Photo: Steve C. Wilson / University of Utah
McCluskey, 21, was found dead in the back seat of a parked carMonday night after a man she’d dated for one month shother after harassing herfor weeks, the woman’s mother and the university said in statements released Tuesday.
“He lied to her about his name, his age, and his criminal history,” Jill McCluskey wrote.
On Oct. 10, McCluskey asked university police to accompany her to retrieve her car, which Rowland had borrowed.
Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office
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After breaking up with Rowland, “She blocked his and his friends’ phone numbers and complained to University of Utah police that she was being harassed,” Jill McCluskey wrote.
At a press conference on Tuesday, university police chief Dale Brophy said police reports had been filed on Oct. 12 and Oct. 13 in McCluskey’s case, and that the case had been assigned to a detective.
“The detective had been in contact with Ms. McCluskey, and they were working to build a case against our suspect at that time,” said Brophy.
Steve C. Wilson / University of Utah
Addressing McCluskey’s request for university police to accompany her while retrieving her car from Rowland, Brophy said authorities “are still working on tracking that report down, whether it was us or another agency.”
Brophy also said that campus police were unable to locate Rowland before the shooting, saying they didn’t have a correct address for him.
A Haunting Last Phone Call
McCluskey was returning to her university apartment on Monday from a night class whiletalking to her mother on the phone, when she started screaming, Jill McCluskey wrote in her statement.
“Suddenly, I heard her yell, ‘No, no, no!’ ” Jill wrote.“I thought she might have been in a car accident. That was the last I heard from her.”
While her husband called 911, she kept the line open, she said.
“In a few minutes, a young woman picked up the phone and said all of Lauren’s things were on the ground,” she wrote.
Police say Rowlandfatally shot her following an argument, according to the university’s statement.
The shooting took place at about 8:20 p.m when campus police responded to a call of a possible abduction,the statement said.
McCluskey, a Washington state native and a senior at the school, was majoring in communication and was a “highly regarded member” of the school’s track and field team, the statement said.
The Associated Students of the University of Utah and the Athletics Department are planning a vigil for McCluskey on Wednesday at 5 p.m. on campus.
source: people.com
