Suspect arrested in killing of Utah college student
Burned human remains found in his yard, police say
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah college student missing 11 days was abducted and killed and her remains burned in the yard of a man now facing aggravated murder and other charges, authorities said Friday.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown, who became emotional at times during a morning press conference, said Ayoola A. Ajayi was being charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping and desecration of a body in the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck.
He was arrested without incident earlier Friday morning by a SWAT team.
Brown said he told the missing woman’s parents in Southern California about the arrest earlier Friday morning. “This is one of the most difficult phone calls I’ve ever made,” he said. Her parents are “devastated and heartbroken by this news.”
Lueck disappeared on June 17, after she returned from a trip home for her grandmother’s funeral and took a Lyft ride from the airport to a park north of Salt Lake City. She was last seen apparently willingly meeting someone there about 3 a.m. Her text conversation with Ajayi was her last communication before her disappearance, and phone location data shows them both at the park within a minute of each other, Brown said.
“This was the same time as Mackenzie’s phone stopped receiving any further data or location services,” Brown said.
He declined to say exactly how they got in touch. Ajayi has acknowledged speaking with her the evening of June 16, but denied talking to her after or knowing what she looked like — despite having photos of her on his phone, Brown said.
The police chief said investigators were seeking to determine if others were involved. A second person was questioned at the time of his arrest and later released, Brown said.
Police have not discussed a motive for the killing, or specified a cause of death. A judge ordered Ajayi held without bail. It was not known if he has an attorney to speak on his behalf.
After discovering that Ajayi was the last person Lueck communicated with, police searched his home Wednesday and Thursday. In his backyard, they found a “fresh dig area,” and charred items that belonged to Lueck.
They also found burned human remains that matched her DNA profile, Brown said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Ajayi, who had previously been identified as a person of interest in Lueck’s disappearance, had an attorney. He had not returned previous messages from the Associated Press prior to his arrest.