Sean Patrick Goble was born on November 1, 1966, in Asheboro, North Carolina. He was the son of Kenneth and Erma Goble. When Sean was young, his family moved to Illinois. A significant event in his early life occurred when he was six years old. His father, Kenneth, committed a serious crime by raping a 10-year-old girl during a home invasion in Rockford. During the attack, young Sean was waiting in his father’s vehicle outside the crime scene. Kenneth Goble was arrested and later sentenced to four to 20 years in prison but was released after serving only four years.

After his father's release, Sean, along with his mother and sister, continued to live in Rockford. He attended Auburn High School but dropped out during his senior year in 1984. Two years later, his father faced legal trouble again. While living in New Mexico, Kenneth was charged with raping a 6-year-old girl and was sent back to prison until around 1994.

In his early adulthood, Sean Goble joined the army. He eventually got married and had a son, but his marriage did not last. In 1988, he moved back to North Carolina. By 1991, Sean started working as a truck driver. He was tall at 6 feet 3 inches and weighed 225 pounds, describing himself as a ladies' man.

In January 1994, Sean Patrick Goble picked up Lisa Susan O'Rourke, a 29-year-old woman from St. Louis, Missouri. They had sexual relations before he strangled her to death. Goble then dumped her body under a bridge along Interstate 65 in Alabama. Her body was discovered on January 23, but at first, it was believed she had died from hypothermia. Later, her death was ruled a murder. O'Rourke was not identified until April, when investigators used fingerprinting.

Goble's second known victim was Brenda Kay Hagy, a 45-year-old woman from Bloomington, Indiana. On January 22, 1995, Hagy stayed at a homeless shelter in Gainesville, Florida. The next day, she traveled to Tennessee, where Goble abducted her at a service station. He raped her, strangled her, and broke her neck. After killing her, he drove to Bristol, Virginia, and left her body on an access road to Interstate 81. Goble ran over her legs while leaving the scene. Police found her body later that day and started an investigation, receiving tips from several people, including a trucker who had seen a semi parked nearby hours earlier.

The third victim was Sherry Tew Mansur, a 34-year-old woman who had been arrested for prostitution. She was last seen on January 31, 1995, after leaving her sister's home in Bowie, Maryland. Goble picked her up in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where they had sex before he strangled her. He dumped her body along Interstate 40, and she was not identified for months, remaining known only as "Jane Doe" for a time.

Goble's fourth confirmed victim was Alice Rebecca Hanes, a 36-year-old woman from Columbus, Ohio. She was last heard from at a truck stop in Salina, Kansas, before hitchhiking to Tennessee. Goble kidnapped her from a gas station and smothered her to death. He left her body along Interstate 81 in Virginia.

During the investigation into Brenda Hagy's murder, police found a plastic bag that contained Goble's fingerprint. This led to his arrest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on April 13, 1995. Authorities searched his truck and found a pocketbook that belonged to Hanes, along with other personal items. Goble confessed to killing Hagy and Mansur during interrogation. He also admitted to killing a woman in North Carolina, who was later identified as Mansur.

Goble pleaded guilty to the murders of Hagy and Hanes, receiving two life sentences in Tennessee. He was later extradited to North Carolina, where he pleaded guilty to Mansur’s murder, adding 14 years to his sentence. In total, he was required to serve at least 103 years before he could be considered for parole. Goble was also investigated in several other unsolved cases, but he was cleared in some due to his location at the time of those killings. He continued to serve his sentences at the Northeast Correctional Complex in Doe Valley, Tennessee.