What did Melvin Rowland do?
Melvin Rowland is an American murderer who shot and killed his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend, Lauren McCluskey, on the University of Utah campus in October 2022. McCluskey was a student heptathlete on the track team at the University, who was originally from Pullman, Washington.
McCluskey broke up with Rowland on the 9th of October, and he began harassing her in the days following the breakup, prompting her to inform the university police about it. It was thought McCluskey ended the relationship with Rowland after finding out he was a sex offender.
What crimes had Rowland previously committed?
Melvin Rowland was on parole at the time of McCluskey’s murder, and it was revealed the university didn’t inform the parole officers of McCluskey’s harassment claims against Rowland.
Rowland had a long history of sexual assault and had been in and out of prison over the years. In a court appearance in 2004, he admitted to trying to sexually assault a teenage girl. Moving forward to his parole hearing in 2012, Rowland claimed to have forced the girl to have sex with him and also admitted to doing the same thing to 2 other women. In addition to this, he had also been charged with enticing a child on the Internet in September 2003.
He was then charged with a first-degree felony for the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl. Following a plea deal, it was changed to a third-degree felony charge.
Where is Melvin Rowland now?
After committing the horrific murder of McCluskey, Rowland fled the scene of the crime. He shot and killed himself on the 23rd of October 2018, at the Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church.
A man called Nathan Daniel Vogel, who was a co-worker of Rowland’s, pleaded guilty in June 2019 to lending him the illegally purchased gun he used to murder McCluskey. Vogel received a 3-year probation sentence for the crime. A woman called Sarah Emily Lady was charged with purchasing the gun for Vogel, and after the completion of a 1-year diversion program, her case was dismissed in September 2020.
In October of that same year, McCluskey’s parents settled a $ 13.5 million lawsuit they filed against the University of Utah.
In 2023, an episode of 20/20 called “Running Out Of Time” was released, which told the story of McCluskey’s horrific murder.
ESPN also released a documentary about McCluskey called Listen.
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