
the moments before they died. And they didn't
deserve any of that.
00:18:56
And I know that that really
hit a lot of people hard. The attack on the two
women in the food truck
00:19:03
is quite an
interesting one for me because it's what
these women represent. There's something
that really grates
00:19:10
on him about seeing women out
there looking after themselves. NARRATOR: The killer
had left no trace.
00:19:17
The police and the
citizens of Phoenix had no idea who this
depraved individual might be.
00:19:24
GEOFFREY WANSELL: He could
have been in the queue for the lunch truck
himself and yet still
00:19:29
knew that he had killed
the two women who ran it. NARRATOR: As with
the previous victims,
00:19:36
the two women had
been shot and made to look like they'd
been sexually assaulted,
00:19:42
a symbol that was becoming
something of a trademark for the Baseline Killer. One of the things
that police noted
00:19:49
was that a lot of the women
had their pants unzipped and slightly pulled
down, but they had
00:19:56
not been sexually assaulted. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
He didn't manage to commit the act of that
he thought he was going to.
00:20:04
Now, there's something very
strange and complex there. NARRATOR: The lack of
DNA left by the killer
00:20:10
made it an extremely challenging
case for the Phoenix Police. The community was in
utter shock at the heinous
00:20:17
and seemingly random attacks. SARAH MUENCH: What made
the Baseline Killer's murders so terrifying
was the fact that they
00:20:24
appeared to be a random. Every single person
was different. And it was in
different locations.
00:20:31
It appeared at the
beginning that it was only a long Baseline Road. But then when police
connected some more dots,
00:20:36
it was happening in
Central Phoenix as well. And we did an inventory
of all the victims
00:20:42
and realize that it
didn't matter race, creed. With the robberies especially
it didn't matter man, woman.
00:20:51
Age didn't matter. And this was just
happening all the time. And we had no idea when he
was going to strike next.
00:21:01
NARRATOR: On the 14th of
March, 23-year-old George Chou offered a lift to coworker
20-year-old Liliana
00:21:08
Sanchez-Cabrera
after her first shift at a restaurant
located on 24th Street. When they didn't
return home from work,
00:21:19
their families became worried. MICHAEL KIEFER: George
Chou was not a target. He was just in the way.
00:21:25
The target there was
the woman, Liliana. George just was in the wrong
place at the wrong time.
00:21:31
But it's not enough
to simply attack him or to simply remove
him from the equation.
00:21:35
He has to kill him. He shot George in
the back of the head, pushed him out of the
car, took over the car,
00:21:43
turned around, drove back. She was found the next
morning in the car with a bullet in her head
and her pants undone.
00:21:52
NARRATOR: As police attempted
to link various crimes across the city, it
became clear there were
00:21:58
multiple serial killers on
the loose, which would further hinder their investigations.
00:22:07
We were dealing with
two separate serial murder individuals. But what wasn't real clear
was how many perpetrators.
00:22:16
We were trying to keep some of
that information under wrap. It was an unbelievably
confusing time.
00:22:23
NARRATOR: It wasn't just the
police who were confused. The citizens of Phoenix
were terrified as the bodies
00:22:29
started piling up. With no apparent leads, a dark
cloud hung over the streets. It was almost impossible to
be able to try to capture--
00:22:41
we had police-involved
shootings on a weekly basis. It was just over rampant
with violent crime.
00:22:48
And there was only so
many investigators, only so many police officers
to try to curb all this.
00:22:53
And it just exploded. People were afraid. Women were afraid
to go out at night. I remember leaving
work, walking quickly
00:23:04
to my car from the
office, getting in my car, driving home, and then looking
around before getting out
00:23:13
of my car and walking the
short distance into my home as fast as I possibly could
because you didn't know
00:23:21
if somebody was around, I mean,
somebody was going to pull out a gun out of their car.
00:23:30
NARRATOR: Six victims had
lost their lives at the hands of the Baseline Killer. And he had no
intention of stopping.
