Speaker 1: Hey, undetermined listeners, It's me Dennis. I'm here to tell
Speaker 1: you about an all new season of Truer Crime, a
Speaker 1: podcast that uncovers untold stories and takes a fresh look
Speaker 1: in infamous cases. Truer Crime is hosted by the very
Speaker 1: talented Silesia Stanton, known for her deep dives into true
Speaker 1: crime's most compelling stories, and she's going even deeper in
Speaker 1: season two. Expect a perfect blend of well known stories
Speaker 1: like the assassination of Mlka and the Manson family murders,
Speaker 1: and lesser known cases about everyday people. Today, I'll be
Speaker 1: sharing one of those stories with you, an unforgettable episode
Speaker 1: about Lauren McCluskey, a college student who suffered devastating consequences
Speaker 1: after her cries for help went unanswered. Join Celicia as
Speaker 1: she takes on this heartbreaking case, one that raises tough
Speaker 1: questions about accountability and what it takes to keep people safe.
Speaker 1: If you enjoy this episode, subscribe to Truer Crime so
Speaker 1: you can hear the rest of this season, and while
Speaker 1: you're there, be sure to check out season one if
Speaker 1: you missed it. You can find Truer Crime on Spotify,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, let's
Speaker 1: get into it.
Speaker 2: Please be aware that today's episode contains references to sexual
Speaker 2: assault and suicide. Please take care while listening.
Speaker 3: Hi, my daughter Lauren McCluskey. We're talking to her mom,
Speaker 3: and then she just started saying no, no, no, no no,
Speaker 3: and like someone might have been grabbing of or something.
Speaker 2: When things go terribly wrong, we're taught to take action,
Speaker 2: to find our courage to reach out.
Speaker 3: Investigation paints a picture of a desperate college student trying
Speaker 3: to find help.
Speaker 2: But what happens when the people you trust to protect
Speaker 2: you look the other way?
Speaker 4: She did there.
Speaker 5: I think she tried to get help. She you know,
Speaker 5: did the things that you're supposed to do, and something
Speaker 5: awful still happens.
Speaker 4: I'm pissed.
Speaker 6: That's just another thing that could have been brought to
Speaker 6: my attention.
Speaker 4: That could have changed everything.
Speaker 2: And in the aftermath of a tragedy, it's never long
Speaker 2: before the questions begin, how did this happen? Could it
Speaker 2: have been prevented? And whose fault is it that it wasn't.
Speaker 2: It's exactly those questions we'll be exploring today because this
Speaker 2: is the story of Lauren McCluskey.
Speaker 4: Here where can you play some scary arc I help you?
Speaker 7: Hi?
Speaker 4: This there is Lauren I called a few days ago.
Speaker 4: I've been getting these texts from these numbers of different people,
Speaker 4: and I think they're trying to lure me somewhere.
Speaker 2: I'm Selicia Stanton and you're listening to truer crime. Today's
Speaker 2: story starts with the kind of night that for me
Speaker 2: felt deeply relatable. It was September of twenty eighteen, the
Speaker 2: warmth of summer still lingering in the air, and on
Speaker 2: this particular day, twenty one year old college student Lauren
Speaker 2: McCluskey suggested to her friend Alex that the two spend
Speaker 2: the evening at a new bar in Salt Lake, the
Speaker 2: London Bell and To While these weren't exactly novel plans
Speaker 2: for two twenty one year olds, it was the kind
Speaker 2: of thing that Lauren would have never suggested even just
Speaker 2: a few years prior. But now, in her final year
Speaker 2: at the University of Utah, Lauren had undergone a metamorphosis
Speaker 2: of sorts. Once focused solely on academics and athletics, she
Speaker 2: now embraced the spotlight. She built deep friendships, saying it
Speaker 2: care Yochi Knights even tried her hand at performing comedy. Now,
Speaker 2: Lauren was in the home stretch. Graduation just around the corner,
Speaker 2: and what better way to soak it all in than
Speaker 2: a night out with one of her best friends. When
Speaker 2: they arrived at the London Bell, the line to get
Speaker 2: in streamed down the block, but Lauren's eyes went straight
Speaker 2: to the bouncer that manned its front. He was tall,
Speaker 2: with large muscles and a sense of self assuredness that
Speaker 2: radiated off him. Que guy, new bar, and all had
Speaker 2: the makings of a good night Inside. The place was packed,
Speaker 2: but then suddenly cute bouncer reappeared, finding them seats. His
Speaker 2: name was Sean, a call center worker and community college student.
Speaker 2: Something about him intrigued Lauren. She took a chance, slipped
Speaker 2: him her number on a napkin. As they left that evening,
Speaker 2: Sean texted her. It all kicked off a whirlwind romance,
Speaker 2: marked by Sean's maturity, charm, and thoughtful gestures, nice dinners, flowers.
Speaker 2: He was the total package for Lauren, who'd always prioritized athletics,
Speaker 2: school and a tight circle of friends. Sean was different.
Speaker 2: Lauren confided in her mom, Jill, about her budding romance.
Speaker 2: It was clear to both of them that Lauren was smitten.
