What should have been a promising future was tragically cut short. Lauren McCluskey, a talented student-athlete, was betrayed by someone she once trusted—leading to a heartbreaking and preventable tragedy. Despite multiple cries for help, the system failed her in the worst way possible. How did this happen? And could it have been stopped? Watch till the end to uncover the devastating truth behind Lauren’s case. Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more true crime stories.
Chapter 1: What happened to Lauren McCluskey?
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hello everyone my name is rachel and welcome back to my channel so the video that i have for you guys today is one that i know is going to frustrate every single one of you to your wit's end i would have to say that this is one of the most frustrating and blatant cases of a murder that easily could have been prevented had police just listened to a young woman who was screaming and begging for help a case where lauren and her friends and her family did everything right
They did everything that you're supposed to do in a case like this, but nothing was done. There were so, so many missteps in this case that led to a bright, beautiful, amazing young woman being murdered for absolutely no reason. I have been so stuck on this case.
I've been looking into it for quite some time now, and I have to say that this is one of the biggest misjustices that I've ever experienced. encountered in a case that I have covered on this channel. Be ready to be angry, be ready to be frustrated, and be ready to wish that something more would have been done in this case to prevent this from happening.
So now, with all of that being said, let's get into today's case. Today, we are going to be discussing the murder of Lauren McCloskey. Laura and Jennifer McCluskey was born on February 12th, 1997 in Berkeley, California to Matt and Jill McCluskey and she had a little brother named Ryan.
When she was a year old, she and her family moved to Pullman, Washington in August of 1998 where her parents started working as professors at Washington State University and with Jill teaching economics and Matt teaching physics. Lauren was described as being very bright from a young age. She was very active, athletic, and fearless.
When she was little, she could be found climbing trees and climbing walls. Lauren absolutely loved animals and volunteered at the Whitman County Humane Society helping to socialize cats so they would be easier to find homes. She also had two cats of her own, Fuzzy and Victory, who she adored. She also spent her time volunteering at the YMCA and for the Special Olympics.
She was described by some as quiet, but her parents would say that more accurately, she chose her words carefully. She loved being with friends, she loved dancing, singing karaoke, and she even did stand-up comedy from time to time. She was one of those girls who, yeah, she was shy, but once you got to know her, she was a fun ball of energy to be around. Lauren was also a devout Christian.
She grew up attending Community Congressional United Church of Christ, and in college, she attended Capital Church in Salt Lake City.
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Chapter 2: How did Lauren's relationship with Sean develop?
Lauren and her mother Jill were incredibly close even when she went off to college. The two would speak every single day, sometimes multiple times per day, about everything, whether it was about Lauren's workload or boys or track. Naturally, Jill was a worried mother.
She only wanted what was the best for her daughter, and being so close to one another, Jill got a really good look into what Lauren's life was like.
she was 21 years old she was beautiful and she was driven but she never really spent too much time dating she had a couple of short-term boyfriends but nothing was ever serious she had her goals she was so focused and she had dreams of one day becoming an olympian However, during Lauren's senior year, she met a 28-year-old man who introduced himself as Sean.
So one night, Lauren and her roommate at the time, Alex, decided to go to downtown Salt Lake to a bar called the London Belle. This is where she met Sean, who worked there as a bouncer. He was tall and muscular, and he definitely looked the role of a bouncer, and something about him caught Lauren's eye.
When they got into the bar that night, Lauren could tell that Sean would often come over to their table and sort of check in on them every now and then, and she could just kind of tell that Sean was into her. So that night, she decided to write down her phone number on a napkin, and she gave it to Sean as they were leaving the bar.
this was definitely a move that lauren would not have normally done but again it was her senior year and she was starting to be more confident later the next day sean had texted lauren and she was really excited about a date that they had set up later that same day at the rock climbing gym on the first date he bought her a bouquet of roses he took her out for dinner and he even wanted her to meet his friends so that he could show off his beautiful date after this date lauren called her mom jill in excitement
she gushed on the phone about how handsome he was, how sweet and gentlemanly he was. So Sean told Lauren that he actually was not from Salt Lake or Utah, he grew up in New York, and he was actually only working part-time as a bouncer so that he could pay for his associate's degree in computer science at Salt Lake Community College.
Now, Jill, Lauren's mother, was a little bit off-put at the fact that Sean was 28 years old, so he was a bit older than Lauren, who was only 21. But Lauren had always been pretty mature for her age, so Jill was not surprised that she was kind of into older and more mature men.
