She was very manipulative, but our daughter noticed most of it. the situation. This man had borrowed his car and refused to return it to his bedroom on October 10. I called the police on the campus of the University of Utah to ask them to accompany her in the recovery of her car. I told the campus police: "I'm worried it's dangerous … It's a sex offender … I worry that someone is going to hurt her." He recovered his car with the help of a campus security escort.
Because the campus police were now alerted to our daughter's dangerous situation, my husband and I believed they would be watching over her safety. In contrast, the report of this incident was not entered into a records management system. No one followed or linked to their subsequent complaints. The man was free to roam the campus and even freely visit the building of Lauren's bedroom. My husband and I entered into a false sense of security
Lauren's friends tried to help. They informed the Housing and Residential Education (HRE) staff that the man was talking about taking a weapon to campus. As a convicted felon, he was not allowed to own a firearm, let alone take one to campus without a permit. However, her concerns were never resolved by the HRE staff and were never shared with the police
The convicted felon started to harass her, and Lauren reported harassment to the campus police on October 12 °. The police responded that there was not much they could do. They told him he should contact them if it intensified. He also met with a university counselor, on multiple occasions, about the problems with this man.
Then, the next day, he began extorting our daughter. Lauren reported the climb to campus police on October 13. She also reported that he had looked through his bedroom window and that it scared her. The police made a check and discovered that he had been convicted of forced sexual abuse
If they had made an effort to go further, they would have found that he was on probation with multiple violations of probation. An independent review stated: "No UUPS officer interviewed was familiar with the process to obtain custody information from online corrections." Campus police did not categorize the case as possible partner violence and gave it a low priority. The case was assigned to an inexperienced detective who lacked experience in identifying domestic violence. Defenders of the victims were not employed by campus police
On October 22, Lauren received a text message that supplanted the deputy head of the campus police. The text asked him to come to the police station. She called the police officer with whom she had been working three times, until he finally returned the call. The officer told Lauren that the text was false and that the text should not be answered. However, the officer did not document or denounce to anyone this crime of impersonating a police officer, and did not report on the alarming intention to remove our daughter from her bedroom.
It turns out that our daughter was not sure at all. She was murdered on October 22, 2018, when she was returning to her bedroom in an evening class (the same day she reported the false text that tried to attract her from her bedroom).
Lauren was having a very lively conversation with me and told me about the class projects and how I expected the spring semester. The last words I heard from my daughter, when her mobile phone fell to the pavement, were "No, no, no!" When he grabbed her, he dragged her to a car and shot her dead
Even the most charitable interpretation of these events leads to the conclusion that the university's security system was dangerously flawed , and several individuals failed tragically in Lauren. Our daughter diligently reported the facts to the police on numerous occasions, but no significant action was taken
If the death of our daughter could not have been prevented after contacting the campus police So many times, we have to ask: is anyone's daughter safe? She did everything possible to get help from an organization that claims to have a primary goal of protecting student safety. This organization failed him fatally.
What will it take to deal seriously and urgently with women's concerns when they complain of harassment, leaning out windows, extortion and posing as a police officer?
As young adults , students are learning to deal with life. It takes skill, sensitivity and attention to interact with their concerns and concerns. At any age, the police need to listen and protect women from violence. Many police departments are leaders in this area, but the University of Utah Police Department is, at a minimum, retarded and dangerously inadequate
Police departments are often dominated by mens. At the University of Utah, only three of the 31 full-time officers are women. Research shows that increases in the proportion of women officers are followed by decreases in homicides of intimate partners and non-fatal domestic violence. The recruitment and retention of highly qualified police officers, with a more balanced ratio of men to women, should be a national priority.
My husband and I mourn the loss of our beloved daughter, Lauren, a beautiful woman in all respects. We hope that the result of this tragedy is that the campuses, at the University of Utah and throughout the United States, respond with great urgency when women report on relationship violence
It is our desire Deeper that, in the future, all daughters will be safe when they are in college. Our beloved daughter, Lauren, was not, and we will deeply miss the rich and beautiful life she was going to live.
Jill McCluskey lives in Pullman, Washington, with her husband, Matt McCluskey.
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