Speaker 2: Jill was excited that her daughter was so happy, but
Speaker 2: felt a little wary when she discovered Sean was twenty eight,
Speaker 2: seven years older than Lauren, But ultimately she decided to
Speaker 2: trust Lauren's judgment. She was an adult now, and she
Speaker 2: wanted her daughter to feel like she had the freedom
Speaker 2: to navigate her own life choices. But soon it wasn't
Speaker 2: just Jill who felt wary of the new character in
Speaker 2: Lauren's life. Alex, who'd been with Lauren the night she
Speaker 2: met Sean, had grown increasingly skeptical of her friend's rapidly
Speaker 2: intensifying relationship. According to Deseret News, within days of their
Speaker 2: first meeting, Sean became a near permanent fixture at Lauren's
Speaker 2: campus apartment, spending almost every night there. But there were
Speaker 2: other signs, too, red flags that proved increasingly difficult to overlook.
Speaker 2: Alex told ESPN about one occasion early on where Lauren
Speaker 2: said something like Sean told me I could invite a
Speaker 2: few friends to meet him on Thursday. Alex found the
Speaker 2: phrasing bizarre. He told her she could.
Speaker 4: Later.
Speaker 2: Lauren's explanation of her outfit raised more eyebrows. Sean told
Speaker 2: me to wear a T shirt and jeans, so that's
Speaker 2: why I'm wearing this, she said. Another friend remembered that
Speaker 2: whenever Sean called, Lauren was adamant about answering, and when
Speaker 2: she did, he peppered her with demanding questions, always wanting
Speaker 2: to know where she was and with who. Once, while
Speaker 2: in class, she missed his call. Later he accused her
Speaker 2: of cheating. Soon he started dictating her whereabouts, telling her
Speaker 2: not to go places where there might be other men.
Speaker 2: So you know everywhere, no parties, no friend's houses, no
Speaker 2: knights on the town. Lauren withheld judgment, though she had
Speaker 2: empathy for Sean. He'd been cheated on in the past,
Speaker 2: or so he told her. Plus, he justified his actions
Speaker 2: as protection. What would she do if a man came
Speaker 2: on to her. She needed to buy a gun, he urged.
Speaker 2: And while all these developments were shocking and scary to
Speaker 2: learn about, I think what surprised me the most was
Speaker 2: just how quickly they unfolded. It had only been three
Speaker 2: and a half weeks since the pair had met, and
Speaker 2: so on September twenty ninth, when Alex met up with Lauren,
Speaker 2: at her apartment. She was taken aback to see her
Speaker 2: friend in such a state of disarray. She looked nothing
Speaker 2: like the bold, passionate woman who'd taken her to the
Speaker 2: London Bell earlier that same month. She was thinner, tired,
Speaker 2: worn down. Alex knew it was time to take action,
Speaker 2: so she and a couple of friends reported the situation
Speaker 2: to campus housing authorities. According to the Salt Lake Tribune,
Speaker 2: they shared that Lauren was in an unhealthy and controlling
Speaker 2: relationship with a man who was constantly staying at her apartment,
Speaker 2: that he talked about bringing guns to campus, that he
Speaker 2: pressured Lauren even to buy her own, not softening their fears,
Speaker 2: they emphasized their worries that Lauren might end up seriously hurt.
Speaker 2: But instead of reporting what was shared to campus police
Speaker 2: or the school's behavior Intervention team, whose job it was
Speaker 2: to deal with cases of alleged abuse, the housing coordinator
Speaker 2: focused on the parts of the story that indicated Lauren
Speaker 2: might have violated campus housing guest policy, saying that she
Speaker 2: would chat with Lauren about that. The next day. Housing
Speaker 2: officials determined that report should be filed, but because their
Speaker 2: computer system wasn't working, it never did get filed. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: the housing team concluded that because Lauren was an adult,
Speaker 2: it was probably best for them to not get too involved. Lauren, meanwhile,
Speaker 2: remained loyal to Sean, hopeful that as time went on
Speaker 2: and their relationship strengthened, his trust issues might fade. But then,
Speaker 2: according to ESPN, right before fall break, Lauren caught a
Speaker 2: glimpse of Sean's ID. It was weird because the name
Speaker 2: listed wasn't one he'd ever told her about. She kept
Speaker 2: it to herself, and then, when she was back in
Speaker 2: her hometown for break, she tapped the name into a
Speaker 2: Google search bar. As she sifted through the pages of results,
Speaker 2: a sense of unease swept over her. Her boyfriend wasn't Sean.
Speaker 2: He was a man named Melvin Roland. And he wasn't
Speaker 2: twenty eight, he was thirty seven. But there was something
Speaker 2: else too, a picture of Melvin face, serious, eyes, sullen.
Speaker 2: It was a discovery Lauren found particularly unsettling because it
Speaker 2: was a mugshot. Melvin Roland had just left a ten
Speaker 2: year stint in lock up punishment for multiple sex crime convictions.
Speaker 2: When Lauren returned to school. It was October ninth. It
Speaker 2: had been just over a month since she first met Sean,
Speaker 2: a man she now knew was actually Melvin Roland. Dozrett
Speaker 2: News reported that alone in her apartment, Lauren dialed Alex's number.
Speaker 2: She poured out everything, revealing all the lies she had uncovered.
Speaker 2: She knew she needed to end things with Melvin, and
Speaker 2: Alex agreed, telling her she should plan to call it
Speaker 2: off somewhere public. After they hung up, Lauren caught sight
Speaker 2: of something outside her window. It was Melvin watching her.
Speaker 2: Then suddenly he was at her door, reprimanding her for
Speaker 2: discussing their relationship with others. She confronted him about what
Speaker 2: she discovered about his sex crime convictions. Ready with an excuse,
Speaker 2: he claimed that he was framed, that he was innocent
Speaker 2: and was forced into pleading guilty. Lauren wasn't buying it.
