Speaker 1: Crazy in Love is the true crime podcast that tells
Speaker 1: love stories with a twist. When Lauren told her parents
Speaker 1: about Seohn, they could tell that she was quote unquote smitten.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the twist of a knife, campus police start a
Speaker 1: man hunt for Melbourne. They ended up finding him hours
Speaker 1: later inside an unlocked church. Just because things start off
Speaker 1: with once upon a Time doesn't mean everyone lives happily
Speaker 1: ever after. This is Crazy in Love, a production of
Speaker 1: Katie Studios and I Heart Radio. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a
Speaker 1: crime producer at Katie Studios, joined by fellow producers Stephanie Ledaker,
Speaker 1: Beth Greenwald, and Jeff Shane. We've all worked for years
Speaker 1: on various crime podcasts and TV series, and as crime
Speaker 1: producers we talk murder all the time. One thing we've
Speaker 1: noticed is just how many of them stem from love.
Speaker 1: We're exploring the story of the runner, the fire, and
Speaker 1: the broken system. Since she was a baby, Lauren McCluskey
Speaker 1: like to move. She learned to walk at just nine
Speaker 1: months old and quickly excelled at track and field. Hurtling
Speaker 1: and high jumps became her strong suit. At one point
Speaker 1: she even ranked tenth in the country, and before she
Speaker 1: knew it. Lauren had a plethora of colleges offering her scholarships.
Speaker 1: Smart and reserved, Lauren and her parents decided on the
Speaker 1: University of Utah, where she would major in communication studies.
Speaker 1: Aside from its strong track program Salt Lake City was
Speaker 1: a safe place and Lauren's parents felt comfortable about sending
Speaker 1: her all the way from Washington State. Her father's biggest
Speaker 1: concern was her driving, and he spent hours researching the
Speaker 1: best car for her. At school, Lauren made friends quickly,
Speaker 1: but really focused on church track and her studies. Partying
Speaker 1: and dating took a back seat. It wasn't until the
Speaker 1: fall of her senior year that she met a guy
Speaker 1: who caught her eye. On a night out with her
Speaker 1: best friend and roommate, Alex, she met a bouncer at
Speaker 1: a local bar, the London Bell. His name was Shaun Fields. Tall,
Speaker 1: dark and handsome. There was an immediate attraction. Throughout the night,
Speaker 1: Shawn kept an eye on Lauren and her friend, making
Speaker 1: sure they got drinks in a timely fashion. At the
Speaker 1: end of the night, on the way out of the bar,
Speaker 1: Shawn asked Lauren for her number. The next day he
Speaker 1: called and asked her to dinner, and just a week
Speaker 1: and a half later, they were officially boyfriend and girlfriend.
Speaker 1: Here's Jeff first and foremost as producers were victims advocates.
Speaker 1: Our goal is always to shine a light on injustices
Speaker 1: and bring attention to stories that we feel need to
Speaker 1: be heard. In our work, We've noticed that many of
Speaker 1: these crimes stem from the same thing, love, and that's
Speaker 1: why we decided to call together some of the most egregious, shocking,
Speaker 1: and terrifying stories of relationships that took deadly turns. Our
Speaker 1: hope is to not only raise awareness about the victim
Speaker 1: and what happened to them, but also help listeners learn
Speaker 1: to look out for some of the warning signs in
Speaker 1: toxic situations that are in their own lives. Lauren actually
Speaker 1: chose the University of Utah because it was considered so safe. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: Utah is actually the fourth safest state in the United States,
Speaker 1: and this university specifically highlights safety as being such a
Speaker 1: big importance on campus. In fact, their admissions department actually
Speaker 1: has a packet that outlines all of their safety measures
Speaker 1: and it's listed as definitely one of the safest schools
Speaker 1: in Utah. You can't get much safer than being with
Speaker 1: a former military guy who works as a security guard. Well,
Speaker 1: Jeff Shaun was a part time computer science student at
Speaker 1: a nearby community college. He also was in the military
Speaker 1: and trained as a security officer. And this was Laurences
Speaker 1: first relationship. And Shawn and Lawrence courtship was described as
Speaker 1: very old fashioned. He'd call her and ask her out
Speaker 1: and take her to these nice dinners, nothing like the
Speaker 1: drunken hookups that most college students deal with. And he
Speaker 1: was older. He was twenty eight, so he was seven
Speaker 1: years her senior. But you know, remember she was really
Speaker 1: mature for age. Sean was not only Lauren's first boyfriend,
Speaker 1: but really the first guy that she ever spent any
Speaker 1: extended period of time with, even casually dated. Not only
Speaker 1: was she extremely excited, but she was also very inexperienced
Speaker 1: with guys in general. When Lauren told her parents about Sean,
Speaker 1: they could tell that she was quote unquote smitten. Her
Speaker 1: dad remembers even thinking that very quickly, and Lauren seemed
Speaker 1: like she was in love. Well, Lauren was over the
Speaker 1: moon with her new relationship fairly quickly, her friends saw
Speaker 1: some disturbing cracks. Lauren, who was once very independent. Now
Speaker 1: seemed like she was at Shawn's beck and call. He
Speaker 1: would make her pick him up after his shift at
Speaker 1: the bar ended, without fail, sometimes as late as two am.
