Suspect in woman’s death barred from USU, report says

This booking photo provided by the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office shows Ayoola A. Ajayi. Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said, Friday, June 28, 2019, that Ajayi was being charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping and desecration of a body in the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck. (Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office via AP)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man arrested in the death of a Utah college student whose charred remains were found in his backyard was banned from the campus of Utah State University in 2012, according to documents released on Tuesday.

The school took the step after Ayoola A. Ajayi’s student visa expired and he was arrested on suspicion of having a stolen an iPad, a misdemeanor, according to university police reports. He had also stopped attending class there the year before but continued to sleep on residence hall couches and keep things in a janitor’s closet, according to police and university documents.

University officials barred him from campus in August 2012, and police also informed the consulate of his native Nigeria of the arrest.

Jail documents show Ajayi is now a U.S. citizen. At the time of his 2012 arrest police documents indicate his student visa had expired but he had married a woman in Texas.

That marriage ended in a divorce in January, court records show.

U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services declined to provide information about when Ajayi obtained his citizenship, citing privacy protections. Ajayi was allowed to enroll in classes again in 2015 after resolving his immigration status, said Utah State spokesman Tim Vitale.

His ex-wife Tenisha Ajayi told KUTV in Salt Lake City that the marriage ended after he became controlling and abusive, forbidding her from talking to other people and eventually threatening to have her kidnapped and killed. “I just stopped talking to him because I was fearing for my life,” said the woman, who lives in Dallas.

Separate police documents show he was also investigated on a rape allegation in 2014. No charges were filed in the rape case.

Ajayi, 31, is being held without bail on suspicion of aggravated murder, kidnapping and other charges in the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck. Prosecutors said Tuesday they had been granted an extension on filing formal charges until next week. No attorney has been listed for him.

This undated selfie provided by Carly Reilly, left, shows her with Mackenzie Lueck, right. Friends and mourners planned to remember Utah college student Lueck, on Monday night, July 1, 2019, who was missing for nearly two weeks before police arrested a man accused of killing her and burying her charred remains in his backyard. A vigil at the University of Utah will honor Lueck, 23, who has been described as a bubbly, nurturing person who looked after her friends and took care of animals. Lueck disappeared June 17. (Carly Reilly via AP)

Lueck has been remembered as a bubbly, nurturing person who loved spending time with her family and looked forward to a career in medicine or health care. A native of El Segundo, California, Lueck was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority and a part-time senior at the University of Utah studying kinesiology and pre-nursing. She was expected to graduate in spring 2020.

Lueck disappeared June 17 after she returned from a trip home to California for her grandmother’s funeral. Police have said she took a Lyft from the airport to a park north of Salt Lake City, where she met someone in the early morning.

She was reported missing three days later; launching a search that ended with authorities arresting the man they say was the last person to communicate with her: Ajayi. They say his phone location data put him in the same park at the same time Lueck was last seen, police said.

He was arrested after authorities said they found her remains and personal belongings burned and buried in his Salt Lake City backyard.

Ajayi is an information technology worker who attended Utah State on and off but never earned a degree and was briefly in the Army National Guard.

In the 2014 rape allegation, police said a co-worker in the northern Utah city of Logan opted not to pursue formal charges. She told police the contact began consensually, but when she wanted to stop he refused and had sex with her anyway.

Police have not discussed a motive for the killing or how Lueck died. It isn’t clear how Ajayi and Lueck knew each other. Police have also said they are investigating a report from a construction contractor who said Ajayi approached him in April about building a secretive and soundproof room in his home.

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1 Comment

  • Warren s Pugh July 3, 2019 at 8:23 pm Reply

    You could blame ICE for this of course.
    That frees the press, local police and school authorities
    of any responsibility and neglect.

    Manufactured American fears justify a hands off policy
    especially toward Nigerians and Nigeria where life is
    very cheap and where kidnapping and rape are common.

    The art of taqiyya well established in the Quran justifies
    telling little lies about the source of stolen items. This guy
    is not smart. He was dealing with dhmmis, dumb, unsuspecting
    westerners.

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