Mark Goudeau was born on September 6, 1964, in Phoenix, Arizona. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood, facing challenges typical of urban life. Information about his family and upbringing is limited, but it is known that he had a troubled childhood. As a teenager, he began to get into trouble with the law.

During his youth, Goudeau was involved in various minor crimes. He eventually became more serious about criminal activity, which led to multiple arrests. These early experiences with the law shaped his future. He dropped out of high school, which limited his opportunities for a stable life.

Mark Goudeau's crimes took place between August 2005 and June 2006 in the Phoenix area. On August 6, 2005, he committed two sexual assaults near a church in Phoenix. A few days later, on August 14, he combined sexual assault with robbery.

Goudeau's first homicide occurred on September 8, 2005, when he killed 19-year-old Georgia Thompson in Tempe. He continued his crime spree with more sexual assaults, including incidents on September 15 and September 20, the latter involving two sisters walking home from a park. In this attack, he used a gun to threaten the sisters and sexually assaulted one of them.

On September 28, 2005, he committed multiple robberies in Tempe and Phoenix, including another assault shortly after. He escalated his attacks in November 2005 with several armed robberies and a sexual assault that took place soon after one of the robberies.

Goudeau was linked to several homicides, with a notable one on December 12, 2005, where he shot 39-year-old Tina Washington. In February 2006, he killed two women, Romelia Vargas and Mirna Palma-Roman, in a lunch truck. Their deaths initially seemed unrelated but were later connected to Goudeau.

In the following months, he continued to attack and kill, resulting in the deaths of employees from a restaurant and another woman, Kristin Nicole Gibbons, who was found dead in March. By May 2006, he was still active, abducting and assaulting a woman, and by June 29, he killed Carmen Miranda, marking the last crime attributed to him.

In total, Goudeau is believed to have committed nine homicides and numerous sexual assaults, robberies, and other crimes during his reign of terror. He was finally arrested in September 2006 after DNA evidence linked him to the earlier attacks. Following extensive investigations, he was charged with multiple counts, including murder, sexual assault, and robbery.