College track star warned police about her ex-boyfriend 6 times in the 10 days before he killed her

Women who are in abusive relationships, or relationships they fear will become abusive, are often told to reach out for help to prevent things from progressing further. Lauren McCluskey, a track athlete at the University of Utah who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend on October 22, 2018, did just that.

She alerted the campus police. She showed them threatening text messages from her ex, told them about his criminal record, which she found out about a month into their relationship.

Utah student-athlete killed after reporting her harasser to campus police

Utah law enforcement officials are struggling to answer questions about their efforts to help a University of Utah student who was murdered by a man she’d reported for harassing her weeks earlier.

Lauren McCluskey was shot and killed by Melvin Rowland on campus Monday night. Rowland killed himself later the same evening. McCluskey first reported Rowland’s harassment to campus police on October 12, lodging a second complaint the following day.

Earlier that week, McCluskey had ended a brief romantic relationship with Rowland, 37, after discovering he’d lied about his age and concealed a criminal history that included convictions for rape and soliciting sex with a minor. Rowland’s felony convictions mean it was illegal for him to purchase or own a gun, but Utah law enforcement figures refused to answer questions about how he’d gotten his weapon at a Tuesday news conference.