Her Ex Lied About His Identity, Then Took Her Life: The Murder of Lauren McCluskey

Summary

True Crime with Kendall Rae
Episode: Her Ex Lied About His Identity, Then Took Her Life: The Murder of Lauren McCluskey
Date: October 9, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this emotionally charged and thorough episode, host Kendall Rae examines the tragic story of Lauren McCluskey—a gifted University of Utah athlete who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Melvin Rowland, after he manipulated, lied to, stalked, and extorted her. The episode focuses not only on Lauren’s vibrant life and her accomplishments, but also on the systemic failures by campus police and university officials who repeatedly ignored her pleas for help, ultimately contributing to her untimely death. With sensitivity and righteous anger, Kendall highlights the mistakes at every turn and explores the legacy Lauren’s family has worked to build in her honor, while pushing for lasting campus safety reforms.

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Main Themes

• Celebrating Lauren McCluskey’s life, character, and achievements
• The dangers of dating violence and manipulation
• Institutional failures by campus police and the University of Utah
• The impact of Lauren’s murder on her family, friends, and the community
• Ongoing reforms, the work of the Lauren McCluskey Foundation, and the need for cultural change regarding victim advocacy and campus safety

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Episode Structure and Key Segments

1. Introduction and Lauren’s Background

[01:06–10:30]

• Kendall expresses the difficulty and importance of covering Lauren’s case

  “The way that she was failed completely shattered me.” (Kendall Rae, 01:11)

• Lauren’s early life: born Feb 12, 1997, in Berkeley, CA; moved to Pullman, WA; parents were university professors
• Highly talented and determined: elite track and field athlete, breaking records from age 8
• Academics: studied communications at University of Utah on full scholarship
• Volunteering: active at YMCA, Special Olympics, animal shelter

2. College, Friendships, and Meeting Melvin Rowland

[10:31–16:40]

• Lauren blossoms: close friendships, involved on campus, outgoing
• Meets “Sean Fields” (later revealed as Melvin Rowland) at a downtown bar; they quickly become inseparable
• Early courtship: roses, thoughtful dates
• Relationship turns rapidly abusive: manipulation, control, emotional abuse

  “Practically overnight Sean just became this manipulative asshole, really showed his true colors.” (Kendall Rae, 16:31)

3. Red Flags, Discovery of Lies, and Initial Attempts to Get Help

[16:41–22:44]

• Friends, especially Diamond (RA), alarmed by escalating control, talk of guns
• Lauren discovers “Sean” is actually Melvin Rowland, a 37-year-old convicted sex offender
• Distressed, Lauren plans and executes a careful breakup, but fears persist because Rowland unpredictable and threatening

4. First Reports to Campus Police; Mishandling Begins

[20:35–31:11]

• Lauren and her mother Jill both contact University of Utah Police, expressing concerns for Lauren’s safety, especially during car exchange post-breakup
• Campus police seem cooperative at first: security escorts, phone calls
• However, the dismissal and inaction quickly surface

  “The problem, though, is that Diamond’s report fell on deaf ears.” (Kendall Rae, 16:54)

• Harassment escalates: Lauren receives disturbing texts, some even urging her to end her life

5. Escalation: Stalking, Sextortion, and Continued Police Neglect

[31:12–40:01]

• Rowland continues harassment—impersonates others, sends threatening and manipulative messages
• Sextortion: threatens to release intimate photos unless Lauren pays him $1,000 (which she does)
• Lauren and friend Alex physically visit campus police to report escalating threats

  “They were just repeatedly told it was a scam… campus police did practically nothing.” (Kendall Rae, 37:16)

• Salt Lake City PD redirects Lauren back to campus police due to jurisdiction

6. Catastrophic Systemic Failures and the Lead-up to the Murder

[40:02–54:33]

• Despite Lauren explicitly identifying Melvin’s criminal history, multiple reports, and clear immediate danger, campus police fail to act
• Officer Miguel Daris later excuses inaction:

  “He said he wasn't worried for Lauren's safety because she never told him she was afraid. And she also never mentioned domestic violence….” (Kendall Rae, 87:44)

• Rowland stalks Lauren openly, even infiltrating her dorm disguised
• The night of the murder: Lauren is on the phone with her mom when attacked; her parents hear her abduction live

  “No, no, no, no, no!” (Lauren McCluskey, last words, 53:57)

• Discovery of Lauren’s abandoned backpack and subsequent desperate calls to police by her family

7. Aftermath: Investigation, More Failures, and Community Response

[54:34–65:30]

• Authorities quickly identify Rowland as the killer; he flees, ultimately taking his own life
• University suspends classes; large public memorial held
• Grief and anger sweep the community; friends and family, including Diamond, struggle with guilt

  “Law enforcement definitely did have the power to stop him many times… and they just didn't.” (Kendall Rae, 63:45)

8. Institutional Accountability and Legal Action

[65:31–80:00]

• Initial police and university responses are defensive, misleadingly claiming “appropriate steps” were taken
• Outrage grows as reviews expose severe failures, both systemic and by individuals
• Detailed examination of Melvin Rowland’s criminal history and repeated, misguided parole
• Gun used in the murder traced back to an illegally obtained firearm
• Internal review yields 30 policy recommendations and some eventual institutional changes

  “Had you actually been building a case against this guy, I don't think I'd be telling you Lauren's story today.” (Kendall Rae, 65:44)

• The $56 million lawsuit by Lauren’s family leads to a significant $13.5 million settlement, most of which they channel into positive action via the Lauren McCluskey Foundation

9. The Lauren McCluskey Foundation and Legacy

[80:01–88:41]

• Three pillars: Campus safety, animal welfare (cat adoption), amateur athlete scholarships
• Launch of “Lauren’s Promise”—a national campaign for teachers to publicly pledge belief and advocacy for students in danger

  “I will listen and believe you if someone is threatening you.” (Lauren’s Promise, 85:34)

• Campus Safety Score project: quantifying and incentivizing campus safety improvements
• Lauren’s name memorialized in animal shelters and athletic facilities

10. Continuing Challenges and Final Reflections

[88:42–End]

• Despite reforms, similar campus failings continue: another student murdered at University of Utah in 2022
• Reminder of collective responsibility: bystanders' obligation to report, institutions’ obligation to act
• Kendall closes with Lauren’s father’s words:

  “Remember Lauren Jennifer McCluskey, remember how she lived, remember how she died. And through your actions honor her memory.” (Kendall Rae, paraphrasing, 92:30)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On institutional neglect:

  “Every single person involved in this case in the position of law enforcement should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.” (Kendall Rae, 58:31)

• Lauren’s friend Diamond’s heartbreak:

  “She broke down in tears saying how much she hated herself for not doing more…” (Kendall Rae, 62:55)

• On Lauren’s character:

  “She was very much a girl's girl and always cheering on her teammates and those around her. I just think people like that are the best kind of people.” (Kendall Rae, 08:50)

• On the need for change:

  “Unless all of our schools start taking safety more seriously, I'm worried that it will keep happening. In fact, I know it will.” (Kendall Rae, 91:39)

• Lauren’s father’s final wish:

  “Remember Lauren Jennifer McCluskey, remember how she lived, remember how she died. And through your actions honor her memory.” (Kendall Rae, 92:30)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment/Topic | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:06 | Introduction and Lauren’s early years | | 10:31 | College life, meeting Melvin Rowland, early relationship | | 16:41 | Discovery of Melvin’s true identity and criminal past | | 20:35 | First police contacts—red flags ignored | | 31:12 | Harassment, extortion, and escalating threats | | 40:01 | Campus police neglect and devastating missed opportunities | | 53:57 | Lauren’s last words, abduction heard by her parents | | 54:34 | Family’s calls to campus and city police, immediate aftermath | | 65:31 | Institutional reviews, campus and parole failures exposed | | 80:01 | The Lauren McCluskey Foundation, Lauren’s Promise, campus safety work | | 88:42 | Ongoing challenges and personal/family calls to action | | 92:30 | Father’s closing statement, episode sign-off |

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Conclusion

Kendall Rae masterfully guides listeners through Lauren McCluskey’s story, balancing respectful remembrance with righteous condemnation of institutional failures. The episode is a call to action—for individuals, academics, and institutions—to listen to, believe, and protect those at risk, and to hold negligent authorities accountable.

For more on the Lauren McCluskey Foundation and resources for campus safety reform, visit links provided in the show notes. This episode stands as both a memorial and a rallying cry for justice and reform.

