Mark Goudeau: The Baseline Killer
Mark Goudeau is an American serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and armed robber who became known as the "Baseline Killer" for a violent series of crimes in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area during 2005 and 2006. The nickname developed because some of the earliest attacks associated with the offender occurred near Baseline Road in south Phoenix. Over the course of the investigation, however, police connected crimes spread across a much larger area of Phoenix and nearby Tempe. Goudeau was ultimately convicted of murdering nine people, as well as numerous kidnappings, sexual assaults, robberies, and other violent offenses.
The crimes created intense fear throughout the Phoenix area because many of the victims appeared to have been selected while performing ordinary activities. People were approached in parking lots, outside businesses, while leaving work, or while sitting in vehicles. The offender frequently carried a silver-colored handgun, threatened victims at close range, and sometimes told them that he had recently committed a robbery or needed to meet a friend. Several surviving victims described being ordered not to look at him and being forced to travel to secluded areas.
Beginning of the Crime Series
One of the earliest attacks presented at Goudeau's later murder trial occurred on August 6, 2005. Goudeau approached three minors while carrying a silver handgun and forced them behind a church in the Phoenix area. Two of the girls were sexually assaulted. The incident contained several elements that investigators would later recognize in other attacks, particularly the use of a handgun, the movement of victims to an isolated location, and efforts to avoid leaving evidence behind.
On September 20, 2005, Goudeau attacked two sisters who were walking home at night. He was later convicted of kidnapping, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and aggravated assault in connection with that attack. Evidence from the case eventually became extremely important to investigators because improved DNA testing helped identify Goudeau. Those convictions were handled separately from the later trial involving the nine murders.
Other attacks involved armed robberies followed almost immediately by kidnappings or sexual assaults. On September 28, 2005, for example, Goudeau robbed employees at a restaurant and shortly afterward confronted a mother and her 12-year-old daughter in a nearby vehicle. He forced his way into the vehicle, ordered the mother to drive, demanded money, and sexually assaulted both victims. Similar crimes occurred during November 2005, including restaurant robberies and the abduction and sexual assault of another woman.
The Nine Murder Victims
- Georgia Thompson - September 8, 2005 - Tempe, Arizona: Thompson was killed in the parking lot of her apartment complex at approximately 3730 South Mill Avenue. She was found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Neighbors reported hearing a woman screaming shortly before a gunshot. Her murder became the first homicide in the series for which Goudeau was eventually convicted.
- Tina Washington - December 12, 2005 - Phoenix, Arizona: Washington was killed near 40th Street and Southern Avenue, in an alley or driveway behind commercial buildings. A witness who heard gunshots stepped outside and saw Goudeau standing over a body while holding a silver handgun. Goudeau then pointed the weapon toward the witness, but the gun did not fire. Washington had been fatally shot, and jewelry she had been wearing earlier was missing. A personalized gold ring belonging to Washington was later discovered hidden inside a shoe in Goudeau's home.
- Romelia Vargas - February 20, 2006 - Phoenix, Arizona: Vargas was found dead inside the food or snack truck she operated near 91st Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road in west Phoenix. She and another woman working in the truck had both been shot in the head. Vargas's purse and driver's license were not found at the scene.
- Mirna Palma-Roman - February 20, 2006 - Phoenix, Arizona: Palma-Roman was killed in the same attack as Romelia Vargas. The two women were discovered lying inside Vargas's food truck near 91st Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road. Investigators initially had little information explaining the double murder, but forensic evidence eventually connected it with the wider Baseline Killer series.
- Chao Chou - March 14, 2006 - Phoenix, Arizona: Chou left work with co-worker Liliana Sanchez Cabrera after their shift at a restaurant near 24th Street and Indian School Road. The murder date used in the criminal case was March 14, 2006. Evidence showed that Chou and Sanchez were shot inside Chou's vehicle while the killer occupied the rear passenger area. Chou's body was later found in an alley several blocks from the vehicle. His car keys were missing, and investigators found no cash in the victims' wallets.
- Liliana Sanchez Cabrera - March 14, 2006 - Phoenix, Arizona: Sanchez left work with Chao Chou and was killed during the same attack. Her body was found in the front passenger seat of Chou's vehicle near the 24th Street and Indian School Road area. Investigators determined that she had suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Ballistics evidence connected the shootings with the weapon used in other murders attributed to Goudeau.
- Kristin Gibbons - March 29, 2006 - Phoenix, Arizona: The murder was dated to March 29 during Goudeau's criminal case. At a commercial property around 2502 North 24th Street, a business owner noticed blood spots and marks leading from a parking area toward storage sheds. Police searched the property but initially failed to locate a body. Five days later, Gibbons's decomposed body was discovered concealed near the storage area. She had suffered a fatal gunshot wound, and her purse and cellphone were missing. Later testing found Gibbons's DNA on a ski mask seized from Goudeau's home.
