January 27, 2025 • 46 mins
University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey reported harassment from her ex—but her pleas for help were ignored, leading to tragic consequences. From Tenderfoot TV, Truer Crime investigates the deadly cost of inaction.
New episodes every Monday here—don’t miss it!
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, undetermined listeners, It's me Dennis. I'm here to tell
you about an all new season of Truer Crime, a
podcast that uncovers untold stories and takes a fresh look
in infamous cases. Truer Crime is hosted by the very
talented Silesia Stanton, known for her deep dives into true
crime's most compelling stories, and she's going even deeper in
(00:22):
season two. Expect a perfect blend of well known stories
like the assassination of Mlka and the Manson family murders,
and lesser known cases about everyday people. Today, I'll be
sharing one of those stories with you, an unforgettable episode
about Lauren McCluskey, a college student who suffered devastating consequences
(00:43):
after her cries for help went unanswered. Join Celicia as
she takes on this heartbreaking case, one that raises tough
questions about accountability and what it takes to keep people safe.
If you enjoy this episode, subscribe to Truer Crime so
you can hear the rest of this season, and while
you're there, be sure to check out season one if
you missed it. You can find Truer Crime on Spotify,
(01:06):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, let's
get into it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Please be aware that today's episode contains references to sexual
assault and suicide. Please take care while listening.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Hi, my daughter Lauren McCluskey. We're talking to her mom,
and then she just started saying no, no, no, no no,
and like someone might have been grabbing of or something.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When things go terribly wrong, we're taught to take action,
to find our courage to reach out.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Investigation paints a picture of a desperate college student trying
to find help.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
But what happens when the people you trust to protect
you look the other way?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
She did there.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
I think she tried to get help. She you know,
did the things that you're supposed to do, and something
awful still happens.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
I'm pissed.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
That's just another thing that could have been brought to
my attention.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
That could have changed everything.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And in the aftermath of a tragedy, it's never long
before the questions begin, how did this happen? Could it
have been prevented? And whose fault is it that it wasn't.
It's exactly those questions we'll be exploring today because this
is the story of Lauren McCluskey.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Here where can you play some scary arc I help you?
Speaker 7 (02:48):
Hi?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
This there is Lauren I called a few days ago.
I've been getting these texts from these numbers of different people,
and I think they're trying to lure me somewhere.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I'm Selicia Stanton and you're listening to truer crime. Today's
story starts with the kind of night that for me
felt deeply relatable. It was September of twenty eighteen, the
warmth of summer still lingering in the air, and on
(03:25):
this particular day, twenty one year old college student Lauren
McCluskey suggested to her friend Alex that the two spend
the evening at a new bar in Salt Lake, the
London Bell and To While these weren't exactly novel plans
for two twenty one year olds, it was the kind
of thing that Lauren would have never suggested even just
a few years prior. But now, in her final year
(03:47):
at the University of Utah, Lauren had undergone a metamorphosis
of sorts. Once focused solely on academics and athletics, she
now embraced the spotlight. She built deep friendships, saying it
care Yochi Knights even tried her hand at performing comedy. Now,
Lauren was in the home stretch. Graduation just around the corner,
(04:08):
and what better way to soak it all in than
a night out with one of her best friends. When
they arrived at the London Bell, the line to get
in streamed down the block, but Lauren's eyes went straight
to the bouncer that manned its front. He was tall,
with large muscles and a sense of self assuredness that
radiated off him. Que guy, new bar, and all had
(04:30):
the makings of a good night Inside. The place was packed,
but then suddenly cute bouncer reappeared, finding them seats. His
name was Sean, a call center worker and community college student.
Something about him intrigued Lauren. She took a chance, slipped
him her number on a napkin. As they left that evening,
(04:51):
Sean texted her. It all kicked off a whirlwind romance,
marked by Sean's maturity, charm, and thoughtful gestures, nice dinners, flowers.
He was the total package for Lauren, who'd always prioritized athletics,
school and a tight circle of friends. Sean was different.
Lauren confided in her mom, Jill, about her budding romance.
(05:14):
It was clear to both of them that Lauren was smitten.
Jill was excited that her daughter was so happy, but
felt a little wary when she discovered Sean was twenty eight,
seven years older than Lauren, But ultimately she decided to
trust Lauren's judgment. She was an adult now, and she
wanted her daughter to feel like she had the freedom
to navigate her own life choices. But soon it wasn't
(05:38):
just Jill who felt wary of the new character in
Lauren's life. Alex, who'd been with Lauren the night she
met Sean, had grown increasingly skeptical of her friend's rapidly
intensifying relationship. According to Deseret News, within days of their
first meeting, Sean became a near permanent fixture at Lauren's
campus apartment, spending almost every night there. But there were
(06:03):
other signs, too, red flags that proved increasingly difficult to overlook.
Alex told ESPN about one occasion early on where Lauren
said something like Sean told me I could invite a
few friends to meet him on Thursday. Alex found the
phrasing bizarre. He told her she could.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Later.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Lauren's explanation of her outfit raised more eyebrows. Sean told
me to wear a T shirt and jeans, so that's
why I'm wearing this, she said. Another friend remembered that
whenever Sean called, Lauren was adamant about answering, and when
she did, he peppered her with demanding questions, always wanting
to know where she was and with who. Once, while
(06:45):
in class, she missed his call. Later he accused her
of cheating. Soon he started dictating her whereabouts, telling her
not to go places where there might be other men.
So you know everywhere, no parties, no friend's houses, no
knights on the town. Lauren withheld judgment, though she had
(07:07):
empathy for Sean. He'd been cheated on in the past,
or so he told her. Plus, he justified his actions
as protection. What would she do if a man came
on to her. She needed to buy a gun, he urged.
And while all these developments were shocking and scary to
learn about, I think what surprised me the most was
(07:28):
just how quickly they unfolded. It had only been three
and a half weeks since the pair had met, and
so on September twenty ninth, when Alex met up with Lauren,
at her apartment. She was taken aback to see her
friend in such a state of disarray. She looked nothing
like the bold, passionate woman who'd taken her to the
(07:48):
London Bell earlier that same month. She was thinner, tired,
worn down. Alex knew it was time to take action,
so she and a couple of friends reported the situation
to campus housing authorities. According to the Salt Lake Tribune,
they shared that Lauren was in an unhealthy and controlling
relationship with a man who was constantly staying at her apartment,
(08:10):
that he talked about bringing guns to campus, that he
pressured Lauren even to buy her own, not softening their fears,
they emphasized their worries that Lauren might end up seriously hurt.
But instead of reporting what was shared to campus police
or the school's behavior Intervention team, whose job it was
to deal with cases of alleged abuse, the housing coordinator
(08:33):
focused on the parts of the story that indicated Lauren
might have violated campus housing guest policy, saying that she
would chat with Lauren about that. The next day. Housing
officials determined that report should be filed, but because their
computer system wasn't working, it never did get filed. Ultimately,
the housing team concluded that because Lauren was an adult,
(08:55):
it was probably best for them to not get too involved. Lauren, meanwhile,
remained loyal to Sean, hopeful that as time went on
and their relationship strengthened, his trust issues might fade. But then,
according to ESPN, right before fall break, Lauren caught a
glimpse of Sean's ID. It was weird because the name
(09:17):
listed wasn't one he'd ever told her about. She kept
it to herself, and then, when she was back in
her hometown for break, she tapped the name into a
Google search bar. As she sifted through the pages of results,
a sense of unease swept over her. Her boyfriend wasn't Sean.
(09:41):
He was a man named Melvin Roland. And he wasn't
twenty eight, he was thirty seven. But there was something
else too, a picture of Melvin face, serious, eyes, sullen.
It was a discovery Lauren found particularly unsettling because it
(10:03):
was a mugshot. Melvin Roland had just left a ten
year stint in lock up punishment for multiple sex crime convictions.
(10:27):
When Lauren returned to school. It was October ninth. It
had been just over a month since she first met Sean,
a man she now knew was actually Melvin Roland. Dozrett
News reported that alone in her apartment, Lauren dialed Alex's number.
She poured out everything, revealing all the lies she had uncovered.
She knew she needed to end things with Melvin, and
(10:50):
Alex agreed, telling her she should plan to call it
off somewhere public. After they hung up, Lauren caught sight
of something outside her window. It was Melvin watching her.