Transcript

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[Kendall Rae]

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of True Crime with Kendall Ray. Thank you so much for joining me today and if you're new to the show, then welcome. I'm glad to have you here. Okay, guys, so I have to be honest, the case that I'm getting into today is going to be hard to get through. It was incredibly hard to research and study for. I'm going to be talking about the murder of 21 year old Lauren McCluskey and her story and the way that she was failed completely shattered me. It was very, very difficult to work on this and it's going to be difficult to deliver this episode. But it is so, so important that Lauren's story is shared. Lauren. Lauren was an absolutely beautiful person inside and out. She was talented, she was kind, she was very, very smart. And she was a young woman who really had the whole world at her fingertips. And nobody, including Lauren, could have ever seen what was coming. Lauren was swept off her feet by someone who wasn't who they said they were. And by the time she realized it and broke free, it was too late. And not only that, she was failed at every turn by people who were supposed to protect her and really could have. This could have turned out completely different. And I've got to say, of all the cases that will anger you, leave you feeling frustrated, confused, and just anger at the system, this one is up there. But it is so worth talking about it because Lauren's story is so important and her parents have done a amazing job of keeping her story alive, spreading their message and continuing her impact on the world. And with that, I want to go ahead and start by telling you about Lauren. And honestly, I could do a whole podcast just on her as a person and how amazing she was. And part of the reason for that is because her parents have shared so much information about her and talked about her accomplishments and what she wanted out of life. And it made it really interesting to learn about her. So Lauren Jennifer McCluskey was so special and been so, so loved by her family. She was born on February 12, 1997, in Berkeley, California, to her very intelligent parents, Jill and Matt, who were living there while getting their doctorate degrees. Then a year later, the three of them moved to Pullman, Washington, because both of them accepted positions as professors at the University of Washington. And not long after their move, Lauren became a big sister to her baby brother, Ryan, completing their family of four. Now, growing up, Lauren was a lot of things, but one word that just keeps coming to mind when I think of Lauren is talented. From the time that she was 2 years old, she was fearlessly climbing trees. And truly, this kid had determination like no other. She was brave. She was active, full of drive. And although some would describe her as sensitive and shy, her parents explained that that was less about her being quiet and much more about her choosing her words carefully. So even if she wasn't always the loudest in the room, her words always meant something. And I think some of the special people among us are like that. And oh my God, you guys, this girl was so, so athletic, so, so talented. I mean, from the time that she was young, her parents knew that athletics was going to be a great outlet for her. She really specifically got into track and field. And believe it or not, by the time that she was 8, she was already breaking records. And yeah, from what I gathered, track and field really seemed to be Lauren's, like, biggest passion in life. And man, was she good at it. When she was 9, her mom told her that if she qualified for nationals that she could go at age 9. And that's exactly what she did that year. She got second place on the high jump at the Junior Olympic Nationals, which was just the start of her very successful career. And her competitive nature and passion for challenging herself ended up landing her many trophies. Over the years, she set records in the high jump, the long jump, and the 400 meter run. And through competing nationally, she earned herself the USA Track and Field All American Top 8 title 19 times. 19 times. Let that sink in. And that's just scratching the surface when it comes to Lauren, because as a freshman in high school, she was the Washington state high school champion in high jump. And she even attended a private boarding school in Ohio called the Spire Institute during her junior year, which combines academics and elite level athletics. Then she returned to Pullman for her senior year, where she helped her team win third place overall in the state. Plus, that year, she individually placed ninth overall at the US Junior championship. So, yeah, pretty impressive. But of course, Lauren was so much more than just an athlete. She was also a very good student. Very, very smart. She was an amazing friend. She was super, super involved in her community, which I thought was really cool. She volunteered at the YMCA as well as the Special Olympics, and then I loved this. But she often spe time at her local animal shelter, socializing the cats to help them become more adoptable, because we all know cats need a little help in that department sometimes. So, as you can hopefully tell, Lauren was just awesome. And because of her accomplishments and because she was so well rounded when it came to college, she had a lot of options. But in the end, she decided to study communications at the University of Utah, where she received a full scholarship. Now, her parents were super excited about this choice for many reasons, but a big one is that the university claimed to be super safe. Salt Lake City is also very beautiful, and opportunities for Lauren to thrive there appeared to be endless. And Lauren wasn't a big party girl either, so they didn't feel like they had a lot to worry about with sending her off to school. So they felt like she was going to be safe overall. Of course, every parent, when their child goes off to college is pretty nervous, but they wanted to make sure that she had a safe vehicle, of course, a reliable car, so they didn't end up buying her a car. And then other than that, they felt like she was pretty good to go. And for the next three and a half years, she was. She really did blossom and thrive. Between school and sports and church and her close group of friends, Lauren was doing really well. Her work ethic was admired by everyone around her. Even when things got tough or busy, you would never catch Lauren complaining. She could really handle it all. And one thing that I love, loved learning about Lauren is that, yes, of course she's competitive, being the athlete that she was, but she was not really competitive when it came to other people. She was very competitive with herself, but the end of the day, she wanted everyone to succeed. She was very much a girl's girl and always cheering on her teammates and those around her. I just think people like that are the best kind of people, and I think her close friends would definitely agree. Now, her best friend was a girl named Alex, and they met day one of freshman year as randomly assigned roommates, so really got lucky there. And for the next three years, the two of them remained super close. And Alex watched Lauren's life just get better and better. So going into her senior year, Lauren had a lot of hope that her last year would really be her best. She was becoming a lot more outgoing, often doing karaoke and even open mic comedy, which is really impressive to me. And things with track and field were going really, really well. And it was sort of like she had this new found sense of confidence that was absolutely radiating out of her now. Like I said, Lauren wasn't a hu partier, but she did go out and have fun. And on September 1, she was very excited about going downtown to this restaurant and bar situation called the London Bell to get drinks and go dancing with her friend Alex. And this place, I guess was pretty popular at the time. So popular that they had a bouncer at the front door. And to make a long story short, when Lauren and Alex got there, the bouncer caught Lauren's eye, which was something that didn't really happen often for her. Lauren wasn't much of a dater, so for someone to catch her eye was kind of a big deal. And to her surprise, the feelings seemed to be mutual. Throughout the night, he would come in and check in on her and Alex. And I guess he was being pretty flirty with her. I mean, at one point he even came up and like put his hands on her shoulder. And at the end of the night, she worked up the courage to go write her number on a napkin and give it to him. And that was pretty bold for Lauren. And she told Alex that she really hoped he would text her. And he did the next morning. And apparently she was all giddy at church, talking about how he wanted to take her on a date that night. So who is this guy? Well, his name was Sean Fields. He was a 28 year old student at Salt Lake City Community College studying computer science. And he told Lauren that he was working part time at a local call center and also part time as a bouncer to help get by. Now, of course, Lauren is only 21 at the time, and 28 was definitely a bit old in her mind, but she didn't overthink it too much. She was really into him and she agreed to go on a date. And their first date was really what dreams are made of in her mind. And he really, you know, did it up. He brought roses, and he took her somewhere very unique. He took her rock climbing at sort of an indoor rock climbing gym situation. And then afterwards he took her out to dinner where they met some of his friends. And this was really a perfect date in Lauren's mind getting to do something athletic, you know, you got the roses and everything. She was practically floating afterwards. She liked his friends, she was that happy about him in general, felt like maybe this is really going to go somewhere. And that Cloud 9 feeling was there for the next two weeks or so and things really moved fast. Within a week he asked her to be his girlfriend and the two of them became inseparable. She and her friend Alex were roommates as well that year and Alex said that Shawn was sleeping over almost every night. And as for her parents, they felt like he was courting her in a very old fashioned way, despite them feeling a little weird about his age I guess. But they loved seeing how happy she was. So if you have been listening to my show for a while, you know how much I love our next sponsor which is Nutrafol and how it completely transformed my hair. 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Plus with a Neutrophil subscription you can save up to 20% and you'll have free access to one on one naturopathic doctors consults to support your hair growth journey and a headspace meditation membership included. See thicker, stronger, faster growing hair with less shedding in just three to six months with Nutrafol for a limited time, Neutrophil is offering my listeners $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you go to neutral.com and enter promo code Kendall Ray Find out why Neutrophil is the best selling hair growth supplement brand@ Nutriful.com spelled n u t r a f o l.com promo code Kendall Rae once again that's Nutrafol.com promo code Kendall Rae however this this honeymoon phase as you could say turned out to be very short lived because practically like overnight Shawn just became this manipulative asshole really showed his true colors. And it sucks, because at this point, Lauren was really head over heels for him. He was the super controlling type. He had major trust issues. He wouldn't let her do anything without him. She would have to get permission from him to actually go and do anything that she wanted, which is crazy. And he was dictating even who she spent time with and what she wore. And then even if she followed all his rules and only did things with permission, wore what he wanted, he still wouldn't believe that she was following his rules. So he would make her send pictures of herself to him as proof that she was telling the truth. And he was also that type of person that required her to respond immediately. If she didn't get back to him quick enough, he would freak out at her. So it was to the point where she'd be driving and she'd have to either pull over and text him back or have someone that she was with text him for her. But Lauren really liked him. And when her friends were flagging his behavior as problematic concerning Lauren, defended him. And she explained that he had trauma from his previous relationships and trust issues, of course, and that he was working through it, so they shouldn't be concerned. That, of course, didn't give them much confidence, though, because clearly his actions were having an effect on her. I mean, it got pretty bad. Lauren wasn't sleeping. She was losing weight. She was sort of, like on edge all the time. And it was all signs that something was seriously wrong. And then two of her friends got really freaked out when Lauren confided in them that he wanted to take her shooting and to get a gun. And one of those friends was a girl named diamond, who also happened to be the resident assistant at the campus housing building that Lauren and Alex lived in. And obviously, diamond, being an ra, had the obligation to report what Lauren is telling her to her superiors. And even though owning a gun in their building wasn't illegal, it needed to be purchased legally. And from the way Lauren was describing it, she was basically saying that Sean was going to just give her a gun. The problem, though, is that Diamond's report fell on deaf ears. She sent an email to her superiors on October 2, highlighting some of the concerns that were shared among Lauren's friends. But for the next three weeks, she received little to no update on their plans to do something about this. And they even told diamond that they would, quote, talk about it later and acted as if it wasn't a big deal. So things went on as normal, that is, until a Few days later, when Lauren came across Shawn's id, And, oh, my God. When she looked at this id, she realized that he truly was not who he said he was, because according to his id, his name was actually Melvin Sean Rowland, and he was 37 years old, not 28. 37. Can you imagine what it would be like to figure out that someone you had been spending time with intimately was not who they actually said they were? What a scary moment that would be. I mean, as you can imagine, Lauren was completely shocked. She's beyond frightened, doesn't know what the hell she's gonna do next. But she decided that rather than just confront him about it right away, she was gonna do some more digging. And coincidentally, this is right around the time that she went on fall break. And so when she went home, she ended up doing some more research. And when she did, I can imagine she must have thought she couldn't get any more shocked when it came to Shawn. But turns out she could. Not only had this man lied about his name and his age. I think I just called him Sean a second ago. It's Melvin. Took me a second to readjust. But it also turns out that he was a twice convicted sex offender. And both convictions occurred in 2004. One for enticing a minor, and the other for attempted forcible sexual abuse. And when Lauren finds this out, I mean, it takes everything up another level, right? Things were bad before, but now seeing this, she is just devastated, disgusted, and scared. So she shares this information with her mom, and when she does, both of them agree that she obviously needs to end this relationship with him immediately, and she needs to do it somewhere public for her safety. And so her plan was to do it on October 9th. And on that day, she was back at school, but school had not officially started. So she ends up calling Alex to sort of talk through the breakup plans. And Alex advises her not to do it on campus because it's still pretty empty, because break's not over. But Lauren ended up not having a choice because that freak was just hanging outside of her building, right outside the window. And so she went ahead and let him into the building so that they could talk. And I'm sure a lot of you are wondering why she wouldn't just do this over the phone for her safety, considering everything that he had lied about, how scary of a person he is. But the problem here is he had borrowed her car over break, and she needed to get it back. So it was a very, very tough situation. And yeah, as you can imagine, the breakup Conversation did not go well. When Lauren confronted him, he not only denied everything, but he physically prevented her from leaving. Some sources even said that he forced himself on her. And I'm not sure exactly what that means, if it was sexual or not, but either way, she was trapped in her place and was scared. Alex had actually called her, and she could tell by the tone of Lauren's voice that something was wrong. But it wasn't until the next day, though, that she learned why she was so scared and how that conversation went. And no surprise here, but this manipulative freak tries to cover his own ass. Melvin tells Lauren that he was forced to plead guilty to the charges and that he was framed. Of course, he claimed that he was at a frat party years ago and a girl lied about her age and blah, blah, blah. We've all heard this bullshit story and excuse many times before, right? And in the end of the conversation, Lauren said she felt like the only way she could convince him to let her leave was to tell him that she had track practice and also agree to let him borrow her car again, which I'm honestly guessing she did because she's so young, she's terrified and just desperate to get away from him, especially knowing what he's capable of. And I'm also guessing here, but I think in his sick mind, he's thinking, if I can borrow the car again, then she has no choice but to see me again to get her car back. So this gives me an opportunity to keep inserting myself into her life and try to make things work or manipulate her further, scare her. Who knows what his intentions are. And unfortunately, they're much worse than any of that. But anyway, after he takes her car on the 10th, things only continue to get worse from there. Later that afternoon, Lauren began receiving these text messages from a random number harassing her for breaking up with Melvin. One of them read, why did you break up with the big guy? He really loves you. And then another one, straight up told her to unalive herself. And then she got a text saying that Melvin was so distraught that he couldn't even face her to drop off her car, so this friend, apparently of his would be the one to do it. And knowing how badly things went the night before, Lauren's mom, of course, was super, super worried for her to go and get that car back. She was so worried, in fact, that she called campus police, who is there to help the students, and asked for someone to be there while the exchange was happening.

