Horrible news was announced on June 27, 2019 in the case of Mackenzie Lueck. Salt Lake City Police confirmed Mackenzie’s remains were found at suspect Ayoola Ajayi’s home, after he murdered her and attempted to burn her remains in his backyard. (You can read disturbing information we found out about killer Ayoola Ajayi here).

A beautiful bright light was extinguished by this monster. Below is the Mackenzie Lueck Press Conference Transcript, which aired live around 11:30am MST. Mackenzie’s friend currently is currently raising funds for her funeral expenses. You can help by visiting The Mackenzie Lueck GoFundMe page.

[ Begin Mackenzie Lueck Press Conference Transcript ]

Christina Judd [Public Relations Director; Salt Lake City Police Department]: Good morning. I am Christina Judd, I’m the public relations director for Salt Lake City Police Department. Thank you for being here today. We have several federal, state, and local partners that are here with us today who have helped and supported in this case. Special thanks are given to acting Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Bob Meacham, from the FBI. District Attorney Sim Gill, Commissioner of Public Safety Jess Anderson and Chief Craig Black of North Salt Lake City. I will now turn the time over to Chief Mike Brown who will be giving the statements today.

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Chief Mike Brown [Salt Lake City Police Department]: Thank you all for being here today. It’s with heavy heart that I address you today. After an exhaustive week of investigation, we are filing charges of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, obstruction of justice, and desecration of a body in the homicide of Mackenzie Lueck. The man charged with these horrific and tragic crimes is the person of interest, Ayoola Ajayi. I will not be saying the killer’s name again, but will go through what has transpired in the last 12 days. On June 20th 2019, the Salt City Police Department was notified of a missing person investigation for Mackenzie Lueck. Investigations confirmed that on June 17th, Mackenzie departed a plane at the Salt Lake City airport at approximately 2 am. Mackenzie obtained a ride via transport services  to the destination of Hatch Park, located in North Salt Lake City. Mckenzie was dropped off by the transport services at Hatch Park, where another individual met with her. Mackenzie left the park with this individual at approximately 3 am on June 17th. Investigations were conducted on Mackenzie’s phone records, social media, and other communications which showed that all communication ceased from Mackenzie at 3 am on June 17th. Investigations into Mackenzie’s phone showed that the communications and data ceased at the time of June 17th at approximately 3 am. Investigation of Mackenzie’s phone records show that her last communications were with the arrested person. In an interview with him he admitted to having text conversations with Mackenzie on June 16th at approximately 6 pm, but nothing after that time. The arrested person stated that he did not know what Mackenzie looked like, and denied having seen a photo or online profile to Mackenzie, despite having several photos of her and the profile photo. The arrested person denied any personal contact with Mackenzie or meeting with her at any time. Investigations of both the arrested persons and Mackenzie’s phone records show the location of their phones to be at Hatch Park within less than a minute of each other. This was the same time as Mackenzie’s phone stopped receiving any further data or location services, on June 17th at approximately 3 am. In speaking with Mackenzie’s family, members of her family, and close friends, it is highly unusual and suspect the Mackenzie would not have any communications or social media activity despite multiple attempts to contact her by them and by law enforcement. During a search warrant on the arrested persons residence and property on June 26th the arrested persons neighbors informed detectives that they observed him burning something in his backyard with the use of gasoline on the dates of June 17th and June 18th. The search warrant resulted in the findings of a fresh dig area on his property which is the same area that the arrested person was reported burning something. A forensic excavation of the burn area was conducted, which resulted in the finding of several charred items that were consistent with personal items of Mackenzie Lueck. Other charred material was located which has now been forensically been determined to be female human tissue. A DNA profile of that human tissue was obtained during forensic testing by the Utah State Lab. That DNA profile was compared and is consistent with a DNA profile obtained through further forensic testing of personal items of Mackenzie Lueck. At 9:20 this morning, we were able to take the suspect into custody. After the arrest I spoke with Greg Lueck and informed him of the developments in this investigation. This is one of the most difficult phone calls I’ve ever made, as both Greg and his wife Diana were devastated and heartbroken by this news. Greg wanted me to say again that they are so thankful to the officers and staff of the police department, the community of Salt Lake City, and those across the nation that have shown compassion and tried to help in the search of Mackenzie. And I would like to echo his sentiments. I am personally grateful. We will continue to look into this to determine if he acted alone, or if he had help. Salt Lake City is a tight-knit caring, family-oriented community, and I hope that we can all work together to help prevent this from ever happening again. Thank you.

