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The Frightening Story of Lauren McCluskey · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: I would like to request some help from my daughter.
0:02
Speaker 1: She started dating this guy and he's actually a sexual offender.
0:06
Speaker 1: I don't want her to go there by herself and
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Speaker 1: have like something bad happen to her.
0:10
Speaker 2: God, yeah.
0:11
Speaker 1: You know, when you hear a mother making a 911
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Speaker 1: call from over 600 miles away, just pleading with a
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Speaker 1: stranger in a dispatch center to protect her child, there's
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Speaker 1: this specific kind of chill that's That runs right down
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Speaker 1: your spine.
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Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
0:25
Speaker 1: It's the sound of someone watching a train derail in
0:27
Speaker 1: slow motion.
0:28
Speaker 2: Yeah.
0:28
Speaker 1: And they can't do anything to stop it.
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Speaker 2: Right. But the most terrifying part of this story isn't
0:33
Speaker 2: just the man who derailed her life. It's the institutions
0:38
Speaker 2: that stood on the tracks and literally waved him right through.
0:41
Speaker 1: Yeah.
0:41
Speaker 2: They are standing right there fully equipped with the emergency
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Speaker 2: brakes and they just refuse to pull the lever.
0:46
Speaker 1: They really do. And today we are taking you into
0:49
Speaker 1: the anatomy of a systemic failure. For this deep dive,
0:53
Speaker 1: we are pulling from the transcript of a profoundly unsettling,
0:57
Speaker 1: just incredibly detailed investigative video by the channel Beyond Evil.
1:03
Speaker 1: It's titled The Frightening Story of Lauren McCluskey. And our
1:07
Speaker 1: mission today isn't just to walk you through the timeline
1:10
Speaker 1: of a tragic true crime story. I mean, if we
1:14
Speaker 1: just did that, we'd be doing you a disservice.
1:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely.
1:17
Speaker 1: We are going to completely dissect this. We're looking at
1:20
Speaker 1: a cascading series of blaring red flags, institutional apathy, and
1:25
Speaker 1: the kind of systemic blind spots that are actively built
1:28
Speaker 1: into the bureaucracies that are designed to keep you safe.
1:32
Speaker 2: What's fascinating here is that this wasn't a crime of sudden,
1:35
Speaker 2: unpredictable passion.
1:36
Speaker 1: Right.
1:36
Speaker 2: The culture often treats violence against women as if it's
1:39
Speaker 2: a random lightning strike.
1:40
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly.
1:41
Speaker 2: But this was not a lightning strike. This was a
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Speaker 2: slow motion collision that was telegraphed to authorities for days,
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Speaker 2: if not weeks, in advance.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, the warning signs weren't hidden at all.
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Speaker 2: No, they were explicitly documented. They were handed over in
1:52
Speaker 2: person and they were just fundamentally ignored.
1:55
Speaker 1: And that's exactly why we really want you to stick
1:58
Speaker 1: with us on this journey. While we're looking at the
2:00
Speaker 1: specific life of a 21-year-old student, Lauren McCluskey, this entire
2:04
Speaker 1: deep dive is really a masterclass. in understanding the mechanics
2:08
Speaker 1: of coercive control.
2:10
Speaker 2: It really is.
2:10
Speaker 1: It's an exploration of the devastating lethal consequences that occur
2:15
Speaker 1: when the very institutions that are funded and legally mandated
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Speaker 1: to protect us become completely bogged down by rigid jurisdictions
2:23
Speaker 1: and honestly, a total lack of curiosity.
2:26
Speaker 2: Right.
2:27
Speaker 1: So to really understand how a system could fail someone
2:30
Speaker 1: so completely, we have to start by understanding who Lauren
2:32
Speaker 1: was as a person because her character is Her specific
2:36
Speaker 1: psychological makeup plays a massive role in how this all unfolded.
2:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crucial context.
2:41
Speaker 1: So Lauren was 21 years old. She's originally from Pullman, Washington,
2:44
Speaker 1: and was a communications major at the University of Utah
2:47
Speaker 1: in Salt Lake City. But defining her as just a
2:49
Speaker 1: student totally misses the core of her identity. She was
2:53
Speaker 1: an extraordinary elite athlete.
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Speaker 2: Elite is almost an understatement, honestly. She was a collegiate heptathlete.
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Speaker 1: Which is just insane to me. It is.
3:02
Speaker 2: For anyone who might not follow track and field... The
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Speaker 2: heptathlon is arguably one of the most grueling, demanding tests
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Speaker 2: of human athletic ability in the world. It's a combined
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Speaker 2: discipline consisting of seven vastly different events. You've got the
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Speaker 2: 100 meter hurdles, the high jump, the shot put, the
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Speaker 2: 200 meter run, the long jump, the javelin throw, and
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Speaker 2: then finally the 800 meter run.
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Speaker 1: Just to put that into perspective for you. I mean,
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Speaker 1: Most athletes dedicate their entire lives to mastering just one
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Speaker 1: of those biomechanics. Exactly. You have sprinters.
3:35
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:35
Speaker 1: And you have throwers. Lauren had to do both.
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Speaker 2: And that requires an almost unfathomable level of physical and
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Speaker 2: mental discipline.
3:42
Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 2: You have to master explosive fast twitch muscle speed for
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Speaker 2: the sprints, incredible technical precision and timing for the hurdles
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Speaker 2: and high jump, and sheer brute kinetic strength for the
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Speaker 2: shot put and javelin.
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Speaker 1: And run an 800 meter on top of it.
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Speaker 2: Right. You have to possess the cardiovascular engine of a
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Speaker 2: distance runner for that. But honestly, more importantly than the
4:00
Speaker 2: physical output, is the psychological framework required to excel at
4:04
Speaker 2: this level?
4:05
Speaker 1: Oh, for sure.
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Speaker 2: To be a collegiate heptathlete means you have an ironclad will.
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Speaker 2: You are deeply accustomed to pushing through pain, ignoring extreme discomfort,
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Speaker 2: and dedicating yourself entirely to a long-term goal.
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Speaker 1: You're highly disciplined. Yeah. And you have a massive capacity
4:21
Speaker 1: for enduring hardship without quitting.
4:24
Speaker 2: Yes.
4:24
Speaker 1: And keep that specific trait in mind. because abusers often
4:28
Speaker 1: look for people with a high capacity to endure.
4:31
Speaker 2: That is such an important point. Right.
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Speaker 1: So by her senior year, Lauren was excelling. She was
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Speaker 1: winning medals, taking home academic awards, and surrounded by this
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Speaker 1: really solid, supportive group of friends. She's navigating that incredibly
4:44
Speaker 1: exciting transition into full adulthood.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, everything is going great.
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Speaker 1: And then we get to September 2018. It's a Friday night.
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Speaker 1: Lauren and a friend go out for an evening of
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Speaker 1: dancing and drinks together. At a small club near the
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Speaker 1: University of Utah campus. It's your classic, totally innocent college weekend.
5:00
Speaker 2: Right.
5:01
Speaker 1: But this is where the meet cute happens. Except we
5:04
Speaker 1: quickly learn there is absolutely nothing cute about it.
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Speaker 2: No, not at all.
5:08
Speaker 1: A man catches her eye. He approaches her and introduces
5:12
Speaker 1: himself as Sean Fields. He tells her he's 28 years old,
5:16
Speaker 1: working at the club as a bouncer, but he's also
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Speaker 1: a student trying to better himself at the nearby Salt
5:21
Speaker 1: Lake Community College.
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Speaker 2: Look at the archetype he is immediately projecting here.
5:25
Speaker 1: Right, the protector.
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Speaker 2: Exactly. He presents himself as a protector figure, a bouncer,
5:29
Speaker 2: someone who keeps bad people out. But he balances that
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Speaker 2: hyper-masculine protector role with vulnerability and ambition.
5:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, by saying he's a student, too.
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Speaker 2: Right. And he's tall, muscular, conventionally handsome, and incredibly charming.
5:43
Speaker 2: He's a charismatic talker. And the initial courtship phase is
5:47
Speaker 2: executed straight out of a romantic comedy playbook. Literally.
5:50
Speaker 1: Literally.
