On the evening of June 29, 2006, 37-year-old Carmen Miranda was at a self-service car wash near 29th Street and Thomas Road in Phoenix, Arizona, vacuuming her car. While on the phone with her boyfriend, she was suddenly attacked in what police described as a 'blitz attack'. The assailant, later identified as the 'Baseline Killer,' abducted her in her own vehicle.
The entire violent encounter was captured on the car wash's surveillance footage.
Shortly after her abduction, Carmen Miranda's body was discovered behind a nearby barbershop, merely a hundred yards from where she was taken. She had been fatally shot in the head. Her death marked the final murder in a string of violent crimes that had terrorized the Phoenix metropolitan area between 2005 and 2006, including multiple sexual assaults and homicides.
In September 2006, Phoenix police arrested Mark Goudeau, a construction worker with a prior criminal record, in connection with the series of crimes attributed to the Baseline Killer. Extensive investigation by a dedicated task force and crucial DNA evidence linked Goudeau to several of the crime scenes. He was charged with numerous offenses, including nine counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Carmen Miranda and eight other victims. In 2011, Goudeau was convicted on all charges and subsequently sentenced to death, bringing a close to the terrifying reign of the Baseline Killer.
