Mackenzie Lueck. Photo: Courtesy of the Salt Lake City Police Department On June 28, more than a week after University of Utah senior Mackenzie Lueck went missing after taking a Lyft home from the airport, police arrested a 31-year-old man named Ayoola Ajayi on suspicion of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, obstruction of justice, and desecration of a body.
“Detectives have spoken with the Lyft driver and learned that Mackenzie was met at Hatch Park by an individual in a vehicle,” Salt Lake City assistant police chief Tim Doubt told CBS News. “The Lyft driver left Mackenzie at the park with that person and stated that Mackenzie did not appear to be in any type of distress.”
How did police come to suspect Ayoola Ajayi? Salt Lake City police chief Mike Brown told reporters that Lueck had been communicating with Ajayi electronically on June 16, the day prior to her disappearance, though he did not say whether it was through an app. Furthermore, investigators concluded that Lueck’s and Ajayi’s phones were both present in the park at around the time her phone stopped receiving data.
On June 27, Ajayi was taken into custody at an apartment complex in West Temple; the next day, he was booked on suspicion of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, obstruction of justice, and desecration of a body.