Then suddenly he was at her door, reprimanding her for
discussing their relationship with others. She confronted him about what
she discovered about his sex crime convictions. Ready with an excuse,
(11:14):
he claimed that he was framed, that he was innocent
and was forced into pleading guilty. Lauren wasn't buying it.
She attempted multiple times to end the relationship and kept
asking him to leave, but he refused. Alex told ESPN
that when she called Lauren the next morning to check in,
the vibes were off. Lauren wasn't saying much and she
(11:37):
just wasn't sounding like herself. Are you alone, Alex asked her.
She wasn't. Melvin had forced Lauren into allowing him to
spend the night. Sometime after hanging up with Alex, she
offered her car to Melvin and he left her run
a few errands. Finally she was alone. Then later in
(11:58):
the day, she started getting texts from unknown numbers. Why
did you break up with the big guy? He really
loves you the first one read, but quickly they started
to get more and more ominous. One demanded that she
go kill herself. All allegedly came from friends of Melvin's.
She called her mom and relayed everything that had happened,
(12:20):
explaining that Melvin now had her car. Jill McCluskey, concerned
for her daughter's safety and well being, swooped into action.
She contacted campus dispatch, hoping they could assist Lauren in
safely retrieving her car. Jill informed the dispatcher that she
was very upset and worried, expressing her fear that Melvin
might be dangerous. Her panic eventually turned into outright tears
(12:44):
as she desperately explained, like any mother would, that she
just didn't want anything bad to happen to her daughter.
It's going to be okay, Jill. The dispatcher soothed and
while campus security did safely escort Lauren to her car
that day. Jill's call was never documented in a centralized location,
meaning that campus police never had any record of Jill
(13:07):
or Lauren's safety concerns. That evening, two days later, Lauren's
phone lit up. The strange text messages had geared up again,
but this time they were even more outrageous, claiming that
Roland had died, that it was all her fault that
she needed to leave her apartment to go to his funeral.
(13:28):
It was at this point that Lauren again called Campus Dispatch.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Here where you played from Scary arc? I help you, Hi,
This is Lauren, and I called a little a few
days ago about a situation and I wanted to kind
of give an update.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Lauren explained what happened two days prior with her car
and said she'd been receiving weird text messages about her ex.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
I've been these texts from these members of different people
saying that they were saying that he was in the
hospital and then saying that like that he passed away.
But then I got texts from him and if he
seems to be alive. So, and then I got a text,
you know, asking me if I wanted to go to
a funeral, his funeral, and I think they're trying to
(14:23):
lure me somewhere.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
The dispatcher told Lauren that an officer would call her
about the case, and shortly after the University of Utah
police opened a formal investigation. But the next day, the
threatening messages continued. It was a Saturday, four days after
her breakup with Melvin and only six weeks since the
two had first met. On that morning, Lauren received a
(14:49):
barrage of emails and texts with intimate photos of herself attached.
The sender claimed they planned to publish the photos online
unless Lauren sent them one thousand dollars. According to ESPN,
Lauren suspected Melvin was behind the text, but when she
reached out to him about it, he denied it outright,
saying he was also being blackmailed. Terrified and faced with
(15:11):
what felt like limited options, Lauren caved the blackmailer and
sent the request one thousand dollars through Venmo. Then, for
the second time, she called campus police.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Do you wonder see if they said scadding out can
help you? Hi? So I am not dealing with this
situation where I'm being blackmailed for money. It's a photo
of my me and I X for starting to take
(15:48):
end it out to everyone and asking her one thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Lauren told the dispatcher she suspected the blackmailer was her
ex boyfriend, Melvin Roland, and just like her call the
day before, she was told an officer would follow up
that afternoon, though Alex urged Lauren to visit campus police
in person. The two went together, and when they arrived,
a pair of officers met with them in the station's
reception area. Almost immediately, the women sensed their concerns weren't
(16:23):
being taken seriously, and I mean, who could blame them?
The officers didn't even bother to bring them to a
private room to discuss what was obviously a sensitive situation.
Hoping to convey the gravity of their concerns, Alex told
ESPN that she googled Melvin right there in the station's lobby,
showed the officers her screen. This guy had a history.
(16:45):
They insisted he was a known sex offender with a
criminal record, and now here he was acting erratically. Maybe
Lauren even needed to move, Alex said, but the officers
were unfazed. The texts were probably just a scam, they assured,
maybe Melvin's phone was hacked. Still, Lauren filled out a
(17:05):
police report and the case was assigned to on call
detective Kayla Dalliff, but since Dalif was out of office
that day, Lauren didn't get to connect with her directly.
Later that same day, feeling unsatisfied and increasingly concerned for
her safety, Lauren decided to take matters into her own hands.
Maybe if she called Salt Lake City Police they would
(17:27):
actually do something. But when she phoned them, they explained
that because she lived on university grounds, her report was
under the jurisdiction of campus police. She'd have to stick
with them, they said, before transferring her to campus dispatch.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
All right, what's going on? Well, I came in earlier
today and I filled out a report for the SAD
You know you came into our building. Yes, I did,
all right. I called nine one one because I was
(18:05):
I was concerned and I wasn't sure. Yeah, like help
speed things up. I don't know. Yeah, that's.
Speaker 8 (18:16):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Yeah, if you call nine on one, the call will
just come back to us and do the exacting thing. Yeah, okay,
do you know when an arrest would be made? You
didn't talk to an optor. If you want, I can
arrange that if you want that. Okay, yeah, that sounds good.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Over the next several days, the harassing text messages persisted.
Each time she received a new one, Lauren promptly forwarded
it to law enforcement, Yet she still hadn't heard a
single word from Kayla Dallas, the detective assigned to the case.
With each passing day, Lauren's stress mounted. Then, on Friday,
(19:03):
five days after she and Alex had visited campus authorities,
her worries escalated upon reading the newest disturbing text message.
This time, the sunder claimed they knew all about Lauren's
police reports. In a panic, she called Salt Lake City PD.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
I'm worried because I've been working with the campus police
at the u U and last Saturday I reported and
then and I haven't gotten an update. Okay. But someone
contacted me today, someone who said that that they know
(19:42):
everything about the police Okay, So you already spoke to
the campus police. Did something?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Did this happen on the University of Utah campus?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Yes, and they haven't updated or done anything. Okay.
Speaker 8 (20:00):
So have you notified the campus police about this?
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Yes? I have Okay, what prompted you to call Salt
Lake City please? Well, I thought it was weird that
there are people who know about the entire case and
the harassers came to know about it more than me,
and I'm concerned there might be an insider who's letting
them know about the case. Okay, so what's some good?
(20:28):
I haven't gotten updates. Yeah, it's been a week.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
The dispatcher once again directed Lauren to campus police and
suggested she ask for a detective or the detective supervisor
if she was concerned about how the case was being handled.
Following those instructions, Lauren reached back out to campus police
that same day, finally prompting a call from Detective Dallas,
who provided no explanation for the delay. According to ESPN,
(20:53):
Lauren is forced to re explain details about her case,
information she felt the detective should have already known. That
same night, remember it's still Friday, Lauren sent a long
email to Detective Dalliff detailing the situation, but, as the
Salt Lake Tribune reported, the detective was scheduled for three
days off starting the very next day, and while she
(21:16):
was gone, no one was assigned to cover Lauren's case.
That Monday, while Detective Dalif was still out, Lauren received
yet another suspicious text. This time, the sender claimed to
be the deputy chief of campus police. They said there'd
been a development in her case, that they had something
at the station she needed to come look at, But,
(21:38):
as ESPN reported, Lauren didn't trust it. The grammatical errors
in the message matched the ones Melvin often made in
his own writing. Lauren contacted campus police yet again, the
message officers confirmed hadn't come from them. Just ignore it,
they told her. That evening, Lauren called her mom on
(21:59):
her way home from class. Despite the drama of the day,
she was in pretty good spirits. According to Deseret, She
was excited about a quiz she'd done well on and
was on her way home planning to utilize the resulting
motivation to finish another assignment.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Early.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
As the call wrapped up, Lauren told her mom she
loved her. Then suddenly Lauren started screaming. The sounds of
Lauren yelling no, no, no blared through Jill's speakers. Next,
a clatter as her daughter's phone dropped to the ground.