[University Police Dispatcher]

University police security, open my eyes, please. Hi. I would like to request a. Some help from my daughter who's a student at University of Utah. Okay. What is the situation exactly what does your daughter need help with? Okay, she was dating someone who's not a student and he has her car. Okay. She broke up with him and he's supposed to return it to the, to the parking lot at the stadium. Huh. And I'm worried that he's dangerous. Okay. We can definitely have someone help her out. Can you have your daughter give us a call? Can, can you guys call her? Yeah. What's her phone number? Okay. It's okay, so let me tell you just a little bit more. So he was lying to her and he's actually sexual offender. Okay. And, and, and lied about his age and things like that. Okay. And then he has her, he has her car and he wants her to return. He, one of his friends wants her to return the car to the stadium parking lot at 5 o'. Clock. Since it's fall break, a bunch of her friends aren't. Aren't there. So I'm worried she's gonna go there alone and someone's gonna hurt her. Yeah, she's an out of state. Her name is Lauren McCluskey. She was on the track team. She's an out of state student and she, she started dating this guy there who's like a bad person.

[Kendall Rae]

Okay.

[University Police Dispatcher]

And she found out he's a bad person and she broke up with them and he has her car. Definitely. Let me give her a call real quick and we will figure something out, okay? I don't want her to go there by herself and have like something bad happen to her. Definitely. I will give her a call. Did you want me to give you a call back or, or. Yeah, that'd be good. Okay. What was your name? Perfect. It's gonna be okay, Joe. Let me, let me give Lauren a call real quick and figure something out with her, okay? Because that's, that would be totally easy for us to send someone with her. I wouldn't want her to go in and going into a bad situation by herself. So let me give her a call real quick. Yeah, no problem, Joe. I will give you a call back in a little bit. Okay.

[Kendall Rae]

And as promised, they reach out to Lauren.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Hello? Hi, this is Lauren. Hi, this is University police. I got a call from your mom about I guess a car drop off that you're going to be doing or someone's dropping off your car and she was a little bit worried about it. I was wondering if I can ask you a few questions and then Maybe send someone with you or have someone meet you there when you're going to drop off the car. Okay, well, so I think the car will be dropped off. Okay, so. So she said your ex boyfriend's dropping off your car, going with his friend. Yeah, sorry. He's dropping off where? Well, at first it was going to be at the stadium, but he was asking to drop it off at my place, so I might just have it dropped off at one of the buildings in my mind. Do you live on campus? Yes. Okay. Do you feel comfortable with him doing that? I know your mom was really concerned about it. I think. I think it's okay. Okay. Because if it's all right with you, I mean, we're here 24 7. I'm super cool. You could come hang out here and have him drop it off here. We have a parking lot on the east side of our building. It's the police department on campus. We could even have a security officer pick you up at your dorm and drop you off here so you can wait here for him to leave your vehicle. I mean, I don't know how you feel about the situation. I don't want to misinterpret just based off of what your mom was saying, but she definitely seemed worried about it. So if you wanted to and you felt comfortable, you could come hang out here with us. I mean, it's just a bunch of college kids here. I mean, there's some adults. Obviously, we work for the police, but, you know, you can come hang out with us when he drops it off or I know she wanted someone to be there with you when the car gets dropped off, which would definitely make me feel more comfortable about that situation, but I don't want to put you out of your comfort zone. I know that's kind of weird, especially if you haven't dealt with the police before. Just having an officer hang out with you while someone drops off a car can be weird. Mm. I think I just want to have it dropped off here, but okay. I'll call if I need to. Well, okay. Is it all right if I have a security officer at least in the area when it's getting dropped off in case you need anything? Yeah, that sounds good. All right, so I will give my security officers just a little bit of heads up in case you need anything, and we'll go from there if you change your mind last minute or anything, anything like that. We have some really cool security officers. We have some new. We have a couple of new cops on campus that are always looking for, like, Extra stuff to do while they're finishing up their training. Anything like that, you just let me know. Lauren, my name. And I'll be here until 6pm so if you need anything, just let us know. Okay, Sounds good. Sounds good. Thanks, Lauren. Bye. Bye.

[Kendall Rae]

And after this call, the dispatcher ends up calling Jill back. And you can still hear how worried she is.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Hello? Hi, is this Jill? Yes. Hey, Jill. This is with campus police. I'm the person you spoke with before. So I just got off the phone with Lauren. I let her know that we had talked about the situation. I told her I thought it might be easiest if she just come hang out with us here at the police department and he can drop off the car here because that way she's hanging out indoors with us. I mean, it's good lighting. I don't know how. That would be great. That would be great. She didn't seem thrilled about that idea. She said she would prefer it be dropped off at her dorm. I offered to send someone up to hang out with her. She said she would just let me know if she needed anything. So I got her dorm number. It sounds like she doesn't want to. She doesn't want to change the plans that they already made. So. Here. His friend made some plans, but I'm just. I'm so worried about her that something can happen to her. I don't want to do anything without her permission, but I did let her know, even though I'm not technically assigning someone, I am going to tell the security officers where she is and what time it's going to be dropped off. And I just told her up front. I'm. I am going to send someone to walk around that area while it's happening. Yes. She's dealing with a bad person. She's dealing with a bad person who lied to her.

