Take a Chilling Look Inside the Baseline Killer Case

Comments (0) By Paul Rubin Thursday, Nov 10 2011

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One of the convicts was Mark Goudeau.

It was almost a year after the South Phoenix sexual assaults, and finally a forensic expert (from the state's crime lab, not the city's) had analyzed the swabs from both of the younger sister's breasts.

Paul Rubin

Preschool aide Tina Washington's body was found December 12, 2005, behind a warehouse at 40th Street and Southern Avenue.

Kentucky con James Mullins falsely confessed to murdering one of Goudeau's early victims.

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That analyst, Lorraine Heath, found what she considered identifiable DNA both on the previously untested left breast and on the already tested (but not put into the national or state DNA databases) right breast.

Heath utilized both a well-established testing protocol that looks for all genetic material and a newer procedure that detects only the male chromosome — a DNA fingerprint inherited from fathers.

The Phoenix police crime lab didn't have the newer procedure in place yet.

Her findings were the so-called smoking gun in the 2007 sexual-assault trial and also were critical — and not refuted by the defense — in Goudeau's recently completed trial.

On September 2, 2006, Heath informed Phoenix police that a preliminary "hit" with the new male-chromosome-only testing had revealed the name of Mark Goudeau from that list of prior offenders.

As the testing continued, the cops prepared to swoop in on Goudeau, not yet as the Baseline Killer, but as the rapist of the South Phoenix sisters.

On the late afternoon of September 6, Phoenix police arrested Goudeau without incident in front of his home.

It was his 42nd birthday.

Several months later, the city of Phoenix issued a reward check for $100,000 to the woman whose information first had led them to the serial killer.

It was Darlene, Goudeau's assault victim many years before he became the Baseline Killer.