Woman strangled new boyfriend ‘to know what it felt like’
A woman sentenced to 60 years behind bars for strangling her new boyfriend in a Walmart parking lot in Montana said she “wanted to know what it felt like” — after he had asked her to kill him because of his crippling depression, according to a report.
Lindsay Haugen, 32, and Robert Mast, 25, were traveling from Olympia, Washington, to North Dakota in 2015 when they stopped in Billings, Montana, where she got behind him in their car and choked him as she held his mouth and nose shut.
She told investigators that she killed him “because he asked me to” as he struggled to battle his depression — but added that she wanted to “know what it felt like to kill someone with my bare hands,” according to the UK’s Mirror.
“My last fiance broke my hand, then he got behind me, just like I did to Robby, and choked me,” she said. “I woke up on the floor and it was like I was underwater and I just wanted to do that back — but he wanted it to happen.”
Police also learned that Mast had been talking about his ex-girlfriend to Hauger before his murder, something she admitted she was jealous about.
In 2016, Haugen pleaded guilty to the crime, which is featured in a new episode of the Netflix series “I Am A Killer” to be shown on the UK’s Crime+Investigation on Tuesday.
“I remember, one morning he woke up and just said, ‘Have you ever been disappointed that you woke up and you’re still alive?’” said Haugen, now 36. “I just remember how upset he looked.”
She claims she is “heartbroken” over her boyfriend’s death.
“He was only 25 and he had his whole life ahead of him but I made a choice and I took his life. Nothing I can do can undo that,” said Haugen, who ran away from home when she was 15, was addicted to heroin by age 16 and was pregnant by 17.
She later left her baby boy with her mother and joined the National Guard, where she met an abusive man who would regularly beat her, rape her and even tried to kill her.
In 2015, she met Mast at a house party.
“He had just come out of rehab but I didn’t see that, I just saw a beautiful face among a pile of beer cans,” she said.
“He held my hand and said, ‘I wish I could be happy with you but I’m not and it’s not you,’” she said. “He kept telling me he wanted to see what the next life was like. I took it personally, that I wasn’t enough for him to live for.
“He said he just wanted to die,” she added.
Mast’s mother and stepfather have forgiven the killer and regularly visit her in prison, saying they “lost a son but have gained a daughter.”
“The only way I can show how sorry I am is to live the best life I can,” Haugen said. “If I can do something good with my life, then his life will mean something.”