320: Utah Student Abducted By Sugar Daddy to Be Held Captive in His Torture Chamber?! | Mackenzie Lueck

23-year-old college student Mackenzie Lueck texted her mom after landing safely in Salt Lake City — but she never made it home. Hours later, she vanished after meeting a man she’d been talking to online. When Mackenzie’s burned remains were discovered in a shallow grave, the truth about her killer sent shockwaves across the country. From a fake online persona to a secret t0rture room and a horrifying cover-up, this case is one of the most disturbing we’ve ever covered.🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks 🔎 Join The Club: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to EXTRA deep dive episodes every week on Apple!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164🚩Announcements🚩Want to Catch Annie LIVE on Tour? 🎤 🎟Grab your tickets now for a city near you: https://annieelise.com/pages/tour🌸 SPRING MERCH IS OFFICIALLY HERE! 🌸Shop now at https://annieelise.com/collections/shop-allDon't miss out before your faves sell out! 🛒🌷Follow Annie on Socials 📸 🩷Instagram: @ _annieelise, https://www.instagram.com/_annieelise/?hl=en💜TikTok: @_annieelise, https://www.tiktok.com/@_annieelise?lang=en🗞️ Substack: @annieelise, https://substack.com/@annieelise💙Facebook: @10tolife, https://www.facebook.com/10toLIFE⭐️Sponsors ⭐️Everyday Dose: Visit everydaydose.com/SERIALOUSLY for all the details. OPositiv: Head to OPositiv.com/AE or enter AE at checkout for 25% off your first purchase. Quince: Go to Quince.com/ae to get free shipping and 365-day returns on your next order. NBC's Deadly Engagement: Listen to Dateline’s new podcast: Deadly Engagement. Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ai/podcast/dateline-presents-deadly-engagement/id1781332339?i=1000727028791. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3bw9Yamga8pbPF0Bvv5d5J?si=af19518c546c4bf5Shop Annie’s Closet & Must-Haves! 👗Poshmark: https://posh.mk/Tdbki6Ae0RbShopMY: https://shopmy.us/annieeliseAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/10tolife?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_aipsfshop_BKN1ZMCMEZHACVFQ2R75&language=en_USDisclaimer ‣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me.🎙️ Follow the podcast for FREE on all podcast platforms! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6HdheEH8WeMTHoe5da34qUAll Other Platforms: https://audioboom.com/channels/5100770-serialously-with-annie-eliseGet Involved or Recommend the Case 💬 About Annie: https://annieelise.com/For Business Inquiries: [email protected] Sources 🔗ABC NewsABC4 UtahABC7 Los AngelesCNNDaily MailFox NewsKJZZKSL NewsKUTVRedditThe DecoderThe Salt Lake TribuneWikipedia*Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research. ••••••••••••••••••Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'd like to get, if possible, have a wellness check done on my daughter. I've been trying to get a hold of her all week. Last time I heard from her, she got off the plane.

• 1:33Speaker 04

  The police listed Mackenzie as a missing person. Mackenzie Lueck's family and friends trying to reach her on social media.

• 1:43Speaker 05

  We just immediately lost our breath. I think we were holding hands and I was in complete shock.

• 1:49Speaker 06

  Are you saying you don't know or you don't remember? Because those are two different things, AJ.

• 1:59Annie Elise?

  Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serial Sleep.

• 2:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'd like to get, if possible, have a wellness check done on my daughter. She flew in from California, uh, Sunday night. She got in about 1:00 and it was the last time I've heard from her and I've been trying to get ahold of her all week and her phone just tends to go to voicemail. I was just wondering if I could have somebody maybe go by her house and check on her?

• 2:43Speaker 08

  And when did you say you heard from her last?

• 2:46Speaker 03

  Last time I heard from her, she got ahold of her all week.

• 2:48Annie Elise?

  In the middle of the night in June of 2019, 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck hopped off a plane in Salt Lake City and texted her mom to let her know that she had landed safely. Mackenzie was returning to Utah after being in California for the past few days attending her grandmother's funeral. For the last several days, she had been with friends, family members, just really celebrating her grandmother's life with the people that she loved the most. But what Mackenzie did next took everyone who knew her by surprise because just hours after getting off of that plane, Mackenzie was on the move again. See, around 3:00 a.m. she was now stepping out of a Lyft rideshare car and stepping

• 3:29Annie Elise?

