20/20 - Running Out Of Time (Rebroadcast)

Episode Date: August 30, 2025

A college student is murdered after being stalked. Did the University fail to protect her?  Originally broadcast 3/31/23 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know I'm not one to break promises. I don't want to hurt you, but I need to breathe. At the end of it all, you're still my best friend, but there's something inside that I need to release. Which way is right, which way is wrong. And I need to move on, move on. University police, watch your emergency. This is Lauren.

I'm dealing with the situation. I think they're trying to lure me somewhere. In 2018, University of Utah senior Lauren McCluskey repeatedly asked for help. He was deceptive, he was dangerous. Every woman that came across, I used my manipulation taxes to get what I wanted. I'm pissed.

That could have changed everything. The people and institutions that were supposed to listen and protect her did not. The justice system failed her in so many different ways. Looking like this might be kidnapping. You have a powerful institution that is trying to protect his image. She did everything right. She said, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I knew something was wrong.

This is the story of Lauren's life, her murder, and her parents' quest for answers. Good evening and welcome to 2020. You're about to witness right here tonight the results of a four-year ESPN investigation into the death of Lauren McCluskey. A beloved daughter, a cherished friend, a senior at the University of Utah.

This investigation led by reporters T.J. Quinn and Nicole Noren, and what it uncovers is surveillance video never seen before tonight. Police interviews, documents, photographs and at the end you'll likely be asking what these two journalists asked and often could Lauren's life have been saved Lauren McCleskey grew up in Pullman Washington Lauren was just athletic from the very beginning she could climb trees at two years old and she had no fear she was pure determination she was a very

very sensitive girl and so the athletics really give her a way to channel that. It just helped her be a more confident person. I put her in three events at eight years old and she broke the record for each event, 400, high jump and long jump. I told her, well, if you qualify for nationals, I'll take you. When she was 10, it was in Los Angeles and she got second place. in High Jump in Junior Olympic Nationals. She was competitive with anyone in the country as a young child.

I remember meeting Lauren in dance class. I was about 13. She was awesome. It was fun to be around her. Whatever she did, she was amazing at. She really loved to sing. She always participated in things that was either new or children. new or challenging for her that made her a better person.

We had law, I'm going to do a competition to see who can respect to the messages pie. 3.14159, 265359, 799, 293, 2, 3, 8, 4, 6, 2, 6, 6, 6, 5, 3, 8. Anyway. She was pretty famous at the high school. Oh, Lauren McCluskey, you're her dad. Oh, okay. She was the kind of friend that you could rely on. It wouldn't matter the time or the day

if you needed someone to talk to, Lauren would be there for you. I would talk to Lauren every single day. The University of Utah, she really loved the athletic program. She liked the academics. She liked the coaches. She liked the girls on the team.

She just enjoyed the whole experience. And I think she did want to experience living away from home. We first met August 2015. It was our freshman year. Her eyes lit up when she talked. Super smart, super intense, very dedicated to her family, her church. She was such a multi-dimensional person. You didn't just see her as an athlete.

her as an athlete. She was Lauren, who was an athlete, but she was also a comedian. She's also a dancer. She was a communication major. She did extremely well. She was very excited about graduating. It was the beginning of their senior year, and Lauren and her friend Alex were heading to downtown Salt Lake City to a bar to have a good time. Alex requested that we only use her first name. I think it was a Saturday night in September. Our first encounter with him, was outside. He was the bouncer. Lauren and her friend Alex were going out.

They liked to dance. I remember him being very huge, very big muscles. Throughout the night, he would come back and pass through and stop and talk to us a few times. Probably around midnight, we got up to leave. It was very crowded because people were dancing at this point. I was behind her, and then all of a sudden,

sudden I look up and then he has like his hands on her shoulders. So she gave him her number and they made plans to go on a date. She told me right away that she was dating him and I think he came in and tried to sweep her off her feet. He said his name was Sean. He was 28 years old. He was enrolled currently at Salt Lake Community. University. He also said that he worked at a call center. It started off really, really

good like a fairy tale. It was just like it's too good to be true, but it's like you're happy for that person because they're they're happy. He took her out for dinner and bought her flowers and asked her to be his girlfriend. I think she liked the attention. He He was very charming. She said, Sean said I could invite a few friends to go out on Thursday and meet him. But I found it weird how she phrased it, he said I could invite. She said he told me to wear a t-shirt and jeans, so that's why I'm wearing this. She seemed very nervous around him.

He called her while we were at Target. He sounded very mad, like, where are you, who are you with? And I found that very concerning. I remember being like, why do you have to answer your phone when that person calls? And she's like, they really want me to answer my phone right away because they have some insecurities from the past. And they just want to make sure where I'm at,

what I'm doing, and if I'm OK. At the end of the conversation, this person wouldn't manipulate it. Just as she's about to hang up, this individual would say, you know, I love you. You don't even want to say his name, do you? No. No.

I'm not going to say that person's name. They don't deserve to have their name mentioned. He got her pepper spray at one point. He's like, oh, I think you need pepper spray to protect yourself from other men. Then he invited her to go shooting. Before she went, she told me he wants me to get a gun. And when I found that out, that's when I told a few other friends.

They started outlining Lauren seeing this new guy. He's not really good guy. She's not hanging out with us as much. And he's talking about getting her gun. And then that's when, you know, it had passed the point of, oh, this is harmless gossip to, this is actually something that could be detrimental to, you know, her academic career. And then I had to switch into professional mode. This was the moment with Lauren McCluskey's friends first alerted University of Utah officials

of their concerns about her month-old relationship. I called my first supervisor and asked her, hey, what some steps did you want me to take? Do you want me to call the police and have them go? Do you want me to try to contact Lauren and see if she can meet me somewhere? But my direct supervisor was new. So she didn't want to take the wrong steps and asked me to call our direct supervisor. housing advisor and friend Diamond Jackson emailed her supervisor on October 2nd. The email that you sent says maybe in a potentially harmful relationship, non-resident

boyfriend staying with her at her roommate, boyfriend may be getting a gun to keep with her, concern the boyfriend had been tracking Lauren, also that Lauren is not taking care of herself, and these two friends are both worried about Lauren. I felt like there were multiple points in that that were grounds for us to act. A couple of days later, Lauren made her own alarming discovery. She and a friend found a picture that looked like him that was a sex offender. I was like, you know, are you 100% short? Her voice seemed very hushed, and she seemed very scared.