Speaker 2: She attempted multiple times to end the relationship and kept
Speaker 2: asking him to leave, but he refused. Alex told ESPN
Speaker 2: that when she called Lauren the next morning to check in,
Speaker 2: the vibes were off. Lauren wasn't saying much and she
Speaker 2: just wasn't sounding like herself. Are you alone, Alex asked her.
Speaker 2: She wasn't. Melvin had forced Lauren into allowing him to
Speaker 2: spend the night. Sometime after hanging up with Alex, she
Speaker 2: offered her car to Melvin and he left her run
Speaker 2: a few errands. Finally she was alone. Then later in
Speaker 2: the day, she started getting texts from unknown numbers. Why
Speaker 2: did you break up with the big guy? He really
Speaker 2: loves you the first one read, but quickly they started
Speaker 2: to get more and more ominous. One demanded that she
Speaker 2: go kill herself. All allegedly came from friends of Melvin's.
Speaker 2: She called her mom and relayed everything that had happened,
Speaker 2: explaining that Melvin now had her car. Jill McCluskey, concerned
Speaker 2: for her daughter's safety and well being, swooped into action.
Speaker 2: She contacted campus dispatch, hoping they could assist Lauren in
Speaker 2: safely retrieving her car. Jill informed the dispatcher that she
Speaker 2: was very upset and worried, expressing her fear that Melvin
Speaker 2: might be dangerous. Her panic eventually turned into outright tears
Speaker 2: as she desperately explained, like any mother would, that she
Speaker 2: just didn't want anything bad to happen to her daughter.
Speaker 2: It's going to be okay, Jill. The dispatcher soothed and
Speaker 2: while campus security did safely escort Lauren to her car
Speaker 2: that day. Jill's call was never documented in a centralized location,
Speaker 2: meaning that campus police never had any record of Jill
Speaker 2: or Lauren's safety concerns. That evening, two days later, Lauren's
Speaker 2: phone lit up. The strange text messages had geared up again,
Speaker 2: but this time they were even more outrageous, claiming that
Speaker 2: Roland had died, that it was all her fault that
Speaker 2: she needed to leave her apartment to go to his funeral.
Speaker 2: It was at this point that Lauren again called Campus Dispatch.
Speaker 4: Here where you played from Scary arc? I help you, Hi,
Speaker 4: This is Lauren, and I called a little a few
Speaker 4: days ago about a situation and I wanted to kind
Speaker 4: of give an update.
Speaker 2: Lauren explained what happened two days prior with her car
Speaker 2: and said she'd been receiving weird text messages about her ex.
Speaker 4: I've been these texts from these members of different people
Speaker 4: saying that they were saying that he was in the
Speaker 4: hospital and then saying that like that he passed away.
Speaker 4: But then I got texts from him and if he
Speaker 4: seems to be alive. So, and then I got a text,
Speaker 4: you know, asking me if I wanted to go to
Speaker 4: a funeral, his funeral, and I think they're trying to
Speaker 4: lure me somewhere.
Speaker 2: The dispatcher told Lauren that an officer would call her
Speaker 2: about the case, and shortly after the University of Utah
Speaker 2: police opened a formal investigation. But the next day, the
Speaker 2: threatening messages continued. It was a Saturday, four days after
Speaker 2: her breakup with Melvin and only six weeks since the
Speaker 2: two had first met. On that morning, Lauren received a
Speaker 2: barrage of emails and texts with intimate photos of herself attached.
Speaker 2: The sender claimed they planned to publish the photos online
Speaker 2: unless Lauren sent them one thousand dollars. According to ESPN,
Speaker 2: Lauren suspected Melvin was behind the text, but when she
Speaker 2: reached out to him about it, he denied it outright,
Speaker 2: saying he was also being blackmailed. Terrified and faced with
Speaker 2: what felt like limited options, Lauren caved the blackmailer and
Speaker 2: sent the request one thousand dollars through Venmo. Then, for
Speaker 2: the second time, she called campus police.
Speaker 4: Do you wonder see if they said scadding out can
Speaker 4: help you? Hi? So I am not dealing with this
Speaker 4: situation where I'm being blackmailed for money. It's a photo
Speaker 4: of my me and I X for starting to take
Speaker 4: end it out to everyone and asking her one thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Lauren told the dispatcher she suspected the blackmailer was her
Speaker 2: ex boyfriend, Melvin Roland, and just like her call the
Speaker 2: day before, she was told an officer would follow up
Speaker 2: that afternoon, though Alex urged Lauren to visit campus police
Speaker 2: in person. The two went together, and when they arrived,
Speaker 2: a pair of officers met with them in the station's
Speaker 2: reception area. Almost immediately, the women sensed their concerns weren't
Speaker 2: being taken seriously, and I mean, who could blame them?
Speaker 2: The officers didn't even bother to bring them to a
Speaker 2: private room to discuss what was obviously a sensitive situation.
Speaker 2: Hoping to convey the gravity of their concerns, Alex told
Speaker 2: ESPN that she googled Melvin right there in the station's lobby,
Speaker 2: showed the officers her screen. This guy had a history.
Speaker 2: They insisted he was a known sex offender with a
Speaker 2: criminal record, and now here he was acting erratically. Maybe
Speaker 2: Lauren even needed to move, Alex said, but the officers
Speaker 2: were unfazed. The texts were probably just a scam, they assured,
Speaker 2: maybe Melvin's phone was hacked. Still, Lauren filled out a
Speaker 2: police report and the case was assigned to on call
Speaker 2: detective Kayla Dalliff, but since Dalif was out of office
Speaker 2: that day, Lauren didn't get to connect with her directly.