Speaker 1: He also started to require Lauren to send him photos
Speaker 1: of where she was and who she was with. He
Speaker 1: wanted to know exactly what she was up to. The
Speaker 1: relationship continued to get serious, and after just a few weeks,
Speaker 1: he was basically living in Lauren's dorm. After becoming friends
Speaker 1: with other students, he was able to get in and
Speaker 1: out of the dorm without the usually required key card.
Speaker 1: Things took an unexpected and somewhat dangerous turn when Sean
Speaker 1: started telling Lauren he wanted to give her a gun.
Speaker 1: He insisted it was for her safety. Here's Stephanie. In
Speaker 1: doing our research, we learned that Lauren's friends were immediately
Speaker 1: disturbed by this purchase of a gun, but Laurence seemed
Speaker 1: to be less surprised or concerned about it. Sean, we know,
Speaker 1: had taken Lauren to the shooting range with some of
Speaker 1: his friends, and he always told her that he felt
Speaker 1: it was very important that she knew how to operate
Speaker 1: a gun, mostly so that she could always protect herself
Speaker 1: Lauren's friend and her are a the resident advisor on
Speaker 1: their floor in the college dormitory. They actually were very
Speaker 1: concerned about their being a gun being held at the university,
Speaker 1: and they reported it, and despite the concerns, the universities
Speaker 1: seemed very unfazed and basically brushed it off. Just worth
Speaker 1: noting studies also do show that it's actually more dangerous
Speaker 1: to own a gun because there's a chance you could
Speaker 1: actually be killed with it by mistake. You know, Steph,
Speaker 1: you know. Two thousand and fourteen review of the Annals
Speaker 1: of Internal Medicine concluded having a firearm in the home,
Speaker 1: even when it's properly stored, doubles the risk of someone
Speaker 1: becoming the victim of homicide, and it triples the risk
Speaker 1: of suicide. The r A really was right in her
Speaker 1: thinking that this should be reported and taken seriously, and
Speaker 1: it must have been really frustrating that the University of
Speaker 1: Utah was kind of brushing her off and putting off
Speaker 1: any sort of disciplinary action against Lauren and Sean for
Speaker 1: having this gun. Lauren was also really exhausted because Sean
Speaker 1: was increasingly getting more controlling in nature wanted to know
Speaker 1: who she was with, where she was, and friends remembered
Speaker 1: that laurencein said not like her usual bubbly self, but
Speaker 1: she would always make excuses for on behavior and maybe
Speaker 1: it was her inexperience in dating. She didn't really have
Speaker 1: a boy from before, and friends to tell her that
Speaker 1: this stuff is not normal, even if it's your first relationship.
Speaker 1: These are red flags. This is also a clear example
Speaker 1: that Lauren has followed the rules perfectly. She's done everything correctly.
Speaker 1: She chose the right school because it was so safe.
Speaker 1: She's learning gun safety even though she might have some misgivings,
Speaker 1: She's at least learning it correctly, and her friends also
Speaker 1: did the right thing by reporting it. In early October,
Speaker 1: after about a month of dating, Lauren made a shocking discovery.
Speaker 1: She happened to get a glimpse of Shawn's I D
Speaker 1: and while his photo was there, there was a different name.
Speaker 1: It was Melvin Rowland and Melvin's age was listed at
Speaker 1: thirty seven, not twenty eight like Sean had told Lauren.