I think they're trying to lure me somewhere. had been dating her boyfriend, Sean Fields, since the beginning of her senior year at University of Utah. She thought she knew her boyfriend until she found his ID, which had a different age and a different name. She and a friend found a picture that looked like him

that was a sex offender. And I was like, you know, are you 100% sure it could be this person? Because based on what I was reading online, it's like that was a really hard offense. offense. It turns out Sean Fields was not his real name. He was Melvin Sean Roland. He was 37.

And he pleaded guilty to two sex crimes in 2004. Lauren had gone home to Pullman, Washington for a few days to visit her parents for fall break. She told me that she had found out that he was a sex offender and that he'd lied about his age. And that she was going to break up with him. And I said, yes, that's exactly the right thing to do. We were coming up with like a plan for how she should break up with him. And I didn't want her to do it on campus because since it was fall break, a lot of people were out of town. Adding to Lauren's problems was that she'd loaned him her car when she was home visiting her parents.

He had her car while she was gone and she needed to get her car back. Lauren met Roland at her dorm that night. I get a message from her saying, I'll call you tomorrow. And yes, I'm home. I was scared. I remember not sleeping that night. That next morning, her voice seemed very hushed, and she seemed very scared.

And I was like, Warren, are you alone? And she's like, no, I'll call you later. I finally get a call from her. And he spent the night. He was still denying anything happened. It was years ago, he was at, like, a college fraternity the college fraternity party, the girl wide about her age. He was still making excuses of how that's not true.

And then the next day after she broke up with him, and he had her car. I was worried about her safety, and that's when I called the police. University Police National Security of my office. I would like to request some help from my daughter who's their student at University Utah, and she started dating this guy there who's like a bad person.

a bad person. Okay. And she found out he's a bad person and she broke up with him and he has her car. If he was lying to her and he's actually a sexual offender, I don't want her to go there by herself and have like something bad happened to her. After the campus police dispatcher spoke to Jill, she called Lauren. Hello. Hi, this Lauren.

Yeah. Hi, this is, University Police. Your ex-boyfriend's dropping off your car. Do you feel comfortable? with him doing that? I know your mom was really concerned about it. Yeah, I think it's okay. We have a security officer that's just in charge of escorts tonight.

Do you want him to wait with you as well when the car's getting dropped off? That would be great. The car was there, so she had her car back. Then she started getting a lot of texts. I've been getting these texts about from from these numbers of different people they were saying that he was in the hospital and then saying that like that he passed away but then I got a text from him and he seems to be alive I got a text about you know asking if I wanted to go to a funeral hit funeral and I think they're trying to lure me somewhere phones and social media. He could make spoofed numbers, so it looked like a bunch of different people

were texting her, and they were very mean text to her saying that he got in a car accident and it's her fault. Okay, now have you asked them to stop texting you? I have not, but I've blocked a few of the numbers already. All right. I will send a certain officer to give you a call, and is that okay? Yeah, sounds good.

The next day, Saturday, six weeks after she met Roland, she called University Police again. So I'm dealing with the situation where I'm being blackmailed for money. A photo of my, me and I ex. They're threatening to send it out to everyone. Lauren suspected Roland might be involved, but he lied to her that morning and said he was also being blackmail.

She sent $1,000 through Venmo. A dispatcher made radio contact with patrol officer Miguel Derris at 9.12 a.m. The caller says your ex-boyfriend is texting her messages. fixing her messages threatening to expose an explicit photo in exchange for money over email and text. Email was received around 6 or 7 a.m. Text was received around 8 a.m. Sean Rowland around page 37. I see all these messages from her about the extortion. At that point she had already contacted campus police.

It was like you have to go in person. Saturday, October 13th, her practice ended, and then we headed to the police department. We went inside. The entire thing was conducted in the reception area of the police department. Miguel Daris was an officer with the University of Utah Police. When he sat down with us, it was the first time he'd spoken publicly about the case. She was with a friend. We walked in the lobby, and I asked her about the payment, she had said.

She gave me his phone name, date of birth, and she had a picture of his driver's license. They showed us what they found on Google. He's a sex offender. He went to jail, and I actually had to Google it myself and hand my phone over to him. Was it a sex offender registry? It showed on his criminal history. that he wasn't on that list. I felt like they weren't taking it seriously

because we had told them like she lives on the first floor, maybe she should move housing. Those charges that Roland had been convicted of were, I mean, these are serious charges. That didn't give you concerns? Yeah, there's concern there. But we weren't sure if it was him. him. Anyone could have been extorting her. That's why there was random phone

numbers, unknown emails that they wanted to blackmail her. She showed them one of the numbers that was sending her messages was the same number Roland had had when they were in a relationship together. She writes the report. I do remember them saying it's a scam, it's probably a scam. She gives them the report and then they give her the case number and then they tell her that the detective was currently not in the office and that Warren will hear an update by Tuesday. What did you think at that point you were dealing with? What an extortion case? The case was assigned to the on-call detective, Kayla Dallif, who was not in the office that Saturday. But according to official reports, she had

conversations about Lauren that day with other officers. Dallif then contacted her. her supervisor, Sergeant Corey Neubold. Newbold told Dallif not to come in. She was working on several other cases that week. That evening, Lauren called 911 to tell the Salt Lake City Police about the blackmail and how she'd reported it to campus police earlier that day. I've been blackmailed for money. Let me go ahead and get you over University of Police.

I'll probably take the case then just one sec. I've talked to them already. but I just wanted to call you as well usually we just take it where you live and then that agency does a case yeah I was just concerned because I wasn't sure how long they were going to take

okay let me get you up to them and see what's going on with that just for a moment do you know when an arrest would be made you didn't talk to an officer if you want I can arrange that if you want that okay

yeah that sounds good She was still being harassed and she was still getting messages. She was still in constant contact though with University Police specifically Miguel Daris. So anytime she was getting messages, she would just forward them on to him. She had his personal number. I know she was nervous and she was still waiting to hear from the detective. Throughout that whole process, I remember saying called the cops and she said that she did. She said, you know, I don't want to talk about it.