Speaker 2: Later that same day, feeling unsatisfied and increasingly concerned for
Speaker 2: her safety, Lauren decided to take matters into her own hands.
Speaker 2: Maybe if she called Salt Lake City Police they would
Speaker 2: actually do something. But when she phoned them, they explained
Speaker 2: that because she lived on university grounds, her report was
Speaker 2: under the jurisdiction of campus police. She'd have to stick
Speaker 2: with them, they said, before transferring her to campus dispatch.
Speaker 4: All right, what's going on? Well, I came in earlier
Speaker 4: today and I filled out a report for the SAD
Speaker 4: You know you came into our building. Yes, I did,
Speaker 4: all right. I called nine one one because I was
Speaker 4: I was concerned and I wasn't sure. Yeah, like help
Speaker 4: speed things up. I don't know. Yeah, that's.
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you call nine on one, the call will
Speaker 4: just come back to us and do the exacting thing. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 4: do you know when an arrest would be made? You
Speaker 4: didn't talk to an optor. If you want, I can
Speaker 4: arrange that if you want that. Okay, yeah, that sounds good.
Speaker 2: Over the next several days, the harassing text messages persisted.
Speaker 2: Each time she received a new one, Lauren promptly forwarded
Speaker 2: it to law enforcement, Yet she still hadn't heard a
Speaker 2: single word from Kayla Dallas, the detective assigned to the case.
Speaker 2: With each passing day, Lauren's stress mounted. Then, on Friday,
Speaker 2: five days after she and Alex had visited campus authorities,
Speaker 2: her worries escalated upon reading the newest disturbing text message.
Speaker 2: This time, the sunder claimed they knew all about Lauren's
Speaker 2: police reports. In a panic, she called Salt Lake City PD.
Speaker 4: I'm worried because I've been working with the campus police
Speaker 4: at the u U and last Saturday I reported and
Speaker 4: then and I haven't gotten an update. Okay. But someone
Speaker 4: contacted me today, someone who said that that they know
Speaker 4: everything about the police Okay, So you already spoke to
Speaker 4: the campus police. Did something?
Speaker 3: Did this happen on the University of Utah campus?
Speaker 4: Yes, and they haven't updated or done anything. Okay.
Speaker 8: So have you notified the campus police about this?
Speaker 4: Yes? I have Okay, what prompted you to call Salt
Speaker 4: Lake City please? Well, I thought it was weird that
Speaker 4: there are people who know about the entire case and
Speaker 4: the harassers came to know about it more than me,
Speaker 4: and I'm concerned there might be an insider who's letting
Speaker 4: them know about the case. Okay, so what's some good?
Speaker 4: I haven't gotten updates. Yeah, it's been a week.
Speaker 2: The dispatcher once again directed Lauren to campus police and
Speaker 2: suggested she ask for a detective or the detective supervisor
Speaker 2: if she was concerned about how the case was being handled.
Speaker 2: Following those instructions, Lauren reached back out to campus police
Speaker 2: that same day, finally prompting a call from Detective Dallas,
Speaker 2: who provided no explanation for the delay. According to ESPN,
Speaker 2: Lauren is forced to re explain details about her case,
Speaker 2: information she felt the detective should have already known. That
Speaker 2: same night, remember it's still Friday, Lauren sent a long
Speaker 2: email to Detective Dalliff detailing the situation, but, as the
Speaker 2: Salt Lake Tribune reported, the detective was scheduled for three
Speaker 2: days off starting the very next day, and while she
Speaker 2: was gone, no one was assigned to cover Lauren's case.
Speaker 2: That Monday, while Detective Dalif was still out, Lauren received
Speaker 2: yet another suspicious text. This time, the sender claimed to
Speaker 2: be the deputy chief of campus police. They said there'd
Speaker 2: been a development in her case, that they had something
Speaker 2: at the station she needed to come look at, But,
Speaker 2: as ESPN reported, Lauren didn't trust it. The grammatical errors
Speaker 2: in the message matched the ones Melvin often made in
Speaker 2: his own writing. Lauren contacted campus police yet again, the
Speaker 2: message officers confirmed hadn't come from them. Just ignore it,
Speaker 2: they told her. That evening, Lauren called her mom on
Speaker 2: her way home from class. Despite the drama of the day,
Speaker 2: she was in pretty good spirits. According to Deseret, She
Speaker 2: was excited about a quiz she'd done well on and
Speaker 2: was on her way home planning to utilize the resulting
Speaker 2: motivation to finish another assignment.
Speaker 4: Early.
Speaker 2: As the call wrapped up, Lauren told her mom she
Speaker 2: loved her. Then suddenly Lauren started screaming. The sounds of
Speaker 2: Lauren yelling no, no, no blared through Jill's speakers. Next,
Speaker 2: a clatter as her daughter's phone dropped to the ground.
Speaker 2: As Jill told Deseret, she was immediately catapulted to another
Speaker 2: moment years earlier, when Lauren's brother was hospitalized after an
Speaker 2: aneurism had ruptured in his brain. I had that same feeling,
Speaker 2: she said, like I knew he could die. I just
Speaker 2: felt like Lauren could die. Tonight, Lauren's dad, Matt McCluskey,
Speaker 2: overheard his wife's speak her phone exchange and rushed in
Speaker 2: to help. They acted swiftly, choosing not to disconnect from
Speaker 2: Lauren's line in case you returned. Using Matt's phone, they
Speaker 2: dialed the police.