Speaker 1: So Lauren did what any young person does when they
Speaker 1: have a question. They turned to Google, and what she
Speaker 1: found was pretty disturbing. She found out that Sean or
Speaker 1: Melvin as his real name is was actually a registered
Speaker 1: sex offender. He was convicted of forcible sexual abuse and
Speaker 1: enticing a minor over the internet. Scared and confused, Lauren
Speaker 1: talked to her mom and her friends about the best
Speaker 1: way to break up with him. That's disturbing to no end.
Speaker 1: I mean, again, this is her first real relationship, Jeff Right,
Speaker 1: and to find out that the guy that she fell
Speaker 1: head over heels for was a registered sex offender who
Speaker 1: lied about his age. What else? What is true about
Speaker 1: this guy? I mean, that is shocking information to learn
Speaker 1: about the person you love. Yeah, Stephen, you know, to
Speaker 1: your earlier point, we talked about her inexperience in dating.
Speaker 1: But again she did the right thing. She found the answers,
Speaker 1: and she immediately made the decision to break up with him.
Speaker 1: So she was not going to let this guy lie
Speaker 1: to her at this point, he was so woven into
Speaker 1: the fabric of her life. He was so friendly with
Speaker 1: other people in the dorm that he didn't need a
Speaker 1: card to get in out. Her friends were his friends,
Speaker 1: and so this just must have been to the core
Speaker 1: disturbed ring for her. But he really kind of had
Speaker 1: a meshed himself in her world. And to find this out,
Speaker 1: you know, not only for Lauren's security, but those around her.
Speaker 1: She must be feeling, you know, some sort of responsibility
Speaker 1: and guilt about. That's such a good point, Beth. And
Speaker 1: also imagine how devastated she must have been here you
Speaker 1: are choosing what you think to be this wonderful guy,
Speaker 1: only to find out that everything is a lie in
Speaker 1: a house of cards. Where do you go from there?
Speaker 1: These are big, big lies, And at this point that
Speaker 1: she needs out of the bottle and she can't go backward.
Speaker 1: But it's probably a scary thing to figure out how
Speaker 1: to successfully break up with him altogether. Steph had also
Speaker 1: almost rock her to the core and just make her
Speaker 1: question her decisions. Here she was, she was in the
Speaker 1: stable relationship with the secure guy, and all of it
Speaker 1: turned out to be wrong. So I wonder if she
Speaker 1: lost like a lot of her confidence a hundred percent.
Speaker 1: And imagine this guy is presenting himself to be one way,
Speaker 1: and it's probably a very smooth talker and a well
Speaker 1: to do that very successfully. So yeah, she didn't do
Speaker 1: anything wrong. She believed him is just the truth, and
Speaker 1: that's what people do when they're in love. My heart
Speaker 1: breaks for her because she finds out this information, and
Speaker 1: even though she loves him, how confusing. Where does she
Speaker 1: go from here? The night of her unsettling discovery, Sean
Speaker 1: who we now knew is really named Melvin, came over
Speaker 1: and Lauren tried to break up with him, but he
Speaker 1: ended up convincing her to let him spend the night.
Speaker 1: The next day, he left but borrowed Lauren's car. To Lauren,
Speaker 1: this was the end of their relationship. The relationship was over.
Speaker 1: She just needed her car back. The plan was that
Speaker 1: Melvin would drop the car in a lot and Lauren
Speaker 1: would pick it up later. Concerned, Lauren's mom called campus
Speaker 1: police and explained the entire situation. Campus police set up
Speaker 1: an escort with Lauren to get the car, and it
Speaker 1: went off without a hitch. With the car back and
Speaker 1: the boyfriend dumped. Lauren thought this strange and unsettling chapter
Speaker 1: was finally over. That was until just two days later,
Speaker 1: on October twelve, Lauren started getting a barrage of texts
Speaker 1: from different numbers. They all claimed to be friends of Melvin.