The police have it under control. I shouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Lauren didn't realize it, but her problems were just starting. It's unbelievable. The amount of times that she called the police. University police security open up. As alarming as this already was, Laura McCluskey likely had no idea the awful turn

this was about to take. Someone is lurking in the parking lot of her dorm dressed as the movie Assassin Deadpool. University of Utah senior Lauren McCluskey was worried about strange texts she was getting after she broke up with her boyfriend Melvin Rowland, so she alerted campus police. This video is from Friday, October 19th, 10 days after they broke up and seven weeks after they first met, Roland is dressed up as the comic book character Deadpool and walking around outside of Lauren's dorm. At 4.02 p.m., here she is walking in the west entrance. And then a minute later, see Roland walking around outside the north entrance. Lauren and her parents didn't know that Roland was stalking her.

They also didn't know that he had access to her email because she had once logged into her account on his phone. So he knew about her communications with campus police. She got a message saying, I know everything. Why don't you go to the police? I said, stop speaking to campus police because we went a week ago and they still haven't contacted you yet. And so I went up to her apartment and that's what she called Salt Lake City Police. 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. said that, that they know everything about the police. Okay. So you already spoke to the campus police? Yes, and they haven't updated or done anything. And what prompted you to call Salt Lake City police?

Well, I thought it was weird that there are people who know about the entire case and the harasser's seem to know about it more than me. And I'm concerned there might be an insider who's letting them know about the case. Okay. So with something, because I haven't gotten an update. Yeah. 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. So she calls Daris. The first thing she says is, can I speak to the detective? And he wants to know why. And she's like, because my family is concerned that nothing's being done. And he's like, oh, what? You told your family. I'll contact her now.

contact her now. A few minutes later, the detective finally contacts Lauren. According to official reports, Detective Kayla Dalla first spoke to Lauren on Friday, October 19th, at about 5 p.m. Lauren had to relay a lot of information to the detective that I felt like the detective should have already known. So either information wasn't passed along to the detective or if it was passed along, the detective hadn't read it at that point. read it at that point. They were on the phone for a while and then the detective tells Warren to send her an email of everything. And so Warren actually does it that night. She told me I think I'm annoying them that I'm calling so much. She specifically told me that. And then I said it's their

job. They're supposed to listen to you and help you. That's their job. She went to the necessary people that could have taken an extra step to take him away. She did everything right. It's unbelievable. The amount of times that she called the police, how long it took for them to look into her case. I remember her saying, hopefully in a few years, when I'm in a better place and married to someone else, we can look back on this and laugh.

Early on the morning of October 22nd, 12 days after Lauren and her mother first spoke to police. Melvin Rowland left his apartment, headed to campus, and a silver Buick borrowed from his neighbor, and parked in the lot outside of Lauren's building. Surveillance video shows him outside at 6.26 a.m. Lauren received a text message of that morning from someone claiming to be Deputy Chief Rick McLennan

of the campus police department. Lauren calls me and she tells me that she got a message message from a deputy chief saying that she had to come to the department now. She noticed that there was certain grammatical errors that were consistent that she had seen in the past and she, we figured that was probably not a real deputy chief. She was very scared and she was concerned. She's like, what do I do? She said she was going to tell Miguel Daris.

According to Lauren's phone records, she called campus police officer Miguel Daris at 10 a.m. He said, I've been receiving these messages. It claims to be the deputy chief. And I was like, oh, what's the phone number that he's texting you? And I told her, no, that's not him. Here's Lauren six minutes later entering Heritage Hall. A minute after that, she's walking across campus. And here's Roland nine minutes later.

He walks into the same building, looks around for a few minutes, then leaves. He goes back to her dorm. Lawrence phone calendar shows that she had an 11 a.m. appointment with her on-campus counselor. She saw the counselor twice in the time that she broke up with him, and I encouraged her to do that because I know that she wasn't telling me everything, and I hope that she could tell it to the counselor, you know, and get some guidance on what to do. After seeing her counselor, she calls Miguel Daris again at 1155. She tries again at 1208.

he calls her back at 1214. When I was at the union center on campus, and she happened to be there. So she showed me those messages, and I told her personally. So you actually saw her that morning? Yeah. How'd you end up connecting with her in person?

I told her that I'm at the union center. And somehow we both said, Though we're here, I'm here too. She let me look at those text messages. I told her, as well, screenshot those and forward them to the detective. And we both left. I went back to my car and she left. I had texted her soon before 2 p.m.

asking her if she had told Daris and she said she had. That was the last I ever talked to her. Melvin Rowland walked in and out of campus buildings all day, narrowly missing Lauren. An incredible thing is, with all of the security cameras on campus, you can see that he was roaming around campus carrying this small black bag. He's like, if you guys knew what I had in here, you'd be tripping. This show is supported by Chime. Can you remember the first time you learned that your spending decisions had an impact on your financial future? For a long time, people have had to learn money.

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Terms apply. On Monday, October 22nd, Lauren McCluskey went about her day. She had a counseling appointment and then later went to study in the student union. Meanwhile, Melvin Rowland walked in and out of campus buildings all day, narrowly missing Lauren. Security video captures Roland inside Lauren's dorm carrying a small black bag. A student let him in the lock door multiple times. They're fist bumping in the hallway. Campus police later interviewed that student.

He was one of Lauren McCluskey's neighbors. We obtained this recording through public records requests. The university blurred his image and altered his voice. As I'm walking up, he's like, what's your name, by the way? So I'm Apollo. Nice to meet you. And I go back to my room about two or three minutes after that. I hear a knock.

I open the door. It's him. Roland, calling himself Apollo, asked if he can hang out with that student and others. in their rooms. He says he's a student here. He says he's a senior with a 3.7 VPA majoring in software engineering,

and that he was an ex-marine, and that the Marines are paying his whole tuition. Then, Roland shows him the black bag he'd been carrying around campus. And he's like, if you guys knew what I had in here, you'd be tripping. You'd be like, well, and we're like, what is it? You showed me, and it was a gun.

