FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A U.S. Air Force airman on trial on charges of kidnapping a Mennonite woman in New Mexico, fatally shooting her and dumping her body in northern Arizona, had tried unsuccessfully to cover his tracks after the January 2020 killing, a prosecutor told jurors Friday in opening statements.

Prosecutor Ammon Barker said Mark Gooch got his car professionally detailed, asked someone to hold onto his rifle and, two days after the killing, returned to the forest clearing outside Flagstaff, Ariz., where the body of 27-year-old Sasha Krause had been dumped and would be discovered several weeks later.

Though Gooch’s cellphone data showed he drove from metro Phoenix to a Mennonite community in Farmington, and then to the Flagstaff area, the prosecutor said Gooch initially deleted his location history from a different digital account — a Google account — during the time of the killing.