[Kendall Rae]

Yeah.

[University Police Dispatcher]

And it's hard because she was dating him. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I know, right? I know, exactly. That's unfortunately a pretty common occurrence on campus. So. Yes. So thank you. And thank you so much that you're looking out for her. Yeah, no problem, Jill. Okay. Give me a call back if you have any questions or need anything else. Sounds good. I will let my security officers know right now. Okay. Thank you so much. No problem. Thanks, Jill.

[Kendall Rae]

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[University Police Dispatcher]

Hi. So this is Lauren. We talked. Lauren.

[Kendall Rae]

Yeah.

[University Police Dispatcher]

What's up? So it's kind of a change of plans. I'm actually going to the stadium to get my car. Okay. And I was wondering if I could get a ride to the stadium. That's okay? Definitely.

[Kendall Rae]

Definitely.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Yeah, for sure. We have a security officer that's just in charge of escorts tonight, so I could have him give you a ride. Do you want him to wait with you as well when the car's getting dropped off? That would be great. Okay. Definitely. Yeah. I'll just give him A heads up, I'll have him hang tight there. And then if you want to grab the keys or whatever, he'll just wait until you, like, get into your car and stuff and drive away and just make sure everything's okay. Okay. Okay, sounds good. Sounds good, Lauren. And then just give us a call back when you're ready to go down there and we'll send them out there to meet you. Okay. Okay, thanks so much. Bye. Bye.

[Kendall Rae]

After this, Jill calls the campus police back to ask if Lauren had called them about her change of mind. And then there was another call after that, which was Lauren calling them to let them know she was ready to be picked up and get taken to the stadium. And from what we know, the exchange went fine. And the dispatcher and Jill even spoke one more time just to kind of close the chapter on that whole saga.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Hi, this is Jill. I got a message. I got a missed call from you. Yeah, I just wanted to give you a heads up. I just wanted to let you know that we did have our officer pick up Lauren. We had him wait with her while she found the key. And then I watched her driveway on the cameras. So, yeah, so she texted me too, that she got the car back. So thank you so much. You guys are so wonderful. I so much appreciate it. No problem. You have to thank Joe. Yeah, I just want to follow up. Thank you. No problem. Bye.

[Kendall Rae]

And it's really heartbreaking to hear the tone change in Jill's voice as she went from scared to hopeful over the course of those calls because things would only end up getting worse. Those harassment texts once again started to absolutely flood Lauren's phone. And she even started to get some saying that Melvin was dead. One of them read, will you come to the funeral? To which Lauren replied, I know he's alive. Please leave me alone. Don't text this number. I got police involved. And she knew that he wasn't dead because he was still active on social media. And she also knew that these texts weren't coming from his so called friends. All these anonymous texts had the same spelling and grammar mistakes that Melvin usually made. So she knew that he was the dummy behind it. And so on October 12, she reaches back out to campus police, university police and security.

[University Police Dispatcher]

How can I help you? Hi, this is Lauren. I called a little a few days ago about a situation and I wanted to kind of give an update and ask about some things. We're basically. So did you make a report? Car. I did not. Okay, so you called a couple days ago about a situation. You wanted to follow up on? Well, I guess it's kind of a different situation, but it's related in a way. Okay, you didn't make report. Did you talk to a police officer? Well, so I had. I had a security person drive me to pick up my car because I was. I was worried about getting it. But what happened was that. So I got the car and that was fine, but from one of my ex's friends, but so he. And then some other. I've been getting these texts about. From. From these numbers that I. Of different people saying that. They were saying that he was in the hospital and then saying that, like, that he passed away. But then I got a text from him and he seems to be alive. I got a text about, you know, asking if I wanted to go to funeral, his funeral. And I think they're trying to lure me somewhere. So you got a bunch of texts seeming like they're trying to get you to go somewhere. First it was just saying, where did you receive the text and when did this happen? So the, The. The latest one was today. When did it start? Yesterday about was when they were talking that he was the hospital.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

It.

[University Police Dispatcher]

I think around 7pm and what time this afternoon was last one? It was around around 3pm 3pm okay. This is all your ex's friends, right? Are these just text messages? Yes. Okay, and are they threatening text messages? Most of them, no. But, I mean, they've told me not to. Not to go where he. At the club, where he works, where he used to work. Okay, Is there a protective order between you guys or is he just an ex of yours? Just an ex. And are you trying to avoid him.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

Or.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Not necessarily. I would say it's more just his friends. Okay. Have you asked them to stop texting you? I have not, but I've. I've blocked a few of the numbers already. All right, I will send this through an officer to give you a call. He's going to give you a call on that last phone number that you gave me. Is that okay? Yeah, sounds good. Okay, perfect. I'll have somebody call you shortly. Okay, thanks.

[Kendall Rae]

Now, like you heard, the dispatcher said that they were going to have someone call Lauren back, but nobody ever did. So the next day, which was the 13th, she called them back. And by that point, things had escalated because now Melvin was sextorting her. He was texting her, saying that unless she paid him a thousand dollars, he was going to release intimate photos of her.

[University Police Dispatcher]

University police and security. How can I help you? Hi. So I'm dealing with A situation where I'm being blackmailed for money. It's so a photo of my. Me and my ex. They're threatening to send it out to.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

Everyone.

[University Police Dispatcher]

And she's asking for $1,000. And this is over 10. Yeah.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

Where.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Where did you receive the messages at? Well, at first it was an email, and then over that app. Okay. Where were you at when you received the messages? Oh, no, you're fine. At my apartment. Okay. Okay. Just give me one second. Okay. I'm just trying to fill out my. My paper. Hi there. Yes. Okay. Has this happened before or has it been happening, or is this the first time? This is the first time. Okay. All right. There have been some harassment, so it has happened before. Not. Not this particular type of thing. Okay, but you have had involvements with this person? Yeah. Okay. And do you know who this is? So it's Sean. Roland is the one messaging me. What's your relation to him? My ex boyfriend. Okay. Okay. And how long ago did this happen? This morning. All right, give me one second. Okay.

[Kendall Rae]

Okay.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Are you still there? Yeah. Okay, sorry about that. Wait. Okay, I'm gonna get your information. Okay. Can you tell me your first and last name? Lauren McCluskey. All right, so it looks like I have everything. What's going to happen is I'm going to let one of our officers know, and he's going to call you. It may come from a blocked number. Is that okay? Yeah. Okay. All right. That should be happening shortly. Okay. Okay. All right, thanks for calling. Bye.

[Kendall Rae]

And the sad thing is, but also so understandable, is Lauren was so freaked out that he was actually going to release these photos that she did end up sending him $1,000. She. Alex also decided it was time to physically go into the campus police station because sextortion is no joke. And they didn't know what to do. They needed help. But sadly, and this is just the beginning of the frustration, but the university police did practically nothing. The girls were introduced to this officer named Miguel Daris, and he took Lauren's statement right there in the lobby. And according to Alex, they were not taken seriously, even though they told Miguel that this monster was extorting her amongst all the other things that he was doing. They were just repeatedly told that it was a scam. Miguel still did write a report, though, and he let the girls know that someone would call them with an update in just a few days. And the delay was supposedly because the detective this case was going to be assigned to, Kayla Dalliff, wasn't in office. But since Lauren was Worried for her literal safety, she ended up just calling Salt Lake City Police that day, too. However, they told her that it was the school's jurisdiction, and they rerouted her call back to campus police.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Okay, so I opened up your call from yesterday. Is that correct? Yes. You did. Okay. All right. What's going on? Well, I came in earlier today and I filled out a report for. For the. You came into our building? Yes, I did. Okay. I wanted to. I called 911 because I was. I was just. Just concerned and I wasn't sure. Yeah. Help speed things up. I don't know. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Okay. Yeah, if you call 911, the call will just come back to us and do the exact same thing. Okay. Okay. So do you know when an arrest would be made? You can talk to an officer if you want. I can arrange that if you want that. Okay. Yeah, that. That sounds good. Okay. Is that all you're wanting to know, or did you want to add more onto your report? That's all. Okay. Give me one second. Okay? Okay. Thank you. Okay, so I got my officer. I believe he's the same one that had took the original port report yesterday. So he's going to give you a call. Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks for calling.