He said it was a military issue, Beretta. He showed you that in your room. So he shows you the gun and then you look at it, hold it. Yeah, I'll look at it and I put it in the light and I'm like, okay, cool. And I hand it back to him in like 10 seconds. Right. Then what happens? And then we're hanging out for a little bit more.

And then around that time it's probably 7.30-ish eight. And then I'm like, okay, man, sorry, but I got to go study at that. the library and, you know, then I go head to the library. He walks off the opposite direction of the way I go. Roland left Lauren's dorm for the last time at 8.10 p.m., around the same time Lauren was leaving her class. The class had gotten out a little bit early. As she was going home, she called me. I was in this room, right where I'm sitting right now. And Jill was right behind me over here. And she was talking to

Lauren on the speakerphone. So I could hear their conversation. It was very lively, very happy. Lauren was looking forward to things. She was proud that she was making progress on an assignment that was not due for a few days. So it was a wonderful conversation. She was so happy.

And I, I, um, and then, and then, uh, and then, uh, she, she said, no, no, no, no, no. And I knew something was wrong. I hear her yell, no, no, no. And then I sort of hear her being dragged away and her phone fell and then no one answered the phone. We were yelling into the phone. Lauren! Lauren! I knew that her life was in danger at that time. All units, attempt to locate a suspect involved in possible kidnapping.

The victim is a Lauren McCluskey. When you saw her name, what went through you? I was in shock, like, oh my God. She just started saying, no, no, no, no, no. And it sounded like someone might have been. Like, someone might have been grabbing her or something. We were scrambling, trying to figure out where she might be. I was sitting in the newsroom at the Salt Lake Tribune.

All of a sudden, you could hear this crackle on the police radios. Kidnapping, University of Utah, kidnapping, you know, just kind of kept repeating that. All units, attempt to locate a suspect involved in possible kidnapping. The victim is a Lauren McCluskey. Hi, my daughter, Lauren McCloskey, was talking to her mom, and then she just started saying, no, no, no, no, no. And it sounded like someone might have been grabbing her or something. We were scrambling, trying to figure out where she might be. All right, and you said she was walking to her car from one building?

From the GC, which is... Gardner Commons. Oh, someone who's talking on her phone. Hello. Hi, I have a backpack and I need a phone. Okay, could you just stay there? I think she was mugged. All right, where exactly, where is that backpack out?

Can you get a location for me? University Police. Hi, I just found a whole bunch of stuff spread out all over the ground and a phone that had an active call. I picked it up. Okay, yes. This woman says... Yes, I was just on the phone with her parents.

Okay. I'm having officers responding up that way. Okay. I'm going to ask what I'm responsible making threats to the east of the south federal power in the parking lot. It's looking like this might be kidnapping. I got up to dorms and it was chilly.

It was a cold night. And everything was just caution taped off. I mean, this huge perimeter. Okay, we do have witnesses that heard a couple shots and they found a showcasing. Information was not being shared readily. All we knew there was an active man. There was an active manhunt.

Very limited details were pouring in at that time. There was a lot of focus on this one particular parking lot. And there were police everywhere. I mean, from multiple agencies, there were police dogs. There was really this atmosphere of fear and no answers. You know, what were they looking for? What was going on? They're getting multiple calls from students wondering what we want students to do.

Do we have instructions for them? Yeah, we want them to secure a place, they lock down in place. Los Angeles. Hello, this is Matt. Hi, Matt. This is Bell with the University of Utah Police. And have you guys heard from her or anything?

No, we have not. Okay. Officials issued a campus-wide shelter-in-place alert and soon followed with a suspect description at 1010. The manhunt was on for 37-year-old Melvin Roland. We're heading west down from the North Medical Tower. Medical Tower. The city has a group of six officers in the K-Nine head in the northbound. I'm talking about my daughter, Lauren, the custody that's missing.

We do have officers on scene handling right now. We're actively looking for her. We're doing everything we can to track her down. I would look out the window, and as long as I didn't see any police cars coming to our house, I thought we were okay. Hey, Sarge, can you come to my location? We have one bleeding from the mouth and they hear, in the car. It was actually her coach that they found her parking lot.

She'll get her glancing. It's one-star medical. It was actually her coach that told me that they found her. And I said, is she okay? Is she okay? And he said, I'm sorry, she's not, she's gone. And that was when I just started crying. And Matt knew that what he had said by my response.

It's hard to even describe. I didn't cry. I was totally shocked. It was like trauma. like getting hit by a baseball bat. It was that physical. I remember getting a text from Mrs. McCleskey. And she said that we lost her.

And I was like, what do you mean that we lost her? And I remember calling her. And she said that that Lord had been shot. and that she was murdered. I just remember going outside and just looking up, looking up in the stars and just hoping, I just hope you didn't suffer, Lauren, and that when you left this world,

that you weren't in pain. Lauren McCluskey had been shot, and police are scouring the campus and beyond for her killer. Our units on the shooting, the suspect is going to be email, black, white, city, black jacket with white stripes wear a gray, beanie, and white shoes. It was just an awful discovery. They find Lauren has been shot and killed in that car.

And now police are frantically searching the campus and the community looking for the killer. The manhunt was on for a 37-year-old Melvin Roland. Melvin Roland was last seen getting into a car with another woman. New details about a college athlete that is murdered in Utah. A mother's horror, she was on the phone with her daughter, authorities say, as she was about to be shot and killed by her boyfriend. New questions about whether authorities did enough to help her with chilling 911 calls to police days before her murder. Laura McCluskey had no idea that on that Monday evening back in October of 2018, as she was walking across campus her normal routine, that her former boyfriend, Melvin Rowland, was actually stalking her, waiting for her outside her dorm at the end of her.

University of Utah. According to the police report, surveillance video shows Lauren as she was about to enter her dorm, and Melvin Roland's feet can be seen standing several feet behind her. He steps toward McCluskey and grabs her. At 818, he can be seen carrying her north away from the door. This video was never released by the university. Roland carried her to this nearby parking lot, forced her into the back seat of his neighbor's car and shot her seven times.

