AFRICAN IMMIGRANT CHARGED WITH MISSING STUDENT’S GHASTLY MURDER

SALT LAKE CITY, UT (KSL) – After an exhaustive weeklong investigation, Salt Lake police somberly announced Friday that they believe a University of Utah student missing since June 17 was murdered.

A man who police say she met up with on June 17 in a North Salt Lake park was arrested in connection with the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck.

“It is with heavy heart that I address you today,” Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown said in announcing the arrest.

Ayoola Adisa Ajayi, 31, was taken into custody at 9:20 a.m. at an apartment complex at 1028 S. West Temple by a SWAT team. He was later booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a human body and obstruction of justice. He is being held without bail.

The SWAT team had Ajayi exit an apartment at gunpoint and walk toward waiting officers with his hands on his head. In a picture of the arrest, it appears Ajayi is talking to someone on his cellphone. Salt Lake police confirmed Friday that at some point, the SWAT team talked to him by phone to have him come out of the apartment.

A second man who was in the same apartment was also placed in handcuffs and taken from the scene. Police say they questioned that man but later released him and say he has no connection to the Lueck case.

After announcing that Ajayi was in custody, Brown said he would not be saying the suspect’s name again.

The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office was expected to review the case for formal criminal charges Friday, but charges aren’t expected until next week.

The arrest comes a day after Ajayi was named a “person of interest” in Lueck’s disappearance after Salt Lake police spent all of Wednesday night and into Thursday morning searching his house in the Fairpark neighborhood.

Bags and bags of evidence were collected. Officers could also be seen digging holes in the backyard. Neighbors told detectives they had observed Ajayi on June 17 and June 18 burning something in his backyard.

“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...

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