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Speaker 2: He buys her flowers, takes her out to nice dinners,
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Speaker 2: and very sweetly, almost traditionally, asks her to be his
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Speaker 2: official girlfriend. He completely sweeps her off her feet.
6:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, Lauren's mother, Jill, later noted in interviews that Lauren
6:03
Speaker 1: was just over the moon for this guy.
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Speaker 2: She was really falling for him.
6:07
Speaker 1: And it moves incredibly fast. They become a serious item
6:09
Speaker 1: in a matter of days. He starts staying overnight at
6:12
Speaker 1: her dorm room, and she's even loaning him her car
6:14
Speaker 1: to get to his supposed classes. Oh. But almost as
6:18
Speaker 1: quickly as this romance bloomed... the insidious, suffocating creep of
6:22
Speaker 1: control started setting in. And the source material points out
6:25
Speaker 1: something very common in these dynamics. Lauren's friends were the
6:29
Speaker 1: absolute first to notice the red flags.
6:31
Speaker 2: The friends almost always see it first. Because the abuser
6:35
Speaker 2: hasn't calibrated their public mask perfectly for the peripheral audience yet.
6:39
Speaker 2: They are focused entirely on the primary target. The manipulation
6:43
Speaker 2: tactics that Sean used are textbook examples of coercive control.
6:47
Speaker 1: So textbook.
6:48
Speaker 2: First, it starts with microaggressions regarding her autonomy, specifically her clothing.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 2: He would ask her to invite her friends out with them,
6:55
Speaker 2: appearing to be, you know, social and inclusive. But then
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Speaker 2: he would privately request that Lauren dress in a very
7:02
Speaker 2: specific toned down way, generally just a plain loose T-shirt
7:06
Speaker 2: and jeans.
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Speaker 1: Now, if you haven't been in a controlling relationship, you
7:09
Speaker 1: might think, you know, what's the big deal? He likes
7:12
Speaker 1: her in casual clothes. But let's look at the mechanics
7:15
Speaker 1: of this. Why doesn't an abuser care if you're wearing
7:18
Speaker 1: a T-shirt and jeans versus a nice dress that you
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Speaker 1: feel confident in?
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Speaker 2: Well, it's entirely about diminishing her visibility and testing her
7:26
Speaker 2: threshold for compliance.
7:28
Speaker 1: Exactly.
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Speaker 2: A beautiful, incredibly fit young woman in a nice dress
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Speaker 2: is going to turn heads in a club. By dictating
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Speaker 2: that she wears something plain and unassuming, he is subtly
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Speaker 2: communicating a very dark message.
7:43
Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Like, I don't want anyone else looking at you, and
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Speaker 2: your physical form exists only for my gaze and my approval.
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Speaker 1: God, it's so gross. It is.
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Speaker 2: It's a possessive stripping away of her individuality. And more importantly,
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Speaker 2: it's a boundary test. When she complies with that small demand,
7:57
Speaker 2: just changing her shirt to avoid an argument, it sets
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Speaker 2: a psychological precedent.
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Speaker 1: It pays the way for much larger demands. Exactly. Which
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Speaker 1: moves us right into the extreme possessiveness. When she would
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Speaker 1: actually go out with her friends, Sean would call her
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Speaker 1: phone incessantly. Not just checking in, but demanding to know
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Speaker 1: what she was doing, exactly who she was with, and
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Speaker 1: the precise minute she would be back. Right. And if
8:20
Speaker 1: she didn't answer the phone on the very first ring,
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Speaker 1: he would aggressively interrogate her about what took her so
8:25
Speaker 1: long to pick up.
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Speaker 2: And here is where the manipulation reaches a truly sophisticated level.
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Speaker 2: When Lauren's friends expressed alarm about this constant suffocating behavior...
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Speaker 2: Lauren actually defended him.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that part is so sad.
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Speaker 2: She explained his actions away by telling her friends that
8:41
Speaker 2: Shutton had deep insecurities because he had been treated very
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Speaker 2: badly and cheated on in a prior highly toxic relationship.
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Speaker 1: He is completely weaponizing her empathy.
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Speaker 2: Exactly the mechanism. He paints himself not as a jealous,
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Speaker 2: controlling partner, but as a wounded victim of past trauma.
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Speaker 2: This immediately triggers Lauren's natural empathy. Instead of seeing his
9:02
Speaker 2: constant calling as the aggressive stalking behavior it actually is,
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Speaker 2: she sees it as a psychological wound that she, and
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Speaker 2: only she, can help heal with enough patience, compliance, and love.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, she thinks she's fixing him.
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Speaker 2: She thinks she's comforting a damaged man when in reality
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Speaker 2: she's being methodically isolated.
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Speaker 1: Okay, a lot of people use the boiling frog analogy
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Speaker 1: for this, but I actually hate that analogy because it
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Speaker 1: just implies the victim isn't paying attention to the temperature.
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Speaker 2: That's a good point.
9:31
Speaker 1: What's happening here is much more active and malicious. It's
9:35
Speaker 1: less like a frog in a pot and more like
9:36
Speaker 1: a predatory real estate developer quietly buying up the property
9:40
Speaker 1: around your house. Oh, wow.
9:42
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah.
9:43
Speaker 1: He closes the roads one by one, disguising it as
9:45
Speaker 1: construction for your benefit. You build a fence saying it's
9:48
Speaker 1: to keep the bad people out. By the time you
9:51
Speaker 1: realize you're trapped, he owns all the exits.
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Speaker 2: That's a brilliant way to frame it.
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Speaker 1: And he disguised his control as protection. He starts telling
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Speaker 1: her how dangerous the world is, how important it is
10:01
Speaker 1: to be careful around other people on campus.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: He buys her a can of pepper spray and insists
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Speaker 1: she carry it everywhere. Then he invites her to a
10:09
Speaker 1: gun range. He teaches her how to shoot and actively
10:13
Speaker 1: pressures her to purchase a handgun of her own.
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Speaker 2: He is manufacturing a sense of pervasive external danger.
10:19
Speaker 1: Exactly.
10:19
Speaker 2: He needs her to believe the world outside of his
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Speaker 2: arms is terrifying so that he becomes her only safe harbor.
10:26
Speaker 2: If she is afraid of the world, she will cling
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Speaker 2: to him.
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Speaker 1: And this isolation tactic worked. By this point in the timeline,
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Speaker 1: the sources note that Lauren had completely stopped socializing with
10:35
Speaker 1: her friends.
10:36
Speaker 2: Wow.
10:36
Speaker 1: Outside of attending class and her rigorous track practices, she
10:40
Speaker 1: was spending her time exclusively with him. Her friends, and
10:43
Speaker 1: even the residency hall workers at her dorm who saw
10:46
Speaker 1: her daily, were deeply worried.
10:48
Speaker 2: I'm sure.
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Speaker 1: They noticed a drastic change in her demeanor. She wasn't
10:52
Speaker 1: taking care of herself the way she used to, and
10:54
Speaker 1: they began to heavily suspect he was actively tracking her
10:57
Speaker 1: movements around the sprawling university campus.
11:00
Speaker 2: But when you build a house of cards that massive,
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Speaker 2: the facade is bound to crack.
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Speaker 1: You simply cannot maintain a lie of that magnitude indefinitely. No.
11:09
Speaker 2: No. And this brings us to the unmasking, which happened
11:14
Speaker 2: completely by chance.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, this part is wild.
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Speaker 2: Lauren just happened to catch sight of his photo ID
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Speaker 2: one day in her dorm. And the name printed on
11:22
Speaker 2: that card was not Sean Fields.
11:25
Speaker 1: Right.
11:25
Speaker 2: It was Melvin Sean Rowland. And the birthday didn't make
11:29
Speaker 2: him 28. He was born in 1981. He was 37
11:32
Speaker 2: years old.
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Speaker 1: 27.
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Speaker 2: He is a full decade older than the persona he constructed.
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Speaker 1: Put yourself in her shoes in that moment. The tectonic
11:40
Speaker 1: plates of her reality just violently shifted. It's one thing
11:44
Speaker 1: to find out a partner shaved a year or two
11:46
Speaker 1: off their age on a dating app out of vanity.
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Speaker 1: It is a completely different universe of terror to realize
11:52
Speaker 1: you are sleeping next to a man with a completely
11:54
Speaker 1: fabricated identity.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's horrifying.