Speaker 1: At first, the texts were innocuous things like why did
Speaker 1: you do this to the big guy? Now he's upset,
Speaker 1: But soon they got increasingly bizarre. The so called friends
Speaker 1: told her Melvin was injured, and at one point even
Speaker 1: told her that he was dead. One exchange went like this,
Speaker 1: will you come to a funeral? And unknown number asked
Speaker 1: Lauren responded, I know he's alive, Please leave me alone
Speaker 1: and don't Texas number I got the police involved. Understandably,
Speaker 1: Lauren was scared, and she called nine one one. Here's
Speaker 1: an excerpt from that call. I've been getting these texts
Speaker 1: about from some of these numbers are right, um of
Speaker 1: different people saying that they were saying that he was
Speaker 1: in the hospital and then saying that like that he
Speaker 1: passed away. But then but then I got a text
Speaker 1: from him and he seems to be alive. So um,
Speaker 1: and then they were I got a text about, you know,
Speaker 1: asking if I wanted to go to m hm a funeral,
Speaker 1: his funeral. It's harrowing stuff. Again, this is a major
Speaker 1: cry for help. And at the time told her that
Speaker 1: there was really nothing that they could do about it
Speaker 1: because the texts weren't directly threatening her, and really all
Speaker 1: Lauren could do was block the numbers and hope that
Speaker 1: it would stop. We're going to take a quick break.
Speaker 1: We'll be back in just a moment. I've been doing
Speaker 1: a little research about online harassment and what it means
Speaker 1: and how serious it is, and it actually happens to
Speaker 1: a lot of people. Forty one percent of people have
Speaker 1: reported experiencing some sort of cyber harassment. Furthermore, percent of
Speaker 1: woman report being harassed in general. So clearly it's an issue,
Speaker 1: and it's a shame that the campus police couldn't or
Speaker 1: wouldn't take it more seriously. Again, they're just working under
Speaker 1: the law of what counts as harassment. This was serious,
Speaker 1: but the campus police only have about twenty officers for
Speaker 1: a campus of over thirty students, and so they can't
Speaker 1: follow up in great detail with every single call they get. Understood,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, her friends already reached out
Speaker 1: saying that there was a gun being held at the campus.
Speaker 1: And now this is her, the person who's with the
Speaker 1: guy who has the gun, calling and saying something that
Speaker 1: would feel right, and she's getting all these texts that
Speaker 1: are bringing her concern. At some point somebody should look
Speaker 1: into it. I think that is a case of people
Speaker 1: not connecting the dots. Lauren's friend and r A reported
Speaker 1: the gun to the dorm authorities and Lauren's calling campus police,
Speaker 1: and so these two groups are not intersecting on reports, Jeff,
Speaker 1: Everything that happened is already disturbing. But then the harassment
Speaker 1: seemed to escalate, and Lauren got an email that was
Speaker 1: threatening to release intimate photos that she took with Melvin
Speaker 1: if she didn't pay a thousand bucks. So they were
Speaker 1: basically going to publicly humiliate her unless she paid this money,
Speaker 1: which is blackmail, and Lauren really wasn't sure what to do.
Speaker 1: You know, she paid the money and went in person
Speaker 1: to file a report with campus police, and what they
Speaker 1: had said to her actually was that it was a
Speaker 1: scam and to ignore it. And they even suggested that
Speaker 1: Melvin might be a victim to this too. How is
Speaker 1: that not looked into? Even if that's the case and
Speaker 1: Melvin's a victim and this as well, This to me
Speaker 1: seems like a tipping point of mounting evidence that at
Speaker 1: the bare minimum, somebody from the university should be checking
Speaker 1: into it, even a very basic level. Now this points
Speaker 1: to a third time that there has been an instance
Speaker 1: that police or officials at the campus were notified of
Speaker 1: something that just didn't feel right and they chose not
Speaker 1: to act on it. Someone threatening to reveal this intimate
Speaker 1: photo is a violation of the state revenge porn laws.
Speaker 1: So I'm surprised that no one jumped into action on
Speaker 1: her nine on one calls. You know, you hear the
Speaker 1: fear in her voice and kind of the trepidation. You know,
Speaker 1: she's a twenty one year old girl calling nine on
Speaker 1: one by herself. If anyone's ever been in fear, it
Speaker 1: is a very confusing place to be. And on the
Speaker 1: one hand, you have all these mixed emotions. You feel betrayed,
Speaker 1: you feel sad, you feel scared, and you kind of
Speaker 1: just want somebody to swoop in to fix it. Her
Speaker 1: friends were rallying for her, and now the university has
Speaker 1: been reached out to three separate times. What more could
Speaker 1: she possibly do? Yest that from when I looked it
Speaker 1: up in Utah to class a missemeanor to knowingly or
Speaker 1: attentionally distribute sexual images to anybody without that person's consent.