(22:37):
As Jill told Deseret, she was immediately catapulted to another
moment years earlier, when Lauren's brother was hospitalized after an
aneurism had ruptured in his brain. I had that same feeling,
she said, like I knew he could die. I just
felt like Lauren could die. Tonight, Lauren's dad, Matt McCluskey,
(22:58):
overheard his wife's speak her phone exchange and rushed in
to help. They acted swiftly, choosing not to disconnect from
Lauren's line in case you returned. Using Matt's phone, they
dialed the police.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
All right, my daughter Lauren mc was talking to her
mom and then she just started saying no, no, no,
no no, and found up like someone might have been
grabbing her or something.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Okay, how long ago was this? This was just a
two minutes ago.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Matt tried his best to explain where Lauren lived and
where her phone might have been dropped. While he was
answering the dispatcher's questions, a voice suddenly came through Jill's phone.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Oh, someone talking at her phone.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Hello, Okay, could you just stay there? I think she
was loved.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Police began a campus wide search that continued late into
the evening, and as the hours passed, Matt clung to
the hope that his daughter would be found and returned
to them safely. He told ESPN, I'd look out the window,
and as long as I didn't see any police cars
heading towards US, I thought we were okay. But then
at almost ten pm, Jill got a call from Lauren's coach.
(24:21):
Lauren had been found dead in the backseat of a
car parked in a lot near her dorm. She'd been
shot seven times. Watching Jill's face on the call, Matt
knew immediately that Lauren was gone. The moment, he told Desaret,
felt like physical trauma, like he'd been hit with a
(24:45):
baseball bat. Melvin Roland was immediately Investigator's number one suspect,
so that night they released his photo in description of
the car they believed he'd left campus in. It didn't
take long for them to track him down, and just
before one am, the police followed him as he slipped
inside a local church, but as they entered, Melvin shot himself,
(25:12):
taking his own life, just hours after Lauren had been
ripped from hers. Lauren's death sent shockwaves across the University
(25:34):
of Utah campus as her community process the unimaginable series
of events that had taken the life of someone they
loved deeply, someone so many students could see themselves in.
At an on campus vigil, Laurence, coach and teammates expressed
their grief.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
Lauren McCluskey was an outstanding young woman. She was a
joy to coach. You recruit a student athlete, you try
to understand them, get to know them, and when you
bring them on campus, you have an idea of what
you want them to be or what you think they
(26:12):
can be, and I think Lauren exceeded in all those areas.
She was just genuine and sweet, and she had a
relentless determination of practice that showed up every day. She
was an incredible teammate. She was incredibly caring, She cared
about everybody.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
She was an.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
Excellent student all the way around. She just did everything
the way that you would hope a student athlete would.
Speaker 8 (26:43):
Yes, there are no words to describe the pain and
loss we're feeling as a team right now. Lauren was
always a driven athlete and gave one hundred and ten
percent and everything she did. The loss of her sweet
spirit to our team is truly a stating.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
We were beyond plus to have her as her teammate
and as He's sister, and we will always We'll always
miss her, and we will always always love her.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
In the days following Lauren's death, a clear picture of
what had been going on over the last few weeks
started coming together. Police confirmed that all of the threatening
and hostile text messages that Lauren received had in fact
come from It's now believed that he was using spoofing
technology to send fake threats from multiple numbers. I also
(28:07):
wondered about the messages that had referenced Laurence police reports.
How had Melvin known about those well? According to ESPN,
that had been rather simple. Before the two broke up,
Lauren had logged into her email on Melvin's phone after
she ended things. He used that access to monitor her,
(28:29):
but that wasn't the only way he kept tabs on her.
Unbeknownst to Lauren, he'd also been stalking her. A review
of security footage revealed video of Melvin walking around campus
in a full deadpool costume, his identity obscured. On the
day of Lauren's murder, Melvin had spent much of the
(28:49):
morning and afternoon around Lauren's residence hall, waiting for her.
When she finally returned home that night, Melvin grabbed her
outside of her building and dragged her into a car,
where he shot her seven times. Next, he ditched the
vehicle and made a call to a woman he'd met
on a dating site. He asked her to come pick
(29:11):
him up, and the two went on a dinner date.
Back at the woman's house, Melvin took a shower and
then asked to be dropped off at a coffee shop.
That night, when Melvin's photo began circulating on the news,
it was the woman from the dating site who recognized him.
His name and age were different than what he'd told her,
but his face was the same, and the car they
(29:33):
were saying he'd been picked up in it was her car.
Afraid for her safety, she reported everything to police. It
was a horrifying series of events, but as the community grieved,
a new question began circulating in whispers and then before long,
(29:55):
in public demands. How could something like this have happened?
And why wasn't it prevented? Lauren and her loved ones
(30:19):
had reported Melvin Roland's abuse, and they'd done so many times,
and so as new details were revealed about Melvin's past defenses,
community outrage grew. When Melvin met Lauren, he was still
on parole. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, he'd first
landed in prison in two thousand and four after soliciting
(30:42):
sex from a thirteen year old girl in a chat room.
When he went to meet up with the girl, Melvin
learned that it had all been a sting operation. He'd
been talking to an undercover cop. During that investigation, police
also learned that Melvin had sexually assaulted as seventeen year
old girl just a few days earlier. He was charged
(31:04):
with both crimes. Originally, his sexual assault of the seventeen
year old was charged as a first degree felony, but
a plea deal reduced it to third degree. This meant
that instead of facing life in prison, Melvin's maximum sentence
was five years. In contrast, he faced up to fifteen
years for his messages with the undercover cop. During his
(31:26):
time in prison, Melvin was sent to sex offender treatment,
but failed to complete it and was denied parole. According
to the Salt Lake Tribune, when he tried treatment again,
he admitted to intentionally seeking out underage girls and vulnerable women,
saying that he was sexually attracted to them. He completed
treatment in the spring of twenty twelve, making him once
(31:47):
again eligible for parole. During his hearing, the parole board
officer asked Melvin about his crimes.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
I'd like you to give me kind of a idea
of what we're looking at victim wise.
Speaker 9 (32:03):
Just does that including the women I dated in college
or just.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
The woman that you felt you took advantage of.
Speaker 9 (32:09):
I would say every female that I came across dating
or met on Internet. I'd say every woman I've met
or that came across that I used my manipulation's actors
to get what I wanted.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
How many? How many did you out and out rape
like the one young lady?
Speaker 9 (32:29):
Well, not like that, but me being a womanizer, you know,
I use other taxes to get what I wanted with them,
manipulated and use women.
Speaker 7 (32:38):
How many?
Speaker 6 (32:38):
How many women in general did you convince to have
sex with you by manipulation?
Speaker 9 (32:45):
Did I come across with and I had sex with
I got locked up at twenty two and my sexual experience,
I'd say about fifty.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
The parole board officer asked Melvin about his treatment and
his plans if you were to be released from prison.
At the end of the hearing, he told Melvin he'd
recommend his parole to the board and hoped this was
the last he'd ever see of him.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
Well, hopefully when you get out, you'll have learned from
this experience. Only time is going to tell, And the
therapist put that right in his report. I know he
doesn't know whether you're just blowing smoke. And you're smart enough,
you know what you had to do to get out,
So we'll find out soon enough, because once you hit
(33:29):
the street, if you start doing the same things say,
if you come back, you know where you'll spend the
rest of your life.
Speaker 9 (33:37):
So I caught my charge of twenty two, I got
locked at twenty three and I'm thirty one. Now, yeah,
I know I have that capability of reoffending, but again
it's something I'll have to prove.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
As part of his parole, Melvin was required to abstain
from pornography and social media, but just a few months
later he violated these conditions and landed back in prison.
Fast forward to twenty thirteen, Melvin was prolled again. ESPN
reported that he had a few run ins with the
police during this period, but none of those encounters landed
(34:10):
him back in prison. Then in October twenty fifteen, things
took another turn. Melvin was driving when he re rendered
another car. A passerby, concerned, pulled over to check on everyone.
Instead of staying put, Melvin scrambled into the passenger seat
of the good Smaritan's car and demanded that he drive
(34:31):
them away from the scene. When Melvin's parole officer caught
wind of this incident, they recommended arresting him for a
laundry list of violations, kidnapping, fraud, damaged to property, and
leaving the scene of an accident, But because the driver
didn't press charges, the parole boar decided and arrest wasn't warranted.