[Kendall Rae]

And in the days following this, Lauren continued to reach out to the campus police. She had exchanged numbers with that Officer Migue, and they spoke 16 more times. And during those calls, she provided explicit information about who Melvin was and what she knew about his past. She was also constantly updating him on the harassment, hoping that any moment, he or really anyone, would let her know that Melvin had been arrested. But nothing ever happened because these brainless idiots didn't even look him up. And apparently they said that at one point, they did look into him. And they told Lauren he, quote, seemed like a good guy because he only had one traffic ticket on his record. Well, that doesn't sound right, does it? Maybe it's because they were looking up the wrong dude. And let me remind you once again that they didn't even really need to look him up because they knew he was a convicted felon because Lauren told them that he was the very first thing that they should have done. What you think the police would do, right, is look up the right guy. And if they had done that, they would have seen that he was out on parole. That's right. I will 100% be getting more into that later. But for now, Melvin was out on parole when all of this happened. And had one single person looked into this for more than a second, they would have been able to just take his ass back to prison. Nothing else would have happened. But they didn't, of course. And that's unfortunately why I am here telling her story and why all of her loved ones and family have to live without her. So now, as you can imagine, Lauren is feeling completely defeated and terrified because nobody seems to give a shit. No one seems to care. No one seems to want to do anything about this. No one seems to be taking it seriously at all. And she was even told that the detective taking her case wouldn't be back in town until October 23rd, so she would have to wait longer than she already was. And what's so sad is she ended up telling her mom that she felt like she was bothering the police and the fact that she is such a sweet person that that even crossed her mind is heartbreaking. But I can see after being gaslit by them and made to feel like she's making this into a bigger deal than it needs to be. And he seems like a nice guy. I can see how she would end up feeling like that. I cannot tell you how much I truly love our next sponsor which is our place. Oh my goodness. Their cookware. I truly think in my personal opinion is the best out there. I have had my r place pan I want to say for going on like five years now and it is still always my number one pick. I like their pot, their pan. I'm also obsessed with their wonder oven. So not only is the experience great, the food turns out great. They're still in such great condition after years of use. But what's most important is most nonstick cookware out there still contains harmful toxins. I know. 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It was later learned that on October 19th, Melvin could be seen lurking outside of Lauren's place wearing a Deadpool Halloween costume. Which when I first saw the video footage of this, the pictures, I just had chills. It is so creepy. I know it was close to Halloween, but the fact that he was wearing this like 12 days or so before Halloween is just so eerie. The cameras pick him up outside of her place only a minute after she went inside and she Was totally unaware that he had been following her. And she also didn't know that he had accessed her email and was reading her communication with the police. And so she was even more freaked out that evening when she got a text saying, what did you tell the cops? We know everything. And because she doesn't know that he has access to her email, she has no idea how he knows that she has gone to the police. So she decides to call Salt Lake City PD again.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Hi.

[Kendall Rae]

Hi.

[University Police Dispatcher]

I'm worried because I've been working with the campus police at the U. And last Saturday, I reported, and then. And I haven't gotten an update. Okay. But. But someone contacted me today, someone who was harassing, said that. That they know everything about the police. Okay, so you already spoke to the campus police. Did some. Did this happen on the University of Utah campus? Yes. They haven't updated or done anything. So the case, it involved extortion, and those people are still reaching out to me. Okay, so have you. Have you notified the campus police about this? Yes, I have. Okay. What prompted you to call Salt Lake City police? Well, I thought it was weird that there are people who know about the entire case, and the harassers seem to know about it more than me. And I'm concerned there might be an insider who's letting them know about the kid, the case. So with something. I haven't gotten updates. Yeah, it's been a week. With something like that, you would want to contact the campus police back and ask to speak to your detective. Since it's another agency's area, the Salt Lake police wouldn't be involved. Oh, okay. All right. And then make sure you tell them what you told me, that this is. This is getting through to you from the suspects in your case. So the detective, you said is what you contact.

[Kendall Rae]

Right.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Call the dispatch back and then ask to speak to your detective. Okay.

[Kendall Rae]

So after this, Lauren gets back on the phone with Officer Miguel Idiot. And tells him that she is concerned that nothing is being done because nothing is being done. And this call must have knocked a little bit of sense into him just a touch, because a few minutes after they hang up, she finally gets a call back from Detective Dallif, who asked Lauren to send her everything she had on Melvin, which is just so frustrating because their department already had everything, thanks to Lauren providing it once already. So to make her do it again is just the laziest police work. But Lauren was so desperate to get help, so she sent an email with everything again that evening. But later that night, Lauren and Alex went downtown to a bar together just so she could, you know, get her mind off of things. And Alex said that when they returned to campus, Lauren turned to her and she said, one day, when I'm happily married to a nice guy, hopefully we can look back on this and laugh. But that opportunity for her to find happiness in life and get married and every opportunity she would have in life was taken from her just a couple days later. Monday, October 22, was a lot like the past few days of Lauren's life. And it started with another cryptic text. It was from Melvin, but this time it was him impersonating the campus chief of police. And the message read, good morning, Lauren. This is Deputy Chief McLennan with the University police. I plan on calling you, but I am in a meeting at the moment. Can you come to the station as soon as possible? Notice that typo. There is something I need for you to see. I will go over the detail when we you get here. Thanks. And of course, the way that this was written, like an idiot wrote it, was how Lauren knew it came from Melvin and not the chief of police. However, she did end up reaching out to the campus police just to be sure. And they were like, yeah, we didn't send that. Definitely don't reply yet. Even though impersonating an officer is a crime, surprise, surprise. They still didn't do anything about it. So anyways, Lauren tries to go about her day as usual. Her mom had encouraged her to go see a counselor. So she goes and does that, and then she also goes to practice that afternoon and then to her night class. Little did she know, though, Melvin could be seen on security footage stalking her all night day, both on foot and in a borrowed silver Buick. At 10:16am we can see him walking through the same building that she was in only an hour before. And later, he was seen entering her dorm carrying a small black bag. And he was able to get in and out because he had befriended some of the other students who lived there, and they would just let him in and out. And one of them even said later on that when he let Melvin in that day, he'd shown him what he had in that bag. And I'm sure a lot of you, you probably can already guess what was in that bag. It was a gun. And since he manipulated this student so much, he didn't seem concerned about it when he showed it to him. So Melvin was free to come in and out of the building with a gun. And the last time that he was seen leaving her Dorm was at 8, 10pm which happened to be right around the time that Lauren was leaving her class. And as she made her way home, the unthinkable happened. And, you guys, I just have to say, before we even get into this next part, the next part of Lauren's story is truly one of the most disturbing things that I have ever heard. And I've obviously covered a lot of cases. This is just, yeah, hard to even put into words how horrible things ended for Lauren. So she was on the way back to her dorm, and she decided to give her mom a call. And I'm so happy that she did. And I'm also so happy that this call, for the most part, was a happy call, because she didn't want to dwell on what had been going on. So the conversation was pleasantly uplifting, I guess you could say. She sounded really happy about the quiz that she had just taken. And she planned on turning in an assignment online as soon as she got home. And her tone was honestly everything that Jill had missed hearing in her daughter's voice as of lately. And I'm so happy that she got to hear that tone from Lauren again. And her dad was actually in the next room over just doing yoga. And obviously he's trying to, like, get in the zone. So he said that he almost told Jill to turn her speakerphone down, but something in him just paused. He didn't want to interrupt what seemed like a great conversation. Now, as this conversation is coming to an end, Lauren tells her mom, I love you, just like she always did. And then, before they got the chance to hang up, Jill heard her daughter say three words that I'm sure will never leave her memory. And her dad heard them, too. They heard, no, no, no, no, no, no. And right then and there, just outside of her dorm, almost to safety, Lauren was abducted. And the entire thing was heard by her parents. And I truly can't imagine what it would be like to hear your child in distress like that. No, there's nothing you can do. You're over the phone, and that's the last time that you'll ever hear their voice. That is just so torturous, something that no parent should ever have to experience. And during her struggle, her phone and backpack both fell to the ground. And they're just listening to all of this. And at first, they didn't know what to think. Her dad said that at first he thought maybe she had been in a car accident, but. But as they're yelling her name through the phone repeatedly, they realized that she wasn't there, and she had Been taken. And of course, because they knew what was going on, they knew exactly who took her. And Jill said that she instantly had flashbacks to a moment years prior when her son was rushed to the hospital after he suffered from a ruptured brain aneurysm. And he was so close to dying. And now she realized that, once again, she's in that position. And Lauren was, too. So they didn't want to hang up the call, so Matt grabbed the landline and he called nine, who then transferred his call to the university police. And during their call, someone actually finds Lauren's backpack and phone just lying there on the ground. Take a listen.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

Hi. My daughter, Lauren mccloskey, was talking to her mom, and then she just started saying, no, no, no, no, no, and it sounded like someone might have been grabbing her or something. Okay, how long ago was this? This was just two minutes ago. Does she live on campus? Yeah. Okay, what's her name? Lauren McCluskey. And you said the phone line went dead? Yeah, the phone line went dead. Okay. Have you tried calling her back? No, I'm sorry. The phone is not dead, but we can't. She must have dropped it. And the phone connection is still here. She was blocking from GC 1570. What's your name? My name is Matt McCluskey. All right. He had broken up with a boy. Okay. Or a man recently. And he's a pretty tall black guy. Has he made any threats or anything like that? Her. His friends were kind of harassing her a little bit. Well, they were. The Kansas police were involved with that? Yes. Okay.

[University Police Dispatcher]

I. Actually.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

I have an officer right here that dealt with that. Let me talk to him for one second. I'll be right back on with you, okay? I'll still be able to hear you, but you won't be able to hear me, all right? Matt, are you still there? Yeah. Okay. Oh, someone talking on her phone.

[Kendall Rae]

Hello?

[University Police Dispatcher]

Hi. I have a backpack and I need.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

Okay, could you just stay there? I think she was mugged.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Is she okay, or did the dogs call the cops?