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Speaker 1: The sources describe Melvin as someone with an innate sociopathic
12:00
Speaker 1: knack for shooting a line of half-truths, lies, and elaborate
12:03
Speaker 1: tall tales. His disarming nature made him a natural at
12:06
Speaker 1: picking up women. He was a chameleon. But this accidental
12:10
Speaker 1: discovery shattered the illusion entirely. She realizes in a split
12:14
Speaker 1: second that she literally does not know the man who
12:17
Speaker 1: has embedded himself in her life.
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Speaker 2: So terrifying.
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Speaker 1: So on October 5th, Lauren wisely decides to create physical distance.
12:25
Speaker 1: She heads back home to Pullman, Washington for the university's
12:28
Speaker 1: autumn break.
12:29
Speaker 2: Smart move.
12:30
Speaker 1: Yeah. She uses the safety of being hundreds of miles
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Speaker 1: away in her childhood home to confide in a friend
12:35
Speaker 1: about what she saw on that driver's license. And her
12:38
Speaker 1: friend suggests the most basic, logical next step. Let's just
12:42
Speaker 1: look up this Melvin Rowland.
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Speaker 2: Just a simple public records internet search.
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Speaker 1: Exactly. And what populates on the screen is absolutely terrifying.
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Speaker 2: The search reveals that Melvin Sean Rowland, age 37 of
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Speaker 2: Salt Lake City, isn't a bouncer.
12:55
Speaker 1: No.
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Speaker 2: He is a registered sex offender. And the specific details
12:58
Speaker 2: of his criminal record are horrifying. On July 19, 2004,
13:03
Speaker 2: he was convicted of enticing a minor, which is a
13:05
Speaker 2: second-degree felony. and attempted forcible sexual abuse, a third-degree felony.
13:10
Speaker 2: For these crimes, he was sentenced to the state penitentiary.
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Speaker 2: He served nine years behind bars.
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Speaker 1: Nine years.
13:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was only released on parole in September 2013.
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Speaker 1: Nine years in a state penitentiary. And Lauren is sitting
13:23
Speaker 1: at a computer, realizing she has been isolated, tracked, manipulated,
13:28
Speaker 1: and coerced by a seasoned predatory felon. Right. She knows
13:32
Speaker 1: immediately she has to sever all ties, so she returns
13:35
Speaker 1: to Utah... planning to officially end the relationship on October 9th.
13:39
Speaker 2: Right.
13:40
Speaker 1: But Melvin is a master manipulator. He does not just
13:43
Speaker 1: accept the breakup and walk away.
13:44
Speaker 2: They never do. No.
13:46
Speaker 1: When she confronts him in her dorm, he refuses to leave.
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Speaker 1: He ends up spending the night, and he spends hours
13:51
Speaker 1: spinning an elaborate counter-narrative to explain away the convictions. Wow.
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Speaker 1: He apologizes profusely for the false name, claiming he was
13:59
Speaker 1: just so ashamed of his past. But then he claims
14:02
Speaker 1: the 2004 conviction was just a massive misunderstanding at a
14:05
Speaker 1: wild frat party. and that the victim had maliciously lied
14:08
Speaker 1: about her age.
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Speaker 2: Of course he does.
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Speaker 1: And he insists all the other allegations were totally fabricated
14:13
Speaker 1: by a biased system.
14:14
Speaker 2: We need to look closely at the psychological framework he
14:16
Speaker 2: is employing here. He is using a well-documented abuse technique
14:20
Speaker 2: called DARVO.
14:21
Speaker 1: DARVO, yeah.
14:22
Speaker 2: Which is an acronym that stands for Deny, Attack, and
14:26
Speaker 2: Reverse Victim and Offender. It was identified by trauma psychologist
14:30
Speaker 2: Jennifer Freyd. First, he denies the severity of his actions.
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Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
14:35
Speaker 2: Then he attacks the credibility of his actual victim from 2004,
14:38
Speaker 2: calling her a liar.
14:39
Speaker 1: Right.
14:40
Speaker 2: Finally, he reverses the roles, positioning himself not as a
14:43
Speaker 2: registered sex offender, but as the tragic, persecuted victim of
14:47
Speaker 2: a misunderstanding.
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Speaker 1: It's so manipulative.
14:50
Speaker 2: For someone like Lauren, who operates in good faith and
14:52
Speaker 2: has high empathy, this DARVO technique induces profound cognitive dissonance.
14:58
Speaker 2: She desperately wants to believe the man she fell in
15:00
Speaker 2: love with isn't a monster.
15:02
Speaker 1: But thankfully, her friends step in. They don't buy a
15:05
Speaker 1: single syllable of this frat party story.
15:07
Speaker 2: Good for them.
15:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, they push back hard against his narrative and they
15:11
Speaker 1: give Lauren the external validation and strength she needs to truly,
15:15
Speaker 1: unequivocally end the relationship the very next day, October 10th.
15:19
Speaker 1: But OK, let's unpack this next detail, because this is
15:21
Speaker 1: where a lot of people looking at this case from
15:23
Speaker 1: the outside might struggle to understand the victim's logic.
15:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, this part is tricky for people to grasp.
15:29
Speaker 1: On the day she officially breaks up with him, A
15:32
Speaker 1: man she now knows is a registered sex offender who
15:35
Speaker 1: has lied about his entire existence for a month. She
15:38
Speaker 1: loans him her car for the day.
15:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:41
Speaker 1: Why? Why on earth would you hand your car keys
15:44
Speaker 1: over to a man you have just discovered is a predator?
15:47
Speaker 2: It's a crucial question, and it seems entirely counterintuitive until
15:51
Speaker 2: you understand the psychology of survival in the context of
15:54
Speaker 2: coercive control.
15:55
Speaker 1: Right.
15:56
Speaker 2: When a victim is trying to exit a highly volatile
15:59
Speaker 2: controlling relationship, Their primary, often subconscious goal is to avoid
16:03
Speaker 2: triggering an explosive or violent reaction from the abuser. We
16:08
Speaker 2: often talk about fight or flight, but there is a
16:09
Speaker 2: third equally powerful trauma response called fawning.
16:13
Speaker 1: Fawning?
16:13
Speaker 2: Yes. Fawning is an appeasement strategy.
16:16
Speaker 1: It's paying a toll to get him out the door.
16:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. By loaning him the car, she is offering
16:21
Speaker 2: a major concession. She's essentially communicating, you know, we are
16:25
Speaker 2: breaking up, but I am not your enemy. Look, I'm
16:28
Speaker 2: still doing you a favor. I'm still useful to you.
16:30
Speaker 1: Right.
16:30
Speaker 2: She is desperately trying to de-escalate his potential anger and
16:34
Speaker 2: orchestrate a smooth exit. What she is tragically unaware of
16:38
Speaker 2: is that to an abuser like Melvin, an exit is
16:41
Speaker 2: never smooth. An exit represents a total loss of control,
16:44
Speaker 2: a narcissist's injury that they will almost immediately seek to
16:48
Speaker 2: violently regain.
16:49
Speaker 1: That reframes it entirely. It's not a favor. It's survival appeasement. Yes.
16:55
Speaker 1: And her mother, Jill, sensed the danger immediately.
16:58
Speaker 2: Right.
16:59
Speaker 1: Lauren called her mom, explained the breakup, mentioned the car loan,
17:02
Speaker 1: and said she was meeting him that evening in a
17:04
Speaker 1: parking lot to get the car back.
17:05
Speaker 2: Right.
17:06
Speaker 1: Jill was so terrified of this handoff that she actually
17:08
Speaker 1: called the University Police Department herself to ask them to
17:11
Speaker 1: keep an eye on her daughter during the exchange. Oh, wow. Yeah.
17:15
Speaker 1: The campus police did call Lauren. They offered a security
17:17
Speaker 1: escort to wait with her. And the actual handoff of
17:20
Speaker 1: the keys went off without incident. They went their separate ways.
17:23
Speaker 2: Which is incredibly dangerous because it gave Lauren a false
17:27
Speaker 2: sense of security.
17:27
Speaker 1: Totally.
17:28
Speaker 2: She had two days of relative peace. She returned to
17:31
Speaker 2: her classes, started picking her life back up, and likely
17:34
Speaker 2: believed that the fawning strategy had worked. The car was returned,
17:38
Speaker 2: the ties were cut, and the nightmare was over.
