dixiegirl1035
I will do it, but I won't like it
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GUILTY UT - MacKenzie "Kenzie" Lueck, 23, Salt Lake City, 17 June 2019 *ARREST* #20
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dixiegirl1035
I will do it, but I won't like it
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What shocked me that I had never known before is that they "lost the ability to have warrants issued" during the investigation and were not able to get records they wanted.
That was, until the PI guy that had met her in the bar came forward. Whoa, that was very fortunate that he came forward when he did so that they had probable cause to move forward with the warrants.
That was, until the PI guy that had met her in the bar came forward. Whoa, that was very fortunate that he came forward when he did so that they had probable cause to move forward with the warrants.
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I'm so very sorry you had to go through that. This is a real sorry, and not AA"s reflexive shrug. Please don't feel that you made things worse, ok?
I missed the Dateline episode but saw a portion of it online. What surprised me the most was that she had a trip to Vegas planned. At first I thought that was the wedding she was supposed to attend, but it wasn't. The wedding was in LA, and she had a Vegas trip planned before flying to LA. Was she meeting a sugar daddy in Vegas? None of her friends or family mentioned a trip to Vegas. Also, the show mentioned that her family didn't know about the trip to Vegas and that it had been paid for by someone else. The airfare to LA had also been paid for by someone else. I'm assuming this someone else wasn't AA, as she hadn't met him yet. Did the police track this person down and question him? Makes me think she had a lot more experience in the "seeking arrangements" lifestyle than I initially thought. Maybe it was just enough experience to lessen her inhibitions about meeting a new guy in a deserted park at 3 am.
Different case, but I wanted to give a shoutout to a great podcast "Your Own Backyard." It's about Kristin Smart, the Cal Poly SLO student who went missing in 1996. It's a really good podcast and led to the arrest of the person who's been the prime suspect for over 20 years.
Different case, but I wanted to give a shoutout to a great podcast "Your Own Backyard." It's about Kristin Smart, the Cal Poly SLO student who went missing in 1996. It's a really good podcast and led to the arrest of the person who's been the prime suspect for over 20 years.
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I don't think we heard about the "Vegas arrangement" before because it wasn't relevant to Kenzie's murder. I think detectives referenced the planned trip on Dateline to explain what they had to go through to get search warrants for a missing adult that they could not initially rule out was voluntarily missing.
Probable cause can be a double edge sword for missing persons. We see it all the time -- trying to balance the privacy of adults and acknowledge the family reporting their loved one missing.
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I know there's a lot we haven't heard. We don't know why she met him at that time in the park. We don't know what reason he gave her for meeting there. We haven't seen the texts between them that led up to the meeting. We don't know why/how her phone turned off as soon as she got in the car. We don't know how he got her into his house. Unlike someone like Chris Watts where we got detailed information about his confession and what he did, we never got that info with this case - just that he'd planned to kill her.
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There are some details/answers in this link. I don't recall the terms of AA's plea agreement other than no death penalty. We know that Chris Watts had no chance to appeal and Colorado DA had no hesitation to share docs. I don't know about UT's DA.
Neal said Wednesday that Ajayi and Lueck first met in 2018 on the dating website. They had chatted and decided to meet at the park, Neal said, without specifying whether that was the first time they had seen each other in person.
Lueck’s phone was turned off at the park after she texted Ajayi.
His phone, which investigators later tracked to the park at that time, was turned off when he arrived back at his home in Salt Lake City.
“To avoid documenting her presence in his home," Hamilton said, "Mr. Ajayi turned off the video of his home security system before leaving to meet Ms. Lueck.”
Once they were at Ajayi’s home, Hamilton said, Ajayi tied Lueck’s hands behind her back and tried to choke her with his hands. Hamilton said that Lueck “protested” and told Ajayi to stop, but he didn’t. Instead, he moved her on to her stomach and strangled her with a belt until she stopped moving, the attorney said.
Police have said Lueck died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Oct 8, 2021
Ayoola Ajayi pleads guilty to killing University of Utah student MacKenzie Lueck
Lueck’s phone was turned off at the park after she texted Ajayi.
I seriously doubt she turned it off herself, so how did he get it from her and turn it off? I'm thinking he tasered her in the car to get her phone and either kept threatening her with the taser as he drove her back to his place or he used a gun, but either of those wouldn't have been easy to use while he was driving. Makes you wonder why she didn't jump out of the car.
Once they were at Ajayi’s home, Hamilton said, Ajayi tied Lueck’s hands behind her back and tried to choke her with his hands. Hamilton said that Lueck “protested” and told Ajayi to stop, but he didn’t. Instead, he moved her on to her stomach and strangled her with a belt until she stopped moving, the attorney said.