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

I'm talking to the cops. Okay, but maybe somebody picked up her backpack. Someone picked up her phone and backpack. I'm trying to get a good location.

[Kendall Rae]

All right?

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

Where exactly? Where is that backpack out? Can you get a location for me?

[University Police Dispatcher]

Yeah, I'll probably use your campus by storm.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

Hi, Matt, are you there? Yeah, I think they're pretty. It's right by her apartment. Yeah, yeah, if she could call us directly, that would be awesome. I'm gonna let you go, and if you hear anything if you hear anything else, give us a call back, please. Okay.

[Kendall Rae]

Then not long after this call, Matt also called the Salt Lake City police.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

Hi, my name is Matt McCluskey. My daughter is Lauren McCluskey and she went missing tonight. And we reported it to the University of Utah police. She's a student there. And I just want to make sure that you guys know about that. So we wouldn't really need to. Other than her being listed. She would be listed as a missing person on the national database if you made a missing persons report. But otherwise, I mean, anything else, this is. No. No. Okay, so this is more than that. She was abducted while we were talking to her on the telephone. So we heard her being assaulted and they called the University of Utah campus police.

[University Police Dispatcher]

And.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

And I'm just calling you to let you know that this just happened like an hour ago.

[University Police Dispatcher]

I don't know if they've been looking for her this whole time or.

[Caller/Parent (Matt McCluskey)]

Doctor, she went missing. Was it. They were in the New Yorker. Could you please say that again? Was it that they were in that silver Buick Lancer? I don't know anything about a silver Buick. Yeah, Universal. Steve let us know about it. We had our units, we notified them as well. Okay. Okay, thank you. All right.

[Kendall Rae]

And I'll be so honest, that operator pissed me the off. And I know you guys agree with me. That man's daughter was just abducted while he was on the phone with her. He hears the whole thing and he showed no sympathy whatsoever. Why would you even get into that position, that occupation? Why would you dedicate your life to helping people, to being a dispatcher, if you just don't give a damn? It blows me away. And as far as I'm concerned, every single person involved in this case in the position of law enforcement should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. Other than the person, the first operator that helped Jill and Lauren during the whole car exchange. Everyone else though, prime example of terrible law enforcement and how not to handle a case. The exact opposite of what anyone would want or expect. Anyways, while all of this is going on, Matt and Jill are hanging on to hope that at any moment they're going to get a call saying that Lauren was found and that she's safe and that she's alive. And while they did get a call later that night, it was too late to save her. Lauren's body was found in that silver Buick in a campus parking lot with seven gunshot wounds. Her parents received the call at 9:55pm and it was Lauren's coach who broke the news and Matt says that that moment was like being hit with a baseball bat. The footage has thankfully never been released in full, but investigators say that they were able to obtain footage of Melvin lying in wait for Lauren, proving that he was the one who was responsible, which was very obvious right away, clearly. But the important thing now was to find him. And by this point, campus and citywide alerts had been issued, and there were several hours where nobody knew where he was, or I guess I shouldn't say nobody, because surveillance video shows that after killing Lauren, Melvin left the parking lot and headed towards a light rail station on campus. And from there, he can be seen getting picked up in a Hyundai Sonata. And get this. It turns out that his getaway driver was actually a woman he met on a dating app, which is very on par for Melvin and how he operates. And just to be very, very clear, this woman had no idea that he just killed someone. He had actually previously messaged her, seeing if she wanted to meet up that night, and he had timed it with when he was going to be fleeing the scene. So after she picks him up, the two of them head back to her place for a little bit. And he showers while he was there, trying to get all the evidence off clearly. And he eventually asked her to drop him off at this coffee shop. And it was only then that she realized what happened and who this guy was. And she actually drove right to the police station that night and she told them that he told her his name was Apollo, which is also very on brand for Melvin. And she also said that her phone was blowing up from all these alerts. And every time she tried to look at them, he acted super weird. And I'm so glad that she was able to figure out who he was and that she came forward with that information, that she went to get help and explained to the police what she had just experienced as soon as she could versus. You know, I feel like some people would want to go home and not want to get involved any further, but she did the right thing. And because of that, police were able to get a better idea of where he was. But unfortunately, they still were not able to get to him in time because around 1am, after spotting Melvin and briefly chasing him, he ran into a nearby church and shot himself before they could make an arrest. Now, obviously, I will be touching more on Melvin later on, but for now, I just want to talk about Lauren. And as you can imagine, her death, her murder just absolutely devastated her loved ones and, and the whole community, really. They were just shocked. I mean, that's really putting it lightly. People could not believe this happened to her in the way that it did. The University of Utah actually shut down classes the following day, as they should, to give students a chance to process and mourn. And everyone collectively grieved What a monumental loss this was. Then, on October 24, friends, family and students gathered together to honor Lauren's legacy and her memory. And there were hundreds of people there to show their support. And in the photos, you can really see in their faces how distraught and broken everyone felt. Lauren was really a fixture of her community, and without her, nobody would be the same. I'm not sure if I can put them in this episode. I'm pretty sure they're copyrighted, but I saw clips from the service of her friends speaking, her teammates speaking, and it is hard to even describe the emotions that they were clearly experiencing, the shock that they were going through, the pain. And you can just see how much she truly meant to them and how loved she was by so many people. And then I also wanted to point out, I saw an interview with her friend diamond, who broke down in tears saying how much she hated herself for not doing more. If you remember, she was the RA who alerted her bosses when she found out that Melvin was going to get Lauren a gun. So to now learn that he killed her with that very gun. Diamond felt this immense feeling of guilt. And I totally get how she would feel that way. If I were in her position, I'd probably feel that way too. I think it's only natural when you really care about someone to have those types of thoughts. But I know for a fact that nobody blames her and this is in no way her fault. I don't know if she'll ever see this or if that really carries any weight for her, but I just hope that she's able to. Maybe since she's done that interview, has worked through that, and has realized that none of this was her fault. She never was even in a position where she could have done anything more than what she did. Even trying to bring this information to her superiors was the best thing that she possibly could have done. And some people wouldn't have even have done that. Melvin, at the end of the day, was the one who did this, and none of her loved ones, none of her friends or family had the power to stop him. That being said, though, law enforcement definitely did have the power to stop him many times, many opportunities, and they just didn't. So if anyone should feel responsibility here, since we can't hold Melvin accountable, it's them. It's law enforcement and the nerve of this department. You guys. Okay, listen to this. In a press conference shortly after what happened, Police Chief Dale Brophy made it seem as though his department had taken the, quote, appropriate steps after Lauren first reported Melvin to them on the 12th. So we did have a case that was a police report filed on October 12th and the 13th. There was some follow up.

[Narrator/Host]

It was assigned out to a detective.

[Kendall Rae]

The detective had been in contact with Ms. McClusky, and they were working to build a case against our suspect at that time. Appropriate steps? Really? You guys didn't take any steps at all? I mean, had you actually been building a case against this guy, I don't think I'd be telling you Lauren's story today. Your department, had you taken the appropriate steps, would have seen that this guy was out on parole and would have been able to lock his ass up up and fix this problem pretty quickly. And at first, the public, of course, doesn't know all this, but as the days, weeks, and months started to pass, a ton of information came to light that made people realize the things I have been telling you guys this whole time, which is that the university police suck, that they did absolutely nothing. I mean, I don't know if I can really drive it home enough, but the fact that nobody looked him up and nobody clocked that he was on parole as a. A sex offender is a failure. That is so big, I'm not sure I even have words to describe it. And I know I'm repeating myself a lot in this episode, but what's worse about all of that is they knew that he was a convicted felon because Lauren told them. She did their jobs for them, she made it easy for them, and still they did nothing. Absolutely nothing. And for whatever reason, which I will never understand, they acted with zero urgency, zero concern for her safety. And boy, was everyone in the community super pissed when they all realized this. And this wasn't shocking when I first found out, but turns out multiple people actually came forward, multiple women, saying that Melvin had conned them, too. Which just goes to show you how big of a threat this lunatic actually was. And because the failures here were so blatant, two independent investigations ended up being commissioned. One by the state Department of Public Safety, which focused on his history with the criminal justice system. And the other was an independent review that the school requested to look into their internal failures. So let's get into Melvin's criminal history here for a second, because it's horrible. Earlier, I shared that he had two Convictions, one for enticing a minor and the other for attempted forceful sexual abuse. Both which happened in September of 2003. And back then Melvin had been on the radar of authorities and he ended up being caught in a sting operation by the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, or IK. He was found to have been messaging a 13 year old girl trying to get her to meet up with him. And when he arrived to what he thought was a meetup with this 13 year old girl, law enforcement was there to arrest him. And during their investigation, they also learned that two days prior to that incident, he raped a 17 year old girl in her home. So In March of 2004, he pleaded guilty to those charges and received a sentence of one to 15 years. There was also another woman who later came forward and said that he raped her and one more who had a restraining order against him. And at the time he was living in Salt Lake City and had very briefly been enrolled as a student at the University of Utah. Now I could go into his whole childhood, his whole background history and whatnot, but I really don't want to waste that much breath on Melvin. He's such a disgusting human. And it's, it's, you know, at the end of the day it just feels like what's the point in talking about this guy any more than we have to. But anyway, eight years into his sentence in July of 2012, he was granted parole for the first time. And he was actually up for it earlier than that in 2010. But he wasn't granted it because he had failed to make progress in an offender program that he had to be enrolled in. Though this time in 2012 it was granted. And we actually have some audio from it now. I'm going to play away some of this audio, a condensed clip where you can hear the judge talk about his absolutely vile behavior. And you'll even hear Melvin say some disgusting things about the sheer number of women that he claims he victimized. And I believe it.

