The body of a college student allegedly killed by a Nigerian migrant, Ayoola Ajayi, in Utah, USA has been recovered, the police have confirmed.
Mackenzie Lueck’s corpse was found in a Utah canyon about 85 miles away from a backyard in Salt Lake City where other remains were found last week.
Authorities previously said some of the 23-year-old’s charred remains and personal belongings were found in Ajayi’s backyard in Salt Lake City. The body was discovered Wednesday in Logan Canyon about 85 miles north of the city.
“I spoke with Mackenzie’s family this morning. Another devastating call,” Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown said at a news conference on Friday.
“Despite their grief, we hope this will help them find some closure and justice for Mackenzie,” he said.
Lueck disappeared June 17, after she returned from a trip to her hometown of El Segundo, California, for her grandmother’s funeral and took a Lyft from the airport to a park where she met someone.
Police say the last person she communicated with was 31-year-old Ajayi, who was also in the park.
He’s being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, kidnapping and other crimes. No attorney has been listed for him.
Charges have not been filed.
Police have not discussed a motive for the killing or how Lueck died. It isn’t clear how Ajayi and Lueck knew each other.
Lueck, a part-time senior at the University of Utah studying kinesiology and pre-nursing, was missing for nearly two weeks before Ajayi was arrested.
The suspect is an information technology worker who attended Utah State University on and off but never earned a degree and was briefly in the Army National Guard.
He has no formal criminal history, but has been previously investigated on a 2014 rape allegation and was arrested in a stolen-iPad case at Utah State in 2012. The arrest and the expiration of his student visa got him banned from the campus for about three years.
Born in Nigeria, Ajayi is now a US citizen, police and jail records show.
His ex-wife has also told reporters she was afraid of him, and police have investigated a report that he asked a contractor to build a secretive and soundproof room in his home.
