Utah suspect was sex offender
SALT LAKE CITY — A University of Utah student and track athlete who was shot and killed on campus by a former boyfriend had filed a police complaint against him after she learned he was a registered sex offender and broke off the relationship, authorities said Tuesday.
Investigators had been working to build a case after receiving the report from 21-year-old Lauren
McCluskey, a senior from Pullman, Wash., university police chief Dale Brophy said.
The victim’s mother, Jill
McCluskey, said her daughter had filed a harassment complaint after breaking up with 37-yearold Melvin Rowland.
Lauren McCluskey had dated Rowland for about a month then ended the relationship on Oct. 9 when she learned he had lied about his age, name and criminal history, Jill McCluskey said in a statement.
Rowland had spent nearly a decade in prison after pleading guilty to trying to lure an underage girl online and attempted sex abuse charges, according to court records.
He was charged with two separate crimes in September 2003, said then-prosecutor Paul
Amann. He was caught in an online sex crimes sting when a police officer posed as a 13-year-old girl. After he was charged, a woman came forward to report he had sexually assaulted her after a separate online meeting.
“He was just out of control. He had no self-control,” Amann said.
Rowland pleaded guilty to enticing a minor over the internet and attempted forcible sex abuse in an agreement with prosecutors, records show. He was released from prison in 2013 after serving nine years. His defense attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Rowland recently left a halfway house, Brophy said. Lauren McCluskey was found shot in a car Monday night near student housing. Rowland killed himself overnight at a church after police tracked him down, authorities said.