Salt Lake City police charged a man with murder Friday in connection to the search for missing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck, 23, officials said.
Ayoola Ajayi is charged with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and other charges, authorities announced.
Salt Lake City police chief Mike Brown said he personally telephoned the young lady’s parents in Southern California to tell them their daughter was dead.
“This is one of the most difficult phone calls I have ever made as both Greg and his wife Diana are devastated, are broken by this news,” Brown said.
The announcement came after SWAT officers in full tactical gear swarmed an apartment complex at about 9:20 a.m. MT at 1028 S.W. Temple, NBC affiliate KSL in Salt Lake City reported.
“SLCPD took one person into custody this morning regarding the MacKenzie Lueck case,” police tweeted at 10:14 a.m. local time.
Lueck landed at Salt Lake City International Airport June 17 upon her return from her grandmother’s funeral in Southern California, police said.
The student, originally from El Segundo, California., took a Lyft to a park in North Salt Lake where she appeared to be meeting someone in a car there at about 3 a.m., police said. She has not been seen since.
Police armed with a warrant searched the home of a “person of interest” in the case late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, officials said.
Authorities also said they are looking for a mattress from that house, which might be connected to Lueck’s disapparance.
The suspect, Ajayi, is a former Army IT specialist who now says he works as a technical support analyst for Dell, according to his LinkedIn page, and lives in the Salt Lake City neighborhood of Fairpark.
Prior to Ajayi’s arrest, police on Thursday said they were looking for a missing box spring and mattress in connection to Lueck’s disappearance.
NBC News uncovered a social media account linked to Ajayi that posted a mattress for sale on the app LetGo, which helps people sell furniture and other items online.
