Serial Killer Project Report

Creighton Sullivan

Mr. Poe

Forensic Science

Serial Killer Project-Report

Doody and Garcia

Just outside of Goodyear, Arizona lies The Wat Promkunaram Buddhist temple. 20 miles west of Phoenix, Arizona, this rural farm town was a very quiet community. But on the morning of August 10, 1991, all of that changed in a heartbeat. A temple worker, who was delivering food that morning, felt a strange sense of silence. He investigated the temple to find somebody who was awake. By the time he arrived, usually, the monks were already awake and doing daily chores and activities. But this was no ordinary morning. As the temple worker strolled into the living room, he could not believe what he saw. The six monks who lived there, along with a nun and two teenage servants to the temple lay shockingly still in front of the couch in the middle of the room. He immediately contacted the police and then stood in shock at the massacre scene he had just witnessed.

The Sheriff’s office of Maricopa County was the first to respond to the scene. Immediately, they called for backup to attempt to preserve the scene. The FBI was also called in because of possible relations to drug trafficking from Thailand. The monks were from Thailand, so it was possible that this massacre had something to do with illegal drug trading. There were so many questions about Why? Why these people? Why here? Everybody around the area knew that the Buddhist Temple was the most calm and relaxed place in all of Goodyear, Arizona. That is why most everybody was confused when they heard the news of the massacre.

The lead investigator was Tom Agnos. He, nor anybody in the state, had ever had to process such a terrible and devastating crime against humanity. According...

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...ntense hours of questioning, the one being questioned may just tell the police what they want to hear. This is a morally wrong way for the authorities to go about their interrogations; they just want to pin the blame on somebody as soon as possible to restore peace in the community.

It was not for another month did anything turn up with this case. On October 24, 1991, the ballistic lab reports came back from the weapon found in the car of Caratachea. They confirmed that the .22-caliber bullet casings found at the scene of the massacre matched the ones fired from his weapon. The authorities then retrieved a search warrant to search the apartment where Caratachea was living with Jonathan Doody along with Alessandro Garcia. In their apartment, a 20-gauge shotgun was found, and was later matched up to the 20-gauge shotgun shells found at the scene of the massacre.