As the two started dating, Lauren's roommate and her very close friend Alex was very excited for her, and they seemed like a really good couple at first. He would take her out for dates, he would get her flowers all the time, and he seemed like the perfect gentleman. But very quickly, Alex started to notice some things that were a bit strange about their relationship.
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Chapter 3: What warning signs did Lauren's friends notice?
When he was 20 years old, he moved to Utah and started taking classes at the Salt Lake Community College and was working as a CNA or a certified nursing assistant. By 2004, he was charged with enticing a minor over the internet and forcible sexual abuse. He had tried a 13 year old girl that he had met on the internet to have sex with him.
Apparently there was a situation where he did the same thing with two other underage girls. And for this, he was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison. He was originally granted parole in 2012, and he was out for two months. In the meantime, he violated his parole four times.
This included failing to meet with his probation officer, failing to participate in his required therapy, possession of pornography, and another violation in relation to his status as a sex offender. I believe this other violation was that he didn't notify a job or something like that about his status as being a sex offender.
Then after that, he was sent back to prison and he stayed there for about a year. By 2013, he was granted another parole and he managed to stay out for two and a half years before once again violating his parole four times and was sent back to prison. These four violations were similar to his previous violations, not going to therapy, not meeting with his probation officer, having pornography,
And this time he was not supposed to have any access to the internet and he did not listen. In prison, he completed sexual offender therapy and he received a satisfactory grade from his therapist. So once again, he was released from prison in April of 2018. And he told the parole board that this time he was changed. He said that he knew he violated his parole before,
But he had a child now, and even though he did have issues with his child's mother, having a family had changed him for the better. He said that he had a terrible experience in jail and he did not want to go back. He said that he was willing to work towards bettering himself, attending therapy, and working towards a career.
His conditions for parole this time was that he could not have any internet access without the parole board's permission, which clearly that worked pretty well last time. he couldn't have any social media accounts, and he had to complete a sex offender program. When he was released, he was labeled a moderate risk offender, which required monthly visits from his parole officer.
From the months of April to October, Melvin had these six visits with his parole officers, and his officers found out about two parole violations. In May of 2018, his parole officer found out that he was messaging different women, you know, texting them on his phone, and one of these women had a five-year-old daughter.
So first, he was not allowed to speak to anybody who had children unless it was within his family, or if he had permission from the parole board. He admitted to them that the way he had met these women is that he was on different dating sites, which he didn't know counted as social media, but it did. So this too broke his parole.
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Chapter 4: What did Lauren discover about Sean's true identity?
Alex told Lauren that she definitely should not be going to that wedding, that she needed to go somewhere in public with Melvin and end things that way. So again, it seemed like Alex just wanted what was best for her friend and she was trying to tell Lauren different things to try and keep her safe, which
i really admire alex for but as lauren would later tell alex she actually found out that while she was talking on the phone with alex and talking about how she wanted to end things with melvin he was actually standing outside of her apartment and he was crouched below her bedroom window watching her and listening to her as soon as she hung up the phone he busted into her bedroom to confront her about what she had just said to alex
He said, how dare she talk about the relationship with someone else? So Lauren used that as an opportunity to confront him about his criminal record. She told him about how she knew about his real age, his real name, his status as a registered sex offender. And she broke up with him right then and there. But Melvin told Lauren that he actually didn't do anything that he was sent to jail for.
He said that he was framed by a girl at a frat party. He said that the girl in question was actually 17 years old and not 13 years old, and he did not do anything wrong. He said that apparently she just accused him of this for the fun of it. and he said that he only pled guilty to these charges because he had to, which I don't really know what that means, but okay.
Lauren did not buy any of this, though. She wasn't as naive as he might have thought that she was, and she tried to make him leave, but he wouldn't. According to Alex, every time she tried to get him to leave, he would force himself on her sexually. This happened several times throughout the night according to Alex and he did end up spending the night there.
So by that next day, October 10th, Lauren told Melvin that she had track practice that day and so she had to leave. So Melvin said okay and he left but he actually took Lauren's car with him so that he could run some errands. But after Melvin left, she realized that she didn't have track practice like she thought she did
So she stayed home and called Alex on the phone to tell her everything that had happened that previous night. She told her about how he busted into her room, about her breaking up with him, and about how he forced himself on her multiple times throughout the night. Then later that day, Lauren started receiving mysterious text messages from numbers that she did not recognize.