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[Kendall Rae]

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[Kendall Rae]

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[Parole Board Official]

When you ready to get started?

[Narrator/Host]

Sure.

[Parole Board Official]

All right, let's go on the record. This is the time and place set for a rehearing on Melvin Rowland. I've been asked to conduct today's hearing. I'm going to be taking testimony from you so I need to swear you in. If you'd raise your right hand. You swear and affirm the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.

[Narrator/Host]

Yes.

[Parole Board Official]

All right. We went over the cases when we met the first time. There was no dispute over what happened. You'd admitted to me that you'd actually raped this young girl that you'd met on the Internet. You went to her home and raped her. And you was arrested on the second case after you hooked up with what you thought was a 13 year old virgin and it turned out to be a carload of cops when you got to the school to pick her up. We conducted that hearing May 25, 2010 and it was noted that you'd been removed from the sex offender program for failure to make progress. Therapists at that time indicated that you'd manipulate and lie in treatment and maintain an aggressive stance. Said that you seemed to lose sight over the fact that you'd raped a 17 year old girl in her own home. Testing conducted had you listed as a high risk to reoffend. As a result, the board set you for another rehearing with a sex offender memo state you probably have a problem with pornography, masturbation, criminal thinking errors and all of those things combined led you to sexually abuse your victims. But they didn't tell me how many victims you have. So I'd like you to give me kind of an idea of what we're looking at victim wise.

[Narrator/Host]

Is that including the women I dated in college or just women that you.

[Parole Board Official]

Felt you took advantage of?

[Narrator/Host]

I would say every female that I came across dating or met on Internet, I'd say say every woman I've met or that came across, I used my manipulation tactics to get what I wanted.

[Parole Board Official]

How many did you out and out rape like the one young lady like Rachel?

[Narrator/Host]

Well, not like that, but me being a womanizer, you know, I use other taxes to get what I wanted with them. I'd say some similar. Rachel, I'd Say, two.

[Parole Board Official]

Two others.

[Narrator/Host]

But I see it in general, just how I manipulated and used women in general.

[Parole Board Official]

How many. How many women in general did you convince to have sex with you by manipulation?

[Narrator/Host]

Did I come across with and I had sex with. I got locked up at 22. And my sexual experience, I'd say about 50.

[Parole Board Official]

Okay.

[Kendall Rae]

