Authorities have arrested and charged a Salt Lake City man with aggravated murder in the death of missing university student Mackenzie Lueck.
Ayoola Ajayi, 31, was taken into custody Friday Morning after an investigation by police uncovered charred female remains and items belonging to Lueck that had been buried in the suspect’s backyard.
Following the arrest, Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown told the media “After an exhaustive week of investigation, we are filing charges of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, obstruction of justice and desecration of a body in the homicide of Mackenzie Lueck.”
Lueck Goes Missing
According to the Gephardt Daily, the last known video footage of the 32-year-old university student was taken by Salt Lake City International Aiport surveillance.The footage shows Lueck in the airport after exiting a flight that landed at 1:35 a.m. on June 17, from Southern California, where she is said to have been attending a funeral for her maternal grandmother.
At 2:42 a.m. Lueck left the airport in a Lyft car.
Around 3 a.m on June 17, the Lyft driver dropped her off at Hatch Park in Salt Lake City, where she got into the vehicle of an unidentified individual.
Ajayi’s Arrest
On Friday, a SWAT team was dispatched to the 1028 W. Temple apartment complex where Ajayi was said to be staying.
Upon arrival, the suspect was handcuffed and taken into custody where he was charged with aggravated murder.
Court records obtained by Gephardt Daily indicate that in 2016, prior to getting evicted, Ajayi lived with two roommates in an apartment about a block away from the Hatch Park area where he picked up Lueck the morning she disappeared.
The records also state that “In an interview with Ayoola he admitted to having text conversations with Mackenzie on June 16, 2019 at approximately 1800 hours (6 p.m.), but nothing after this time.
“Ayoola stated that he did not know what Mackenzie looked like and denied having seen a photo or online profile of Mackenzie, despite investigations that the means of which he communicated with her displayed several photos of her and her profile photo.
“Ayoola denied any personal contact with Mackenzie or meeting with her at any time. Investigations of Ayoola’s and Mackenzie’s phone records show the location of Mackenzie’s and Ayoola’s phones to be at the location of Hatch Park within less than a minute of each other and at the same time of Mackenzie’s phone no longer receiving any further data or location on June 17, 2019 at approximately 0300 hours (3 a.m.)”