  into a pitch-black park in the middle of the night. She was doing that to meet with somebody that she had been talking to online. So this rideshare driver just watched as Mackenzie stepped out of the car and stepped into another vehicle that was waiting nearby. And that was the last time that anyone saw Mackenzie alive. Hey guys, I'm Annie Elise. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialously. We are gonna jump right in. Now, today's case is one of the more disturbing ones that I have covered lately and it's definitely not an easy one to forget. Not just because of the brutality of it all, but also because of just how fast an online connection can turn

• 4:09Annie Elise?

  into something straight ripped out of a nightmare. One minute, a college student is landing at the airport after a trip home for a family funeral, and then the next minute, she vanishes. Vanishes after meeting somebody who had been fantasizing about building a personal torture chamber. We have got a lot to unpack today, so I'm gonna jump right into the case of Mackenzie Lueck. In 2019, Mackenzie was attending the University of Utah. She was majoring in pre-nursing and kinesiology, which is the study of human movement. She had told her advisors that she was planning on going to nursing or medical school. And because she was a senior in college, she was gearing up to take that next big step into the real world. And it was something that she was really excited about. Now, as

• 4:54Annie Elise?

  for Mackenzie, she had these big brown eyes, this long blonde hair. And if you're watching this episode on YouTube, you'll see some of the photos of her on the screen. But she was smart, driven, and just genuinely caring. The kind of friend who always showed up, always checked in, and just made time for the people that she cared about. She was also very social and very outgoing. She had this big circle of friends. She was also in a sorority. She was always involved in campus life, community projects, just kind of immersed herself in the community, in the world, right? People genuinely liked being around her. Friends also described her as just being warm and funny, and the kind of person who went out of her way to make others feel included. For example, one time, she threw

• 5:38Annie Elise?

  this like, full-on birthday party for her cat, full-on with like, a cake that was made out of special food. She had champagne for all of her friends, and just wanted everybody to participate in celebrating her cat. Now, although she lived in Utah, Mackenzie was originally from El Segundo, California, which is a very small beach city near Los Angeles. It's right over by LAX. And it's also worth noting that Mackenzie was raised in a very close-knit Mormon family. Even though she had started to pull away a little bit from that religion after moving to college, her family ties were still very strong. And she was especially close with her parents and her siblings. However, there was one part of her life that she really didn't share with her family. See, Mackenzie had recently

• 6:21Annie Elise?

  started exploring something called "sugar dating." Now, if you're not familiar with that term, let me just kind of break it down for you. If you are into sugar dating, you either are a sugar daddy, or sugar person, and then a sugar baby. It basically means somebody is financially assisting you, taking care of you, in exchange for your companionship, maybe in exchange for just attention, whatever, physical affection. The list goes on and on, right? It's up to the two people who are in this arrangement. And Mackenzie had set up a profile on a site called Seeking Arrangements, which is a site primarily where younger women and older men connect in, just like I said, kind of this like mutually beneficial relationship. And I know there have also been some documentaries recently

• 7:05Annie Elise?

  about this site, and it doesn't really have the best reputation. I'll just be quite honest. But to be clear, not every interaction on there is transactional, or shady, or reliant on sex and things like that. There are all kinds of people on this platform. Still, it definitely is a place where people primarily go to look for a specific kind of situation or relationship. And Mackenzie had recently begun to explore it and see if it was right for her. And let me just touch on the fact that while primarily it can be for financial support, that's not how all of the relationships are set up. For some people, it can be about companionship, or even just somebody to talk to. Maybe somebody who's recently widowed and just wants another person to lean on, or someone to go to dinner with. There's

• 7:49Annie Elise?

  all sorts of people on there looking for all sorts of different things. Everybody has their own reasons, right? However, there definitely is a stigma around it. But it's really not as uncommon as people think, especially among college students who are dealing with tuition costs, not being able to work because they're in school full-time, all sorts of things. It's almost as though it can be an easy solve to a lot of their financial burdens. Now, take that how you want, whether morally that would sit right with you or not, but again, different strokes for different folks and different types of situationships on this site. Now, one of Mackenzie's sorority sisters had also said that at some point, Mackenzie also expressed interest in stripping. It's not said if she ever gave it a shot,

• 8:33Annie Elise?

  or even tested the waters with this, but I also want to make mention, before we go any further, that Mackenzie was not reckless. She was thoughtful, she was independent, but there were these things that she wanted to explore. And overall, Mackenzie was just clearly somebody who wanted to maintain control over her time, her choices, and I guess you could say, maybe even her financial situation. Now, some reports say that Mackenzie got the idea to do sugar dating from the podcast Call Her Daddy. That's a show, I'm sure many of you listeners have heard of it. Alex Cooper is the host. It's very focused on female empowerment, dating, sex, relationships, all sorts of things. And Mackenzie not only listened to this podcast, but she was also an active participant in a private Facebook group that

