New Documents Released In Lauren McCluskey Murder Investigation
May 24, 2019, 6:17 PM | Updated: 7:37 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The University of Utah just released a series of documents related to the shooting death of Lauren McCluskey.
KSL obtained these documents through an open records request about the track athlete’s death.
One is a case report that details Lauren McCluskey’s early communications with campus police.
It’s from October 12th, ten days before she was shot and killed near her campus dorm, she reached out over concerns that friends of her ex, later identified as Melvin Rowland, were trying to lure her into a trap.
The records show an officer told her that day that “without any threats or anything of a criminal nature that there isn’t much we can do.”
The very next day Lauren reached out again, asking police to investigate suspicious emails she received including nude images she had sent to Rowland. The email suggested she pay up to have the images deleted or the person would make them go viral.
The case file shows Lauren shared the concerning text messages, emails and even payments she made with the officer who wrote in his report.
“Based on the elements of the crime detectives can screen charges for sexual extortion,” the officer wrote.
That’s when another officer took the lead on the case. He walked back the potential for filing charges over concerns Rowland may not be connected to the emails demanding money for those photos to be deleted.
One other element we’re looking for as KSL continues to review these documents is how University of Utah Police missed the fact that Rowland had only been released from prison six months earlier and was on parole. We’ve learned from previous investigations that both technical and human errors were at fault.