17:41
Speaker 1: Right.
17:41
Speaker 2: But that peaceful handoff was just the calm before a
17:45
Speaker 2: devastating storm. Because a coercive controller doesn't just walk away
17:49
Speaker 2: when the cord is cut. They escalate their tactics to
17:52
Speaker 2: reestablish dominance.
17:53
Speaker 1: And that escalation begins in the form of bizarre, intense
17:57
Speaker 1: cyber harassment. Lauren starts getting a barrage of text messages
18:01
Speaker 1: from unknown phone numbers.
18:02
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:02
Speaker 1: These texts are incredibly disturbing and erratic. First, a text
18:06
Speaker 1: claims Melvin is in the hospital. Then hours later, another
18:10
Speaker 1: text from a different number says he has passed away. Wow.
18:13
Speaker 1: Then she starts receiving invitations to his funeral. She contacts
18:17
Speaker 1: the police and tells them she feels like these unknown
18:19
Speaker 1: numbers are trying to lure her to a secondary location.
18:22
Speaker 2: This is pure psychological warfare.
18:24
Speaker 1: Yes, it is.
18:25
Speaker 2: The objective isn't just to annoy her. It's to induce
18:28
Speaker 2: a state of constant panic, confusion, and guilt. If he's dead,
18:32
Speaker 2: she feels responsible for breaking up with him. If he's
18:35
Speaker 2: in the hospital, it pulls at that empathetic thread to
18:38
Speaker 2: go check on him. Right. By using multiple unknown numbers,
18:42
Speaker 2: he creates the illusion of a crowd, a chorus of
18:45
Speaker 2: invisible people blaming her and watching her every move. It
18:49
Speaker 2: shatters that two-day peace and plunges her nervous system right
18:53
Speaker 2: back into a state of hypervigilance.
18:55
Speaker 1: So she calls the campus police. She tells them about
18:57
Speaker 1: these strange luring texts. The dispatcher asks if she's told
19:01
Speaker 1: the numbers to stop texting her.
19:03
Speaker 2: Ugh.
19:03
Speaker 1: Yeah. Lauren says she's blocked a few of them, and
19:06
Speaker 1: the dispatcher casually says an officer will call her back.
19:09
Speaker 1: But she never receives a call back that day.
19:11
Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
19:12
Speaker 1: And then the harassment morphs into real, actionable extortion. The
19:17
Speaker 1: unknown numbers escalate from funeral invitations to outright blackmail. The
19:22
Speaker 1: techs claim they have compromising intimate photos of Lauren and
19:25
Speaker 1: Melvin from when they were together. They demand $ 1, 000 or
19:28
Speaker 1: they threaten to release the images to her friends, her family,
19:31
Speaker 1: and her athletic coaches. And to prove they aren't bluffing,
19:35
Speaker 1: they send one of the intimate images directly to Lauren's phone.
19:39
Speaker 2: And here is where Melvin's manipulation reaches a new sickening
19:44
Speaker 2: level of depravity. He actually emails Lauren on the morning
19:48
Speaker 2: of October 13th from his own account claiming that he
19:51
Speaker 2: is also being blackmailed by these unknown extortionists.
19:55
Speaker 1: It's so twisty.
19:56
Speaker 2: He tells her he's terrified too, and he advises her
19:58
Speaker 2: to just pay the money so it all goes away
20:00
Speaker 2: for both of them.
20:01
Speaker 1: It's a brilliantly evil ploy. He positions himself not as
20:04
Speaker 1: the threat, but as a co-victim in the trenches with her.
20:08
Speaker 1: fighting a common enemy. Out of pure fear, panic, and
20:11
Speaker 1: the deep shame associated with having intimate photos exposed, Lauren
20:15
Speaker 1: actually sends the $ 1, 000 via Venmo to the account provided
20:19
Speaker 1: by the unknown extortionist.
20:20
Speaker 2: She must have been terrified.
20:22
Speaker 1: But shortly after the money leaves her account, the fog clears.
20:25
Speaker 1: She realizes what's actually happening. She realizes Melvin is the
20:29
Speaker 1: man behind the curtain. He's the extortionist. So she calls
20:32
Speaker 1: the campus police again. The dispatcher contacts a University of
20:36
Speaker 1: Utah police officer named Miguel Deras. Feeling like she isn't
20:40
Speaker 1: being taken seriously over the phone, Lauren and a friend
20:44
Speaker 1: physically walk across the massive campus to speak to the
20:47
Speaker 1: police in person.
20:48
Speaker 2: I want to emphasize that Lauren did everything society tells
20:52
Speaker 2: a victim to do.
20:53
Speaker 1: Everything.
20:54
Speaker 2: She didn't hide. She didn't stay silent. She physically walked
20:57
Speaker 2: into a police precinct. She provided Melvin's real name. She
21:01
Speaker 2: informed the police that he is a registered sex offender
21:03
Speaker 2: who served nine years for sexual crimes.
21:05
Speaker 1: Yeah.
21:06
Speaker 2: She showed them the threatening, luring texts. She showed them
21:09
Speaker 2: the extortion demands. She showed them the blackmail photo. She
21:12
Speaker 2: laid out a crystal clear, thoroughly documented, easily provable case
21:16
Speaker 2: of felony extortion by a known paroled sex offender.
21:20
Speaker 1: And the institutional response. The police advised Lauren that it's, quote,
21:24
Speaker 1: probably just a scam and assure her she is in
21:27
Speaker 1: no real physical danger.
21:28
Speaker 2: It makes me sick.
21:29
Speaker 1: They completely fundamentally dismiss her. The young women leave the
21:33
Speaker 1: station thinking the police are opening an investigation. But the
21:36
Speaker 1: source material explicitly states that absolutely nothing was done to
21:41
Speaker 1: apprehend him. Nothing. In fact, it's so much worse than nothing.
21:44
Speaker 1: We need to talk about the conduct of Officer Miguel Deras.
21:47
Speaker 2: The actions of Officer Deras represent a profound, sickening betrayal
21:52
Speaker 2: of public trust. He was provided with copies of the
21:55
Speaker 2: texts and the extortion image as evidence for a criminal file. Later,
21:59
Speaker 2: internal investigations reveal that Officer Deras saved that intimate blackmail
22:04
Speaker 2: image of Lauren... to his personal digital collection on his phone.
22:07
Speaker 1: It is just beyond words.
22:10
Speaker 2: He later bragged to a fellow male officer that the
22:12
Speaker 2: photo was his now, and he could pull it up
22:14
Speaker 2: and look at it anytime he wanted.
22:16
Speaker 1: It is stomach-turning. The very person wearing the badge, the
22:19
Speaker 1: person tasked with protecting this young woman from a sexual predator,
22:22
Speaker 1: essentially becomes a secondary predator. He is actively exploiting her
22:26
Speaker 1: extreme vulnerability for his own perverse amusement while her case
22:31
Speaker 1: gathers dust on his desk. And Lauren... feeling this terrifying
22:35
Speaker 1: wall of silence from the campus police over the next
22:37
Speaker 1: few days, decides to escalate it herself.
22:40
Speaker 2: Good for her.
22:41
Speaker 1: She calls the Salt Lake City Police Department, a real,
22:44
Speaker 1: massive municipal police force with homicide detectives and specialized units.
22:49
Speaker 1: She tells the SLCPD dispatcher, You know, I've been working
22:52
Speaker 1: with campus police. They haven't updated me at all, and
22:55
Speaker 1: I'm worried there's an insider or a leak because the
22:58
Speaker 1: harassers seem to know everything about my movements.
23:01
Speaker 2: And how does the SLCPD dispatcher respond to a woman
23:05
Speaker 2: terrified of a paroled sex offender with jurisdictional bureaucracy? The
23:09
Speaker 2: dispatcher tells her you would want to contact the campus
23:12
Speaker 2: police back and ask to speak to your detective. Because
23:15
Speaker 2: her dorm physically sits on university-owned property, the Salt Lake
23:18
Speaker 2: City police feel they cannot assist her directly. Their jurisdiction
23:22
Speaker 2: theoretically stops at the invisible border of the college campus.
23:25
Speaker 1: We had to dive into the mechanics of this because
23:27
Speaker 1: it infuriates me. Imagine begging for your life. You have
23:32
Speaker 1: the evidence. You have the name. And the person with
23:35
Speaker 1: the badge on the other end of the phone essentially
23:37
Speaker 1: tells you that because your bed is located on the
23:39
Speaker 1: wrong side of an invisible line on a map, they
23:42
Speaker 1: can't dispatch your car to help you. It's absurd. How
23:45
Speaker 1: does a university even have its own autonomous police force
23:48
Speaker 1: that can block municipal police from intervening?
23:52
Speaker 2: It's a deeply flawed system born out of a mix
23:55
Speaker 2: of historical privilege and modern liability. Decades ago, universities employed
24:00
Speaker 2: simple security guards, essentially night watchmen, to handle drunk students
24:05
Speaker 2: and parking tickets.
24:06
Speaker 1: Right.
24:06
Speaker 2: But over time, especially following legislation like the Clary Act,
24:10
Speaker 2: which mandated the reporting of campus crimes, universities began transforming
24:13
Speaker 2: these security forces into fully sworn armed police departments. The
24:18
Speaker 2: idea was that campus police understand the unique needs of students.
24:21
Speaker 2: But the reality is that these departments operate in silos.
24:24
Speaker 2: When a 911 call is made from a cell phone
24:27
Speaker 2: on campus, it pings a tower that automatically routes the
24:30
Speaker 2: call to the university dispatch, not the city dispatch.
24:33
Speaker 1: It creates a bureaucratic moat around the campus.
24:36
Speaker 2: Exactly. SLCPD could have intervened if they deemed it an
24:39
Speaker 2: imminent life-threatening emergency. I mean, municipal police always have the
24:44
Speaker 2: authority to act on state property to prevent a murder.
24:46
Speaker 1: Right.
24:47
Speaker 2: But because the call was coded by dispatch as a
24:49
Speaker 2: harassment complaint that was already assigned to a campus detective,
24:53
Speaker 2: SLCPD protocol dictated they kick it back to the primary agency.
24:57
Speaker 2: Jurisdictional rigidity was prioritized over human survival. Lauren was trapped
25:02
Speaker 2: in a bureaucratic loop.
25:04
Speaker 1: And while the police are arguing over boundaries, routing calls,
25:07
Speaker 1: and filing her literal extortion away as a scam... Melvin
25:11
Speaker 1: is using this exact window of institutional apathy to drastically
25:16
Speaker 1: escalate his physical stalking.
25:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is where it really ramps up.
25:19
Speaker 1: We move forward to October 19th. Melvin returns to the
25:23
Speaker 1: area right outside Lauren's dorm. And his behavior has taken
25:26
Speaker 1: a highly visible, deeply disturbing turn. He's seen pacing back
25:30
Speaker 1: and forth in the parking lot. But he is dressed
25:32
Speaker 1: head to toe as the Marvel Comics character Deadpool, complete
25:35
Speaker 1: with prop swords strapped to his back.
25:37
Speaker 2: Wow.
25:38
Speaker 1: And he is carrying a heavy-looking small black bag.
25:41
Speaker 2: This is broad daylight.
25:41
Speaker 1: Broad daylight, right on campus.
25:43
Speaker 2: The psychological terror of this cannot be overstated. The costume
25:47
Speaker 2: is bizarre, yes, but it serves a very specific tactical
25:51
Speaker 2: purpose for a stalker. It's a way to completely hide
25:54
Speaker 2: his face and identity from security cameras, while simultaneously being
25:58
Speaker 2: brazenly physically present in her safe space.
26:02
Speaker 1: Lauren returns from track practice just 45 minutes after he
26:05
Speaker 1: starts this parading in the parking lot. She goes upstairs
26:08
Speaker 1: to her room. Literally one minute later, Melvin, still in
26:13
Speaker 1: the full Deadpool mask and costume, comes to the door
26:17
Speaker 1: of her specific dorm building. He misses intercepting her by
26:20
Speaker 1: 60 seconds.
26:22
Speaker 2: And the terror isn't just physical at this point. It's
26:24
Speaker 2: completely digital. Around this time, Lauren receives a communication from
26:27
Speaker 2: Melvin where he explicitly tells her that he knows she
26:30
Speaker 2: has contacted the police.
26:32
Speaker 1: Right.
26:32
Speaker 2: He knows she went to the station. This is what
26:34
Speaker 2: made Lawrence suspect there was a corrupt cop leaking information
26:37
Speaker 2: to him.
26:37
Speaker 1: Which is a completely rational conclusion to draw. If your
26:40
Speaker 1: beezer knows things only the police should know and the
26:43
Speaker 1: police aren't helping you, you assume they're working together.
26:45
Speaker 2: Of course you do.
26:46
Speaker 1: But the truth of how he knew was actually much
26:48
Speaker 1: more insidious, and it requires no conspiracy.
26:51
Speaker 2: Yes. The mechanism of his omniscience was digital hygiene. Weeks earlier,
26:56
Speaker 2: when they were still happily dating... Lauren had used Melvin's
26:59
Speaker 2: phone to log into her university email account to check something.
27:03
Speaker 1: Oh, man.
27:04
Speaker 2: Melvin, anticipating the future need for control, had saved her passwords.
27:09
Speaker 2: He had a silent back door into her entire digital life.
27:12
Speaker 2: He was reading her emails in real time. He had
27:15
Speaker 2: complete undetected access to all her communications with her family,
27:19
Speaker 2: her friends, and law enforcement.
27:21
Speaker 1: That's terrifying.
27:21
Speaker 2: He didn't need a corrupt cop to leak him the
27:23
Speaker 2: case file. He was a digital ghost sitting in his
27:26
Speaker 2: apartment reading her scent folder.
27:27
Speaker 1: The digital stalking gave him omniscience, and the police's inaction
27:31
Speaker 1: gave him total impunity. Which brings us to the devastating
27:34
Speaker 1: timeline of the final day, October 22nd. The sources outline
27:38
Speaker 1: this day with chilling precision. At 6 a.m., surveillance footage
27:43
Speaker 1: catches Melvin leaving his apartment. He has borrowed a silver
27:46
Speaker 1: Buick from a neighbor, He drives to Lauren's dorm, approaches
27:50
Speaker 1: the building on foot, can't get in because it requires
27:52
Speaker 1: key card access, and wanders off.
27:55
Speaker 2: Around 9 a.m., Lauren leaves her dorm. She had actually
27:59
Speaker 2: received a highly suspicious text that morning claiming to be
28:02
Speaker 2: from a deputy chief with the university police. The text
28:05
Speaker 2: asked her to come to the station to see some
28:07
Speaker 2: new evidence, but it explicitly told her not to call
28:10
Speaker 2: the number back.
28:11
Speaker 1: Huge red flag.
28:12
Speaker 2: It was clearly a trap set by Melvin. Because he
28:15
Speaker 2: was reading her emails, he knew the actual names of
28:18
Speaker 2: the officers involved in her case and used them to
28:20
Speaker 2: sound legitimate. Lauren, trusting her gut and realizing how strange
28:24
Speaker 2: it was for police to text a victim and say,
28:26
Speaker 2: don't call us, ignores it.
28:28
Speaker 1: Thank goodness.
28:29
Speaker 2: Instead, she goes to an appointment with a campus counselor
28:32
Speaker 2: to get professional psychological help dealing with the severe trauma
28:35
Speaker 2: of the breakup and the ongoing harassment.
28:38
Speaker 1: She leaves the counselor's building just under an hour later.
28:42
Speaker 1: And literally minutes after she walks out of the front doors,
28:45
Speaker 1: Melvin enters that exact same building. He is actively hunting
28:48
Speaker 1: her across the campus map. And again, he is carrying
28:52
Speaker 1: that same heavy, small black bag that he had when
28:56
Speaker 1: he was dressed as Deadpool. He realizes he missed her
28:59
Speaker 1: at the counselor's office, so he heads back to her dorm.
29:02
Speaker 2: And this is where the physical security protocols of the
29:04
Speaker 2: university completely fail. Melvin manages to finesse his way into
29:09
Speaker 2: the locked dorm building.
29:11
Speaker 1: How does he even do that?
29:12
Speaker 2: Well, he doesn't have a key card. He likely uses
29:15
Speaker 2: a technique called tailgating, waiting for a student to open
29:18
Speaker 2: the door and just walking in right behind them, perhaps
29:20
Speaker 2: claiming he forgot his key or is visiting a friend.
29:23
Speaker 2: People are inherently polite and rarely challenge someone confidently walking
29:27
Speaker 2: into a building.
29:28
Speaker 1: That's true.
29:28
Speaker 2: Once inside, he actually embeds himself in the common area
29:32
Speaker 2: with a group of four young male students. He uses
29:35
Speaker 2: that exact same charismatic charm he used on Lauren, regaling
29:39
Speaker 2: these young men with intoxication. fabricated stories about being a
29:42
Speaker 2: combat veteran in the Marines.
29:43
Speaker 1: He's just hanging out in the lobby of her home.
29:45
Speaker 1: A registered sex offender is holding court in a college dorm.
29:49
Speaker 2: Exactly. And as the afternoon wears on, three of the
29:52
Speaker 2: students eventually leave to go about their day. The fourth
29:55
Speaker 2: student stays behind in the lounge. Melvin turns to him
29:59
Speaker 2: and asks if he wants to see what's inside the
30:01
Speaker 2: black bag.
30:02
Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
30:03
Speaker 2: Melvin unzips it and pulls out a fully loaded. 40
30:06
Speaker 2: caliber Beretta handgun, along with a full magazine of extra ammunition.
30:12
Speaker 2: He even lets the student handle the weapon, feeling the
30:14
Speaker 2: weight of it, before taking it back and putting it
30:16
Speaker 2: in the bag.
30:17
Speaker 1: Let's just pause and recognize the absolute insanity of this moment.
30:22
Speaker 1: A convicted felon on active parole is sitting in a
30:24
Speaker 1: university dorm lounge. casually showing off a loaded handgun to
30:28
Speaker 1: a college student just waiting for his target to walk
30:31
Speaker 1: through the front door.
30:32
Speaker 2: It's maddening.
30:33
Speaker 1: It is agonizing to hear how many points of intervention
30:35
Speaker 1: were missed here. No one called security about the older
30:38
Speaker 1: man with the gun in the lounge. That evening, Lauren
30:41
Speaker 1: had been at a late Saturday class. She finishes up
30:44
Speaker 1: and decides to walk back to her dorm. It's been
30:46
Speaker 1: a horrific, stressful week, so she calls her parents, Matt
30:49
Speaker 1: and Jill, just to hear their voices on the short
30:51
Speaker 1: walk across the dark campus.
30:53
Speaker 2: And as she walks toward her dorm... Melvin leaves the
30:56
Speaker 2: building at virtually the exact same time. He has planned
30:59
Speaker 2: this interception perfectly. He knows the pathways. He knows the
31:03
Speaker 2: geography of the campus.
31:04
Speaker 1: Her parents are on the phone, thousands of miles away,
31:08
Speaker 1: just listening to their daughter describe her day. And then
31:11
Speaker 1: they hear it. Melvin makes his move. Lauren suddenly screams
31:14
Speaker 1: into the phone, no, no, no, no, no. And then
31:17
Speaker 1: the line goes quiet.
31:18
Speaker 2: It's just devastating.
31:19
Speaker 1: Matt, her father, immediately grabs a landline and dials 9-1-1.
31:24
Speaker 1: screaming to the Washington dispatch that his daughter, who was
31:27
Speaker 1: in Utah, was just grabbed. Jill stays on the cell
31:30
Speaker 1: phone line, desperately, hopelessly trying to get Lauren to respond.
31:34
Speaker 2: In that terrifying silence on the phone, the physical reality
31:37
Speaker 2: was brutally violent. Melvin ambushed Lauren, physically overpowered her, and
31:41
Speaker 2: dragged her to that borrowed silver Buick parked nearby. He
31:45
Speaker 2: threw her into the backseat of the car, and he
31:46
Speaker 2: shot her seven times at nearly point-blank range.
31:49
Speaker 1: Students walking nearby hear the rapid succession of gunshots. They
31:54
Speaker 1: run toward the sound and find her belongings scattered on
31:57
Speaker 1: the pavement, including the phone lying on the ground with
32:00
Speaker 1: her mother still on the open silent line.
32:02
Speaker 2: Wow.
32:03
Speaker 1: A student picks it up, hears Jill screaming, and realizes
32:07
Speaker 1: he's talking to the parents of a girl who has
32:09
Speaker 1: just been abducted, or worse. Police from all agencies finally
32:13
Speaker 1: flood the area. But here's where it gets really interesting,
32:18
Speaker 1: in the most macabre, sociopathic way imaginable. Look at the
32:22
Speaker 1: psychology of the killer here. After firing seven shots at
32:25
Speaker 1: a 21-year-old girl in the back of a car, what
32:27
Speaker 1: does Melvin do?
32:28
Speaker 2: He doesn't panic. Right.
32:29
Speaker 1: He doesn't panic. He doesn't speed off in the Buick.
32:32
Speaker 1: He doesn't flee the state. He walks away from the
32:34
Speaker 1: parking lot, crosses a pedestrian bridge, and calmly walks down
32:37
Speaker 1: the street to a nearby Salt Lake City light rail
32:40
Speaker 1: train stop.
32:40
Speaker 2: He sits there patiently on the bench because he's waiting
32:43
Speaker 2: to be picked up for a date.
32:45
Speaker 1: A date. 20 minutes after a murder. Yes.
32:48
Speaker 2: Earlier that exact same day, while he was stalking Lauren,
32:51
Speaker 2: tracking her movements, and waiting in her dorm lobby with
32:53
Speaker 2: a loaded gun, He had been swiping on a dating app.
32:56
Speaker 1: That is just chilling.
32:58
Speaker 2: He arranged to meet a woman for a first date
33:00
Speaker 2: that evening. He had told her to pick him up
33:02
Speaker 2: at this specific light rail station at a specific time.
33:06
Speaker 2: The unsuspecting woman drives up. He gets into the passenger
33:09
Speaker 2: seat of her car and they go out for dinner.
33:10
Speaker 2: They even take a casual romantic walk around the state
33:13
Speaker 2: capitol building grounds.
33:15
Speaker 1: He shoots a young woman to death. And 20 minutes later,
33:18
Speaker 1: he is discussing appetizers and making small talk about the
33:20
Speaker 1: weather with a stranger. Yeah. It is a level of
33:23
Speaker 1: psychological compartmentalization and absolute lack of human empathy that is
33:29
Speaker 1: difficult for a normal brain to even comprehend. And let's
33:34
Speaker 1: look at the mechanics of this date. He isn't looking
33:37
Speaker 1: for romance. He is using this poor, unsuspecting woman on
33:41
Speaker 1: the dating app purely as an escape vehicle to get
33:43
Speaker 1: him away from the massive police perimeter forming around the
33:46
Speaker 1: campus and as a way to establish a rock-solid relationship
33:49
Speaker 1: verifiable alibi during the immediate aftermath of the murder. Right.
33:53
Speaker 1: He's creating a witness who can say, you know, he
33:55
Speaker 1: was with me. We were having dinner.
33:57
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, absolute chaos has descended on the University of Utah.
34:01
Speaker 2: The entire campus is locked down. Sirens are everywhere. The
34:04
Speaker 2: parents are frantically calling every dispatch center they can find,
34:08
Speaker 2: begging for updates on their missing daughter. Eventually, the police
34:11
Speaker 2: locate the borrowed silver Buick in the parking lot and
34:15
Speaker 2: they find Lauren inside.
34:16
Speaker 1: And instantly... The police know exactly who did it. There
34:20
Speaker 1: is no mystery. There is no who did it. Because
34:23
Speaker 1: they had been told, repeatedly, in person, with photographic evidence
34:27
Speaker 1: for over a week, by the victim herself, exactly who
34:31
Speaker 1: was threatening her life.
34:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
34:32
Speaker 1: But by the time they finally piece it together and
34:34
Speaker 1: put out the all-points bulletin for Melvin, he is finishing
34:37
Speaker 1: up his date. He gets dropped off by the woman
34:39
Speaker 1: in a completely different part of town. But eventually, a
34:42
Speaker 1: vigilant police officer spots him walking down the street. A
34:45
Speaker 1: foot chase begins through the dark city streets.
34:48
Speaker 2: Melvin realizes the net is finally closing. He busts through
34:52
Speaker 2: the wooden doors of the Trinity AME Church, a historic
34:55
Speaker 2: 130-year-old church in downtown Salt Lake City. The police immediately
35:00
Speaker 2: surround the building, setting up a perimeter, knowing he is
35:03
Speaker 2: armed and highly dangerous. They make tactical entry, moving slowly
35:07
Speaker 2: room to room. And before they can confront him, they
35:10
Speaker 2: hear a single gunshot echo through the sanctuary. Melvin Sean
35:15
Speaker 2: Rowland took his own life inside the church.
35:17
Speaker 1: The manhunt ends. But the reckoning for the university community
35:22
Speaker 1: and for the nation was just beginning. Because the immediate
35:26
Speaker 1: question on everyone's mind was, how?
35:28
Speaker 2: Exactly. How does this happen?
35:30
Speaker 1: How does a young woman beg for help, hand the
35:32
Speaker 1: police the name, the criminal record, the threatening texts, the
35:35
Speaker 1: extortion photos, the motive, and the opportunity of her stalker,
35:38
Speaker 1: and just get completely ignored?
35:40
Speaker 2: The postmortem of the institutional failure in this case is staggering.
35:44
Speaker 2: The most glaring, unforgivable question was why the campus police
35:47
Speaker 2: department didn't run a simple background check on Melvin the
35:51
Speaker 2: very minute Lawrence sat in their office and gave them
35:53
Speaker 2: his name.
35:54
Speaker 1: Which, let's be clear, takes about 30 seconds on a
35:56
Speaker 1: computer connected to the NCIC database.
35:58
Speaker 2: Exactly. Had they run his name through the system, they
36:01
Speaker 2: would have seen not only his horrific prior convictions for
36:04
Speaker 2: sexual crimes, but they would have seen his current legal status.
36:07
Speaker 2: He was actively on parole.
36:09
Speaker 1: Let's push that further. Why didn't they run it? It's
36:13
Speaker 1: not just laziness. It's a fundamental bias in how police
36:17
Speaker 1: view domestic complaints.
36:19
Speaker 2: Oh, 100%.
36:21
Speaker 1: When a young woman comes in to complain about an
36:23
Speaker 1: ex-boyfriend too often, law enforcement filters that through a lens
36:28
Speaker 1: of college drama rather than criminal threat. Right. If a
36:32
Speaker 1: bank manager called and said a guy named Melvin was
36:35
Speaker 1: threatening to rob the vault, they would run his name instantly.
36:38
Speaker 1: But because it was a boyfriend threatening a girlfriend, they
36:41
Speaker 1: didn't even type his name into the keyboard. It's infuriating.
36:44
Speaker 1: And the sources highlight just how tragic this specific oversight was.
36:49
Speaker 1: Journalists later tracked down and interviewed Melvin's actual state parole officer.
36:54
Speaker 1: And the parole officer stated unequivocally that if the campus
36:57
Speaker 1: police had made a single phone call to alert him
37:00
Speaker 1: that Melvin was attempting to extort money and make threats...
37:03
Speaker 1: Melvin would have been immediately arrested. Immediately. The parole violation
37:06
Speaker 1: doesn't require a trial to pull you off the street.
37:09
Speaker 1: He would have been detained that day and thrown right
37:12
Speaker 1: back into prison for violating his parole conditions. One phone
37:15
Speaker 1: call from Officer Dieris to the Department of Corrections would
37:18
Speaker 1: have saved her life.
37:19
Speaker 2: It highlights a fatal flaw in siloed policing. The campus
37:23
Speaker 2: police treated the complaint as a localized, low-level university annoyance,
37:28
Speaker 2: a scam or a bad breakup. rather than treating Melvin
37:31
Speaker 2: as a citizen subject to state-level monitoring. They failed to
37:35
Speaker 2: connect the dots that were handed to them on a
37:37
Speaker 2: silver platter.
37:38
Speaker 1: We also have to ask a mechanical question regarding the weapon.
37:41
Speaker 1: How did a convicted felon on active parole, who cannot
37:44
Speaker 1: legally walk into a gun store, even get his hands
37:46
Speaker 1: on a. 40- 0 caliber Beretta?
37:48
Speaker 2: The investigation uncovered a classic and unfortunately incredibly common legal
37:53
Speaker 2: loophole used by felons to arm themselves, which is the
37:56
Speaker 2: straw purchase. Right. Melvin got the gun from an associate
37:59
Speaker 2: named Nathan Vogel, who was also a convicted felon and
38:02
Speaker 2: therefore also prohibited from buying a firearm. Because Vogel couldn't
38:06
Speaker 2: buy a gun himself, he used his new girlfriend.
38:09
Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
38:09
Speaker 2: Look at the timeline here. Vogel and this woman had
38:12
Speaker 2: only known each other for 11 days. She had absolutely
38:15
Speaker 2: no criminal history. She thought they were building a serious
38:18
Speaker 2: romantic relationship. And Vogel manipulated her into going to a
38:22
Speaker 2: sporting goods store.
38:23
Speaker 1: Wow.
38:23
Speaker 2: She filled out the ATF form 4473. passed the background check,
38:28
Speaker 2: and legally purchased the gun for him. Vogel then immediately
38:32
Speaker 2: handed that gun straight to Melvin.
38:34
Speaker 1: And it brings us right back to the beginning of
38:35
Speaker 1: the relationship, when Melvin was trying to pressure Lauren into
38:39
Speaker 1: buying a handgun at the range under the guise of protection.
38:43
Speaker 1: When Lauren, who had strong boundaries, refused to be a
38:45
Speaker 1: straw purchaser, he just went to his felon buddy, who
38:48
Speaker 1: had successfully manipulated a different woman into doing it.
38:51
Speaker 2: Vogel eventually turned himself in when he saw the news
38:54
Speaker 2: and realized what the gun he procured was used for.
38:57
Speaker 2: He pled guilty to federal firearms charges.
38:59
Speaker 1: As he should.
39:00
Speaker 2: And in a showing of incredible grace at the McCluskey
39:03
Speaker 2: family's specific request, the girlfriend's trial was suspended for 18 months,
39:08
Speaker 2: provided she stayed out of trouble. The evidence clearly showed
39:11
Speaker 2: she was completely manipulated by Vogel and was totally unaware
39:15
Speaker 2: of the lethal intent behind the purchase.
39:17
Speaker 1: So the people who provided the gun faced the justice system.
39:20
Speaker 1: But what about the enablers in uniforms? What happened to
39:23
Speaker 1: Officer Miguel Derris, the campus cop who saved Lauren's extortion
39:27
Speaker 1: photo to his personal phone for his own gratification?
39:30
Speaker 2: The lack of justice regarding Officer Derris is deeply frustrating
39:34
Speaker 2: and highlights the immense difficulty of prosecuting police misconduct.
39:39
Speaker 1: Right.
39:39
Speaker 2: When the internal investigations began and the heat got turned up,
39:42
Speaker 2: Officer Derris quietly resigned from the University of Utah campus police. Astonishingly,
39:48
Speaker 2: He then managed to get hired by the nearby Logan
39:50
Speaker 2: Police Department, moving on to patrol a new city as
39:53
Speaker 2: if nothing happened.
39:54
Speaker 1: You have got to be kidding me.
39:55
Speaker 2: It wasn't until the media got hold of the internal
39:57
Speaker 2: reports and publicly broke the story of his specific actions
40:01
Speaker 2: regarding the photo that Logan PD immediately fired him.
40:04
Speaker 1: But surely saving a victim's extortion photo for personal use
40:08
Speaker 1: and showing it off to colleagues is a crime, right?
40:11
Speaker 2: You would certainly think so. The local district attorney attempted
40:14
Speaker 2: to file criminal charges against him under the state's revenge
40:17
Speaker 2: pornography law for mishandling evidentiary pictures and displaying them to
40:22
Speaker 2: another officer. However, those charges were ultimately dropped.
40:26
Speaker 1: Dropped? Why?
40:27
Speaker 2: The mechanics of why they were dropped are infuriating. The
40:30
Speaker 2: official reason given by the DA was that a forensic
40:33
Speaker 2: beta download from Deros' phone proved inconclusive.
