THE BODY of 21-year-old University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey was discovered inside the back of a car near her dormitory on October 22, 2018.
The case will now be the subject of a new 20/20 episode that is scheduled to premiere on March 31, 2023.
Who was Lauren McCluskey?
Lauren McCluskey was a senior track and field athlete at the University of Utah who was born on February 12, 1997, in Berkeley, California.
She joined the UU program in 2016 after a successful high school career, which included an appearance at the 2015 USATF Outdoor Junior Championships, a 2012 Washington state high jump championship, and personal records of 9.50 in the 60 hurdles, 14.90 in the 100 hurdles, 2:24.41 in the 800, and 35’8″ in the shot put, according to her track biography.
While at UU, she majored in communications while competing in both indoor and outdoor track events.
What was Lauren McCluskey’s cause of death?
In October 2018 McCluskey began receiving suspicious text messages from an unknown number that she believed were coming from her ex-boyfriend, Melvin Rowland, and his friends.
McCluskey and Rowland had dated briefly a few weeks prior, but their relationship ended after she discovered that he had lied about his name and age.
The track star believed she was dating a 28-year-old man named Sean Fields, but she later discovered that she was dating 37-year-old Melvin Shawn Rowland, who was a convicted sex offender, according to ESPN.
At first, Rowland seemed to accept the breakup, and the split appeared to be amicable, but those feelings later changed after she began reading the text messages.
In the text messages, the sender was accusing McCluskey of murdering her ex, and demanding money in exchange for not posting compromising photos of them on the internet, according to the university’s website.
McCluskey contacted campus police about the messages, but the university later admitted that they did not have the proper resources or training to investigate the possible threat.
“She was very concerned and scared. ‘What do I do? Like, is this real? I don’t know,'” her friend Alex recalled during an interview with ESPN.
McCluskey was later found shot to death in her own car on October 22, 2018.
After her death, her family filed a lawsuit against the university, claiming that they did not take their daughter’s complaints seriously.
“They seemed to show no curiosity about this person who had lied about his age, his name, his … he was a sex offender,” her father, Matt McCluskey told ABC News. “And then they found out that he’s also a felon.”
“They should’ve investigated,” he added. “They would’ve very quickly found his parole status in one call and it would … we wouldn’t be sitting here today.”
In October 2020, the university settled the lawsuit with the family for $13.5million, and acknowledged that they did not handle McCluskey’s case appropriately.
“The university acknowledges and deeply regrets that it did not handle Lauren’s case as it should have and that, at the time, its employees failed to fully understand and respond appropriately to Lauren’s situation,” U President Ruth Watkins said in a statement.
“As a result, we failed Lauren and her family. If these employees had more complete training and protocols to guide their responses, the university believes they would have been better equipped to protect Lauren.
“We share with the McCluskeys an interest in working to improve safety for all students, not only on our campus but on campuses across the country. With our commitment to learning from our mistakes, we honor Lauren and ensure her legacy will be improved campus safety for all students.
“We are engaged in making meaningful and lasting changes in our approach to campus safety, particularly in how we respond to and assist crime victims and through focusing on research-based approaches to violence prevention,” the statement continued.
“We believe these changes will build a culture of safety that prioritizes needs of crime victims and provides them with the full response and support they need, while recognizing this is an ongoing process that takes time, resources and our complete commitment.”
The following is a timeline of McCluskey’s murder which contains information from the university’s website:
- September 1, 2018: McCluskey met Rowland, a bouncer, at a local bar & they began a relationship
- October 9, 2018: McCluskey discovered Rowland’s identity and confronted him in her dorm room. After he admitted that he lied, she broke up with him and he spent the night in her room
- October 10, 2018: After Rowland borrowed McCluskey’s car to run errands, her mother, Jill McCluskey, contacted University Police asking them to help her daughter retrieve the car. McCluskey reportedly declined the assistance, but officers told her mother that they would place security officers near the building just in case. However, later that day, she picked up the car at Rice-Eccles Stadium with a security escort
- October 12, 2018: McCluskey contacted University Police to report the suspicious text messages and explained that she felt like the person was trying to “lure her somewhere.” The reporting officer asked if she felt like she was in danger or being threatened, but she said she did not, so she was advised to not go “anywhere that made her uncomfortable” and call back if she received additional messages
- October 13, 2018: McCluskey contacted University Police again to report more messages. A report was then taken and the case was assigned to a detective
- October 19, 2018: An investigation into possible sexual extortion charges began and McCluskey was contacted by a detective, who was looking to gather additional information
- October 19-22, 2018: Security video showed Rowland on campus at multiple locations
- October 22, 2018: McCluskey contacted the police around 10.39am stated that she received an additional text message. Later that night, around 8.20pm, Rowland confronted McCluskey in a parking lot outside her residence hall while she was on the phone with her mother. An altercation quickly began and he forced her into the back seat of a car and then shot her multiple times
Where is Melvin Rowland now?
Just minutes after Rowland confronted McCluskey in the parking lot, police received a call from her father, Matt McCluskey, who believed his daughter was in danger.
“All of a sudden, I hear her yell, ‘No, no, no!'” Jill recalled during an interview with ESPN.
“And then I sort of hear her being dragged away and her phone fell.”
After describing what Jill had heard on the phone just moments before, officers were dispatched to the parking lot, her dorm, and the surrounding area.
The university also released a secure-in-place alert campus-wide with information on the suspect.
Around 12.46am, Salt Lake Police located Rowland near Trinity A.M.E. Church and they began a foot pursuit.
Police then chased him into the church, where he then shot and killed himself.