Speaker 3: All right, my daughter Lauren mc was talking to her
Speaker 3: mom and then she just started saying no, no, no,
Speaker 3: no no, and found up like someone might have been
Speaker 3: grabbing her or something.
Speaker 4: Okay, how long ago was this? This was just a
Speaker 4: two minutes ago.
Speaker 2: Matt tried his best to explain where Lauren lived and
Speaker 2: where her phone might have been dropped. While he was
Speaker 2: answering the dispatcher's questions, a voice suddenly came through Jill's phone.
Speaker 3: Oh, someone talking at her phone.
Speaker 4: Hello, Okay, could you just stay there? I think she
Speaker 4: was loved.
Speaker 2: Police began a campus wide search that continued late into
Speaker 2: the evening, and as the hours passed, Matt clung to
Speaker 2: the hope that his daughter would be found and returned
Speaker 2: to them safely. He told ESPN, I'd look out the window,
Speaker 2: and as long as I didn't see any police cars
Speaker 2: heading towards US, I thought we were okay. But then
Speaker 2: at almost ten pm, Jill got a call from Lauren's coach.
Speaker 2: Lauren had been found dead in the backseat of a
Speaker 2: car parked in a lot near her dorm. She'd been
Speaker 2: shot seven times. Watching Jill's face on the call, Matt
Speaker 2: knew immediately that Lauren was gone. The moment, he told Desaret,
Speaker 2: felt like physical trauma, like he'd been hit with a
Speaker 2: baseball bat. Melvin Roland was immediately Investigator's number one suspect,
Speaker 2: so that night they released his photo in description of
Speaker 2: the car they believed he'd left campus in. It didn't
Speaker 2: take long for them to track him down, and just
Speaker 2: before one am, the police followed him as he slipped
Speaker 2: inside a local church, but as they entered, Melvin shot himself,
Speaker 2: taking his own life, just hours after Lauren had been
Speaker 2: ripped from hers. Lauren's death sent shockwaves across the University
Speaker 2: of Utah campus as her community process the unimaginable series
Speaker 2: of events that had taken the life of someone they
Speaker 2: loved deeply, someone so many students could see themselves in.
Speaker 2: At an on campus vigil, Laurence, coach and teammates expressed
Speaker 2: their grief.
Speaker 7: Lauren McCluskey was an outstanding young woman. She was a
Speaker 7: joy to coach. You recruit a student athlete, you try
Speaker 7: to understand them, get to know them, and when you
Speaker 7: bring them on campus, you have an idea of what
Speaker 7: you want them to be or what you think they
Speaker 7: can be, and I think Lauren exceeded in all those areas.
Speaker 7: She was just genuine and sweet, and she had a
Speaker 7: relentless determination of practice that showed up every day. She
Speaker 7: was an incredible teammate. She was incredibly caring, She cared
Speaker 7: about everybody.
Speaker 6: She was an.
Speaker 7: Excellent student all the way around. She just did everything
Speaker 7: the way that you would hope a student athlete would.
Speaker 8: Yes, there are no words to describe the pain and
Speaker 8: loss we're feeling as a team right now. Lauren was
Speaker 8: always a driven athlete and gave one hundred and ten
Speaker 8: percent and everything she did. The loss of her sweet
Speaker 8: spirit to our team is truly a stating.
Speaker 5: We were beyond plus to have her as her teammate
Speaker 5: and as He's sister, and we will always We'll always
Speaker 5: miss her, and we will always always love her.
Speaker 2: In the days following Lauren's death, a clear picture of
Speaker 2: what had been going on over the last few weeks
Speaker 2: started coming together. Police confirmed that all of the threatening
Speaker 2: and hostile text messages that Lauren received had in fact
Speaker 2: come from It's now believed that he was using spoofing
Speaker 2: technology to send fake threats from multiple numbers. I also
Speaker 2: wondered about the messages that had referenced Laurence police reports.
Speaker 2: How had Melvin known about those well? According to ESPN,
Speaker 2: that had been rather simple. Before the two broke up,
Speaker 2: Lauren had logged into her email on Melvin's phone after
Speaker 2: she ended things. He used that access to monitor her,
Speaker 2: but that wasn't the only way he kept tabs on her.
Speaker 2: Unbeknownst to Lauren, he'd also been stalking her. A review
Speaker 2: of security footage revealed video of Melvin walking around campus
Speaker 2: in a full deadpool costume, his identity obscured. On the
Speaker 2: day of Lauren's murder, Melvin had spent much of the
Speaker 2: morning and afternoon around Lauren's residence hall, waiting for her.
Speaker 2: When she finally returned home that night, Melvin grabbed her
Speaker 2: outside of her building and dragged her into a car,
Speaker 2: where he shot her seven times. Next, he ditched the
Speaker 2: vehicle and made a call to a woman he'd met
Speaker 2: on a dating site. He asked her to come pick
Speaker 2: him up, and the two went on a dinner date.
Speaker 2: Back at the woman's house, Melvin took a shower and
Speaker 2: then asked to be dropped off at a coffee shop.
Speaker 2: That night, when Melvin's photo began circulating on the news,
Speaker 2: it was the woman from the dating site who recognized him.