He's seen here three minutes later, making his way south through campus parking lots and across this bridge, ending up at a light rail station on campus. All units on the shooting, the suspect is going to be a male black, white, hoody, black, jacket with white stripes where a gray, beanie, and white shoes. He was picked up at the station by a driver in a silver Hyundai Sonata. Within minutes of shooting her, of shooting Lauren, he went out on a date with a woman that he arranged on a dating app. They went out to dinner, they hung out at her place, he took a shower, really seemed like he was just having another normal night afterward with another woman. The woman contacted police that night. The police blurred her image and altered her voice.

I saw the picture of this guy, and then I saw that he may have been picked up in a silver sonata, which is like a description of my car. I saw the picture, but the name isn't the same of the age. I just really am, just like, all around just... ...divor my safety. I don't know what, like, I need to do. You're 100% safe in here? You are fine.

I have officers chasing your suspect on the shooting he is in foot pursuit right now around 1 a.m. Salt Lake City police officers spotted him in the area of 200 east and 500 south downtown they were chasing him on foot and they chased him to this location where they found a hit forced entry to this building we have your suspect inside the church it looks like he has a gunshot where himself inflicted. In clearing the building, they found our suspect deceased in a room in the church. It turns out that Melvin Rowland died by suicide. Police say using the same gun he used to kill Lauren McCluskey.

So many of us won't forget those images on campus that day. All of those young students who had gathered, you could see the tears coming down their faces, those who knew her, those who loved Lauren. And, you know, suddenly the nation knew the story of this young woman with so much promise whose life was stolen. We gather today to honor the memory of Lauren McCleskey, a remarkable, talented young woman whose bright life was ended on Monday in a senseless act of violence. She was a joy to coach. It is an immense and deep pain that, my team, and that all of our student athletes are feeling. She was an amazing, genuine and caring person.

And she would be really missed. It made national headlines. We knew there's going to be accountability issues. We wondered, could this have been prevented? And then there was also the focus on Roland as kind of the villain in this case. Looking at his past, his criminal history. He was like a con man, a sweet talker. He had used various aliases.

We talked to two or three other women that had dated him that said, you know, he did the same thing to us. And we could have been Lauren. Women that he had dated for short periods of time that he just became kind of obsessive with. There were just so many pieces of information that we realized that the U didn't have and never found out that we were starting to find out in the first couple of days. I would say within a week or two at most, the focus shifted. It became how the university made mistakes, how the institution failed Lauren. You have a powerful institution that is trying to protect his image,

his image that is promising transparency. We know Lauren had called. She had complained that she was being harassed by an ex-boyfriend. There's only two things that could have occurred. One, the writing on the wall was there and it was simply ignored. Or those who were looking at the wall couldn't read.

He was deceptive, he was dangerous, and in my mind thinking, how could we have not known The facts that they uncovered were shocking. Police learned that 22-year-old Roland had sexually assaulted a 17-year-old high school student. I just felt sick to my stomach when I heard that. For the first time ever, you can get all of ESPN in the new ESPN app, along with Disney Plus and Hulu, with one incredible offer.

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wherever you get your podcasts. The murder of Lorne McCleskey now sets into motion two investigations into her death in Utah. While the state's Department of Public safety focused on Melvin Rowland's history with the criminal justice system, the University of Utah commissioned its own independent review. They presented this report that showed all of these ways that the university mishandled it,

how the officers mishandled it. They had all these recommendations for things that should be fixed, and then President Ruth Watkins made the kind of infamous statement. This report does not offer us a reason to believe that this tragedy could have been prevented, but instead... I was shocked that she would say that. I just felt sick to my stomach. I think the statement defies logic.

It defies facts. It was written by a lawyer. Everyone was really trying to avoid it. Well, we didn't do anything wrong. We didn't do anything wrong. I'm like, these parents lost our kid. She is gone, and you have the audacity to try to cover your ass. What did your journalistic instinct tell you about that approach that they were taking?

that they would protect the integrity, the reputation of the university at all cost. The facts that they uncovered were shocking. The sheer number of times that she was trying to get help from the police, when in fact it should have just been one phone call. But the most shocking thing was the large number of flaws in the system.

In June 2019, Jill and Matt McCleskey filed a $56 million lawsuit against the University of Utah and several staffers, including members of the campus police department, alleging deliberate indifference and failure to intervene to protect their daughter, Lauren. I do not want to be in this world without Lauren, but being stuck here, I have no choice but to try to make this world better. Women must be believed and taken seriously when they ask for help.

The state's investigative report gave a bit of Roland's background. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and said he was adopted by an older couple who died when he was young. Utah officials say they found no juvenile criminal record for Roland, but he attended a high school for troubled youth in Colorado. He moved to Utah when he was about 20 years old. A summary of the report stated that Roland was sentenced in 2004 to 1 to 15 years. in prison on charges of enticing a minor over the internet and attempted forcible sexual abuse. I first heard about him because I represented the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force,

a bunch of different people working together from a bunch of different law enforcement entities. One agent on that task force was assigned to pose as a teenager in online chat rooms. He was acting as a 13-year-old girl, and Melvin asked him if he wanted to meet for wild sex. They make the arrangement to meet and met in downtown Salt Lake. And when Roland arrived, who was waiting for him? The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Police learned that two nights before,

22-year-old Roland had sexually assaulted a 17-year-old high school student. So they had met online. It had been a period of about a month. He went out to her home. She indicated that she was really tired and she wanted him to leave. He would not. When he began to rape her, she put a pillow over her face and covered herself up.

After he finished, he left and said, you won't have to hear from me again, and I won't take anything on my way out. The 17-year-old went to the hospital for a rape exam and to be treated for her injuries. He was a one-man sex crime wave and that was just looking to commit sex crime. The initial charge was rape because of the crime against the actual victim, and then enticement

of a minor over the internet. Two serious felonies. Roland lied to officers and FBI agents at the time and told them he was a football player at the University of Utah, although he was enrolled at the school from the fall of 2003 until spring 2004. He just seemed like the consummate manipulator. who is very smooth and engaging and convincing, compelling, but who you shouldn't believe a word of what they say.