- Sophia Nunez - April 10, 2006 - West Phoenix, Arizona: Nunez was killed inside her home. Her eight-year-old son returned from school after she failed to pick him up and discovered his mother in an overflowing bathtub. She had been shot at close range. Unlike most of the murder victims, Nunez was personally acquainted with Goudeau. DNA testing later provided an important connection between Goudeau and the crime scene.
- Carmen Miranda - June 29, 2006 - Phoenix, Arizona: Miranda was attacked at a self-service car wash near 29th Street and Thomas Road, approximately 2924 East Thomas Road. Goudeau forced her into her own vehicle and drove away. Her car was located in a nearby secluded area about two hours later, with Miranda dead inside from a gunshot wound. Her murder was the final homicide for which Goudeau was convicted in the Baseline Killer series.
Patterns in the Murders and Attacks
The prosecution argued that the individual crimes were connected by a combination of forensic evidence and a recognizable method of operation. A silver handgun appeared repeatedly in witness accounts. Ballistics examination determined that the same .380-caliber handgun had been used in all nine murders and in other charged shootings where sufficient evidence was available for comparison. The actual weapon was never recovered.
Goudeau also used deception and intimidation. In several encounters he claimed that he had committed a robbery and needed transportation or needed to find a friend. Victims were ordered to drive or walk according to his instructions and were frequently told not to look at him. Some surviving victims described disguises. After sexual assaults, he sometimes attempted to remove or destroy biological evidence and fingerprints.
The May 1, 2006 attack on a woman identified in court records as Adrienne M. demonstrated how close another encounter came to becoming a murder. Goudeau entered her vehicle with a handgun, forced her to drive into a secluded neighborhood, and demanded sexual acts. When she resisted, he threatened to shoot her. The handgun clicked rather than firing, and the woman was able to grab her keys and escape.
The Investigation and Forensic Evidence
A major break in the investigation came through DNA evidence connected to Goudeau's earlier sexual assaults. More specialized testing eventually produced a genetic profile linking him to victims of several attacks. Police arrested Goudeau on September 6, 2006. Searches of his residence then produced evidence that strengthened the connection between him and the murders.
Investigators found blood containing Chao Chou's DNA on a pair of tennis shoes seized from Goudeau's home. Kristin Gibbons's DNA was identified on a ski mask. Police also recovered Tina Washington's personalized gold ring from a small bag concealed inside a shoe. Goudeau's DNA was identified in evidence connected with Sophia Nunez and with several surviving sexual-assault victims. The combination of DNA evidence, ballistics evidence, recovered property, eyewitness testimony, and similarities between the attacks became the foundation of the prosecution's case.
Trial, Convictions, and Sentencing
Arizona prosecutors eventually charged Goudeau with dozens of felonies associated with the Baseline Killer investigation. His major murder trial was unusually long, with approximately seventy days of testimony spread across more than seven months. Prosecutors organized their presentation chronologically, showing jurors how the robberies, kidnappings, sexual assaults, shootings, and murders overlapped in time and method.
On October 31, 2011, the jury found Goudeau guilty of 67 felony charges, including all nine counts of first-degree murder. The verdicts established his legal responsibility for the deaths of Georgia Thompson, Tina Washington, Romelia Vargas, Mirna Palma-Roman, Chao Chou, Liliana Sanchez Cabrera, Kristin Gibbons, Sophia Nunez, and Carmen Miranda.
On November 30, 2011, the jury returned death sentences for each of the nine murders. Goudeau had already received a 438-year prison sentence from an earlier prosecution involving the September 2005 attack on two sisters. In 2016, the Arizona Supreme Court reviewed the major murder case and affirmed Goudeau's convictions and nine death sentences.
Impact of the Baseline Killer Case
The Baseline Killer investigation became one of the most notorious criminal cases in modern Arizona history. The uncertainty surrounding the offender was particularly frightening because his victims were attacked in familiar public and residential settings rather than in a single isolated area. Restaurant employees, people walking home, women in parking lots, and people leaving work could suddenly become targets.
The case was further complicated because another unrelated series of shootings was occurring in the Phoenix metropolitan area during roughly the same period. For residents and investigators, the overlapping investigations contributed to a widespread sense that random violence could occur almost anywhere. The eventual identification of Goudeau demonstrated the importance of combining evidence from different crime scenes rather than treating each robbery, assault, kidnapping, or homicide as an entirely separate event.
Goudeau's crimes left nine murder victims and numerous surviving victims whose lives were permanently affected by his attacks. Although the name "Baseline Killer" became the public label for the case, the record of the crimes is ultimately the record of the people he killed or assaulted and of the extensive investigation required to connect incidents spread across many months and locations. His convictions brought together a long chain of forensic evidence, eyewitness accounts, recovered property, and ballistic comparisons that established one offender's responsibility for a prolonged period of violence across the Phoenix area.