(34:52):
Come February twenty sixteen, Melvin's troubles continued. During a routine visit,
he bolted from parole officers. According to adult Probation and
parrole records obtained by ESPN, Melvin made a clear he
was done with parole. He even warned that he'd act
aggressively if another officer showed up. It wasn't long before
(35:12):
officers discovered as second phone Malvin had been using to
store explicit photos and message women on social media. He
was arrested for skipping his mandated sex offender therapy, fleeing
from officers, possessing pornographic material, and using social media without approval.
At his parole board hearing, Melvin insisted that his threats
(35:32):
to officers were just heat of the moment frustration. Despite
his claims, the board decided it was time for him
to go back to prison. In April of twenty eighteen,
Melvin was granted parole one final time. His sentence was
set to expire the following spring, and he was only
out of prison for a handful of months before meeting
(35:52):
Lauren three days after Lauren had reported being blackmailed. Melvin
had actually met with his parole but because campus police
never checked Melvin's offender status, they didn't even know he
was on parole. Checking parole status just wasn't a part
of campus police protocol. In fact, according to ESPN, the
(36:15):
University of Utah's internal investigation discovered that officers didn't even
know how to check correction statuses in the first place.
Some sources even reported that the university police chief didn't
trust Utah's Adult Probation and Parole Board and that it
was basically unofficial policy to avoid communicating with them out
of fear they might negatively interfere with ongoing investigations at
(36:36):
the university. It's all a shame because the fact is
Melvin had social media, was using dating sites, and even
borrowed a gun before killing Lauren, all of which were
in direct violation of his parole terms. In the aftermath
of Lauren's murder, the University of Utah hired an independent
(36:59):
team to review u the university officers handling of her case.
Their report highlighted several shortcomings by officials and recommendations for improvement,
including hiring victim advocates and providing officers with adequate training
related to interpersonal violence. The report concluded, quote, we will
never know that this tragedy could have been prevented without
(37:19):
these deficiencies. What we can say is that correcting the
issues we have identified in this report might lessen the
probability of such a tragedy occurring again. But according to
the Salt Lake Tribune, the university president took her own
interpretation of their report. At a press converce, she claimed, quote,
the report does not offer any reason to believe that
(37:40):
this tragedy could have been prevented. It was a statement
that didn't sit well with Lauren's loved ones. Lauren's parents
filed a fifty six million dollar lawsuit the following summer.
At the time, they said they viewed it as a
last resort after months of trying to work with the
University of Utah directly. But in the years following laurence murder,
(38:02):
it became clear that issues with the University police department
stretched far beyond the mistakes made in Lauren's case. Just
five months after Laurence murder, Detective Dalif was fired for
taking insufficient and delayed action on yet another domestic violence case. Similarly,
Officer Miguel Dares, one of Lauren's primary points of contact
(38:23):
within the department, was disciplined for mistakes he made in
a similar case. According to his discipline letter, in that case,
he didn't check the suspect's prole status and even interviewed
the victim while the suspect was still in the room.
To make matters worse, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that
Officer Darris had shown Lauren's intimate photos to a coworker. Yep,
(38:45):
the same photos Melvin used to blackmail Lauren, and no
Officer Dares wasn't showing the photos in some kind of
professional capacity. Instead, he was bragging about quote getting to
look at them whenever he wanted. The university responded saying
they were aware of Deris's behavior, but had only learned
(39:06):
of him sharing the photos after he'd transferred to a
different police department. The Salt Lake Tribune also published its
own investigative report, one that illuminated a long history of
officers downplaying and ignoring cases of dating and domestic violence.
According to discipline records they obtained during their investigation, many
officers failed to contact victims on reasonable timelines, some even
(39:29):
ignoring reports completely. Former staff members told the Salt Lake
Tribune that they had instructions to quote downplay the number
of domestic violence cases by not creating a record for
some calls or altering dispatch log entries for others. Similarly,
female students who had reported rape, sexual assault, and harassment
said they felt their concerns weren't taken seriously. Hearing about
(39:54):
all these egregious errors had me reflecting on accountability. Its
abund dentally clear that so many individual people failed at
their jobs, countless singular missteps with dire consequences, And while
those folks certainly must be held accountable for their role.
(40:14):
I also believe that the easiest thing we can do
as a society is to scapegoat one or a few individuals.
The harder, and perhaps more crucial task is to recognize
the ways in which entire systems failed to protect Lauren.
Because individuals operating in broken systems are bound to fail,
(40:38):
and it's for that reason that Lauren's parents continue fighting
for change in her memory. In twenty twenty, the McCluskey's
won a thirteen and a half million dollar settlement from
the state and University of Utah. Soon after, they shared
their intention to donate all of the settlement money to
the Lauren mcluskey Foundation, an organization they founded in twenty
(40:59):
nineteen with a mission to increase awareness of stalking and
dating violence at colleges and universities across the country. As
a part of that work, they also created Lauren's Promise,
a campaign that encourages faculty, staff, students, parents, and community
members to publicly pledge their support with a statement of
solidarity that indicates to others that they will listen and
(41:21):
believe victims of sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking, that
they can be a trusted source ready to connect folks
with needed resources. The McCluskey family has also been critical
in the adoption of several state bills, including one that
requires Utah public colleges to create detailed response plans for
cases of stalking, sexual assault, dating, and domestic violence. Amidst
(41:44):
student protests and the work of Laurence loved Ones, the
University of Utah has also made a number of meaningful changes.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune. In twenty twenty, the
school opened a Center for Violence Prevention, an institution that
will research intimate partner of violence like that which Lauren experienced.
And truly, all of what I just shared is the
(42:07):
tip of the iceberg. Despite the overwhelming pain of Lauren's death,
the mccluskeys have been fueled by their unimaginable loss to
make a meaningful difference. And still there is so much
work to be done. In fact, another University of Utah student,
(42:28):
nineteen year old Shifon Dong, was killed by her ex
in February of twenty twenty two, less than a month
after she reported to campus police that the same ex
had assaulted her. As Lauren's dad told ESPN, there are
so many young women like Lauren who are just as
(42:49):
precious to their parents, women whose stories don't get the
same attention. And for me, it's that acknowledgment that should
fuel the rest of us. Lauren's legacy has and will
continue to be absolutely transformative. And if a single story
can spur so much action, what might be possible if
(43:13):
we afforded every young person this same level of care
and recognition. Maybe then we could understand the full picture
a little more deeply, that these stories have happened, are happening,
and will continue to happen unless and until we decide
(43:34):
to stop treating community problems as individual problems and transform
systems that keep us trapped in patterns that ultimately hurt
all of us. Before you jump away, just a couple
(43:59):
more things and to share with you. One thing that
really stuck out to me about today's story is Lauren's parents,
Jill and Matt McCluskey, and just their commitment to advocating
for folks like Lauren across the country. We told you
in the episode, but in her honor, they founded the
Lauren McCluskey Foundation, whose mission is to let Lauren's light
shine by supporting her passions which were things like animal welfare,
(44:22):
amateur athletics, and of course, by making sure that campuses
across the country are a place where students are safe,
supported and have the ability to thrive. So I really
recommend that for today's action item check out their website.
They offer advocates and allies a plethora of amazing resources,
even things like a student toolkit for those who like
to push for change and create a culture of safety
(44:44):
on their own campuses. Much of their work also centers
around forwarding Lauren's Promise, which is that pledge that basically
says I will listen and believe you if someone is
threatening you. So you can make Lauren's promise, learn how
to volunteer and donate to support the the rest of
their incredible work at Lauren McCluskey dot org. As always,
(45:06):
you can keep up with truecrime on Instagram and x
at Truecrimepod, and you can also find me on Instagram
and TikTok at Slicia Stanton and through my weekly newsletter,
Sincerely Slicia at Sincerelyslicia dot substock dot com. For a
full source list and links to all of today's action items,
make sure to visit our website at Truercrime podcast dot com.
(45:34):
Truer Crime is created, hosted, and written by me Selicia
Stanton and is a production of tenor Foot TV and
association with Odyssey, Additional writing and research by Olivia Husingfeld.
Executive producers are myself, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Additional
production by Olivia Husingfeld and Jamie Albright. Editing by Liam Luxen,
with additional editing support by Sidney Evans and ja Ja Mohammad.