Speaker 1: So that was a that was a crime right and
Speaker 1: should have been handled as a crime. Not to mention
Speaker 1: you know how much courage it takes to actually reach
Speaker 1: out and ask for help, especially if you've been in
Speaker 1: a controlling relationship, which we know this was. It's really
Speaker 1: hard to see outside of it. Sometimes you don't trust
Speaker 1: your own gut, you don't trust your own instincts, and
Speaker 1: she was wise enough and brave enough to actually speak
Speaker 1: out and ask for help, help that honestly never came.
Speaker 1: Ten days after the breakup, in mid October, Lauren got
Speaker 1: a text that read, what did you tell the cops?
Speaker 1: We know everything? How did Melvin know that Lauren had
Speaker 1: gone to the police? Had her tech savvy x actor?
Speaker 1: Was there a leak in the police department. Exasperated, Lauren
Speaker 1: decided to go to Salt Lake City Police with more manpower.
Speaker 1: She hoped they would help her, but frustratingly, they followed
Speaker 1: protocol and referred her back to campus police. The campus
Speaker 1: police continued to brush off her concerns. Lauren was angry
Speaker 1: and scared. She told her friends that the police didn't
Speaker 1: believe her. Here's a portion of another nine one one
Speaker 1: call Lauren made. I'm worried because I I've been working
Speaker 1: with the campus police UM at the U and last
Speaker 1: Saturday I reported and then UM and I haven't gotten
Speaker 1: an update. Okay, but somewhat contacted me today. Someone who
Speaker 1: was harassed, said that that they know everything about the police.
Speaker 1: And okay, so you already spoke to the campus police.
Speaker 1: Did something. Did this happen on the University of Utah campus? Um? Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and they haven't updated or done anything. So the case
Speaker 1: it involves extortion. And it's really maddening to hear this
Speaker 1: call because again now she knows that the university police
Speaker 1: are failing her and not taking her attempts to get
Speaker 1: some help seriously. So she has again the courage to
Speaker 1: actually call the real police on one to say please help,
Speaker 1: nobody's listening to me, and again she just gets benched
Speaker 1: and given no support. Steph. You know, again going back
Speaker 1: to the beginning of this, this was her first boyfriend,
Speaker 1: and then to find out everything that she found out
Speaker 1: must have shook her confidence. And now she's doing what
Speaker 1: she thinks is the right thing to do, and no
Speaker 1: one's reacting with the urgency that she feels. So I'm
Speaker 1: sure you know, she's just kind of lost. Her whole life,
Speaker 1: followed all the rules. You know, she went to church,
Speaker 1: she worked hard in school, she worked hard in track,
Speaker 1: and that got her to where she was, which is
Speaker 1: in a successful place. And now that she's in this
Speaker 1: place of fear. She's still trying to follow the rules
Speaker 1: and it's not working. Can you imagine how petrified she
Speaker 1: must have been to actually call nine one one and
Speaker 1: fear that they would ignore her again and that somebody
Speaker 1: would find out that she had called nine one one
Speaker 1: and that he would retaliate against her. Yeah, and at
Speaker 1: any moment release these intimate photos that he's threatening her with, like,
Speaker 1: so that's another layer of juicing physical or he could
Speaker 1: just at one point just release the photos and her
Speaker 1: whole reputation at schools run. She was probably in such
Speaker 1: a dark place. It's really sad. And you can hear that, Jeff.
Speaker 1: You know, remember back in in the middle of like October,
Speaker 1: she was getting a bras of these texts from different numbers,
Speaker 1: and one of these texts and it wasn't Melvin's number,
Speaker 1: she said, leave me alone. I got the police involved.
Speaker 1: So that leaves me to believe, you know, is that
Speaker 1: some sort of ghost number he was using, And she
Speaker 1: did say I got the police involved. It's really unfortunate
Speaker 1: to Beth because we hear this time and time again
Speaker 1: that a victim or soon to be victim reaches out
Speaker 1: to authorities and either gets a restraining order or reaches
Speaker 1: out for help to loved ones, and as a result,
Speaker 1: that might make the perpetrator more angry and retaliate. So
Speaker 1: in her case, she's shouting from the rooftops to anybody
Speaker 1: who will listen, and outside of her friends in her
Speaker 1: immediate family, nobody is taking her seriously in any way.
Speaker 1: And meanwhile, there's actual security footage that shows Melvin at
Speaker 1: various different campus locations looking for Lauren, which is super scary.
Speaker 1: So she was right to be fearful of this. We
Speaker 1: often have a bad feeling and somehow explain it away.
Speaker 1: We don't trust our own instincts and trust our gut,
Speaker 1: and this is an unfortunate reminder that we have to.