00:23:38
In April 2006, Phoenix Police
created two task forces assigned to find the
serial killers terrorizing
00:23:47
the streets of the city. Hundreds of officers were
assigned to each of the cases
00:23:53
as pressure was mounting
to bring them to justice. There was an
unbelievable conglomerate
00:24:00
of undercover police
officers with surveillance going on at the same time. And trying to join
these investigations
00:24:07
was almost impossible because
we had hundreds of people-- undercover officers,
surveillance officers,
00:24:13
plainclothes officers-- all at the same time period
trying not to burn each other,
00:24:19
trying not to be noticed, but
all operating in the same five, six, seven-block area.
00:24:28
NARRATOR: Despite the
enhanced police presence, the cunning killer was
able to strike again.
00:24:34
And on April the 4th, the body
of 26-year-old Kristin Gibbons was found in an alleyway.
00:24:43
Like the other victims, she'd
been shot with a 38 caliber and dumped close to
the Baseline Road.
00:24:50
The serial killer had
claimed another life. What investigators assumed
when it came to the Baseline
00:24:58
Killer was that whoever this
perpetrator was had what they call a door in the area.
00:25:03
In other words, he
lived in the area because his crimes
were committed on foot. You think of serial
criminals as people
00:25:12
not really belonging in society
or having a place in society. And when I was talking to
this police officer, I said,
00:25:20
this guy could be
somebody's neighbor. And he said, he is
somebody's neighbor. And that just really hit
me because it's true.
00:25:30
NARRATOR: A week later
on the 10th of April, the neighborhood was horrified
when the body of Sophia Nunez
00:25:37
was discovered at home by
her eight-year-old son. Her son was waiting to
be picked up from school.
00:25:43
And she didn't come
to pick him up. So he walked home. He came in through the
garage and he heard the water
00:25:49
running in the
bathroom and he assumed his mother was taking a shower. So he waited for a while.
00:25:55
And then he noticed
that there was water coming out from under the door. And he went in and he found
his mother in the bathtub,
00:26:00
half naked. She had a bullet under her
eye and the eye was open. He pulled her out and
tried to perform CPR
00:26:10
and called the police,
but she was dead. NARRATOR: Just like
the other victims, 37-year-old Sophia had
been shot in the head.
00:26:19
But unlike the others, police
were able to retrieve DNA from the scene. Investigators would later
discover that Sophia had
00:26:28
been known to her assailant. This tells me
that he's becoming bolder in his offending.
00:26:35
And we do see this sometimes
with serial killers. They simply get
bored and they want
00:26:40
to push the boundaries
a little bit more, especially those who
have a hedonistic strand
00:26:45
to their personalities. NARRATOR: On May the
5th, 2006, Phoenix Police went public with a
list of 18 crimes
00:26:55
they believed to be the
work of the Baseline Killer. A composite sketch was created,
taken from the descriptions
00:27:03
given by the surviving victims. It was widely circulated. And they offer up $100,000
for any information.
00:27:13
SARAH MUENCH: He was wearing
a fisherman-style hat. And it looked to be dreadlocks.
00:27:20
And he had a small mustache. And that was the image that was
plastered all over Phoenix--
00:27:27
on bus stops, on billboard. That was the image that
we had of this guy. But that could be anybody.
00:27:36
It's hard to really
see from a sketch and try to find somebody
who looks like that.
00:27:42
And you're really looking
for a needle in a haystack. NARRATOR: Police were inundated
with thousands of tips,
00:27:50
but nothing of any substance. There was a lot of confusion
in the public, a lot of fear,
00:27:55
a lot of panic, and not a
lot of good information. I remember this
as a reporter, when
00:28:01
I dropped a friend
off at her apartment and she lived near
Baseline Road. And I saw a guy walking
in the parking lot
00:28:10
with a fisherman's hat. I was just terrified. I was thinking,
maybe that's him. I called the police
nonemergency line and said, hey,
00:28:22
there's a guy walking around. And I think about
how many people probably did that because
we all wanted this to end.
