‘Person of interest’ ID’D in vanishing
Home searched; link to missing student unclear
SALT LAKE CITY — Police investigating the case of a college student who went missing in Utah 10 days ago said Thursday that the owner of a home they searched in connection with the disappearance is a “person of interest.” They added that they are trying to find a mattress that had been inside the man’s home.
The announcement came shortly after authorities spent about 19 hours searching the man’s home in a middle-class Salt Lake City neighborhood, with neighbors describing officers entering the home with shovels and police dogs. Investigators were also seen taking large brown bags out of the house.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said the homeowner spoke with investigators but was not in custody and declined to name him. But authorities have said that they believe the house has an unspecified connection to the disappearance of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck.
Online court and property records identify the man as being 31, having divorced this year and having no criminal record in Utah. The Associated Press is not naming him because authorities have not done so.
Investigators now want to find a mattress and box spring that they say the homeowner gave away last week, and speak with whoever took it, Brown said.
Lueck disappeared after taking a Lyft on June 17 from the city’s airport to a park, where police have said she met someone at about 3 a.m. and did not seem distressed. They have said the Lyft driver had no connection with her disappearance. The home that police searched is about 5 miles from that park.
Police generally use the term “person of interest” for someone they believe might have information about a crime that leads to a suspect, or the person of interest may eventually become a suspect and subject to arrest.
The homeowner has lived there about two years and has rented out part of it on Airbnb, said next-door neighbor Tom Camomile.
Camomile said the man was friendly but became withdrawn over the last several months.
Camomile said he never saw anyone matching Lueck’s description at the house and last saw the homeowner last Saturday, when he brought in his trash cans.