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This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.

KPCC Archive

UCLA shooting update: Coroner identifies second victim as assailant's wife

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A Minnesota coroner has identified the body of a woman killed in Brooklyn Park as that of Ashley Erin Hasti, who had been married to UCLA shooting assailant Mainak Sarkar.

Hasti died from multiple gunshot wounds, according the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. She was found at her home in Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. The date and time of her death were listed as 1:25 a.m. on June 2nd, the date and time when she was discovered.

Ashley Hasti as seen in a photo on her Facebook page.
Ashley Hasti as seen in a photo on her Facebook page.
(
Facebook
)

"Because this was an unwitnessed death, a more accurate date and time of death cannot be determined," the report stated. 

Sarkar married Hasti, a medical student at the University of Minnesota, on June 14, 2011, according to Hennepin County communication officer Carolyn Marinan. It's not yet clear when the two were estranged.

Police had previously said they believed the shooting deaths were related. A 'kill list' found at Sarkar's home led police to Hasti's home, where they discovered her body. 

The Associated Press spoke with Hasti's grandmother, who said she had become estranged from her husband before the attack: 

A relative says a Minnesota woman who was killed by her estranged husband before he fatally shot a UCLA professor was a world traveler and close to becoming a doctor.

Jean Johnson, the grandmother of victim Ashley Hasti, said Friday that Hasti was smart and spent her late teens and early 20s visiting China, India and Tibet.

She spoke fluent Chinese and knew French. She also dabbled in stand-up comedy.

Johnson said the 31-year-old Hasti was a year away from finishing medical school at the University of Minnesota and hoped to work with children.

Johnson said Hasti met Mainak Sarkar while she was studying at Scripps College in Claremont, California, in 2009 and 2010, when he was a student at UCLA.

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