Speaker 1: At one point, Lauren even sent screenshots of Melvine's criminal
Speaker 1: history to police, begging for help and really pointing to
Speaker 1: the fact this guy is we should take this seriously,
Speaker 1: and to that no one even responded. Unimaginable. That's your
Speaker 1: whole purpose is to protect these you know, the students.
Speaker 1: And again she's giving you everything you need. There was
Speaker 1: a gun, there's harassment, there's blackmail, a violation of the
Speaker 1: porn law, and now this where she's basically saying, he's
Speaker 1: on parole, he's a sex offender and convicted of violent
Speaker 1: crimes and what was done Nothing. Yeah, she was betrayed
Speaker 1: by Melvin, but I think, honestly, the biggest betrayal in
Speaker 1: this case is the school to Lauren, how much they
Speaker 1: failed her. And can you imagine how infuriating that must
Speaker 1: be for the parents of Lauren, Like her poor mother
Speaker 1: must be beside herself, because again, they were all shouting
Speaker 1: from the rooftops. Mrs McClaskey made multiple calls to campus
Speaker 1: police talking about the situation, explaining them even at one
Speaker 1: point thanking them for their help. So it's not like
Speaker 1: they were turning a blind eye of this either. Everyone
Speaker 1: in Lauren's life was trying to get her the help
Speaker 1: she needed. At one point, Lauren even sent screenshots of
Speaker 1: Melvin's criminal history to police, begging for help, but no
Speaker 1: one responded. On the morning of Monday, October, a month
Speaker 1: and a half after meeting Melvin, Lauren got a text
Speaker 1: from an unknown number. It claimed to be an officer
Speaker 1: asking Lauren to meet. Concerned it was Melvin trying to
Speaker 1: lure her somewhere, she called nine on one to report
Speaker 1: him impersonating an officer. Police told her to simply ignore
Speaker 1: the texts. That afternoon, Melvin was spotted on dorm security
Speaker 1: footage pacing the halls waiting for Lauren. Hours later, he
Speaker 1: was still in the dorm lobby. At eight pm, Lauren
Speaker 1: was walking back from class. She was on the phone
Speaker 1: with her mother. They were having a normal conversation. Lauren
Speaker 1: was talking about projects she was working on and at
Speaker 1: school was going well. She was hopeful to move past
Speaker 1: the Melvin saga. But what Lauren's mother heard next is
Speaker 1: every parent's worst nightmare. Lauren was ambushed by Melvin in
Speaker 1: the parking lot. He dragged her in to his car,
Speaker 1: throwing her in the back seat, and shooting her several times.
Speaker 1: She died on the scene. All the while, her mother
Speaker 1: was listening to her daughter's final moments. So after hearing
Speaker 1: this horrible moment, Lauren's dad immediately calls campus police and
Speaker 1: tell this them what they think they just heard. Campus
Speaker 1: police react and immediately locked down the school and start
Speaker 1: a man hunt for Melbourne. They ended up finding him
Speaker 1: hours later inside an unlocked church, and he had shot
Speaker 1: himself to death. Yeah, Jeff. And afterwards the police looked
Speaker 1: into Melvin Rowland's history and discovered he was on parole
Speaker 1: and he wasn't supposed to be carrying a firearm and
Speaker 1: even have a social media profile, both of which he did,
Speaker 1: you know, quite flavorrantly, and had the police looked into
Speaker 1: it when Lauren called, they would have been easily able
Speaker 1: to arrest him. You know again, I go back to
Speaker 1: when Lauren reported the explicit photo extortion. One officer asked
Speaker 1: her to send over pictures that Melvin was reatening her with,
Speaker 1: and she did, and then this officer shared them around,
Speaker 1: commenting on how cute she was. They did that instead
Speaker 1: of helping her, and days after that she's dead. Let's
Speaker 1: stop here for another quick break. After her death, at
Speaker 1: school finally launched an investigation into the tragedy, and after
Speaker 1: their review, they determined that there were, in fact, many
Speaker 1: shortcomings in their investigation that probably contributed to Lauren's death.
Speaker 1: But despite that, the university president publicly said this death
Speaker 1: could not have been avoided direct quote, and that is
Speaker 1: blatantly untrue. This is a clean example of a death
Speaker 1: that should have been avoided and should never happen again.