The first message was from a random number and it said, why'd you break up with the big guy? He really loves you. After this message, she got yet another message from another number,
This text message was supposedly from a friend of Melvin's who said that he was actually going to be the one who was dropping her car back off to her, not Melvin, because Melvin could not stand to look at her after this breakup. So after telling her mother about this, Jill, Lauren's mother,
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Chapter 5: How did Lauren's situation escalate with text messages?
But, I mean, they've told me not to go where he's at the club where he used to work. Okay, and is there a protective order between you guys, or is he just an ex of yours? Just an ex. Okay. I will send a student officer to give you a call. He's going to give you a call on that last phone number that you gave me, the Is that okay? Yeah, sounds good. Okay, perfect.
Okay, thanks.
But even still, Lauren continued to receive concerning text messages from random numbers. By October 13th of 2018, Lauren received text messages from a number saying that if she did not pay them, that they were going to release compromising explicit photos of her. This person was demanding $1,000 to delete these pictures of her.
One of the pictures that was threatening to be released was actually one that Lauren knew that she took with Melvin, so she pretty much knew that this was still Melvin who was texting her. She was panicked at this point because she had worked so hard to achieve everything in her life. She was about to graduate and she didn't want pictures like this of her, like,
circulating around and ruining her reputation, so she did go ahead and Venmo the $1,000 to Melvin, even though the account that she sent it to was not technically under Melvin's name. It's pretty much assumed that it was him at this point.
She reached out to campus police once again to report this as well and provided them with screenshots, and she also inquired about the original report that she had made.
University Police and Security, how can I help you? Hi, so I'm... dealing with a situation where I'm being blackmailed for money. It's a photo of me and my ex. They're threatening to send it out to everyone. And she's asking for $1,000.
And this is over text?
Yeah, well... Okay, where did you receive the messages at? Well, at first it was an email. Okay. And then over that app. Okay. Where were you at when you received the messages? Oh. At my apartment. Okay. Where's your apartment at? Okay, sorry about that. Okay. Okay, just give me one second, okay? I'm just trying to fill out my paper. Thank you. Hi, . Yes.
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Chapter 6: What actions did Lauren take to seek help?
saying that she had been working with the university police, but nothing was being done and she was continuing to get these harassing phone calls and text messages. She told police that she was concerned that the person who was harassing her seemed to know about the police involvement and what the police were doing with her case.
But once again, Salt Lake City police told her that she would have to go back to the campus police and figure this out with them. Hi. Hi.
I'm just... I'm worried because I've been working with the campus police at the U, and last Saturday I reported, and I haven't gotten an update. Okay. But someone contacted me today, someone who was harassed, and said that they know everything about the police. Okay. OK. So you already spoke to the campus police. Did this happen on the University of Utah campus? Yes. Yes.
They haven't updated or done anything. So the case, it involves extortion. And those people are still . OK. So have you notified the campus police about this? Yes, I have. Okay. And what prompted you to call Salt Lake city police? Well, I thought it was weird that, um, that, that there are people who know about the entire case and the harassers seem to know about it more than me.
And I'm concerned there might be an insider, um, who's letting them know about the case. Okay. So with some kids, I haven't gotten updates and it's been a week. Okay. With something like that, you would want to contact the campus police back and ask to speak to your detective. If you're concerned, you could ask them to a detective supervisor.
Since it's another agency's area, the Salt Lake Police wouldn't be involved. Oh, okay. All right. And then make sure you tell them what you told me, that this is getting through to you from the suspects in your case. Okay. Okay, so the detective you said is who I should contact? Right. Call the dispatch back and then ask to speak to your detective. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. All right.
And then if anything happens or if you see them when you're, like, out and about in Salt Lake City proper, not on University of Utah property, and for something like that, we would be the best people to call. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay.
Bye.
So finally, that same day on October 19th, an officer from the university finally called her back to ask her more about the situation, and this is when they finally actually opened a case.
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Chapter 7: What failures occurred in the police response?
Security, how can I help you?
Hi, is this the University of Utah?
Can I help you?
Okay. This is a dispatch center in the state of Washington. I have a 911 call to transfer you. Hold on one moment, please.
Okay.
Sir, are you still there?
Hi.
Okay, you're on the phone with the dispatch for the University of Utah.
Hi, this is Chris with the University of Utah Police. Hi, my daughter, Lauren McCloskey, was talking to her mom, and then she just started saying, no, no, no, no, no, and it sounded bad. Like someone might have been grabbing her or something.
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