00:28:31
NARRATOR: A vital
break in the case came when a ballistics
expert linked all the casings from the murders
to a single 38-caliber weapon.
00:28:40
The end was in sight,
but it didn't prevent the killer from targeting
one final victim
00:28:46
on June the 29th, 2006. Shocking CCTV footage emerged
that captured the abduction
00:28:54
of a 37-year-old mother of two. The murder of Carmen
Miranda was another homicide
00:29:00
that really hit me
hard because here's Carmen Miranda at the car
wash, washing her car,
00:29:07
talking on her cell phone
to her significant other. And she says, oh,
hold on a second.
00:29:13
And here's this guy who she
thinks is just a homeless man or posing as somebody.
00:29:18
And then you hear a scream. [busy signal beeping] MICHAEL KIEFER:
The line goes dead.
00:29:24
He calls the cops. He calls his
girlfriend's brothers. And they all go
running to the spot.
00:29:29
And they're there
almost instantly. It happens so fast. You think of these things
happening in real life.
00:29:36
And you think about what you
would do if this had happened. But she didn't have a chance.
00:29:41
They tried to get there
as quickly as they could. And it was just too late. They had looked
for her for hours.
00:29:49
And then hours later, they found
her less than 100 yards away behind a barbershop with
a bullet in her head
00:29:56
and her pants
unzipped in the car. At that point, when
we saw that video, then the panic really hit.
00:30:07
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Abducting
someone in plain sight is a very high-risk thing
for an offender to do.
00:30:14
There's a high likelihood that
they're going to get caught, they're going to
get apprehended,
00:30:17
somebody else is
going to intervene. So it's an incredibly bold move. He's escalating at pace.
00:30:26
The killings are increasing. And he is really now
a killing machine. He's doing it for pleasure.
00:30:33
He's doing it without
any sense of remorse. He's doing it because he can. And he's going to
get away with it.
00:30:40
After all, he's got away
with it up till now. NARRATOR: Carmen
Miranda had become
00:30:46
the ninth person to lose
her life at the hands of the Baseline Killer. Women living in the city
were paralyzed with fear.
00:30:57
When you think about how
this could be you, I mean, it really could be. You could be washing your car.
00:31:02
You could be taking a walk
with your sister in the park. You could be any
of these things.
00:31:09
This just happened to
anybody and everybody. And there was no decision on
a specific type of person.
00:31:18
It was just whoever he had
the chance to do it to. NARRATOR: But his
chances had run out.
00:31:26
And in July another
breakthrough came when a woman who recognized the
man in the sketch came forward.
00:31:34
It was a familiar name to Patrol
Officer Clark Schwarzkopf when the report landed on his desk.
00:31:44
I start to thumb through it. And a light bulb goes on. I go, I go, oh my god. I see my name on the report.
00:31:51
And I see the investigator
on the report. And then I turn
the suspect page. And there in bold
letters is Mark Goudeau.
00:32:02
NARRATOR: Police
finally had a suspect for the evasive Baseline Killer. 41-year-old Mark Goudeau
was put under surveillance
00:32:10
as investigators desperately
searched for proof. But the breakthrough would come
from an unexpected direction.
00:32:19
Poor-quality DNA evidence
recovered from the two sisters he attacked in a park 10
months earlier was re-examined.
00:32:29
He tried to foil
the investigation. First, he forced both
sisters to spit in his hand.
00:32:35
And he put dirt and
made mud in his hand and he rubbed that over their
breasts to try to cover it up.
00:32:42
And, of course, when they
tried to pull DNA from that, they got gumbo. There was nothing
that they could
00:32:47
do with standard DNA testing. NARRATOR: The DNA sample
previously analyzed at the city's
forensic lab in 2005
00:32:57
was sent for testing at
the more advanced Arizona State Laboratory. What they did was they used
a newer form of DNA testing
00:33:07
that focuses on the Y chromosome
or the male chromosome. And, of course, because
Goudeau has been in prison
00:33:16
and because there's
a record of his DNA, it's instantly a match. NARRATOR: Investigators were
now convinced that Mark Goudeau
00:33:25
was the Baseline Killer. But they only had
evidence linking him to the September 2005
attack on the two young sisters.