Christina Judd: We will now be hearing from Bob Meacham, the Acting Assistant Special Agent Agent in Charge for the criminal branch for the Salt Lake City field office.

Bob Meacham [FBI]: Thanks to the Chief, first off. I’m the Acting Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge for the FBI Salt Lake Division Criminal Branch. I’ll be very brief. First and foremost, the FBI Family wants to send it’s condolences, sincerest condolences, to the family and friends of Mackenzie. We’ve been assisting in this investigation and we will continue to assist in this investigation until we’re done, until it’s completed. Our partnerships are very valuable to us with the local law enforcement agencies, particularly here what we did with Salt Lake City. You’ll see the value in it. We’ll continue to do that with all of our local partners. It’s extremely valuable to us to maintain those relationships and it’s in tragedies like this where you see how important it is for us to come together as a community and continue to support one another. Thank you.

Christina Judd: We will now hear from the Salt Lake County District Attorney, Sim Gill.

Sim Gill [District Attorney]: Good morning. I just want to take a second. I won’t repeat the factual basis articulated by Chief Brown, that’s part of our probable cause statement. I just want to take first and foremost a second both as the Salt Lake City DA’s office, to give our sympathies and condolences to Mackenzie’s family, her friends who kept after to get engaged, and bring this to a conclusion. I also want to acknowledge some of the things you may not know. That the great effort from Chief Brown…Chief Brown and I spoke about this last week personally. The effort from the law enforcement community, their efforts. There’s a lot of speculation out there. They were very hard. Our partnership with the FBI, the State Crime Lab, all of them coming together in a concerted effort to try to bring some answers to this very tragic and unfortunate incident. The process now goes forward, the person is moving forward in our criminal justice process and and we will let that process unfold as it goes forward. But I just want to just take a second for all the great effort, and the long hours that were put in by The Salt Lake City PD, all of our partners, and also just wanted to personally thank you Chief (turns to Chief Brown), because I know you and I talked about this at length and what this has meant to the community and the family, so, thank you. [Hugs Chief Brown].

Christina Judd: At this time, we will have a statement from the Lueck family read by Mackenzie’s uncle.

Mackenzie Lueck Uncle: The Lueck Family would like to express their gratitude for the effort put forth by the Salt Lake City Police Department and all partnering agencies that assisted, as well as all of the people that provided tips on this case. They are also grateful to her community, from friends and others around the nation who have supported this investigation. The family will not be taking any questions, and no interviews will be held. Inquiries should be directed to the Salt Lake City Police Department. Again, we ask that everybody respect the privacy of Mackenzie’s family and friends at this time. Media requests and statements for the family will be taken by the Salt Lake City Police Department. Thank you. [Continue Mackenzie Lueck Press Conference Transcript]

Christina Judd: The arrested person is currently on his way to be booked into Salt Lake County Jail. We will not be releasing any further information, but there is still a considerable amount of investigative follow-up that needs to be conducted. This case will then be presented to the District Attorney’s office and move into the prosecution phase. We would like they’re close this press briefing with special thanks to all the dedicated effort that was given by the women and men of the Salt Lake City Police Department and the community. Thanks to the media for helping us get this word out and we appreciate everybody’s diligence on this. Thank you.

LINK: Mackenzie Lueck Press Conference Video

[End Mackenzie Lueck Press Conference]

If you have been touched by this case as much as we have, please consider making a donation in honor of Mackenzie. We know she adored animals (leaving behind guinea pigs, a hedgehog, and her beloved cat Nova). The ASPCA is an excellent animal org to give to. Additionally, Mackenize’s friend is raising money for her funeral expenses ( Mackenzie Lueck GoFundMe ). Beware of imposters, this is the only GoFundMe page that is confirmed to be related to the family. Her family has also asked to give your children a hug. It breaks out hearts to think Mackenzie had just gone home for her grandmother’s funeral, and in the span of several days a daughter lost her mother, and a mother lost her daughter. The nation mourns with the Lueck’s.

Links:

Mackenzie Lueck Instagram Page

Mackenzie Lueck Press Conference Transcript Announcing Person of Interest / Search Warrant