More than 3,300 tips from the public helped Phoenix police break the case of the city’s deadliest serial killer since the scary summer of 2006, when the Baseline Killer and Serial Shooters were on the loose, killing 17 people. The campaign led to last week's arrest of Aaron Saucedo, who has been accused of nine murders from August 2015 through July 2016.
Phoenix has had its share of notorious killers, so much so that Phoenix New Times once suggested welcoming visitors with signs that said "Phoenix: Home of the Baseline Killer." So now seems like an appropriate time to revisit a few moments of our sordid past.
One of Mark Goudeau's nine victims.
Paul Rubin
Crime-scene detective Mike Meislish led the search of suspected serial killer Mark Goudeau's home. What he found helped convict Goudeau, dubbed the Baseline Killer, of nine murders in 2005 and 2006. Goudeau was convicted and is awaiting the death penalty.
Jodi Arias' trial for the murder of her former boyfriend became a national conversation.
MySpace
Some of the testimony in the Jodi Arias' 2013 trial wasn't just raunchy, it was scandalous. Trial watchers heard recorded phone-sex conversations between the former couple along with loads of discussion about anal sex — which, according to Arias, is more preferable before marriage in the Mormon religion than vaginal sex.
America now knows that Tootsie Pops don't just go in mouths and that Pop Rocks add extra spark to oral sex. Arias was convicted of murdering her ex-lover Travis Alexander but was spared the death penalty.
Was She Too Americanized? A Muslim Woman 'Honor-Killed' by Her Father: Faleh Almalek
Noor Almaleki was thoroughly assimilated into American culture. She had moved away from her parents in early 2009 (not for the first time) after another blowup over how she was living her life — tight jeans, makeup, boyfriends, modeling photos, and an attitude that screamed independence and self-determination. Was that why her father ran over her with a Jeep in 2009? He was sentenced to 34 years in prison
The Temple of Doom: Johnathan Doody and Alex Garcia
Inside Wat Promkunaram, a Buddhist temple in the far west Valley, nine bodies were arranged in a loose circle on the floor of a common living room. Though the victims' posture suggested they might be bent in prayer, one, two, or three small bullet holes punctuated the back of each head. Someone had executed these people. Alessandro "Alex" Garcia, 17, pleaded guilty to these murders and agreed to testify against the 18-year-old Johnathan Doody. Doody's conviction was initially overturned, but in his retrial, he was convicted and sentenced to nine consecutive life sentences.
Is Phoenix Murder City?
Killers like Dale Hausner, who killed himself in prison, and Sam Dieteman, who were convicted of a combined eight murders, made former New Times columnist Stephen Lemons wonder if Phoenix shouldn't hang out its shingle: Murder City.