(45:57):
Our supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Artwork by Station sixteen,
original music by Jay Ragsdale, mix by Dayton Cole. Thank
you to Orrin Rosenbaum and the team at Uta Backmedia
and Marketing and the Nord Group. For more podcasts like
true Crime, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app
or visit us at Tenderfoot dot tv. Thanks for listening
Hey, undetermined listeners, It's me Dennis. I'm here to tell
you about an all new season of Truer Crime, a
podcast that uncovers untold stories and takes a fresh look
in infamous cases. Truer Crime is hosted by the very
talented Silesia Stanton, known for her deep dives into true
crime's most compelling stories, and she's going even deeper in
(00:22):
season two. Expect a perfect blend of well known stories
like the assassination of Mlka and the Manson family murders,
and lesser known cases about everyday people. Today, I'll be
sharing one of those stories with you, an unforgettable episode
about Lauren McCluskey, a college student who suffered devastating consequences
(00:43):
after her cries for help went unanswered. Join Celicia as
she takes on this heartbreaking case, one that raises tough
questions about accountability and what it takes to keep people safe.
If you enjoy this episode, subscribe to Truer Crime so
you can hear the rest of this season, and while
you're there, be sure to check out season one if
you missed it. You can find Truer Crime on Spotify,
(01:06):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, let's
get into it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Please be aware that today's episode contains references to sexual
assault and suicide. Please take care while listening.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Hi, my daughter Lauren McCluskey. We're talking to her mom,
and then she just started saying no, no, no, no no,
and like someone might have been grabbing of or something.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When things go terribly wrong, we're taught to take action,
to find our courage to reach out.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Investigation paints a picture of a desperate college student trying
to find help.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
But what happens when the people you trust to protect
you look the other way?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
She did there.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
I think she tried to get help. She you know,
did the things that you're supposed to do, and something
awful still happens.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
I'm pissed.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
That's just another thing that could have been brought to
my attention.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
That could have changed everything.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And in the aftermath of a tragedy, it's never long
before the questions begin, how did this happen? Could it
have been prevented? And whose fault is it that it wasn't.
It's exactly those questions we'll be exploring today because this
is the story of Lauren McCluskey.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Here where can you play some scary arc I help you?
Speaker 7 (02:48):
Hi?
Speaker 4 (02:48):
This there is Lauren I called a few days ago.
I've been getting these texts from these numbers of different people,
and I think they're trying to lure me somewhere.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I'm Selicia Stanton and you're listening to truer crime. Today's
story starts with the kind of night that for me
felt deeply relatable. It was September of twenty eighteen, the
warmth of summer still lingering in the air, and on
(03:25):
this particular day, twenty one year old college student Lauren
McCluskey suggested to her friend Alex that the two spend
the evening at a new bar in Salt Lake, the
London Bell and To While these weren't exactly novel plans
for two twenty one year olds, it was the kind
of thing that Lauren would have never suggested even just
a few years prior. But now, in her final year
(03:47):
at the University of Utah, Lauren had undergone a metamorphosis
of sorts. Once focused solely on academics and athletics, she
now embraced the spotlight. She built deep friendships, saying it
care Yochi Knights even tried her hand at performing comedy. Now,
Lauren was in the home stretch. Graduation just around the corner,
(04:08):
and what better way to soak it all in than
a night out with one of her best friends. When
they arrived at the London Bell, the line to get
in streamed down the block, but Lauren's eyes went straight
to the bouncer that manned its front. He was tall,
with large muscles and a sense of self assuredness that
radiated off him. Que guy, new bar, and all had
(04:30):
the makings of a good night Inside. The place was packed,
but then suddenly cute bouncer reappeared, finding them seats. His
name was Sean, a call center worker and community college student.
Something about him intrigued Lauren. She took a chance, slipped
him her number on a napkin. As they left that evening,
(04:51):
Sean texted her. It all kicked off a whirlwind romance,
marked by Sean's maturity, charm, and thoughtful gestures, nice dinners, flowers.
He was the total package for Lauren, who'd always prioritized athletics,
school and a tight circle of friends. Sean was different.
Lauren confided in her mom, Jill, about her budding romance.
(05:14):
It was clear to both of them that Lauren was smitten.
Jill was excited that her daughter was so happy, but
felt a little wary when she discovered Sean was twenty eight,
seven years older than Lauren, But ultimately she decided to
trust Lauren's judgment. She was an adult now, and she
wanted her daughter to feel like she had the freedom
to navigate her own life choices. But soon it wasn't
(05:38):
just Jill who felt wary of the new character in
Lauren's life. Alex, who'd been with Lauren the night she
met Sean, had grown increasingly skeptical of her friend's rapidly
intensifying relationship. According to Deseret News, within days of their
first meeting, Sean became a near permanent fixture at Lauren's
campus apartment, spending almost every night there. But there were
(06:03):
other signs, too, red flags that proved increasingly difficult to overlook.
Alex told ESPN about one occasion early on where Lauren
said something like Sean told me I could invite a
few friends to meet him on Thursday. Alex found the
phrasing bizarre. He told her she could.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Later.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Lauren's explanation of her outfit raised more eyebrows. Sean told
me to wear a T shirt and jeans, so that's
why I'm wearing this, she said. Another friend remembered that
whenever Sean called, Lauren was adamant about answering, and when
she did, he peppered her with demanding questions, always wanting
to know where she was and with who. Once, while
(06:45):
in class, she missed his call. Later he accused her
of cheating. Soon he started dictating her whereabouts, telling her
not to go places where there might be other men.
So you know everywhere, no parties, no friend's houses, no
knights on the town. Lauren withheld judgment, though she had
(07:07):
empathy for Sean. He'd been cheated on in the past,
or so he told her. Plus, he justified his actions
as protection. What would she do if a man came
on to her. She needed to buy a gun, he urged.
And while all these developments were shocking and scary to
learn about, I think what surprised me the most was
(07:28):
just how quickly they unfolded. It had only been three
and a half weeks since the pair had met, and
so on September twenty ninth, when Alex met up with Lauren,
at her apartment. She was taken aback to see her
friend in such a state of disarray. She looked nothing
like the bold, passionate woman who'd taken her to the
(07:48):
London Bell earlier that same month. She was thinner, tired,
worn down. Alex knew it was time to take action,
so she and a couple of friends reported the situation
to campus housing authorities. According to the Salt Lake Tribune,
they shared that Lauren was in an unhealthy and controlling
relationship with a man who was constantly staying at her apartment,
(08:10):
that he talked about bringing guns to campus, that he
pressured Lauren even to buy her own, not softening their fears,
they emphasized their worries that Lauren might end up seriously hurt.
But instead of reporting what was shared to campus police
or the school's behavior Intervention team, whose job it was
to deal with cases of alleged abuse, the housing coordinator
(08:33):
focused on the parts of the story that indicated Lauren
might have violated campus housing guest policy, saying that she
would chat with Lauren about that. The next day. Housing
officials determined that report should be filed, but because their
computer system wasn't working, it never did get filed. Ultimately,
the housing team concluded that because Lauren was an adult,
(08:55):
it was probably best for them to not get too involved. Lauren, meanwhile,
remained loyal to Sean, hopeful that as time went on
and their relationship strengthened, his trust issues might fade. But then,
according to ESPN, right before fall break, Lauren caught a
glimpse of Sean's ID. It was weird because the name
(09:17):
listed wasn't one he'd ever told her about. She kept
it to herself, and then, when she was back in
her hometown for break, she tapped the name into a
Google search bar. As she sifted through the pages of results,
a sense of unease swept over her. Her boyfriend wasn't Sean.
(09:41):
He was a man named Melvin Roland. And he wasn't
twenty eight, he was thirty seven. But there was something
else too, a picture of Melvin face, serious, eyes, sullen.
It was a discovery Lauren found particularly unsettling because it
(10:03):
was a mugshot. Melvin Roland had just left a ten
year stint in lock up punishment for multiple sex crime convictions.
(10:27):
When Lauren returned to school. It was October ninth. It
had been just over a month since she first met Sean,
a man she now knew was actually Melvin Roland. Dozrett
News reported that alone in her apartment, Lauren dialed Alex's number.
She poured out everything, revealing all the lies she had uncovered.
She knew she needed to end things with Melvin, and
(10:50):
Alex agreed, telling her she should plan to call it
off somewhere public. After they hung up, Lauren caught sight
of something outside her window. It was Melvin watching her.
Then suddenly he was at her door, reprimanding her for
discussing their relationship with others. She confronted him about what
she discovered about his sex crime convictions. Ready with an excuse,
(11:14):
he claimed that he was framed, that he was innocent
and was forced into pleading guilty. Lauren wasn't buying it.