Speaker 2: His name and age were different than what he'd told her,
Speaker 2: but his face was the same, and the car they
Speaker 2: were saying he'd been picked up in it was her car.
Speaker 2: Afraid for her safety, she reported everything to police. It
Speaker 2: was a horrifying series of events, but as the community grieved,
Speaker 2: a new question began circulating in whispers and then before long,
Speaker 2: in public demands. How could something like this have happened?
Speaker 2: And why wasn't it prevented? Lauren and her loved ones
Speaker 2: had reported Melvin Roland's abuse, and they'd done so many times,
Speaker 2: and so as new details were revealed about Melvin's past defenses,
Speaker 2: community outrage grew. When Melvin met Lauren, he was still
Speaker 2: on parole. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, he'd first
Speaker 2: landed in prison in two thousand and four after soliciting
Speaker 2: sex from a thirteen year old girl in a chat room.
Speaker 2: When he went to meet up with the girl, Melvin
Speaker 2: learned that it had all been a sting operation. He'd
Speaker 2: been talking to an undercover cop. During that investigation, police
Speaker 2: also learned that Melvin had sexually assaulted as seventeen year
Speaker 2: old girl just a few days earlier. He was charged
Speaker 2: with both crimes. Originally, his sexual assault of the seventeen
Speaker 2: year old was charged as a first degree felony, but
Speaker 2: a plea deal reduced it to third degree. This meant
Speaker 2: that instead of facing life in prison, Melvin's maximum sentence
Speaker 2: was five years. In contrast, he faced up to fifteen
Speaker 2: years for his messages with the undercover cop. During his
Speaker 2: time in prison, Melvin was sent to sex offender treatment,
Speaker 2: but failed to complete it and was denied parole. According
Speaker 2: to the Salt Lake Tribune, when he tried treatment again,
Speaker 2: he admitted to intentionally seeking out underage girls and vulnerable women,
Speaker 2: saying that he was sexually attracted to them. He completed
Speaker 2: treatment in the spring of twenty twelve, making him once
Speaker 2: again eligible for parole. During his hearing, the parole board
Speaker 2: officer asked Melvin about his crimes.
Speaker 6: I'd like you to give me kind of a idea
Speaker 6: of what we're looking at victim wise.
Speaker 9: Just does that including the women I dated in college
Speaker 9: or just.
Speaker 6: The woman that you felt you took advantage of.
Speaker 9: I would say every female that I came across dating
Speaker 9: or met on Internet. I'd say every woman I've met
Speaker 9: or that came across that I used my manipulation's actors
Speaker 9: to get what I wanted.
Speaker 6: How many? How many did you out and out rape
Speaker 6: like the one young lady?
Speaker 9: Well, not like that, but me being a womanizer, you know,
Speaker 9: I use other taxes to get what I wanted with them,
Speaker 9: manipulated and use women.
Speaker 7: How many?
Speaker 6: How many women in general did you convince to have
Speaker 6: sex with you by manipulation?
Speaker 9: Did I come across with and I had sex with
Speaker 9: I got locked up at twenty two and my sexual experience,
Speaker 9: I'd say about fifty.
Speaker 2: The parole board officer asked Melvin about his treatment and
Speaker 2: his plans if you were to be released from prison.
Speaker 2: At the end of the hearing, he told Melvin he'd
Speaker 2: recommend his parole to the board and hoped this was
Speaker 2: the last he'd ever see of him.
Speaker 6: Well, hopefully when you get out, you'll have learned from
Speaker 6: this experience. Only time is going to tell, And the
Speaker 6: therapist put that right in his report. I know he
Speaker 6: doesn't know whether you're just blowing smoke. And you're smart enough,
Speaker 6: you know what you had to do to get out,
Speaker 6: So we'll find out soon enough, because once you hit
Speaker 6: the street, if you start doing the same things say,
Speaker 6: if you come back, you know where you'll spend the
Speaker 6: rest of your life.
Speaker 9: So I caught my charge of twenty two, I got
Speaker 9: locked at twenty three and I'm thirty one. Now, yeah,
Speaker 9: I know I have that capability of reoffending, but again
Speaker 9: it's something I'll have to prove.
Speaker 2: As part of his parole, Melvin was required to abstain
Speaker 2: from pornography and social media, but just a few months
Speaker 2: later he violated these conditions and landed back in prison.
Speaker 2: Fast forward to twenty thirteen, Melvin was prolled again. ESPN
Speaker 2: reported that he had a few run ins with the
Speaker 2: police during this period, but none of those encounters landed
Speaker 2: him back in prison. Then in October twenty fifteen, things
Speaker 2: took another turn. Melvin was driving when he re rendered
Speaker 2: another car. A passerby, concerned, pulled over to check on everyone.
Speaker 2: Instead of staying put, Melvin scrambled into the passenger seat
Speaker 2: of the good Smaritan's car and demanded that he drive
Speaker 2: them away from the scene. When Melvin's parole officer caught
Speaker 2: wind of this incident, they recommended arresting him for a
Speaker 2: laundry list of violations, kidnapping, fraud, damaged to property, and
Speaker 2: leaving the scene of an accident, But because the driver
Speaker 2: didn't press charges, the parole boar decided and arrest wasn't warranted.