00:33:35
Believing it was enough to
convict the suspected killer, on September the 6th,
2006, Goudeau was arrested
00:33:43
and his house was searched. MICHAEL KIEFER: At 11
o'clock my phone rang. And it was my editor
saying they think they
00:33:50
caught the Baseline Killer. We were going up and down
the street at midnight with all the TV
trucks and everything.
00:33:58
And that's when we came up
with the name Mark Goudeau. And over the next
24 to 48 hours,
00:34:03
we worked around the clock
trying to figure out, put together who
this person was.
00:34:12
It's hard to put a finger
on what every single person in the public thinks of
Mark Goudeau being arrested,
00:34:18
but what I seem to
remember at the time-- and I'm speaking from a
reporter's perspective
00:34:22
and seeing this-- everybody just was happy
that someone was caught. And I think the
majority of people
00:34:30
thought this is the right guy. NARRATOR: Investigators
seized various items from Goudeau's house in
the hours after his arrest.
00:34:40
They find blood on
the soles of pairs of sneakers that
belonged to Goudeau, that matched the victims.
00:34:49
NARRATOR: Forensic testing
would later identify the blood as being that of George Chou,
murdered on the 14th of March,
00:34:57
and Kristin Gibbons, found in
an alleyway two weeks later. The main thing was the DNA.
00:35:05
The DNA doesn't lie. NARRATOR: The second search
of the property a month after his arrest in October
2006 revealed another key piece
00:35:16
of evidence linking Goudeau
to the savage murder of preschool worker
Tina Washington.
00:35:24
They find Tina
Washington's ring with "We Love Mom" inscribed in it. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
This is a ring
00:35:30
that is very precious to her. It's very special. It has the names of loved
ones engraved upon it.
00:35:36
And Goudeau will
realize that this is something that's
of significance, that is of importance to his victim.
00:35:43
So he takes it. And this is all part of
the extending feelings of control over the victim.
00:35:51
NARRATOR: As officers
continued investigating Goudeau for the nine murders linked
to the Baseline Killer,
00:35:57
the trial relating to the sexual
assault of two Phoenix sisters was already underway.
00:36:04
In September 2007, despite
maintaining his innocence, he was found guilty
on all charges
00:36:12
and sentenced to
438 years in prison. I never doubted that the
police found the right person,
00:36:22
but it's always just
this weird dichotomy because you're just
expecting this brutal killer
00:36:29
with something wrong with him. And then when you
actually see him talking and his personality,
it's not like that.
00:36:36
It's like he's just a person. And I thought, if this
guy did all these things, then I'm not a very good
judge of human character.
00:36:51
NARRATOR: The final piece of the
puzzle in the Baseline Killer case came when the daughter of
Sophia Nunez, the 37-year-old
00:37:00
whose young son had found
her shot dead in her bathtub, recognized an image of Goudeau
on the news after his arrest.
00:37:10
The daughter said, hey,
that's my mother's friend. And so she dropped a
dime and told the police.
00:37:16
Police went back, looked
at Mark Goudeau's records, found a number of calls
he had made to Sophia,
00:37:22
matched the bullet, got the DNA. And that tied all of the murders
together because it for once
00:37:28
tied the ballistics to
the DNA to Mark Goudeau. And they were off with the
next batch of indictments.
00:37:37
NARRATOR: Goudeau was charged
with 74 crimes, ranging from kidnapping to sexual
assault and murder,
00:37:44
and would plead not
guilty when the next trial began in April 2011. The case was split into 13
chapters, each one focusing
00:37:57
on a scene or a murder. It was a complex case for
Judge Warren Granville. This was a whodunit trial.
00:38:07
So the whole focus of all
of the evidence that state was intending to prove that it
was Mr. Goudeau who did these
00:38:12
acts. So the DNA was
identification evidence. DNA says it's Mr. Goudeau. The same thing as ballistics
was identification evidence.