As those cases were proceeding, Roland was on supervised release. He wore a monitoring device on his ankle while he attended classes. He dropped out as he reached a deal to plead guilty. He was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison. There was a strong likelihood that the victim in this case was not going to be able to withstand trial. And so that was a strong motivation for me to reach a plea bargain. What was the next thing you ever heard about him?

When I saw the report on TV that he had killed Lauren and himself, it hit me like a ton of bricks. He was a predator. We did the right thing by stopping him. How did he get out? Why was he out? And oh my God. One of the most heartbreaking things about this case is that Melvin Roland has this stunning criminal history and so many questions about could he have been stopped long before this?

And so much of this has not been made public until now. So we hear him say flat out he rates to other women. What's your reaction to hearing that? of hearing that. I am just appalled that I didn't know. Megan Thompson was Melvin Rowland's final parole agent. She was assigned to his case in 2018. When you were assigned Melvin Roland,

how many other cases did you have? Maybe 70 or 80 people on my caseload. There was a parole hearing he had had years earlier. years earlier, where he essentially admitted to committing two rapes that he had not been charged with. Had you ever heard that? No. Is it the first time you're hearing it? Yes.

All right, so this was from 2012. They didn't tell me how many victims you have. So I'd like you to give me kind of a idea of what we're looking at, victim-wise. Is that including the women I dated in college or just... Women that you felt you took advantage of? I would say every female that I came across dating or met on internet, I'd say I used my manipulation taxes to get what I wanted. How many did you out and out rape like the one young lady? Well, not like that, but me being a womanizer, you know, I use other taxes to get what I wanted with them.

them. I'd say something similar, so I'd say two. Two others? But I see it in general just how I manipulated and used women in general. How many women in general did you convince to have sex with you by manipulation? I got locked up at 22 and my sexual experience. I'd say about 50. Okay. So we hear him say flat out he raped two other women. What's your reaction to hearing that?

I am just appalled that I didn't know. Should have been investigated because there's no statute of limitations. Have you heard of situations like that where someone essentially admits to two violent felonies in a hearing and nothing happens? No. We asked the Board of Pardons and Parole, My Roland's admission to two additional rapes wasn't investigated. The board replied, the individual retains their right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment.

The board's role is to ask questions and respond to the information provided, but it cannot be a fair venue if we are also involved in investigatory or prosecutorial actions. He got away with other crimes, and it makes me feel horrible that I wasn't able to do anything about that, because I was unaware of it. Hopefully, when you get out, you'll have learned from this experience. Only time's going to tell. Yeah, I know I have that capability of offending, but again, it's something I'll have to prove. Roland had been denied parole in his first three attempts, but a month after that hearing, in July 2012, he was released.

Within a few months, he was sent back to prison for failing to participate in sex offender therapy and for having links to pornography on his phone. In 2013, he was paroled again and out of prison for two and a half years. During that time, he fathered a son. He also briefly dated Carastropal. I feel like it's important that people understand that he was just very skilled at getting what he wanted. I didn't hear from him or see him at all for a couple of months. And then 25 missed phone calls.

and just like, just a slew of text messages. He said that his parole officer stopped by, and I'm like, you have a parole officer? Like, what? He knows that his parole officer is going to take him away for whatever he's on his cell phone. He takes his cell phone and throws it under the oven in his kitchen, and then he books it out the door and runs from his parole officer.

Stropa says she persuaded Roland. to turn himself in, and he was sent back to prison for four parole violations, including absconding from parole agents and using social media. During his parole violation hearing, Rowan's public defender addressed a threat Roland had made against a parole agent. We played audio from the hearing for Paul Eamon, the man who first prosecuted Roland. It is rather disconcerting the comment that he made that he did not wish to parole again. And if an agent were to come conduct a field visit, he might become violent. Mr. Rowland expressed to me that he was mad at the time

and that he was just making that statement and that he didn't mean it. That was just a wake-up call to the Board of Partons. He sends up all these flares that, I'm a problem. If I get out, I'm going to hurt people. I mean, his probation officer is an armed train. to law enforcement officer and he's threatening violence to that person, Lauren McCluskey didn't stand a chance. Melvin Rowland was in prison for nearly two years,

then had another parole hearing in January 2018. The board faced a choice. Keep him in prison until the end of his sentence 16 months later, or release him on parole so he'd be supervised in the community. I understand I haven't been the best model citizen when I release and it shows by two paroles that, you know, I just hope taking consideration I've given me this chance so I could redeem myself. I wish you the best of luck.

Thank you. Okay? In April 2018, Roland was paroled for the third time. Megan Thompson was assigned to be his parole agent. What were your impressions of him? Arrogant, entitled. I knew that he had a history with women, so I was very overly, I guess you could say,

assertive and rigid to where he knew and saw me as an officer, not as a woman. He would clearly say he didn't like the rules, but he knew he had to follow him. He was just kind of more focused on his life after parole. During a search, you found that he had been accessing a dating site. What did you discover? On his phone he had some meetup apps he was socializing with women on and several women on.

As far as violating him on that and him going back to prison, there's no way the supervisor of the Board of Pardons would have approved that he go back to prison on just that. In August, he tested positive for marijuana. Yes. There had been no previous concerns about drug use in his history or in my encounters with him. I came down on him pretty hard, if I remember right, during that visit with him. This would be a verbal warning. People after the fact, after he killed Lauren, after he died,

look back and think, oh, my God, there's a chance right there that could have violated him. When you look back at it, what do you think? Oh, there's no way I would never have gotten it and I warrant. What I did was what would have was appropriate. How do you feel you handled all the information that you got about him? I handled things very appropriately. I was told I handled things very appropriately.

We contacted the Utah Department of Corrections about Rowland's behavior and potential parole violations. Officials responded that the type of violations AP&P was aware of during Roland's parole would not have typically returned someone to prison and responses were consistent with state guidelines. One of the really difficult things about this case and there are so many difficult questions to this day, but had Melvin Roland served his entire prison term, had he not been released until May of 2019, that would have been seven months after he murdered Lauren McCleskey. Instead, he's paroled in 2018 the year before. He gets a job at that downtown bar in Salt Lake City, and that's where they meet.