She attempted multiple times to end the relationship and kept
asking him to leave, but he refused. Alex told ESPN
that when she called Lauren the next morning to check in,
the vibes were off. Lauren wasn't saying much and she
(11:37):
just wasn't sounding like herself. Are you alone, Alex asked her.
She wasn't. Melvin had forced Lauren into allowing him to
spend the night. Sometime after hanging up with Alex, she
offered her car to Melvin and he left her run
a few errands. Finally she was alone. Then later in
(11:58):
the day, she started getting texts from unknown numbers. Why
did you break up with the big guy? He really
loves you the first one read, but quickly they started
to get more and more ominous. One demanded that she
go kill herself. All allegedly came from friends of Melvin's.
She called her mom and relayed everything that had happened,
(12:20):
explaining that Melvin now had her car. Jill McCluskey, concerned
for her daughter's safety and well being, swooped into action.
She contacted campus dispatch, hoping they could assist Lauren in
safely retrieving her car. Jill informed the dispatcher that she
was very upset and worried, expressing her fear that Melvin
might be dangerous. Her panic eventually turned into outright tears
(12:44):
as she desperately explained, like any mother would, that she
just didn't want anything bad to happen to her daughter.
It's going to be okay, Jill. The dispatcher soothed and
while campus security did safely escort Lauren to her car
that day. Jill's call was never documented in a centralized location,
meaning that campus police never had any record of Jill
(13:07):
or Lauren's safety concerns. That evening, two days later, Lauren's
phone lit up. The strange text messages had geared up again,
but this time they were even more outrageous, claiming that
Roland had died, that it was all her fault that
she needed to leave her apartment to go to his funeral.
(13:28):
It was at this point that Lauren again called Campus Dispatch.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Here where you played from Scary arc? I help you, Hi,
This is Lauren, and I called a little a few
days ago about a situation and I wanted to kind
of give an update.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Lauren explained what happened two days prior with her car
and said she'd been receiving weird text messages about her ex.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
I've been these texts from these members of different people
saying that they were saying that he was in the
hospital and then saying that like that he passed away.
But then I got texts from him and if he
seems to be alive. So, and then I got a text,
you know, asking me if I wanted to go to
a funeral, his funeral, and I think they're trying to
(14:23):
lure me somewhere.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
The dispatcher told Lauren that an officer would call her
about the case, and shortly after the University of Utah
police opened a formal investigation. But the next day, the
threatening messages continued. It was a Saturday, four days after
her breakup with Melvin and only six weeks since the
two had first met. On that morning, Lauren received a
(14:49):
barrage of emails and texts with intimate photos of herself attached.
The sender claimed they planned to publish the photos online
unless Lauren sent them one thousand dollars. According to ESPN,
Lauren suspected Melvin was behind the text, but when she
reached out to him about it, he denied it outright,
saying he was also being blackmailed. Terrified and faced with
(15:11):
what felt like limited options, Lauren caved the blackmailer and
sent the request one thousand dollars through Venmo. Then, for
the second time, she called campus police.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Do you wonder see if they said scadding out can
help you? Hi? So I am not dealing with this
situation where I'm being blackmailed for money. It's a photo
of my me and I X for starting to take
(15:48):
end it out to everyone and asking her one thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Lauren told the dispatcher she suspected the blackmailer was her
ex boyfriend, Melvin Roland, and just like her call the
day before, she was told an officer would follow up
that afternoon, though Alex urged Lauren to visit campus police
in person. The two went together, and when they arrived,
a pair of officers met with them in the station's
reception area. Almost immediately, the women sensed their concerns weren't
(16:23):
being taken seriously, and I mean, who could blame them?
The officers didn't even bother to bring them to a
private room to discuss what was obviously a sensitive situation.
Hoping to convey the gravity of their concerns, Alex told
ESPN that she googled Melvin right there in the station's lobby,
showed the officers her screen. This guy had a history.
(16:45):
They insisted he was a known sex offender with a
criminal record, and now here he was acting erratically. Maybe
Lauren even needed to move, Alex said, but the officers
were unfazed. The texts were probably just a scam, they assured,
maybe Melvin's phone was hacked. Still, Lauren filled out a
(17:05):
police report and the case was assigned to on call
detective Kayla Dalliff, but since Dalif was out of office
that day, Lauren didn't get to connect with her directly.
Later that same day, feeling unsatisfied and increasingly concerned for
her safety, Lauren decided to take matters into her own hands.
Maybe if she called Salt Lake City Police they would
(17:27):
actually do something. But when she phoned them, they explained
that because she lived on university grounds, her report was
under the jurisdiction of campus police. She'd have to stick
with them, they said, before transferring her to campus dispatch.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
All right, what's going on? Well, I came in earlier
today and I filled out a report for the SAD
You know you came into our building. Yes, I did,
all right. I called nine one one because I was
(18:05):
I was concerned and I wasn't sure. Yeah, like help
speed things up. I don't know. Yeah, that's.
Speaker 8 (18:16):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Yeah, if you call nine on one, the call will
just come back to us and do the exacting thing. Yeah, okay,
do you know when an arrest would be made? You
didn't talk to an optor. If you want, I can
arrange that if you want that. Okay, yeah, that sounds good.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Over the next several days, the harassing text messages persisted.
Each time she received a new one, Lauren promptly forwarded
it to law enforcement, Yet she still hadn't heard a
single word from Kayla Dallas, the detective assigned to the case.
With each passing day, Lauren's stress mounted. Then, on Friday,
(19:03):
five days after she and Alex had visited campus authorities,
her worries escalated upon reading the newest disturbing text message.
This time, the sunder claimed they knew all about Lauren's
police reports. In a panic, she called Salt Lake City PD.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
I'm worried because I've been working with the campus police
at the u U and last Saturday I reported and
then and I haven't gotten an update. Okay. But someone
contacted me today, someone who said that that they know
(19:42):
everything about the police Okay, So you already spoke to
the campus police. Did something?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Did this happen on the University of Utah campus?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Yes, and they haven't updated or done anything. Okay.
Speaker 8 (20:00):
So have you notified the campus police about this?
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Yes? I have Okay, what prompted you to call Salt
Lake City please? Well, I thought it was weird that
there are people who know about the entire case and
the harassers came to know about it more than me,
and I'm concerned there might be an insider who's letting
them know about the case. Okay, so what's some good?
(20:28):
I haven't gotten updates. Yeah, it's been a week.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
The dispatcher once again directed Lauren to campus police and
suggested she ask for a detective or the detective supervisor
if she was concerned about how the case was being handled.
Following those instructions, Lauren reached back out to campus police
that same day, finally prompting a call from Detective Dallas,
who provided no explanation for the delay. According to ESPN,
(20:53):
Lauren is forced to re explain details about her case,
information she felt the detective should have already known. That
same night, remember it's still Friday, Lauren sent a long
email to Detective Dalliff detailing the situation, but, as the
Salt Lake Tribune reported, the detective was scheduled for three
days off starting the very next day, and while she
(21:16):
was gone, no one was assigned to cover Lauren's case.
That Monday, while Detective Dalif was still out, Lauren received
yet another suspicious text. This time, the sender claimed to
be the deputy chief of campus police. They said there'd
been a development in her case, that they had something
at the station she needed to come look at, But,
(21:38):
as ESPN reported, Lauren didn't trust it. The grammatical errors
in the message matched the ones Melvin often made in
his own writing. Lauren contacted campus police yet again, the
message officers confirmed hadn't come from them. Just ignore it,
they told her. That evening, Lauren called her mom on
(21:59):
her way home from class. Despite the drama of the day,
she was in pretty good spirits. According to Deseret, She
was excited about a quiz she'd done well on and
was on her way home planning to utilize the resulting
motivation to finish another assignment.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Early.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
As the call wrapped up, Lauren told her mom she
loved her. Then suddenly Lauren started screaming. The sounds of
Lauren yelling no, no, no blared through Jill's speakers. Next,
a clatter as her daughter's phone dropped to the ground.
