University of Utah police saw Lauren McCluskey’s extortion complaint as one that could wait. She wasn’t telling officers that she felt she was in danger, Chief Dale Brophy has said, and his detectives had other cases to work.
But as a team of independent investigators begins examining the department’s decisions and policies in the wake of McCluskey’s slaying on campus nine days later, experts in dating and domestic violence say there were signs that the 21-year-old senior and track athlete was at risk.
McCluskey told police she had dated Melvin Shawn Rowland for a month before discovering he was a registered sex offender who had lied about his name and age while concealing his criminal history.