• 9:18Annie Elise?

  was tied to the podcast. In this group, sometimes the discussions would revolve around sugar dating, online dating, personal relationships. And she was such a fan of the podcast that she even had a Call Her Daddy sticker on the back of her car, just a true fan through and through. Now, in addition to seeking arrangements, Mackenzie was also on other dating apps. And she definitely wasn't shy about posting advice for other women online based on her experiences. For example, here's a comment that she left on Facebook at one point during all of her dating and posting, and I'm gonna read it exactly as it was written by her because it sounds like she was giving some advice to somebody who was interested in sugar dating as well.

• 9:59Annie Elise?

  So Mackenzie wrote, quote, "Try Tinder and be blunt about it. Mine says, quote, 'I want a sugar daddy, sugar baby relationship with a real connection. If they don't know what a sugar daddy, sugar baby is, tell them bluntly. But if they don't know, they aren't really worth your time. Set your age preferences from 35 and up. You'll have the most luck there. Private message me if you have any more questions. I have experience on seeking arrangements, online only, Tinder, and I currently have two," end quote. Which, to me, the "I currently have two" means she currently has two sugar daddies. Maybe it means two Tinder profiles? I don't really think so. I think it means like you could try all of these sites, "I currently have two," meaning

• 10:42Annie Elise?

  two sugar daddies, but then again, maybe it means "I have two sites." Who knows? But anyway, by the summer of 2019, Mackenzie's life definitely seemed to be on track. She was super close to graduation, which was supposed to happen in 2020, and really seemed to have her eye on the ball. However, unexpectedly, her grandmother passed away in mid-June, and family was everything to Mackenzie. So naturally, she flew back to California to be with all of her family, her loved ones, her close friends, and of course, go to the funeral. Now, this trip was obviously bittersweet. While it was great to be back with family and friends, it also was to grieve her grandmother, who she was extremely close with. And it was also a sudden interruption to her college routine.

• 11:25Annie Elise?

  She had been juggling midterms, sorority events, her part-time job at a biological testing lab, and it really just made her put her life on pause. But, family came first. Those who saw Mackenzie at the funeral said she definitely appeared sad, but also composed. She was still the kind of person who wanted to lighten the mood too and make sure that everybody else was doing okay, given how heavy of a situation it was. But even while she was at home and spending that important time with her family, there was something else on Mackenzie's mind that not everybody knew about. She secretly was looking forward to getting back to Utah a couple of days later, because she was planning to meet up with somebody that she had been talking to online for the past several months.

• 12:06Annie Elise?

  So on June 16th, 2019, Mackenzie hugged her family goodbye and she hopped on a plane to fly back to her life in Utah. She had a later flight out of LA, so by the time she landed in Salt Lake City, it was just after 1 a.m. And technically now, it was June 17th. So when she landed, she texted her mom. She said she made it back safely, she was gonna be heading home, and everything was fine. Then from the airport, Mackenzie ordered a Lyft to come pick her up, which Lyft is just like an Uber, it's a rideshare service. Now, it was around 2:40 a.m. when the driver pulled up to pick Mackenzie up. Now, I'm not sure why there was a 90-minute gap from when she landed to when the Lyft driver came and picked her up, but ultimately, she was picked up around 2:40 a.m. Now, there was nothing odd about her trip.

• 12:50Annie Elise?

  Not yet, anyway, not until she put in where she wanted to be taken. And instead of heading back to her off-campus apartment, which would be the most expected move at that time of night, Mackenzie asked to be dropped off at Hatch Park, which is in north Salt Lake City. Now, the Lyft driver later stated that it struck him as odd and a little strange for that time of night. Why would you want to go to this park in the middle of the night? But he said Mackenzie seemed totally normal, composed, just told him she was going there to meet a friend. In fact, she was the one who commented how it was odd that she was being dropped off there, kind of saying like, "Hey, I know this isn't like a normal place to be dropped off, but I'm meeting my friend." She's the one who brought it up. Now, here's another strange detail. Hatch Park had these little things up that looked exactly like security cameras, but

• 13:35Annie Elise?

  they were actually just dummy cameras. They weren't real. And I guess that they were used to discourage anyone from doing any sort of illegal things in the park, but they couldn't ever actually film anything. They were just props, just there for show. