In the quiet Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, the life of 31-year-old White/Caucasian female Ashley Erin Hasti was cut tragically short in early June of 2016. A promising medical student at the University of Minnesota, she was discovered deceased in her residence from multiple gunshot wounds. Her death was not an isolated incident but the first act in a cross-country murder-suicide orchestrated by her estranged husband, Mainak Sarkar.
The grim discovery of Hasti's body was made by
police who were led to her home by a note found at a crime scene nearly 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles. On the campus of UCLA, Sarkar, a former doctoral student, had shot and killed professor William Klug before turning the gun on himself. The note left by Sarkar prompted authorities to check on his St. Paul apartment, where they found a "kill list" containing three names: Professor Klug, another UCLA professor who was unharmed, and Ashley Hasti. This list led Brooklyn Park police to Hasti's home in the early morning hours of June 2nd, where they found her body. Investigators believe she had been killed sometime before the UCLA shooting. Evidence at the scene, including a broken window, suggested Sarkar had forced his way into the home.
Ashley Hasti and Mainak Sarkar had married in 2011, though they had been separated for some time leading up to the tragedy. Hasti was described by family as a bright and adventurous woman with a passion for learning and travel. She was in her second year of medical school and had previously earned a bachelor's degree in Asian languages and literature. Her travels had taken her to several countries, and she was fluent in Chinese. Those who knew her were shocked by the violent end to her life, remembering her as a kind and intelligent individual.
The investigation concluded that Mainak Sarkar was the sole suspect in Hasti's murder. Having killed his estranged wife, he then drove to Los Angeles to carry out his attack on the UCLA professor before taking his own life. The case was a murder-suicide, and with the perpetrator deceased, there were no arrests to be made. The tragic event left two families grieving and a university community in shock, connecting the quiet suburbs of Minnesota with a violent outburst on a California campus.