This is a girl who has come to us with a problem. We need to take it seriously. There was just a lot of shock that this had happened. Every system that Lauren tried to get help through failed. So amid all of these questions about whether or not campus police could have been doing more to help Lauren, if anything at all, now there's this brand new question. What had they done with the intimate photos that Lauren had shared with them, trusting them? We now know it was one week after Laura McCluskey met Melvin Roe.

at that bar where he worked at Salt Lake City, that his fellow bouncer at the bar, Nathan Vogel, asks a friend to help Nathan buy a Beretta handgun at a gun store. And the incredible thing is, it was just later that month. Melvin Rowland borrows this new handgun to take Lauren McCluskey's shooting, and authorities would later learn it was the same gun he used

to kill Lauren. Vogel pleaded guilty to making a false statement to obtain the weapon. When Lauren's friends learned that her new boyfriend wanted to take her shooting and get her a gun, they became concerned and told Housing Advisor Diamond Jackson. Jackson sent an email to her supervisor on October 2nd with a list of concerns. During that period of time, from the 2nd to the 22nd, how much were you hearing about Lauren and what was going on with her?

It was never brought up unless I brought it up. What's being done? Have y'all changed rooms for her yet? What's going on? was just like, oh, you know, we're going to handle it. And, you know, the director of conduct is going to look into it. And just very nonchalant kind of, it's going to get done. Nothing happened. In the hours before Lauren's murder, campus housing officials at the University of Utah

discussed the concerns that resident advisor Diamond Jackson had first raised by email three weeks before. She spoke to Jill McCluskey after Lauren's death. I was able to call her mom and, tell her exactly what I did on my end. I told her that I was sorry and I thought, I wish I could change, I wish I could go back. And I told her exactly what I did,

who I spoke to, I laid it all out, and I really told her that I really wish I would have went and helped her. And she was just being so kind to me, and I'm like, why are you being? kind to me. Your daughter, like, is gone, and I could have helped her. She's like, there's nothing you could have done. We contacted campus housing officials who were named in the McCluskey lawsuit. None of them would speak with us on the record.

Lauren's friends had spoken with her housing advisor, and Laura McCluskey had repeatedly contacted campus police. I'm dealing with a situation where I'm being blackmailed from money. The University of Utah sent a statement to us, saying in part, Lauren's death forced the university to reckon with its dysfunctional police department, siloed campus operations, and incomplete employee training and communication. The detective in charge of Lauren's extortion case was Kayla Dallif, who had been on the job for less than a year.

Her supervisor was Sergeant Corey Newbold, who died in 2021. School officials told us there is no record that Newbold ever instructed her to follow up on Lauren's case. Dallif is now a deputy sheriff for a county in Utah. She declined our interview request. Miguel Daris is the officer who took Lauren's initial police report. What sort of threat did you think Melvin Rowland might be to her? We weren't 100% sure that it was him.

Lauren didn't think it was him. She kept saying it was Roland's friends, an unknown, or Possibly Roland. Why didn't somebody at that point just go interview Melvin Rowan? Because we were not sure if it was him. But why not ask it? That's when, that's where I needed more experience on these type of cases. doing follow-ups, but we were trained as first-line officers to document everything and

pass it over to the detective. They wanted detectives to do the follow-up. He gave a very long pause when I asked you about contacting him. I mean, sitting here today, what do you wish you had done? Contact him or told someone to? When I had dispatch run his criminal history, that's where I saw that he was, he had convictions. What did it show about his parole status? We weren't trying to look at that.

So I had no idea to even check for that. Had you ever run someone's parole status before? No. According to the university's review, no one in the campus police department checked Roland's offender status to see if he was on parole, and no policies or procedures were in place to require such a check. Had they seen it and saw that he was on parole and contacted you, what would have happened next? My next step would be contacting him, locating him. Did you ever hear from campus police at any point? No.

What concerns did you have for her safety at that point? None because she did not report any fear or concerns of domestic violence. What were your supervisors aware of what was going on? Everything. What should have happened that week? There's a lot what is. There should have been a lot more emphasis placed on the the fact that this is a girl who has come to us with a problem, we need to take it seriously.

We can't brush her off and say, we'll get to you next week when detective so-and-so comes in. We need to take a hard look at this now. When Lauren reported the blackmailing, campus police requested that she sent the intimate images to Officer Daris. He forwarded them to Detective Dahloff as instructed, but two days later he allegedly showed them to other officers. A public records request ESPN submitted in October 2019 prompted the university to open an internal investigation into what Daris did with the photos. The Salt Lake Tribune, which also submitted public records requests, published a story in

2020. How did the community respond? There was just a lot of shock that this had happened. You either said they didn't know about it or that they didn't have records on it until two years after Lauren was killed. According to Utah Department of Public Safety Investigation, released in August 2020, multiple officers said under oath

that Derris showed the explicit photos for non-law enforcement reasons. Two officers told DPS investigators that Derris made an unprofessional comment about the photos. Another officer admitted making a similar comment, while the third said he might have, but didn't recall. It hit me very hard.

If she'd asked me for advice, I would have told her, absolutely share embarrassing, compromising pictures with the police because they are professionals. And it would have been very bad advised, looking back on it. It's just really a betrayal of trust. She went to the police expecting to get help. There was no way I was bragging or sharing these photos. I wouldn't do that to her. There were two officers who reported.

They remember hearing some unprofessional comments being made when you showed the pictures. I don't remember any unprofessional comments. Did you ever say to anyone that you could look at those pictures anytime you wanted? I never said that. It wasn't just this one officer. Keep in mind, he showed it to several officers who obviously were partaking in the fun. The ripple effect of Lauren's case was felt throughout the campus police department. In 2020, Deputy Chief Rick McLennan resigned, and two campus police officers were fired. And Miguel Daris was fired from a job he had taken with another police department.

McClennon, Derris, and three other members of the campus police department filed a notice of claim against the University of Utah with the Attorney General's office. They alleged that they were scapegoated by the university during the Lorne McCluskey investigation. The Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Division investigated Darry, handling of Lauren's photos, and found there was not sufficient evidence to take disciplinary action against him. Campus police weren't the only ones who knew about the harassment of Lauren. It turns out, Roland confessed to coworkers about what he'd done. He said that he had access to her email.