Speaker 2: Come February twenty sixteen, Melvin's troubles continued. During a routine visit,
Speaker 2: he bolted from parole officers. According to adult Probation and
Speaker 2: parrole records obtained by ESPN, Melvin made a clear he
Speaker 2: was done with parole. He even warned that he'd act
Speaker 2: aggressively if another officer showed up. It wasn't long before
Speaker 2: officers discovered as second phone Malvin had been using to
Speaker 2: store explicit photos and message women on social media. He
Speaker 2: was arrested for skipping his mandated sex offender therapy, fleeing
Speaker 2: from officers, possessing pornographic material, and using social media without approval.
Speaker 2: At his parole board hearing, Melvin insisted that his threats
Speaker 2: to officers were just heat of the moment frustration. Despite
Speaker 2: his claims, the board decided it was time for him
Speaker 2: to go back to prison. In April of twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: Melvin was granted parole one final time. His sentence was
Speaker 2: set to expire the following spring, and he was only
Speaker 2: out of prison for a handful of months before meeting
Speaker 2: Lauren three days after Lauren had reported being blackmailed. Melvin
Speaker 2: had actually met with his parole but because campus police
Speaker 2: never checked Melvin's offender status, they didn't even know he
Speaker 2: was on parole. Checking parole status just wasn't a part
Speaker 2: of campus police protocol. In fact, according to ESPN, the
Speaker 2: University of Utah's internal investigation discovered that officers didn't even
Speaker 2: know how to check correction statuses in the first place.
Speaker 2: Some sources even reported that the university police chief didn't
Speaker 2: trust Utah's Adult Probation and Parole Board and that it
Speaker 2: was basically unofficial policy to avoid communicating with them out
Speaker 2: of fear they might negatively interfere with ongoing investigations at
Speaker 2: the university. It's all a shame because the fact is
Speaker 2: Melvin had social media, was using dating sites, and even
Speaker 2: borrowed a gun before killing Lauren, all of which were
Speaker 2: in direct violation of his parole terms. In the aftermath
Speaker 2: of Lauren's murder, the University of Utah hired an independent
Speaker 2: team to review u the university officers handling of her case.
Speaker 2: Their report highlighted several shortcomings by officials and recommendations for improvement,
Speaker 2: including hiring victim advocates and providing officers with adequate training
Speaker 2: related to interpersonal violence. The report concluded, quote, we will
Speaker 2: never know that this tragedy could have been prevented without
Speaker 2: these deficiencies. What we can say is that correcting the
Speaker 2: issues we have identified in this report might lessen the
Speaker 2: probability of such a tragedy occurring again. But according to
Speaker 2: the Salt Lake Tribune, the university president took her own
Speaker 2: interpretation of their report. At a press converce, she claimed, quote,
Speaker 2: the report does not offer any reason to believe that
Speaker 2: this tragedy could have been prevented. It was a statement
Speaker 2: that didn't sit well with Lauren's loved ones. Lauren's parents
Speaker 2: filed a fifty six million dollar lawsuit the following summer.
Speaker 2: At the time, they said they viewed it as a
Speaker 2: last resort after months of trying to work with the
Speaker 2: University of Utah directly. But in the years following laurence murder,
Speaker 2: it became clear that issues with the University police department
Speaker 2: stretched far beyond the mistakes made in Lauren's case. Just
Speaker 2: five months after Laurence murder, Detective Dalif was fired for
Speaker 2: taking insufficient and delayed action on yet another domestic violence case. Similarly,
Speaker 2: Officer Miguel Dares, one of Lauren's primary points of contact
Speaker 2: within the department, was disciplined for mistakes he made in
Speaker 2: a similar case. According to his discipline letter, in that case,
Speaker 2: he didn't check the suspect's prole status and even interviewed
Speaker 2: the victim while the suspect was still in the room.
Speaker 2: To make matters worse, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that
Speaker 2: Officer Darris had shown Lauren's intimate photos to a coworker. Yep,
Speaker 2: the same photos Melvin used to blackmail Lauren, and no
Speaker 2: Officer Dares wasn't showing the photos in some kind of
Speaker 2: professional capacity. Instead, he was bragging about quote getting to
Speaker 2: look at them whenever he wanted. The university responded saying
Speaker 2: they were aware of Deris's behavior, but had only learned
Speaker 2: of him sharing the photos after he'd transferred to a
Speaker 2: different police department. The Salt Lake Tribune also published its
Speaker 2: own investigative report, one that illuminated a long history of
Speaker 2: officers downplaying and ignoring cases of dating and domestic violence.
Speaker 2: According to discipline records they obtained during their investigation, many
Speaker 2: officers failed to contact victims on reasonable timelines, some even
Speaker 2: ignoring reports completely. Former staff members told the Salt Lake
Speaker 2: Tribune that they had instructions to quote downplay the number
Speaker 2: of domestic violence cases by not creating a record for
Speaker 2: some calls or altering dispatch log entries for others. Similarly,
Speaker 2: female students who had reported rape, sexual assault, and harassment
Speaker 2: said they felt their concerns weren't taken seriously. Hearing about
Speaker 2: all these egregious errors had me reflecting on accountability. Its
Speaker 2: abund dentally clear that so many individual people failed at
Speaker 2: their jobs, countless singular missteps with dire consequences, And while
Speaker 2: those folks certainly must be held accountable for their role.
Speaker 2: I also believe that the easiest thing we can do
Speaker 2: as a society is to scapegoat one or a few individuals.
Speaker 2: The harder, and perhaps more crucial task is to recognize
Speaker 2: the ways in which entire systems failed to protect Lauren.
