Found Deceased UT - MacKenzie "Kenzie" Lueck, 23, Salt Lake City, 17 June 2019 #5

[PrairieWind]

I never understand what they mean when they say that someone is "cooperating". Someone could cooperate with an investigation and still be guilty of a crime IMO.

Absolutely. "Cooperating" really just means that the person is talking to them, nothing more.

 

[indicolite22]

Of course...I was responding to someone’s post who stated possible reasons for turning off her cell. And many young people are up at 3a.m. Of course it would be back on now!! Wow...

I was only commenting on the possible reasons for her to do that. It's possible that she turned it off and later something unexpected/bad happened.

 

[pheonyx]

Great post and very insightful ! Any other ideas why she would meet someone at 3am in a park?

Personal experience only? I've met friends at the park or some other secluded place just for some time away. When I was younger and stayed out later, I would meet friends at all times of night in all sorts of places. I've met a guy I was dating in a cemetery at 2 am just to talk. I had a roommate and so did he, so we couldn't go to either of our houses. We were still in that "omg I can't be away from you for more than a few hours" phase, and we just wanted to see each other. He said he missed me, I said I missed him, and the next thing you know we're meeting at a crazy time when we both had to work the next morning. We talked until the sun came up then dragged our tired butts to work. It does seem to me like this was arranged prior via one of the dating apps, but it being a somewhat friendly reaction and in a secluded place makes me think that they trusted each other. I never hesitated to meet this guy in a cemetery and I had only known him for a few weeks. Connections (real or not) can form SUPER fast, especially when you're young. It doesn't necessarily mean that the other person was hiding, but of course it also doesn't mean they weren't.

 

[Criminal Justice mom]

That would be some incredible luck though.

Plus, most people keep a charger in their car.

This one has me stumped.

Was the park searched for her phone to make sure it wasnt tossed or dumbed there after turning it off or smashing it? He could have incapacitated her then took her phone.

 

[whitelilac]

This "last known person texting with Lueck" I wonder if LE found this person or whether this person came forward.

 

[MassGuy]

Was the park searched for her phone to make sure it wasnt tossed or dumbed there after turning it off or smashing it? He could have incapacitated her then took her phone.

I’m sure they would have checked. Once he turned her phone off though, he wouldn’t have needed to dispose of it immediately.

His focus would have been getting her to where he intended to take her to.

That’s if this was a crime, and it happened that way.

 

[oviedo]

This "last known person texting with Lueck" I wonder if LE found this person or whether this person came forward.

I suspect the former - they had days and days to contact LE to let them know they were texting her at plane touchdown IMO

 

[Snoop Sister]

Last known person texting with missing Utah student Mackenzie Lueck is cooperating with investigation: police

Good interview with Assistant Police Chief. The APC doesn’t come on right away...have to wait a bit until the reporter recaps info about Kenzie.

 

[bestill]

Absolutely. "Cooperating" really just means that the person is talking to them, nothing more.

Well for LE to make that random tweet today and not mention this in the last two pressers makes me think that cooperating person didn't come forward but was discovered in the phone records. jmo

 

[PommyMommy]

What other reason do LE agencies coordinate ? I think they traced the number and it's in the other jurisdiction - JMO

ETA:Last known person texting with missing Utah student Mackenzie Lueck is cooperating with investigation: police

So there could have been texts to others in between?

From the article:

The University of Utah student who disappeared after ordering a Lyft and being dropped off at a local park last week was texting someone before she went missing, police in Salt Lake City told Fox News exclusively, saying they have surveillance video and a digital trail to prove it.

Appearing on “Shepard Smith Reporting” on Wednesday, Salt Lake City Assistant Police Chief Tim Doubt told Smith investigators have spoken with the last known person to be communicating with 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck before she disappeared and that the person was cooperating with their investigation.

[...]

“We know she was texting someone at the airport,” Doubt told Smith on Wednesday, adding that investigators were looking into it.

[...]

“After discussions with her family and friends we see no indication that she has gone off the grid before,” Doubt told reporters on Tuesday. “This kind of behavior is uncharacteristic for her according to them.”

[...]

 

[MrsColumbo79]

Great points! What about her bags? That surely took a bit of time. That lyft driver should have seen a lot!

Actually wow I’d not took the luggage into consideration but isn’t it possible the driver would of even offered to help, and you’d think the driver she was greeting would of popped his hood and ‘also’ done the gentlemanly thing and helped!

 

[Deleted member 158085]

I think the point is that young women are vulnerable to predation or abuse no matter who they date. We read the stories all the time.

Women are victims of intimate partner violence and of stalkers, rapists, murderers, dudes they meet online and date, who decide to kill them, fake Uber drivers, real taxi drivers, boyfriends, husbands, etc. Most of the women who go missing and are found either alive or dead after having been harmed and/or abducted had nothing to to do with dating older men.

I don't think this lifestyle makes women any more vulnerable than they already are.

The only complication I can see is that if a man involved in a relationship like this harmed his female companion, it could be much harder to trace if he was being clandestine, because they don't want wives to find out. So they might use snapchat or use burner phones themselves, etc.

It could take time to untangle that for evidence needed to find a perp.

Yes! If she was one of the many other women who had what some think of as a completely normal significant other who disappeared, as they often do at the hands of the SO or hubby, would we blame that lifestyle?

Basically, women are always vulnerable because we are women and men cross our paths in one way or another.

 

[sweetcandyapple]

Was the park searched for her phone to make sure it wasnt tossed or dumbed there after turning it off or smashing it? He could have incapacitated her then took her phone.

Yes, police did search the park, but it wasn't even reported for four days, so perhaps it was long gone by then. There's a decent chance garbage cans and dumpsters were emptied before they got the chance to search it. However, like I said before, they didn't seem all that concerned with the drop off location, especially now that I know the cameras weren't working. If they had serious concerns something happened at that park, they would have done more than a two hour sweep total. IMO.

 

[savedabeez20]

This "last known person texting with Lueck" I wonder if LE found this person or whether this person came forward.

That's a great question.

 

[MsBetsy]

I never understand what they mean when they say that someone is "cooperating". Someone could cooperate with an investigation and still be guilty of a crime IMO.

He's not the one who met her in the park, though, is he? I wonder why he had not talked to LE before?

 

[zoso]

I’m wondering if the car waiting for her was just a ride to someone else. She may have known the driver, but they were not involved in the disappearance.

Once at the final location, then things turned south. That is why it was ok for the lyft driver to see the car.

 

[savedabeez20]

He's not the one who met her in the park, though, is he?

Not necessarily. We don't have that information yet.

 

[bestill]

He's not the one who met her in the park, though, is he?

Don't know.

 

[InTarzana]

Maybe he offered to charge it for her and turned it off without her knowing when he plugged it in. Imo

Aren't all cell phones SUPPOSED to be turned off when charging? I thought it wrecked the battery if you left them on while charging and then they overcharged.

Disclaimer: I only got my first smartphone 2 1/2 years ago, so I'm not up on these things.

 

[shanadk]

I don't think there is a "typical" 23 year old. There will be peer groups who have the same education level, income, marital status etc. But even within your peer group, there will be wide differences. Especially in a massive country like the US.