How many violations did you just hear described? I didn't hear by, there was crimes, actually. He would have gone back to prison. To you, my darling. No, to you. The roses were living the dream. More champagne for me, please. Until it all came crashing down.

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And I run the show. Love Thy Nader. All episodes now streaming on Hulu. From the prosecutor to the parole board to even his coworkers, convicted felon Melvin Rowland had numerous encounters with people to whom he confessed his crimes. Some that stood out were conversations that he had with his coworkers at General Dynamics Information Technology. He worked in one of its call centers.

I'm familiar with that employer. What expectations are there of them to take any sort of action if they see something in the workplace that you'd want to know about. Well, obviously anything that's involving a crime. On October 16th, six days before Roland murdered Lauren, he told his coworkers that he had extorted money from her. Melvin Roland told two colleagues, including the supervisor, on October 16th,

that he had been extorting Lauren McCluskey. Did you ever hear the interviews that police did with those employees? No. Within a few days of Lauren's murder, General Dynamics, Information Technology, hired a local criminal defense attorney, and all of these interviews were done in that attorney's office.

The University of Utah altered the voices on these recordings. It's a supervisor who basically lays out the whole story. He just told me that he had gotten into some trouble over the weekend, and that he was dating a girl from university, and he had lied to her about his age, and she had recently found out that he lied, and she broke up with him. And so he got angry.

And over the weekend, he had sent her messages from another phone telling her that he had and that he wanted money so that he wouldn't release them. So he said that she sent him money through Venmo. He sent $1,000 is what he said she sent him. And then she sent him another $1,000.

And the second time he said he kind of freaked out. He knew that he was going to be in trouble. So he tried to send the money back to her. He said that he had access to her email on his phone because she had logged in her email from his phone before. And he said that he could see that she sent messages to the campus police of screenshots of the conversation. So he knew that she had contacted authorities about it. And so he said he was afraid.

He didn't want to go back to jail. And he knew we couldn't run forever. Melvin said, yeah, I don't want to go. I don't want to resign. Can I just want to leave the vaccines? And I said, I'm okay with that. How many violations did you just hear described? Well, I didn't hear violence, actually.

He is entrapping someone. When you heard what that supervisor just described, what's your reaction to that? to that. I'm pissed. That's just another thing that could have been brought to my attention. That could have changed so many. Changed everything.

I guess I didn't really realize that there was a supervisor who had the whole story and didn't do anything. I'm just surprised that no one, it seems like no one is willing to step up and do the right thing. step up and do the right thing. A general dynamic spokesperson, decline comment. If somebody had called you and told you what he had said, what would have happened? Right, right then I would have gone to pick him up. I would put him in handcuffs and take him to my office

and interview him. Based on what he said and what we know happened, what would have happened to him? He would have gone back to prison. What do you think people need to know about this entire case? It was a lot of misses, a lot of opportunities where interventions could have been made. What are some of the examples that stand out to you? His supervisor at General Dynamics.

That one really got to you, didn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it did. Well, first and foremost, you have to blame Melvin's Sean Roland. But systemically, as far as the system goes, I place the lion's share of responsibility for her death with the Board of Partons because Melvin, Sean Roland had given so many signs that he was not capable of surviving in society without putting others at risk. The justice system failed her in so many different ways. She did everything right. We let her down.

The system let her down. There were processes in place that didn't function the way they were intended. There was communication that should have taken place that didn't, all combined. We failed Lauren in that sense. What goes through your heads about the number of people whose lives were touched by this? We've heard about people who actually... I can remember our conversations talking about us being 90 years old and still running. I'd be like, do still plan on running?

And she's like, of course. You're going to be running with me, remember? There's just this terrible gap in our lives that's just this terrible gap in our lives that won't be filled. So it's the absence that hurts. The memories are actually good to hold on to, I think. And we do have wonderful memories of her, but we're still, you know, we just still miss her terribly. Your daughter goes off to college and you never think something like that's going to happen. What would you say to them if you could? I have always just wanted to be able to just look at him and tell him that I'm sorry I could have

protect their daughter if there's so many things that I would have known I would have. They sent their daughter to where they thought she would have an ideal education and she's gone. Accountability is very important. That allows them to truly move forward, make things better, and make real change. It's not a good strategy to try to keep secrets. It's not the right thing to do, and it's not very smart either.

Lauren's family filed suit against the University of Utah in 2019. We had to file a lawsuit because otherwise we're powerless. The University acknowledges and deeply regrets that it did not handle Lauren's case as it should have, and that at the time, its employees failed to fully understand and respond appropriately to Lauren's situation. The University of Utah settled with the McCluskey family for $13.5 million. All the money from the settlement will go to support the Lauren McCluskey Foundation missions, which include campus safety, animal welfare, and amateur. athletics. In addition, the university created a campus center for

violence prevention and agreed to build an athletic facility with an indoor track, both bearing Lauren's name. There is a Lauren McCluskey Catwing at the County Humane Society. Lauren used to volunteer there and just really cared about them and so she would be happy about that. Yes. I think people really remember her and want to honor her memory as much as possible not only how she died but how she lived too what goes through your heads about the number of people whose lives were touched by this one way or another we've heard about people who actually we've heard about people who actually got closer together because Because of what happened.

Yeah, I just hope it makes a change so it doesn't happen in the future to other, for other parents. I mean, I feel like that's what helps me to keep going each day. There are girls who are as precious to their parents as, our daughter is to us, and they do not receive this level of attention. I think people should really think about that. I certainly do. There are lots of Lauren's out there who you don't hear about. Those parents honoring their daughter's legacy. To learn more about their journey, you can go to the Lauren McCluskey Foundation, and you can watch the ESPN documentary,

listen. Streaming now on ESPN Plus. from all of us here at 2020 ABC News and ESPN. Thank you for watching. Good night. I'm Dennis Cooper, host of Culpable, and I want to tell you about this case I've been following in a small Ohio town. When 17-year-old Danny Violet stormed out of his house one afternoon in 1998, his family thought it was just another episode of teenage angst. But their worst fears materialized when his lifeless, asphyxiated body was later found in a nearby cornfield. The question remains, what happened to Danny from Tenderfoot TV an all new season of culpable is available now