[Thot Leader]

Quote:

University of Utah student, 21, killed by ex-boyfriend was on phone with parents before fatal shooting

The 21-year-old University of Utah student who was allegedly killed late Monday night by her ex-boyfriend -- a registered sex offender -- was reportedly on the phone with her mother just moments before the fatal shooting.

Lauren McCluskey, a senior from Pullman, Washington, was found dead soon after gunshots were heard near a residential dormitory on campus. Her suspected killer, Melvin Rowland, was found dead inside an off-campus church in downtown Salt Lake City.

In a statement obtained by KTVU and attributed to her family, McCluskey's mom said she was speaking to her daughter on the phone as she returned from an evening class to her apartment.

"Suddenly I heard her yell, 'No, no, no!' I thought she might have been in a car accident. That was the last I heard from her," the statement said. "My husband called 911. I kept the link open. In a few minutes, a young woman picked up the phone and said all of Lauren's things were on the ground."



Melvin Rowland, a 37-year-old registered sex offender, is believed to have shot and killed University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey. He was found dead with from a self-inflicted gunshot wound about 4 miles from campus.


In the statement, the family said McCluskey and Rowland dated for about one month and he had lied to her about "his name, his age, and his criminal history."

"Lauren was informed by a friend about his criminal history, and she ended the relationship with her killer on October 9, 2018," the statement continued. "She blocked his and his friends' phone numbers and complained to the University of Utah police that she was being harassed."

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Rowland was convicted of attempted forcible sex abuse and enticing a minor over the Internet in 2004. He was released from prison in 2013.

University of Utah Police Lt. Brian Wahlin told reporters Rowland and McCluskey appeared to have had an argument at about 9 p.m. Monday night. Police found her body just before 10 p.m. near the medical towers.

Wahlin said police followed Rowland into the off-campus church after he was spotted at about 1 a.m. He said Rowland's body was found inside the church; he did not provide the circumstances of Rowland's death.

FOX13 reported Rowland was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the Trinity AME Church, about four miles away from the scene of the shooting.

At 1:47 a.m., the university sent an alert that Rowland was “no longer a threat.”

University President Ruth Watkins said the university canceled classes Tuesday and scheduled a 5 p.m. vigil for McCluskey.

“Lauren was a highly regarded member of the university’s track and field team and an outstanding scholar, a senior majoring in communication,” Watkins said in a campus-wide message. “Several members of our university administration spoke with Lauren’s family last night and I have also reached out to them. Her family is understandably in shock at this news about their daughter. They are heartbroken. We have and continue to offer our full support to them at this terrible time.”

Athletics Director Mark Harlan said university counselors and psychologists were available to support McCluskey's teammates, coaches and friends.

"This news has shaken not only myself but our entire University of Utah athletics family to its core," he said.

McCluskey was a track and field athlete and majored in communication. She was set to graduate in May 2019.

"It was really scary to look out the window and see. I saw 15 to 20 police officers right where we're standing right now," Tyler Olsen, a student who lives in family housing near the shooting scene, told the Deseret News. "I mean, you're in your home, but nowhere feels safe in that moment."

Last month, an ex-convict pleaded guilty to killing a University of Utah student from China using a gun stolen after another slaying. Austin Boutain, 24, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Boutain and his wife were charged with hatching a carjacking plot that led to the October 2017 death of 23-year-old Chenwei Guo, whose parents live in Beijing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Followup story says she was extorted for $1000:

Quote:

A University of Utah student who police say was murdered by her ex-boyfriend told officers she wired $1,000 to an account earlier this month to prevent the release of "compromising pictures" of the pair, investigators said Thursday.

University Police Chief Dale Brophy told reporters that Lauren McCluskey, 21, reported the extortion to his officers on Oct. 13, nine days before she was found shot dead outside an on-campus dormitory. The suspect in her murder, 37-year-old Melvin Rowland, was found dead that same evening of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a Salt Lake City church.

Brophy said that McCluskey had ended her relationship with Rowland on Oct. 9 after she discovered that he had lied to her about his age and was a registered sex offender. McCluskey initially declined police assistance in dealing with Rowland, but later reported receiving numerous emails and messages using different names trying to lure her to locations in addition to the extortion attempt. Investigators now believe the messages all came from Rowland, who Brophy called a master manipulator.

"If his lips were moving, he was lying," Brophy said of Rowland. "I don't think he told the truth to anybody based on our investigation."

Rowland was spotted on surveillance video at various locations around the University of Utah's campus during the weekend before McCluskey's murder. Authorities believe he was trying to confront her. Hours before the killing, Rowland was in McCluskey's dorm building socializing with some of her friends. He later confronted McCluskey in the building parking lot, dragged her into a car he had driven to campus, and shot her multiple times.

After shooting McCluskey, Rowland was picked up on campus by a woman he met online. They went to dinner, visited the state Capitol and went to her apartment where Rowland took a shower.

The woman later called police when she saw photos of the man being sought for the campus shooting.

Later that night, after the woman dropped Rowland at a coffee shop, police tracked him to the church where he killed himself.

Rowland got the gun by telling an acquaintance that his girlfriend wanted to learn to shoot.

Brophy said it appears the woman who picked up Rowland on campus and the person who loaned him the gun had been duped and will not face charges.

Police knew Rowland was a sex offender but not that he was on parole, Brophy said. He added that police didn't start the formal extortion investigation until six days after her Oct. 13 report due to workload issues.


Kaitlin Felsted, a spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Corrections, said police didn't make parole officers aware of the complaint filed by McCluskey.

In the early stages of the investigation, officers didn't have enough information to pass on to any other law enforcement, Brophy said, adding that there were no indications from McCluskey that Rowland was threatening physical violence.

University of Utah president Ruth Watkins said outside investigations are being launched to assess campus security and police protocols to determine if improvements can be made to prevent future shootings.

Watkins said so far she has found no mistakes in how police handled the case. Brophy said he welcomes the reviews.

Earlier in the day, Gov. Gary Herbert said corrections and parole officials had launched investigations into the handling of the case.

"Clearly in hindsight, we're going to say, 'You should have done this, you should have done that,'" Herbert said during his monthly televised news conference at KUED-TV

He noted, however, "You never know when these things are going to occur."

Rowland was paroled in April when he told the parole board that he was a changed man after being a peer leader in prison had helped him tap into his empathy and learn to follow the rules.

He spent nearly a decade in prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to trying to lure an underage girl online and attempted sex abuse charges, according to court records.

After he was charged, a woman came forward to report he had sexually assaulted her after a separate online meeting a few days earlier.

Rowland, a native of New York, was twice sent back to prison for parole violations that included possessing pornography and failure to complete therapy.

He blamed his "thinking errors" for the actions that kept sending him back in prison, according to recordings of parole hearings from 2010 to 2018 released this week by the Utah Board of Parole and Pardons.

Rowland said at a hearing in 2012 that he was a womanizer who manipulated women to get what he wanted.

Brophy offered the same assessment. He said McCluskey met Rowland last month at a bar where he was working security and started dating him. He visited her often in her dorm and made friends with other students in the building.

"He was very, very good at getting people to trust him," Brophy said. "Lauren was no different."

I take this as further evidence that education makes women stupider and more helpless. Zero survival instincts. A fourteenth century illiterate peasant woman would have had more common sense.


Additional pic. 7/10, WB, WNM