Speaker 2: Because individuals operating in broken systems are bound to fail,
Speaker 2: and it's for that reason that Lauren's parents continue fighting
Speaker 2: for change in her memory. In twenty twenty, the McCluskey's
Speaker 2: won a thirteen and a half million dollar settlement from
Speaker 2: the state and University of Utah. Soon after, they shared
Speaker 2: their intention to donate all of the settlement money to
Speaker 2: the Lauren mcluskey Foundation, an organization they founded in twenty
Speaker 2: nineteen with a mission to increase awareness of stalking and
Speaker 2: dating violence at colleges and universities across the country. As
Speaker 2: a part of that work, they also created Lauren's Promise,
Speaker 2: a campaign that encourages faculty, staff, students, parents, and community
Speaker 2: members to publicly pledge their support with a statement of
Speaker 2: solidarity that indicates to others that they will listen and
Speaker 2: believe victims of sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking, that
Speaker 2: they can be a trusted source ready to connect folks
Speaker 2: with needed resources. The McCluskey family has also been critical
Speaker 2: in the adoption of several state bills, including one that
Speaker 2: requires Utah public colleges to create detailed response plans for
Speaker 2: cases of stalking, sexual assault, dating, and domestic violence. Amidst
Speaker 2: student protests and the work of Laurence loved Ones, the
Speaker 2: University of Utah has also made a number of meaningful changes.
Speaker 2: According to the Salt Lake Tribune. In twenty twenty, the
Speaker 2: school opened a Center for Violence Prevention, an institution that
Speaker 2: will research intimate partner of violence like that which Lauren experienced.
Speaker 2: And truly, all of what I just shared is the
Speaker 2: tip of the iceberg. Despite the overwhelming pain of Lauren's death,
Speaker 2: the mccluskeys have been fueled by their unimaginable loss to
Speaker 2: make a meaningful difference. And still there is so much
Speaker 2: work to be done. In fact, another University of Utah student,
Speaker 2: nineteen year old Shifon Dong, was killed by her ex
Speaker 2: in February of twenty twenty two, less than a month
Speaker 2: after she reported to campus police that the same ex
Speaker 2: had assaulted her. As Lauren's dad told ESPN, there are
Speaker 2: so many young women like Lauren who are just as
Speaker 2: precious to their parents, women whose stories don't get the
Speaker 2: same attention. And for me, it's that acknowledgment that should
Speaker 2: fuel the rest of us. Lauren's legacy has and will
Speaker 2: continue to be absolutely transformative. And if a single story
Speaker 2: can spur so much action, what might be possible if
Speaker 2: we afforded every young person this same level of care
Speaker 2: and recognition. Maybe then we could understand the full picture
Speaker 2: a little more deeply, that these stories have happened, are happening,
Speaker 2: and will continue to happen unless and until we decide
Speaker 2: to stop treating community problems as individual problems and transform
Speaker 2: systems that keep us trapped in patterns that ultimately hurt
Speaker 2: all of us. Before you jump away, just a couple
Speaker 2: more things and to share with you. One thing that
Speaker 2: really stuck out to me about today's story is Lauren's parents,
Speaker 2: Jill and Matt McCluskey, and just their commitment to advocating
Speaker 2: for folks like Lauren across the country. We told you
Speaker 2: in the episode, but in her honor, they founded the
Speaker 2: Lauren McCluskey Foundation, whose mission is to let Lauren's light
Speaker 2: shine by supporting her passions which were things like animal welfare,
Speaker 2: amateur athletics, and of course, by making sure that campuses
Speaker 2: across the country are a place where students are safe,
Speaker 2: supported and have the ability to thrive. So I really
Speaker 2: recommend that for today's action item check out their website.
Speaker 2: They offer advocates and allies a plethora of amazing resources,
Speaker 2: even things like a student toolkit for those who like
Speaker 2: to push for change and create a culture of safety
Speaker 2: on their own campuses. Much of their work also centers
Speaker 2: around forwarding Lauren's Promise, which is that pledge that basically
Speaker 2: says I will listen and believe you if someone is
Speaker 2: threatening you. So you can make Lauren's promise, learn how
Speaker 2: to volunteer and donate to support the the rest of
Speaker 2: their incredible work at Lauren McCluskey dot org. As always,
Speaker 2: you can keep up with truecrime on Instagram and x
Speaker 2: at Truecrimepod, and you can also find me on Instagram
Speaker 2: and TikTok at Slicia Stanton and through my weekly newsletter,
Speaker 2: Sincerely Slicia at Sincerelyslicia dot substock dot com. For a
Speaker 2: full source list and links to all of today's action items,
Speaker 2: make sure to visit our website at Truercrime podcast dot com.
Speaker 2: Truer Crime is created, hosted, and written by me Selicia
Speaker 2: Stanton and is a production of tenor Foot TV and
Speaker 2: association with Odyssey, Additional writing and research by Olivia Husingfeld.
Speaker 2: Executive producers are myself, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Additional
Speaker 2: production by Olivia Husingfeld and Jamie Albright. Editing by Liam Luxen,
Speaker 2: with additional editing support by Sidney Evans and ja Ja Mohammad.
Speaker 2: Our supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Artwork by Station sixteen,
Speaker 2: original music by Jay Ragsdale, mix by Dayton Cole. Thank
Speaker 2: you to Orrin Rosenbaum and the team at Uta Backmedia
Speaker 2: and Marketing and the Nord Group. For more podcasts like
Speaker 2: true Crime, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app
Speaker 2: or visit us at Tenderfoot dot tv. Thanks for listening