Utah university slay suspect was sex offender, records show

Utah university slay suspect was sex offender, records show

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A University of Utah student-athlete who was fatally shot on campus by her former boyfriend had broken off the relationship after learning he was a sex offender, authorities said Tuesday.

Investigators had been working to build a case against 37-year-old Melvin Rowland after a police complaint was filed against him by 21-year-old Lauren McCluskey, a senior from Pullman, Washington, university police chief Dale Brophy said.

McCluskey was found shot in a car Monday night near on-campus student housing. Rowland killed himself hours later at a church when police tracked him down after linking him to the killing through a description, clothing and evidence at the scene, authorities said.

Brophy wouldn’t disclose details from her report. Her mother, Jill McCluskey, said her daughter had filed a harassment complaint after breaking up with Rowland.

They had dated for about a month, but McCluskey ended the relationship on Oct. 9 when she learned he had lied about his age, name and criminal history, Jill McCluskey said in a statement. It wasn’t clear how the two met.

Jill McCluskey said she had been talking on the phone with her daughter as she returned from a night class and heard her yell, “No, no, no!” A few minutes later, a woman picked up the phone and said all of Lauren McCluskey’s belongings were on the ground.

“I thought she might have been in a car accident,” Jill McCluskey said. “That was the last I heard from her.”

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

He was charged with two separate crimes in September 2003, said Paul Amann, the prosecutor on the case.