Lindsey Arp of Tennessee thought she’s found Mr. Right when she met Ryan Haas. He was handsome, romantic, and everything she’d wanted in a man. The couple had two children together during their four-year relationship.
RYAN HAD A DARK SIDE
Six months into their relationship, Haas began to show his dark side. He called Arp at work throughout the day, chose her clothes, and hid her keys when she wanted to visit her dad. She wasn’t allowed to own a cell phone.
Soon after Lindsey gave birth to their first daughter in 2009, Ryan began physically abusing Lindsey.
He followed her everywhere she went and began calling her vulgar names. He mentally and emotionally abused Lindsey, hopeful he would ruin her enough that she would forever be entangled in his abusiveness.
LINDSEY ENDS THE RELATIONSHIP
She’d had enough after the birth of their second daughter when things only continually worsened.
With children to think about, Lindsey knew it was time to end the relationship with Ryan. She told him that it was over and asked him to leave the home.
Ryan seemed okay with the request, but four days later, flew into a rage. He lashed out at Lindsey, slapping her and blacking her eye.
A LIFE-ALTERING A*TTACK
On April 11, 2011, Lindsey said she went to bed at about 10:00 p.m. Around 2:30 a.m., she woke to the most excruciating pain she had ever felt.
Ryan had tossed a pan of hot chicken grease on her face, arms, chest, and body.
The a*ttack almost ki*lled her. She later said that it felt like she was frying from the inside out.
Lindsey ran to a neighbor’s home. She was so badly burned that the neighbor did not recognize her. Police and paramedics arrived and flew Lindsey to Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville.
“It was horrific but I tried to keep calm,” Lindsey said.
“When the air ambulance arrived, my skin was literally peeling off in clumps and I felt as if I was melting away. There was blood everywhere – it was like I’d been massacred.”
A LONG, PAINFUL RECOVERY
Lindsey had third-degree burns on 45% of her body. She would spend the next 148 days in the hospital, during which time doctors told her mother that she would likely die.
Ryan was arrested the same night.
Lindsey endured 38 surgeries to reconstruct one side of her face, as well as many laser treatments and skin grafts. She is blind in one eye and lost one of her ears.
As a woman who prided herself on her looks, Lindsey says looking in the mirror for the first time was the most painful part of her recovery. It took her six months and six days to do so.
However, she says that as she began to heal physically, her emotional well-being improves. At the end of the day, Lindsey says that she is grateful to be alive.
RYAN HAS CON*VICTED
Lindsey saw Ryan again in court in July 2012. Ryan said he was sorry in court, but she knew it was an act.
She did manage to forgive him, however, yet still prayed the court would find him guilty.
Her prayers were answered and Ryan Haas was found guilty of first-degree mur*der. A judge sentenced him to 40-years in prison. He currently serves his time at Whiteville Correctional Facility in Tennessee.
