Florida man charged with assisting in girlfriend's suicide

A Florida man was arrested after deputies found his girlfriend dead and him passed out inside a car parked in a Flagler County garage.

Deputies said a woman found her mother Katherine Goddard and her mother's boyfriend Bruce Haughton inside the car in a garage on Red Clover Lane on June 30.

Haughton, 52, had a pulse and was breathing but Goddard was unresponsive, deputies said.

Deputies learned Haughton and Goddard agreed to a suicide pact after they stopped using prescription pain medication.

Haughton planned and facilitated the suicide by placing duct tape on the garage door leading into the house and puting a dryer vent to the exhaust of the car in order to fill the car with carbon monoxide, deputies said.

Their first attempt at the suicide pact on June 29 failed after the car battery died.

Deputies said the two purchased sleeping aids and tried again the next day.

Goddard’s daughter found the couple inside the vehicle after she returned home from work and called law enforcement.

Haughton was taken to Florida Hospital Flagler with a carboxyhemoglobin level of 3 percent.

CDC.gov says carbon monoxide poisoning occurs when the level is greater than 9 percent in people who smoke cigarettes, which Haughton does.

Assisted suicide is illegal in the state of Florida.

Haughton is being held at the Flagler County Detention Facility with no bond.

Cox Media Group