00:38:24
NARRATOR: The witnesses gave
compelling and emotional testimonies in court. A witness to the Tina
Washington murderer
00:38:31
was able to positively
ID Mark Goudeau. The typical prosecutor
questions are, do you see that man in
the courtroom today?
00:38:41
Yes, I do. And he pointed to Mr.
Goudeau and says, that's him. NARRATOR: The young
son of Sophia Nunez
00:38:50
also testified in court about
the tragic events on the day of his mother's murder.
00:38:58
Nothing freezes
a courtroom more than when you have a little
person come into the courtroom
00:39:02
to testify. He was the youngest
of the witnesses. And I just remember the
drama that you feel when
00:39:09
he walks in the courtroom
to testify about finding his mom in the tub. NARRATOR: It was an
extremely difficult time
00:39:19
for friends and family
members of all of the victims during the court proceedings.
00:39:26
MICHAEL KIEFER: Liliana
Sanchez's mother at one point on
the stand said, "I wish I could stick
my hand into my heart
00:39:33
and pull it out and
show it to you." SARAH MUENCH: One of
the saddest things that Georgia Thompson's
father said to me
00:39:41
was, I'm "just sorry
that I couldn't have been a better daddy
and kept my girl at home."
00:39:47
And so just to hear that from
this father, who is clearly heartbroken, and it was just--
00:39:59
yeah, it really, I
really felt that. NARRATOR: One witness
described finding the two
00:40:05
women in the food truck
and his futile attempts to resuscitate them. MICHAEL KIEFER: When he
testified in court, Romelia's
00:40:16
husband was sitting in
the back of the courtroom, big man named Alvin. Alvin follows the man out.
00:40:24
I got up and followed Alvin out. Alvin goes up to
the man and says, "I knew someone was there.
00:40:36
Thank you for trying
to help my wife." These two giant men, he said,
"I wish I could have done more."
00:40:45
These two giant men embracing
in the court hallway. NARRATOR: In October
2011, Mark Goudeau
00:41:00
was found guilty of
67 crimes, including all nine murder charges. But it wasn't over yet.
00:41:10
WARREN GRANVILLE: The jurors
had a decision to make. You have found him guilty. You found him eligible
for the death penalty.
00:41:15
What sentence do
you think is right? NARRATOR: Goudeau was
given the opportunity
00:41:20
to address the jurors
before final sentencing. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He
talks about himself
00:41:53
in the third person. He's not the person who
committed these offenses. I think this is really
insulting to the victims
00:42:02
and their families,
that he's given this platform when
he's effectively silenced these poor women.
00:42:26
NARRATOR: In November 2011,
Mark Goudeau was sentenced. They had the choice
of either a life
00:42:34
sentence or a death penalty. So they made nine
independent judgments for each one of those murders.
00:42:40
It should be the death penalty. NARRATOR: The verdict
brought little comfort to the friends and families
of all the victims.
00:42:51
What stands out
about this case is the absolute grief of
the survivors, the mothers,
00:42:56
the husbands of the victims
and the insights they have and the things that
they say that were
00:43:02
this unimaginable tragedy. NARRATOR: For the
residents of Phoenix, the summers of 2005 and
2006 will forever leave
00:43:14
them trying to understand why. What would ever make a
person do something like this?
00:43:22
You'd have to be
like that person to understand why they do it. Maybe there's no reason.
00:43:32
Knowing what I now know about
serial murderers, what I now know about violent
individuals, it
00:43:36
does not surprise me one bit
that he turned into a person that I always
thought he was back
00:43:40
in 1989, a cold, callous,
psychopathic sexual predator. NARRATOR: Mark Goudeau
enjoyed the power and dominion
00:43:50
he exercised over women. He was driven by a
hunger to control them. The brutal attacks caused
unimaginable terror and anguish
00:44:00
to his victims and
unbearable suffering to their families
and the community. Mark Goudeau will forever be
known as one of the world's
00:44:10
most evil killers. [music playing]