(22:37):
As Jill told Deseret, she was immediately catapulted to another
moment years earlier, when Lauren's brother was hospitalized after an
aneurism had ruptured in his brain. I had that same feeling,
she said, like I knew he could die. I just
felt like Lauren could die. Tonight, Lauren's dad, Matt McCluskey,
(22:58):
overheard his wife's speak her phone exchange and rushed in
to help. They acted swiftly, choosing not to disconnect from
Lauren's line in case you returned. Using Matt's phone, they
dialed the police.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
All right, my daughter Lauren mc was talking to her
mom and then she just started saying no, no, no,
no no, and found up like someone might have been
grabbing her or something.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Okay, how long ago was this? This was just a
two minutes ago.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Matt tried his best to explain where Lauren lived and
where her phone might have been dropped. While he was
answering the dispatcher's questions, a voice suddenly came through Jill's phone.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Oh, someone talking at her phone.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Hello, Okay, could you just stay there? I think she
was loved.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Police began a campus wide search that continued late into
the evening, and as the hours passed, Matt clung to
the hope that his daughter would be found and returned
to them safely. He told ESPN, I'd look out the window,
and as long as I didn't see any police cars
heading towards US, I thought we were okay. But then
at almost ten pm, Jill got a call from Lauren's coach.
(24:21):
Lauren had been found dead in the backseat of a
car parked in a lot near her dorm. She'd been
shot seven times. Watching Jill's face on the call, Matt
knew immediately that Lauren was gone. The moment, he told Desaret,
felt like physical trauma, like he'd been hit with a
(24:45):
baseball bat. Melvin Roland was immediately Investigator's number one suspect,
so that night they released his photo in description of
the car they believed he'd left campus in. It didn't
take long for them to track him down, and just
before one am, the police followed him as he slipped
inside a local church, but as they entered, Melvin shot himself,
(25:12):
taking his own life, just hours after Lauren had been
ripped from hers. Lauren's death sent shockwaves across the University
(25:34):
of Utah campus as her community process the unimaginable series
of events that had taken the life of someone they
loved deeply, someone so many students could see themselves in.
At an on campus vigil, Laurence, coach and teammates expressed
their grief.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
Lauren McCluskey was an outstanding young woman. She was a
joy to coach. You recruit a student athlete, you try
to understand them, get to know them, and when you
bring them on campus, you have an idea of what
you want them to be or what you think they
(26:12):
can be, and I think Lauren exceeded in all those areas.
She was just genuine and sweet, and she had a
relentless determination of practice that showed up every day. She
was an incredible teammate. She was incredibly caring, She cared
about everybody.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
She was an.
Speaker 7 (26:34):
Excellent student all the way around. She just did everything
the way that you would hope a student athlete would.
Speaker 8 (26:43):
Yes, there are no words to describe the pain and
loss we're feeling as a team right now. Lauren was
always a driven athlete and gave one hundred and ten
percent and everything she did. The loss of her sweet
spirit to our team is truly a stating.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
We were beyond plus to have her as her teammate
and as He's sister, and we will always We'll always
miss her, and we will always always love her.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
In the days following Lauren's death, a clear picture of
what had been going on over the last few weeks
started coming together. Police confirmed that all of the threatening
and hostile text messages that Lauren received had in fact
come from It's now believed that he was using spoofing
technology to send fake threats from multiple numbers. I also
(28:07):
wondered about the messages that had referenced Laurence police reports.
How had Melvin known about those well? According to ESPN,
that had been rather simple. Before the two broke up,
Lauren had logged into her email on Melvin's phone after
she ended things. He used that access to monitor her,
(28:29):
but that wasn't the only way he kept tabs on her.
Unbeknownst to Lauren, he'd also been stalking her. A review
of security footage revealed video of Melvin walking around campus
in a full deadpool costume, his identity obscured. On the
day of Lauren's murder, Melvin had spent much of the
(28:49):
morning and afternoon around Lauren's residence hall, waiting for her.
When she finally returned home that night, Melvin grabbed her
outside of her building and dragged her into a car,
where he shot her seven times. Next, he ditched the
vehicle and made a call to a woman he'd met
on a dating site. He asked her to come pick
(29:11):
him up, and the two went on a dinner date.
Back at the woman's house, Melvin took a shower and
then asked to be dropped off at a coffee shop.
That night, when Melvin's photo began circulating on the news,
it was the woman from the dating site who recognized him.
His name and age were different than what he'd told her,
but his face was the same, and the car they
(29:33):
were saying he'd been picked up in it was her car.
Afraid for her safety, she reported everything to police. It
was a horrifying series of events, but as the community grieved,
a new question began circulating in whispers and then before long,
(29:55):
in public demands. How could something like this have happened?
And why wasn't it prevented? Lauren and her loved ones
(30:19):
had reported Melvin Roland's abuse, and they'd done so many times,
and so as new details were revealed about Melvin's past defenses,
community outrage grew. When Melvin met Lauren, he was still
on parole. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, he'd first
landed in prison in two thousand and four after soliciting
(30:42):
sex from a thirteen year old girl in a chat room.
When he went to meet up with the girl, Melvin
learned that it had all been a sting operation. He'd
been talking to an undercover cop. During that investigation, police
also learned that Melvin had sexually assaulted as seventeen year
old girl just a few days earlier. He was charged
(31:04):
with both crimes. Originally, his sexual assault of the seventeen
year old was charged as a first degree felony, but
a plea deal reduced it to third degree. This meant
that instead of facing life in prison, Melvin's maximum sentence
was five years. In contrast, he faced up to fifteen
years for his messages with the undercover cop. During his
(31:26):
time in prison, Melvin was sent to sex offender treatment,
but failed to complete it and was denied parole. According
to the Salt Lake Tribune, when he tried treatment again,
he admitted to intentionally seeking out underage girls and vulnerable women,
saying that he was sexually attracted to them. He completed
treatment in the spring of twenty twelve, making him once
(31:47):
again eligible for parole. During his hearing, the parole board
officer asked Melvin about his crimes.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
I'd like you to give me kind of a idea
of what we're looking at victim wise.
Speaker 9 (32:03):
Just does that including the women I dated in college
or just.
Speaker 6 (32:06):
The woman that you felt you took advantage of.
Speaker 9 (32:09):
I would say every female that I came across dating
or met on Internet. I'd say every woman I've met
or that came across that I used my manipulation's actors
to get what I wanted.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
How many? How many did you out and out rape
like the one young lady?
Speaker 9 (32:29):
Well, not like that, but me being a womanizer, you know,
I use other taxes to get what I wanted with them,
manipulated and use women.
Speaker 7 (32:38):
How many?
Speaker 6 (32:38):
How many women in general did you convince to have
sex with you by manipulation?
Speaker 9 (32:45):
Did I come across with and I had sex with
I got locked up at twenty two and my sexual experience,
I'd say about fifty.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
The parole board officer asked Melvin about his treatment and
his plans if you were to be released from prison.
At the end of the hearing, he told Melvin he'd
recommend his parole to the board and hoped this was
the last he'd ever see of him.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
Well, hopefully when you get out, you'll have learned from
this experience. Only time is going to tell, And the
therapist put that right in his report. I know he
doesn't know whether you're just blowing smoke. And you're smart enough,
you know what you had to do to get out,
So we'll find out soon enough, because once you hit
(33:29):
the street, if you start doing the same things say,
if you come back, you know where you'll spend the
rest of your life.
Speaker 9 (33:37):
So I caught my charge of twenty two, I got
locked at twenty three and I'm thirty one. Now, yeah,
I know I have that capability of reoffending, but again
it's something I'll have to prove.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
As part of his parole, Melvin was required to abstain
from pornography and social media, but just a few months
later he violated these conditions and landed back in prison.
Fast forward to twenty thirteen, Melvin was prolled again. ESPN
reported that he had a few run ins with the
police during this period, but none of those encounters landed
(34:10):
him back in prison. Then in October twenty fifteen, things
took another turn. Melvin was driving when he re rendered
another car. A passerby, concerned, pulled over to check on everyone.
Instead of staying put, Melvin scrambled into the passenger seat
of the good Smaritan's car and demanded that he drive
(34:31):
them away from the scene. When Melvin's parole officer caught
wind of this incident, they recommended arresting him for a
laundry list of violations, kidnapping, fraud, damaged to property, and
leaving the scene of an accident, But because the driver
didn't press charges, the parole boar decided and arrest wasn't warranted.
