Utah track athlete killed by alleged 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 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, Washington, university police chief Dale Brophy said. He declined to disclose further details on the report.
The victim's mother, Jill McCluskey, said her daughter had filed a harassment complaint after breaking up with 37-year-old 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. It wasn't clear how the two met.
Jill McCluskey said she had been talking on the phone with her daughter as she returned from a night class and heard her yell, "'No, no, no!'" A few minutes later, a woman picked up the phone and said all of Lauren McCluskey's belongings were on the ground.
"I thought she might have been in a car accident," Jill McCluskey said. "That was the last I heard from her."
Rowland 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 Paul Amann, the prosecutor on the case.
Rowland had been caught in an online sex crimes sting when a police officer posed as a 13-yearold girl. After he was charged, a woman came forward to report he had sexually assaulted her after a separate online meeting a few days earlier.
"He was just out of control. He had no self-control," Amann said Tuesday.
Rowland pleaded guilty to enticing a minor over the internet and attempted forcible sex abuse in an agreement with prosecutors, records show. His defense attorney did not immediately return a call Tuesday seeking comment.
Rowland was released from prison in 2012 after serving eight years and has twice been sent back from halfway houses after violating his parole, Utah prison spokeswoman Kaitlin Felsted said. He was most recently paroled in April and was living on his own.