Police have said Lueck died from blunt force trauma to the head.
When they found her body in the canyon, police said she'd died of blunt force trauma and had a hole in her skull. Later they said she died from strangulation, so which was it? They mention both again here?
I finally watched the entire Dateline and at the end the female cop said they didn't know why or HOW he killed her. What??!!! So, what exactly did LE get out of taking the death penalty off the table for AA? They had enough evidence to convict him, so they didn't really need the confession. They allowed him to confess to avoid the death penalty, but didn't require him to give them all the details of the crime? That's odd.
I seriously doubt she turned it off herself, so how did he get it from her and turn it off? I'm thinking he tasered her in the car to get her phone and either kept threatening her with the taser as he drove her back to his place or he used a gun, but either of those wouldn't have been easy to use while he was driving. Makes you wonder why she didn't jump out of the car.
Once they were at Ajayi’s home, Hamilton said, Ajayi tied Lueck’s hands behind her back and tried to choke her with his hands. Hamilton said that Lueck “protested” and told Ajayi to stop, but he didn’t. Instead, he moved her on to her stomach and strangled her with a belt until she stopped moving, the attorney said.
Police have said Lueck died from blunt force trauma to the head.
When they found her body in the canyon, police said she'd died of blunt force trauma and had a hole in her skull. Later they said she died from strangulation, so which was it? They mention both again here?
I finally watched the entire Dateline and at the end the female cop said they didn't know why or HOW he killed her. What??!!! So, what exactly did LE get out of taking the death penalty off the table for AA? They had enough evidence to convict him, so they didn't really need the confession. They allowed him to confess to avoid the death penalty, but didn't require him to give them all the details of the crime? That's odd.
MajorHoople
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I just wanted to mention that the risk of danger can go both ways on sites like Seeking Arrangements.
Knoxville man stabbed, robbed after meeting woman through dating app
"Officials with the Knoxville Police Department said a man was reportedly stabbed and robbed after setting up a meeting through a dating website.
According to KPD, the incident happened on May, 25 around 9:30 p.m. on the 2000 block of Doves Landing Way.
Police said the victim met Mya Kai Young, 19, through the dating website, Seeking Arrangements.
On May 25, the victim reportedly arranged for Young to meet him at his home.
When Young arrived the victim allowed Young to use his restroom, according to reports. While Young was using the restroom, the victim told police he heard a knock at his door.
The victim said as he was looking through a peephole, Young pepper-sprayed him in the face, reports stated. According to police reports, after the victim was pepper-sprayed, Ethan Stone, 20, allegedly forced the door open and began assaulting the victim.
Stone allegedly threw the victim down a flight of stairs. Young and Stone then continued to assault the victim, according to police.
Police said Stone and Young reportedly kicked the victim and hit him with closed fists. Young allegedly stabbed the victim in the lower back during the assault, court documents stated.
The victim told police Young and Stone attempted to drag him back into his home.
According to investigators, the victim said Young and Stone stole three cell phones, his wallet and a Nikon camera from his home.
Knoxville authorities said the victim was transported to the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
Stone was arrested and charged with especially aggravated burglary and assault. Young is charged with attempted second-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery."
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What a weird case. What a weird use of the word "protest." I wonder if MacKenzie was expecting to have her hands tied--was bondage part of the arrangement? It doesn't seem like she started fighting back until he was already choking her. We've heard about the taser in the car but have never heard whether or not he used it on her. Her hands were tied while she was still alive (initially there was some speculation her limbs were not bound until after her death, to make her body easier to bury), but we have no idea how he managed to do that--did she let him? Or was she already incapacitated? But if she was, why bother binding her? So much of this still doesn't make sense, to say nothing of the whole purpose of the meet-up in the first place.
Oh, well. What's done is done and can't be undone. She's dead and he's in prison and everybody else just has to go on. The "hows" and "whys" of the case will always remain a mystery, I guess.
Oh, well. What's done is done and can't be undone. She's dead and he's in prison and everybody else just has to go on. The "hows" and "whys" of the case will always remain a mystery, I guess.
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As someone who followed this case as it was happening back in June 2019, I think I can provide a little more information. This case was interesting from the perspective that when she disappeared no one knew where this person who picked her up lived. This was not a very difficult case though. In order to meet someone at a park after getting off a plane, you would probably call them. Once they knew who she called and talked to last, this person was probably going to be her killer.
There is a lot more we know today than back in June 2019. We know today that Ajayi had planned to murder her before he ever left his home to pick her up at Hatch Park. Police said that he even turned off the video surveillance on his home security system before he picked MacKenzie up so that her presence would not be recorded going into his home. And we know today that MacKenzie was involved in meeting men in person that she met online. And this is where the case gets sort of interesting.