His voice literally makes me sick to my stomach, let alone the things that he was saying. And I don't know how anyone looked at this man and listened to him say this and thought, yep, Pearl's a great idea. Let's let him go. But that's exactly what they did, unfortunately. So he was released in July of 2012, and then three months later, he ended up being rearrested because it was found that he had links to porn on his phone, which went against the conditions of his release. However, of course, they released him again in 2013, and that time he lasted about two and a half years out of prison before being sent back in for four parole violations. This time, he was in for two more years. And then somehow he was granted parole again in April of 2018. And as we know, just a few months later was when he first met Lauren. And here's where a lot of people get even angrier, though. Between the time that he was released and when he met Lauren, his parole officer caught him using a dating app, and he also tested positive for marijuana, both of which were not allowed. And yet, when she discovered these things, things, she only gave him a verbal warning. Now, she believes that she acted appropriately in her response, and the parole board have said that they agree with how she handled it. But of course, in hindsight, had he been taken back to prison for those violations, he never even would have met Lauren. So, yeah, it is just infuriating to think about. You could truly go crazy trying to wrap your mind around that. But, yeah, I guess that sort of wraps up Melvin's history. We don't have to talk about him that much. I do have to get into the second review, but first I want to talk about the gun. So that gun that was used to take Lauren's life that she was shot with seven times, was actually traced back to a fellow bouncer who worked with Melvin, a guy named Nathan Vogel. It turns out that a week after he and Lauren met, he asked this guy Nate if he would help him get a gun so he could teach his girlfriend. Friend, quote, how to shoot. And Nate agrees to do it for 400 bucks. But he needed a friend's help in buying the gun, because with his military background, there Would have been a waiting period for him to be approved. So this girl, Sarah, and him can be seen buying the gun together. Mind you, this was illegal because they were buying it under false pretenses, of course. However, they both got off with only three years probation after pleading guilty to making a false statement during the acquisition of a firearm. And as you'll see with this case, there's a common thread of people not really being given any consequences for what they have done. Which brings me to that second independent review. Now, this review was commissioned by the school, and I'd be here all day if I went through it piece by piece. But to summarize it, it basically said there were problems, both systemically and individually, that resulted in Lauren's death. However, a lot of people, including myself, feel that it was very lenient on the school's wrongdoing. In fact, in a December hearing where the president, Ruth Watkins, gave a speech about its findings, she said that it, quote, didn't offer any reason to believe this tragedy could have been prevented, which is, I think, the biggest slap in the face she possibly could have given Lauren's parents. And really, to anyone who knows anything about this case, if you know all the details of this case and you're told that this couldn't have been prevented, does she think people are stupid? Does she think Lauren's parents are stupid? That is so unbelievably offensive that I can't believe she even had the nerve to utter those words out of her stupid mouth. How can you stand there and say this couldn't have been prevented? Are we hearing about the same case here? Are we hearing the same details? This case, literally, at every single turn, could have been prevented if even just one person did their job correctly. That would have been nice, right? This statement is a obvious and pathetic attempt at distancing the university from fault. And it was a horrible, weak attempt, if you ask me. I don't know what she thought she was doing here. I mean, sure, Melvin, of course, did most of the wrong here, but the university, 1000% has to take responsibility, too. That being said, though, the review did provide 30 recommendations for improving policies and whatnot around campus to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future. Future. And I'll be sure to link that report and the recommendations in the show notes of this episode. And I will say most of these recommendations have since been implemented, which is great. I mean, for example, a victim advocate was hired for the university and a bunch of new training and safety protocols have been established. And then Another thing they did was they actually consolidated night classes. So not only are their night classes now centralized to the same part of campus, which prevents students from walking alone, but these areas are now more heavily patrolled. And again, these are just a few of the changes that have been made. There was also another interesting article from the Salt Lake Tribune about some of the other changes, and I'll link that for you guys to check out as well. And as happy as I am that these changes have been made, as great as it is that these changes have been made for the safety of all future students, it doesn't change what happened to Lauren. Lauren is still gone. And I just don't think I will truly ever get over the fact that no one looked into Melvin. It would have been so easy to do and to me make matters even worse, if that's even possible. That Officer Miguel. My God, I'm going to get so mad at this part. He said he wasn't worried for Lauren's safety because she never told him she was afraid. And she also never mentioned domestic violence, which I don't really think I need to point out why that is so offensive to say why that makes absolutely no sense. I mean, she legitimately told him that he lied to her about being a sex offender, lied to her about his name and age. Age. And also lied to her about the fact that he had a history of sex crimes. In what world does that not make him a threat to her safety? It's pretty obvious, dude. Like, what are you trying to say here? Now, he has since apologized for not doing more, but in an interview I saw where he was giving that apology. He also defended his actions. So I don't think his apology means. At least it doesn't mean to me. When he was asked why no one at the station actually went to interview Melvin about the blackmail, Miguel said that they weren't sure her if it was even him doing it, despite the fact that Lauren told them that Melvin was behind it. On October 13th, that's the same day she gave a written statement where she literally wrote down that his phone number appeared in one of the messages asking for a thousand dollars. And apparently after she sent him the first thousand dollars, he asked for a second thousand dollars. Yet he tried to say that they weren't sure make it make sense. And Miguel also tried to pass blame onto other people, saying that all he was trained to do do was pass information on to the detectives and that he wasn't trained on how to look into someone's parole status. Absolutely pathetic. And even if that were true, ask someone to do it for you. Fucking. And that's not even the worst of it. There is a reason that I am going this hard on him. It gets worse with Miguel. And this is. Oh, my God. If you're not pissed off already, get ready to be. Because this Miguel guy was found to have been sharing Lauren's private photos. The one she brought into the station that Melvin was distorting her with. With other people. That's right. This clown Miguel was literally looking at her private photos all he wanted to and sharing them with his sick little friends. I'm not even kidding. This really happened. She sent him these photos in confidence because he's a police officer and she trusted that they were in safekeeping. But no, an internal investigation found that after he forwarded them to Detective Dallas, he also privately shared them with other officers. And maybe you're someone who's thinking he probably did this for investigative reasons. There's got to be a reason for it. He wasn't just enjoying them. No, no. He was straight up bragging to other officers that he had her private photos and that he could look at them anytime he wanted. He was quite literally re. Victimizing the victim, and he faced no consequences for this. Are we shocked? No. Are we disgusted? Absolutely. And this is so disgusting. But her parents wanted him to be held accountable, wanted him to be prosecuted, of course, but they were told that since Lauren was dead, she didn't experience any harm from it, so they couldn't do anything. And of course, he denies that it ever happened, which I do not believe this man at all. I 100% think that he did exactly what I just explained. And, yeah, him denying it is on track with everything else that he has said previously that we're able to prove that he's lying in about. And I'm sure you will not be shocked at all to hear that punishments for other people in the department were also lacking. University President Ruth Watkins didn't fire anyone directly as related to this case. But over time, a lot of the people involved ended up resigning, including Deputy Chief Rick McLennan, Police Chief Dale Brophy, Officer Miguel Daras, and later down the line, Ruth Watkins herself resigned as well, as they showed should. And because there didn't seem to be any consequences for anyone involved, especially right off the bat, Lauren's parents decided to sue the university for $56 million. That lawsuit was announced in June of 2019. But of course, it was never about the money for them. It was about reclaiming power in a time where they Felt powerless. And I, for one, am so, so glad they did this. And really, their ultimate goal was to set off a chain reaction to improve campus safety, not only at the University of Utah, but nationwide. They believed that a lawsuit of that size would force insurance companies to push universities to reform to avoid having to make big payouts like they had to do in this case. Now, unfortunately, they didn't win the full 56 million, which was a long shot anyway. But two years after her murder, Ruth Watkins announced that they would settle for ten and a half million dollars, which is still massive. And Ruth also finally admitted that they regretted how they first handled the case. Case, which I'm sure really just came from all the backlash that she got from her original stupid statement. Not to mention the fact that tons of students came forward in the aftermath of all this to say that the university mishandled their own reports of feeling unsafe as well. And what's crazy to think about is they likely would have never had to pay out that much money if they had just taken responsibility for their failures in the first place. But after the lawsuit was settled, Matt asked if anything would have been different if the university admitted false fault, and he said, quote, the school would have saved a lot of money, but they didn't do that, and therefore, they had to pay. Now, they actually pledged 100% of that money to the Lauren McCluskey foundation because they are awesome. Plus, the university also pledged another $3 million, which brought the total to $13.5 million. That's right, guys. As I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, they did create a foundation in Lauren's honor, which is just so awesome to see. And I'm excited to tell you more about it because. Because the work they're doing is fantastic. So the Lauren McCluskey foundation has three big pillars. Improving campus safety nationwide, Animal welfare and amateur athletics. Of course, two of those things played a very important role in Lauren's life. So it only made sense that they were included in the focal point of the foundation. And then improving campus safety was a super big part of their mission. One of their goals is to transform campus safety nationwide by promoting awareness, research, and resources to effectively respond to dating, violence and stalking. And part of how they're accomplishing this is through Lauren's promise. This was Jill's idea. And it's a campaign centered around a single promise, which is, quote, I will listen and believe you if someone is threatening you. And to take part in this campaign, Hundreds of schools and teachers around the country are pledging to put this promise on their syllabus. That way if a student sees it, they know they are in the presence of a trusted adult. Adult. This promise is about believing survivors and making sure they not only feel heard and seen, but also supported in taking action against their abuser. And Jill said that this idea came to her because as a professor herself, she wanted her students to feel like they had someone they could go to if they were being stalked or abused. And by having it right on her class syllabus, her students are able to know that she is someone who will advocate for them on their behalf. Also, Lauren's promise is not exclusive to teachers and any of us can make that promise right now. You can vow and choose to be someone who believes victims. And I know a lot of you guys already do that, but it never hurts to remind you. And I just love the idea of having this right on the classroom syllabus in beginning of this school year or the semester, whatever it is, because it's often high school and college age students who are the victims of dating violence and stalking and harassing. So to have this right out the gate, to know that you are with someone safe as soon as you begin your education journey with that person, that's amazing. And I'm surprised we've not thought to do something like this sooner. And part of why I wanted to cover this case was to spread more awareness about this campaign because it's really easy for anyone to get involved. I'll go ahead and put the link in the description box or show notes of this episode which you can fill out to learn more about Lauren's promise and how you can improve safety on your campus. Campus. I know that I have a lot of students and teachers of all different ages who listen to my show and I really think this is something that you should consider bringing to your school if it's not implemented already and they've already made such a huge impact. There are already a few hundred schools who have already implemented this, but how cool would it be if for this show we could help them implement it even further? And then another huge way that the McCluskeys are hoping to improve school safety nationwide has to do with their campus safety initiative. The foundation is currently working with more than 5,000 schools to honor Lauren's legacy by bringing awareness to, funding, research for, and providing resources to change the culture that responds poorly to dating, violence and stalking on their campuses. They have a variety of programs and objectives, one of which is Lauren's promise. But there's another one that I wanted to share with you. It's called the Campus Safety Score, and it makes so much sense. It's still in the development phase for now, but essentially, schools who partner with the foundation will receive receive a score. This will be based on things like procedures, training, resources, and their history of responses to campus safety threats. And this score will better inform students and parents what safety looks like on different campuses while they're deciding which college they want to go to. Now, this isn't an entirely new concept. On its own, there are others similar to this. But this project is unique in that it's really incentivizing schools to adopt changes to improve their student safety practices. They plan to provide these schools with actionable ways to improve their safety protocols calls, therefore increasing their score and encouraging students to attend. Institutional change is at the heart of this mission, and I am so eager to see this project come to life. It's really so cool. I'll have all the information to learn more linked below for you guys. And then as for the other two pillars of the foundation, I just love what they're doing. I had to share. Animal welfare is one of them. And that's because Lauren spent so much time volunteering with her local shelter. So they created the Lauren McCluskey Cat Wing at their county humane society in Poland, Pullman. And then the other pillar is amateur athletics. So in their honor, they have established a scholarship that will support future collegiate athletes such as herself. And then plus, since she spent so many years practicing track and field on the University of Idaho's campus growing up, her parents also donated funds to have their track resurfaced and named after Lauren. Now the Lauren McCluskey track can be used and enjoyed by other aspiring track athletes. And truly, guys, this doesn't even begin to cover it all. They have gone on to do so many amazing things with their foundation. It's so inspiring to see they have raised awareness on so many different things. They promote safety all across the country, and their impact just can't be understated. That's why I'm so excited to support their foundation. I will be making a donation on behalf of this channel, and if you're interested in making one too, I think it's a great cause and I will have it linked below. I'm just so in awe of all they've been able to do in the wake of a tragedy like this. To to be so selfless and to honor your loved one in this way is just incredible. I don't know if I could do the same if I went through what they did. And you know, I hope when I congratulate and praise families who have been able to do that, that it's not downplaying the way that I feel about victims, families who haven't been able to do it because they're completely traumatized and a lot of them don't have the resources that their family did. So I just wanted to point out that I'm aware of. Aware that not everyone is able to do that. I'm very thankful that they were in a position too, and feeling mentally well enough to take on something like this for the benefit of so many people, so many people who are just like Lauren and could. I mean, they really could save so many lives. And it's just. It's really, really inspiring. Now, Lauren. Lauren's murder has really sparked some amazing change. But at the end of the day, it should have never happened to begin with. The people who should have listened to her and should have believed her didn't. And unfortunately, nothing can ever change that. And despite the University of Utah making some changes, unfortunately, they still have a long way to go. In fact, In February of 2022, another student, Siphon Dong, was murdered by her exploits boyfriend. And the school came out and admitted that they had shortcomings when it came to their response to the situation. And this also resulted in a multi million dollar settlement, which goes to show that more work needs to be done at this university and honestly, so many others across the United States and the world. These are not isolated events. And unless all of our schools start taking safety more seriously, I'm worried that it will keep happening. In fact, I know know it will. And also, going off of Lauren's promise, I also think that individuals not only have the obligation to listen and believe victims, but we also have the obligation to report a crime when we hear about it. After the lawsuits were settled, some reporters continued to look into the case. And they found out that a few people who worked with Melvin at General Dynamics knew what was going on, and they didn't say anything. Two days before the murder, Melvin told two colleagues, including his supervisor, that he had been blackmailing her. And one of those people even let Melvin use their Venmo account to collect that thousand dollars so it couldn't be traced back to him. And one later told police that Melvin was fixated on how much time he would face if he was caught and that he was considering resigning from his job. Yet nobody did anything to report him and his parole officer, which I don't know. Take this with a grain of salt. I guess. But she claims that had she known about the blackmail, she would have taken him back to prison. But I think this serves as a reminder that if someone tells you they're doing something illegal that could really harm another person, you need to tell authorities. You need to tell somebody because I mean, of course you want to keep yourself safe, but you have to think about the impact it could have on someone's life. Now I know this has been a very long episode so I am going to wrap it up. But I do think it was a very important episode and there's so many important topics that we have gone over today that need to be talked about more. And I want to leave you with something that her father said, which is a request that he and Jill have made. They want people to quote, remember Lauren Jennifer McCluskey, remember how she lived, remember how she died. And through your actions honor her memory. And I'm going to leave this episode there. That is going to be it for me today. Guys, thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel which will be linked or you can just search Kendall Rae I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there.

[University Police Dispatcher]

Foreign.

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