The body of a missing 23-year-old Utah student named Mackenzie Lueck has been found in a canyon one week after suspect Ayoola Ajayi, 31, was arrested on charges of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a body and obstruction of justice.
The gruesome discovery was made 85 miles away from the former U.S. Army information technology specialist’s Salt Lake City home.
The young woman, who was from El Segundo, California, disappeared on June 17 after she returned to Salt Lake City. She was in the Golden State for her grandmother’s funeral.
She took a Lyft at the airport and then went inside of another vehicle. The Lyft driver, who dropped her near Hatch Park in North Salt Lake, was quickly cleared in her missing case.
Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown said today: “I spoke with Mackenzie’s family this morning. Another devastating call. Despite their grief, we hope this will help them find some closure and justice for Mackenzie.”
When Ajayi got arrested, Brown had shared: “The arrested person’s neighbors informed detectives that they observed him burning something in his backyard with gasoline on the dates of June 18 and June 19. The search warrant resulted in the findings of a fresh dig area on his property, which is the same area that the arrested individual was reported burning something.”
He had also: “A forensic excavation of the burn area was conducted, which resulted in the finding of several charred items that were consistent with personal items of Mackenzie Lueck. Other charred material was located, which has now forensically been determined to be female human tissue. A DNA profile of that human tissue was obtained during forensic testing by the Utah state lab. That DNA profile was compared and is consistent with the DNA profile obtained through further forensic testing of personal items of Mackenzie Lueck.”
Ajayi is the last known person to communicate with her. The suspect published a book called Forge Identity in August 2018 that has some vague similarities with what allegedly happened in his backyard.
He did tell a contractor that he had a girlfriend who was out of town, but it is not clear that he was talking about Lueck.
The tragic case has sparked a lot of conversations online around issues of race and violence against women. One person stated: “Such a tragic, senseless loss. Sending love to all her grieving friends and family…Women must report bad dudes like this; we must band together to protect one another.”
A second commenter added: “This makes me so sad. I was following this every day since she was missing! And was hoping for a better outcome.?”
The death penalty is still in place in the state of Utah.
