In a heart-wrenching turn of events on April 10, 2006, 37-year-old Sophia Lisa Nunez, a female resident of Phoenix, Arizona, was found deceased in her home. The grim discovery was made by her eight-year-old son, who, after not being picked up from school, returned home to find the bathtub overflowing. Inside, he found his mother submerged in the water with a gunshot wound to her head.
The scene suggested a violent struggle and possible sexual assault, as her shirt had been pulled up and her bra was undone.
The investigation into Sophia's tragic death eventually connected her case to a string of violent crimes that had been terrorizing the Phoenix area between 2005 and 2006. Law enforcement identified a suspect, Mark Goudeau, who came to be known as the 'Baseline Killer.' Goudeau was arrested in September 2006 in connection with the sexual assault of two sisters. As the investigation progressed, further evidence, including ballistics and DNA, linked him to multiple murders and other violent offenses in the city, including the murder of Sophia Nunez. It was revealed during the trial that Goudeau and Nunez had known each other socially and had communicated by phone hundreds of times.
Mark Goudeau was subsequently tried and convicted on numerous charges, including the murder of Sophia Nunez. In 2011, he was sentenced to death for his crimes. The conviction brought a sense of closure to the extensive investigation into Nunez's death and the other crimes committed by the Baseline Killer. The Arizona Supreme Court later upheld his conviction in 2016, and he remains on death row.