Speaker 1: Even in saying that, the university said this death couldn't
Speaker 1: have been avoided. It's like murdering her all over again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the school bungled this from the start. And
Speaker 1: when you also read that after the investigation and after
Speaker 1: the president said what she said, not only did they
Speaker 1: not fire any officers involved in the incident, but in
Speaker 1: fact they promoted some of the officers who they actually
Speaker 1: think did a good job. Their reaction is to not
Speaker 1: discipline anyone, but to actually just reward some of the people,
Speaker 1: Like it just doesn't make any sense not to mention
Speaker 1: they're actually sharing inappropriate photos of Lauren around the office.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, what kind of low life
Speaker 1: do you have to be to take a young woman's
Speaker 1: photos that she's calling for help about and then just
Speaker 1: a ignore her cry for help. And also now you're
Speaker 1: going to pass that around to your fellow officers to
Speaker 1: say how cute she is? It disgusting. I mean, the
Speaker 1: McCluskey is they sent their daughter off to school with
Speaker 1: the idea that she was going to the safest place
Speaker 1: that could possibly send her. Like his you know, Mr
Speaker 1: Mclusky's biggest concern was what kind of car she was driving.
Speaker 1: She was living in fear. You know, her final days
Speaker 1: were literally spent looking over her shoulder, scared, tired, as
Speaker 1: her friends described her, not like herself. And then she's
Speaker 1: murdered in a public parking lot that every student walks
Speaker 1: through to get to their dorm. It's just it's awful.
Speaker 1: And imagine the poor mother who's now hearing her daughter
Speaker 1: be murdered. That is so traumatizing. It's we can't even
Speaker 1: put that into words. How traumatic that must be. Well,
Speaker 1: those are the last words that you hear from your child.
Speaker 1: And they were obviously a very close family and extremely
Speaker 1: supportive of their daughter. So I can't even imagine the
Speaker 1: loss and the outrage. Yeah, the loss in the outrage.
Speaker 1: Beth has said so well, And I think in large
Speaker 1: part that's why we do these cases, you know, each week,
Speaker 1: simply because some of this is so obvious in retrospect,
Speaker 1: and this is a perfect case of reminding us all
Speaker 1: what to do and what not to do, and hopefully
Speaker 1: school officials will pay more attention moving forward. She was
Speaker 1: kind of scoffed at, you know, she was just dismissed.
Speaker 1: So along the way, things aren't feeling right for her,
Speaker 1: or she's seeing the red flags and is made to
Speaker 1: feel as though she's a fool, which ultimately is what
Speaker 1: sealed her fate. Report done by the university that I
Speaker 1: believe came up in the lawsuit of the family made
Speaker 1: thirty recommendations to the university of things that they can
Speaker 1: fix or have done different. The president of the university,
Speaker 1: a woman named Ruth Watkins, actually made a public statement
Speaker 1: and she said, quote the report does not offer any
Speaker 1: reason to believe that this tragedy could have been prevented
Speaker 1: end quote. Heartbroken and frustrated, Lawrence parents sued the University
Speaker 1: of Utah and civil court for what they felt was
Speaker 1: their blatant negligence. Two years after lawrence murder, the school
Speaker 1: reached a settlement with the McCluskey family to the tune
Speaker 1: of thirteen point five million dollars. The school would also
Speaker 1: build an indoor track facility in Lauren's honor. Additionally, three
Speaker 1: million dollars of the settlement would be donated to a
Speaker 1: foundation in Lauren's name that was designed to improve campus safety.
Speaker 1: Before her death, the final assignment Lauren completed asked, if
Speaker 1: you had one hour left to live, what would you say?
Speaker 1: Usually timid. Lauren was the first of volunteer to read
Speaker 1: hers aloud. She spoke about her time on the track team,
Speaker 1: the thrill of winning, the disappointment of losing, but her
Speaker 1: final message was that despite obstacles and loss, you always
Speaker 1: have to keep hope alive. If you're enjoying Crazy and Love,
Speaker 1: listen to seasons one and two of The piked In Massacre,
Speaker 1: another Katie Studios production. Crazy in Love is produced by
Speaker 1: Stephanie Laie Decker, Beth Greenwald, Chris Raeves, Lisa Dgiovin, Jeff Shyne,
Speaker 1: Tim Hamilton, and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed
Speaker 1: by Jeff Tis. Additional editing by Davy Cooper Wasser. Crazy
Speaker 1: in Love is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Katie Studios. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.