I recently looked up Ajayi's home address and it turns out that it looks like he lived closer to the Salt Lake City airport than the Hatch Park location. I had a hard time finding his home address because I thought he would have lived farther away. So, in my opinion, what happened?
I think, today, that Ajayi probably chose to meet her at Hatch Park in North Salt Lake, Utah. When I followed the case as it happened in June 2019, I theorized that MacKenzie may have known who she met casually but not well enough to know their home address so she chose to meet at Hatch Park. I got that wrong.
It would not surprise me that MacKenzie Lueck may never have known the address where Ajayi lived. Ajayi was thinking ahead and made sure that his victim and any potential Lyft driver would not know where to direct police after she disappeared. But police were able to figure things out by tracing text messages and his computer. This led to his home address anyway. There is a Dateline episode called, "The Waiting Car" that discusses this case.
Probably the unfairest part about the case are all the people that criticize MacKenzie Lueck for meeting a man she only knew casually through an online website at 3 am in the morning at Hatch Park. But look at all the college aged women who go out on the weekends to drink and hang out with men at bars until the early morning hours. I think Ajayi would have continued to try to convince her to meet at another time even if it had not been that night.
MacKenzie had socialized with many different men over her time in Salt Lake City, Utah. Nothing bad had happened to her, probably. When I saw the police interviews with Ajayi, I could understand why she may have decided to meet him. He comes across as an innocent foreigner with a foreign accent. Even the police remarked how accommodating he was during the investigation once he was being investigated as a person of interest.
I think it is human nature that we gravitate towards people that seem nice and accomodating. But Ayoola Ajayi probably had two sides to him, a public side he portrayed online, and a private side that people saw when they were alone with him.
It was nice to see a quick resolution in this missing persons/murder case. This case was interesting for how technology and social relationships have changed in today's world. In my opinion, I think that is also part of the reason the case was solved.
So, we know why AJAJYI wanted to meet at Hatch Park instead of picking Kenzie up at the airport or having her take a Lyft to his house, but why did SHE agree to meet him at the park? If they left the park immediately for his house, wouldn't she already be thinking or asking - why did we meet at the park if it's farther from the airport than your house? Or if we're just going to your house, anyway, why didn't I just take the Lyft to your house?
And honestly, meeting a guy by chance at a bar a 1:00 AM when you're both probably with your friends and in a crowded, public location is a lot different from meeting a stranger at a deserted park at 3:00 AM. She knew it was odd and dangerous because she remarked on it to her Lyft driver. Her senses and instincts were screaming at her - NOT RIGHT - but for whatever reason, she didn't listen.
The women who are sugar babies who were interviewed for this case all said Kenzie made crucial errors.
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^^rsbm
^^rsbm
Salt Lake City police say missing Utah student MacKenzie Lueck met someone at a North Salt Lake park
Doubt gave this timeline of Lueck’s activities on June 17: Her plane from California landed at 1:35 a.m. She texted her mother at 2:01 a.m. She caught a Lyft at 2:42 a.m., riding to Hatch Park, arriving at 2:59 a.m. There she met someone in a vehicle.
Lueck did not appear to be in distress, the Lyft driver told police, and the Lyft driver went on to pick up other passengers. Doubt said police need to confirm the make and model of the vehicle, and a description of the person Lueck met, before releasing those details. Police are looking at surveillance footage around Hatch Park, Doubt said, adding that there were no cameras inside the park.
_____________
The airport to Hatch Park was only a 17-minute ride for ML: I believe OP was not wrong when first believing that ML initiated the idea of meeting at Hatch Park because I had the same thought.
Based on my earliest recollection, this idea about ML suggesting Hatch Park was based on info from others known to ML. These individuals are the same that went to State and Local government to demand both answers and changes to the lights and cameras at Hatch Park.
If not for this case, others such as ML's friends would have continued to believe that camera fronts erected in Hatch Park, complete with signage warning that the park was "under surveillance" were true surveillance cameras and NOT DUMMY CAMERA FRONTS!
Yes, it was revealed that the cameras were only dummies erected in place in an effort to deter crime whereas true, working cameras were not installed because of budget concerns.
I can't link the discussions so this will have to be from my memory or MOO.
North Salt Lake will replace ‘dummy’ cameras at park where Mackenzie Lueck disappeared
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Just thinking about Mackenzie. Her case was my first websleuths case, and she will forever have a place in my heart. I’m local, so I think of her every time I drive near her house or the location where she was killed or the spot where she was buried. Rest In Peace, sweet girl.
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