40:36
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack forensics for a second. How can a
40:39
Speaker 1: download of a phone be inconclusive? Either the photo was
40:41
Speaker 1: there or it wasn't.
40:43
Speaker 2: It comes down to how digital data is stored and overwritten,
40:46
Speaker 2: and the high burden of proof in criminal court. If
40:49
Speaker 2: Deras deleted the photo from his phone before investigators seized it,
40:53
Speaker 2: the specific sectors of the flash memory holding that data
40:56
Speaker 2: might have been overwritten by new data, like a new
40:59
Speaker 2: text message or a system update. Forensic tools like Celebrate
41:02
Speaker 2: can often recover deleted items, but not always. Furthermore, revenge
41:07
Speaker 2: pornography statutes are often written very narrowly. They usually require
41:12
Speaker 2: proof of distribution, meaning sending the photo to someone else's device.
41:17
Speaker 2: And he didn't send it. The DA claimed that simply
41:20
Speaker 2: showing the screen of his phone to another officer in
41:23
Speaker 2: the hallway might not meet the strict statutory definition of
41:27
Speaker 2: distribution required for a felony conviction. So despite acknowledging the
41:31
Speaker 2: profound moral harm caused by the officer's conduct, the DA
41:35
Speaker 2: claimed they lacked the legal framework to pursue the case further.
41:39
Speaker 1: Lauren's mother, Jill, said she was absolutely shocked that the
41:42
Speaker 1: district attorney didn't pursue justice. She pointed out that Lauren
41:46
Speaker 1: had engaged in so many phone calls, so many texts,
41:50
Speaker 1: multiple in-person visits with this department. She trusted them to
41:53
Speaker 1: operate as professionals and they fundamentally betrayed her. The family
41:56
Speaker 1: realized that if the criminal justice system wasn't going to
41:58
Speaker 1: hold the institution accountable and if qualified immunity was going
42:01
Speaker 1: to protect the individuals, they would have to force accountability
42:04
Speaker 1: through the civil courts.
42:05
Speaker 2: The McCluskey family filed two massive civil lawsuits against the
42:09
Speaker 2: University of Utah and its campus police department, citing gross incompetence, negligence,
42:15
Speaker 2: and violations of Title IXs. They sued for a total
42:18
Speaker 2: of $ 56 million. Eventually, they reached a settlement out of
42:22
Speaker 2: court for $ 13. 5 million.
42:24
Speaker 1: And the breakdown of that money is really telling about
42:28
Speaker 1: how systemic change actually happens in this country. Of that $ 13. 5 million... $ 10. 5
42:33
Speaker 1: million came directly from the university's risk management insurance company. Right.
42:37
Speaker 1: The remaining $ 3 million was routed to the newly formed
42:40
Speaker 1: Lorne McCluskey Foundation, which focuses on campus safety, animal welfare,
42:45
Speaker 1: and amateur athletics. But I want to focus on that
42:47
Speaker 1: insurance payout because this is where the real mechanism of
42:50
Speaker 1: change lies.
42:51
Speaker 2: Exactly.
42:51
Speaker 1: The McCluskey family specifically stated their hope that this massive
42:55
Speaker 1: payout will cause insurance actuaries worldwide to look at campus
42:58
Speaker 1: police departments. If an insurance company sees a police department
43:02
Speaker 1: that routinely ignores women or dismisses their fears as college drama,
43:06
Speaker 1: that insurance company is going to view that department as
43:09
Speaker 1: a massive financial liability.
43:11
Speaker 2: It's a grim reality, but financial liability often drives institutional
43:15
Speaker 2: policy change much faster than moral obligation ever could. If
43:19
Speaker 2: it costs a university $ 10 million in increased premiums every
43:23
Speaker 2: time their police department dismisses a stalking victim, their protocols
43:27
Speaker 2: are going to change overnight. Following the settlement, the university
43:30
Speaker 2: did issue a formal public statement. They built a new
43:34
Speaker 2: indoor track training facility named in Lauren's honor, and they
43:38
Speaker 2: publicly admitted, quote, we failed Lauren and her family.
43:41
Speaker 1: Wow.
43:42
Speaker 2: They acknowledged that their employees failed to fully understand the
43:45
Speaker 2: lethality risk and failed to respond appropriately, and they promised
43:48
Speaker 2: to completely overhaul their policing protocols.
43:51
Speaker 1: We failed Lauren. It's a heavy admission, but a deeply
43:55
Speaker 1: necessary one. So what does this all mean for us today?
43:58
Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, there are
44:00
Speaker 2: three critical takeaways a listener should absorb from this tragedy. First,
44:05
Speaker 2: the absolute necessity of believing women when they report feeling unsafe.
44:09
Speaker 2: The empirical data on domestic violence shows that victims of
44:12
Speaker 2: stalking are often the most accurate predictors of their own
44:15
Speaker 2: lethality risk. If a woman says she is in danger,
44:19
Speaker 2: the default institutional response must be immediate, overwhelming intervention, not skepticism.
44:25
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Second.
44:27
Speaker 2: Law enforcement must systematically dismantle the boyfriend problem culture. Domestic
44:32
Speaker 2: violence and stalking cannot be treated in a vacuum as
44:34
Speaker 2: private squabbles. A background check is the absolute bare minimum.
44:38
Speaker 2: Abusers usually have a history. Connect the dots. And third,
44:43
Speaker 2: on a very practical level for anyone listening, this case
44:45
Speaker 2: highlights the terrifying importance of digital hygiene. When you are
44:50
Speaker 2: exiting a toxic relationship, you must assume your digital life
44:52
Speaker 2: is compromised. Change every password, log out of all active sessions,
44:57
Speaker 2: check your car for air tags, and check your phone
44:59
Speaker 2: for hidden tracking apps. Lauren's physical stalking was entirely enabled
45:03
Speaker 2: by digital stalking.
45:04
Speaker 1: It's a terrifying reality of modern relationships. But before we
45:08
Speaker 1: sign off, I want to leave you, the listener, with
45:11
Speaker 1: a final provocative thought that really screams out from the
45:14
Speaker 1: facts of this case. We live in an era where
45:17
Speaker 1: millions of young adults live their entire lives on university campuses.
45:22
Speaker 2: Yeah.
45:23
Speaker 1: These campuses function like self-contained mini cities. They have their
45:26
Speaker 1: own housing, their own restaurants, their own hospitals, and yes,
45:29
Speaker 1: their own private police forces. But looking at how SLCPD
45:33
Speaker 1: was blocked from helping Lauren, we have to ask ourselves,
45:36
Speaker 1: should universities even be allowed to have their own private
45:39
Speaker 1: autonomous police forces handling violent felonies?
45:42
Speaker 2: This raises an important question about the illusion of safety.
45:45
Speaker 1: Exactly. Because when Lauren called the real city police, the
45:49
Speaker 1: Salt Lake City PD, They told her they couldn't help
45:51
Speaker 1: because of an invisible jurisdictional line. Does the very existence
45:55
Speaker 1: of campus police create a dangerous bureaucratic bubble?
45:58
Speaker 2: It really seems like it.
46:00
Speaker 1: Does it isolate vulnerable students, keeping them away from actual
46:03
Speaker 1: municipal law enforcement detectives who are trained to handle homicide risks,
46:08
Speaker 1: extortion rings and paroled sex offenders? Yeah. If that jurisdictional
46:12
Speaker 1: line didn't exist and the 911 call went straight to
46:15
Speaker 1: a downtown city precinct, would a real city detective have
46:18
Speaker 1: run Melvin's name on day one?
46:19
Speaker 2: Probably.
46:21
Speaker 1: It's something you really need to seriously think about as
46:23
Speaker 1: we send the next generation off to these cloistered campus environments.
46:27
Speaker 1: I would like to request some help from my daughter.
46:29
Speaker 1: I don't want her to go there by herself and have, like,
46:31
Speaker 1: something bad happen to her. A mother knew. The friends knew.
46:35
Speaker 1: The victim knew. It is long past time the system
46:39
Speaker 1: caught up. Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.
46:41
Speaker 1: Stay curious, check your digital security, and please look out
46:45
Speaker 1: for one another.