(34:52):
Come February twenty sixteen, Melvin's troubles continued. During a routine visit,
he bolted from parole officers. According to adult Probation and
parrole records obtained by ESPN, Melvin made a clear he
was done with parole. He even warned that he'd act
aggressively if another officer showed up. It wasn't long before
(35:12):
officers discovered as second phone Malvin had been using to
store explicit photos and message women on social media. He
was arrested for skipping his mandated sex offender therapy, fleeing
from officers, possessing pornographic material, and using social media without approval.
At his parole board hearing, Melvin insisted that his threats
(35:32):
to officers were just heat of the moment frustration. Despite
his claims, the board decided it was time for him
to go back to prison. In April of twenty eighteen,
Melvin was granted parole one final time. His sentence was
set to expire the following spring, and he was only
out of prison for a handful of months before meeting
(35:52):
Lauren three days after Lauren had reported being blackmailed. Melvin
had actually met with his parole but because campus police
never checked Melvin's offender status, they didn't even know he
was on parole. Checking parole status just wasn't a part
of campus police protocol. In fact, according to ESPN, the
(36:15):
University of Utah's internal investigation discovered that officers didn't even
know how to check correction statuses in the first place.
Some sources even reported that the university police chief didn't
trust Utah's Adult Probation and Parole Board and that it
was basically unofficial policy to avoid communicating with them out
of fear they might negatively interfere with ongoing investigations at
(36:36):
the university. It's all a shame because the fact is
Melvin had social media, was using dating sites, and even
borrowed a gun before killing Lauren, all of which were
in direct violation of his parole terms. In the aftermath
of Lauren's murder, the University of Utah hired an independent
(36:59):
team to review u the university officers handling of her case.
Their report highlighted several shortcomings by officials and recommendations for improvement,
including hiring victim advocates and providing officers with adequate training
related to interpersonal violence. The report concluded, quote, we will
never know that this tragedy could have been prevented without
(37:19):
these deficiencies. What we can say is that correcting the
issues we have identified in this report might lessen the
probability of such a tragedy occurring again. But according to
the Salt Lake Tribune, the university president took her own
interpretation of their report. At a press converce, she claimed, quote,
the report does not offer any reason to believe that
(37:40):
this tragedy could have been prevented. It was a statement
that didn't sit well with Lauren's loved ones. Lauren's parents
filed a fifty six million dollar lawsuit the following summer.
At the time, they said they viewed it as a
last resort after months of trying to work with the
University of Utah directly. But in the years following laurence murder,
(38:02):
it became clear that issues with the University police department
stretched far beyond the mistakes made in Lauren's case. Just
five months after Laurence murder, Detective Dalif was fired for
taking insufficient and delayed action on yet another domestic violence case. Similarly,
Officer Miguel Dares, one of Lauren's primary points of contact
(38:23):
within the department, was disciplined for mistakes he made in
a similar case. According to his discipline letter, in that case,
he didn't check the suspect's prole status and even interviewed
the victim while the suspect was still in the room.
To make matters worse, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that
Officer Darris had shown Lauren's intimate photos to a coworker. Yep,
(38:45):
the same photos Melvin used to blackmail Lauren, and no
Officer Dares wasn't showing the photos in some kind of
professional capacity. Instead, he was bragging about quote getting to
look at them whenever he wanted. The university responded saying
they were aware of Deris's behavior, but had only learned
(39:06):
of him sharing the photos after he'd transferred to a
different police department. The Salt Lake Tribune also published its
own investigative report, one that illuminated a long history of
officers downplaying and ignoring cases of dating and domestic violence.
According to discipline records they obtained during their investigation, many
officers failed to contact victims on reasonable timelines, some even
(39:29):
ignoring reports completely. Former staff members told the Salt Lake
Tribune that they had instructions to quote downplay the number
of domestic violence cases by not creating a record for
some calls or altering dispatch log entries for others. Similarly,
female students who had reported rape, sexual assault, and harassment
said they felt their concerns weren't taken seriously. Hearing about
(39:54):
all these egregious errors had me reflecting on accountability. Its
abund dentally clear that so many individual people failed at
their jobs, countless singular missteps with dire consequences, And while
those folks certainly must be held accountable for their role.
(40:14):
I also believe that the easiest thing we can do
as a society is to scapegoat one or a few individuals.
The harder, and perhaps more crucial task is to recognize
the ways in which entire systems failed to protect Lauren.
Because individuals operating in broken systems are bound to fail,
(40:38):
and it's for that reason that Lauren's parents continue fighting
for change in her memory. In twenty twenty, the McCluskey's
won a thirteen and a half million dollar settlement from
the state and University of Utah. Soon after, they shared
their intention to donate all of the settlement money to
the Lauren mcluskey Foundation, an organization they founded in twenty
(40:59):
nineteen with a mission to increase awareness of stalking and
dating violence at colleges and universities across the country. As
a part of that work, they also created Lauren's Promise,
a campaign that encourages faculty, staff, students, parents, and community
members to publicly pledge their support with a statement of
solidarity that indicates to others that they will listen and
(41:21):
believe victims of sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking, that
they can be a trusted source ready to connect folks
with needed resources. The McCluskey family has also been critical
in the adoption of several state bills, including one that
requires Utah public colleges to create detailed response plans for
cases of stalking, sexual assault, dating, and domestic violence. Amidst
(41:44):
student protests and the work of Laurence loved Ones, the
University of Utah has also made a number of meaningful changes.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune. In twenty twenty, the
school opened a Center for Violence Prevention, an institution that
will research intimate partner of violence like that which Lauren experienced.
And truly, all of what I just shared is the
(42:07):
tip of the iceberg. Despite the overwhelming pain of Lauren's death,
the mccluskeys have been fueled by their unimaginable loss to
make a meaningful difference. And still there is so much
work to be done. In fact, another University of Utah student,
(42:28):
nineteen year old Shifon Dong, was killed by her ex
in February of twenty twenty two, less than a month
after she reported to campus police that the same ex
had assaulted her. As Lauren's dad told ESPN, there are
so many young women like Lauren who are just as
(42:49):
precious to their parents, women whose stories don't get the
same attention. And for me, it's that acknowledgment that should
fuel the rest of us. Lauren's legacy has and will
continue to be absolutely transformative. And if a single story
can spur so much action, what might be possible if
(43:13):
we afforded every young person this same level of care
and recognition. Maybe then we could understand the full picture
a little more deeply, that these stories have happened, are happening,
and will continue to happen unless and until we decide
(43:34):
to stop treating community problems as individual problems and transform
systems that keep us trapped in patterns that ultimately hurt
all of us. Before you jump away, just a couple
(43:59):
more things and to share with you. One thing that
really stuck out to me about today's story is Lauren's parents,
Jill and Matt McCluskey, and just their commitment to advocating
for folks like Lauren across the country. We told you
in the episode, but in her honor, they founded the
Lauren McCluskey Foundation, whose mission is to let Lauren's light
shine by supporting her passions which were things like animal welfare,
(44:22):
amateur athletics, and of course, by making sure that campuses
across the country are a place where students are safe,
supported and have the ability to thrive. So I really
recommend that for today's action item check out their website.
They offer advocates and allies a plethora of amazing resources,
even things like a student toolkit for those who like
to push for change and create a culture of safety
(44:44):
on their own campuses. Much of their work also centers
around forwarding Lauren's Promise, which is that pledge that basically
says I will listen and believe you if someone is
threatening you. So you can make Lauren's promise, learn how
to volunteer and donate to support the the rest of
their incredible work at Lauren McCluskey dot org. As always,
(45:06):
you can keep up with truecrime on Instagram and x
at Truecrimepod, and you can also find me on Instagram
and TikTok at Slicia Stanton and through my weekly newsletter,
Sincerely Slicia at Sincerelyslicia dot substock dot com. For a
full source list and links to all of today's action items,
make sure to visit our website at Truercrime podcast dot com.
(45:34):
Truer Crime is created, hosted, and written by me Selicia
Stanton and is a production of tenor Foot TV and
association with Odyssey, Additional writing and research by Olivia Husingfeld.
Executive producers are myself, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsay. Additional
production by Olivia Husingfeld and Jamie Albright. Editing by Liam Luxen,
with additional editing support by Sidney Evans and ja Ja Mohammad.
(45:57):
Our supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Artwork by Station sixteen,
original music by Jay Ragsdale, mix by Dayton Cole. Thank
you to Orrin Rosenbaum and the team at Uta Backmedia
and Marketing and the Nord Group. For more podcasts like
true Crime, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app
or visit us at Tenderfoot dot tv. Thanks for listening
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com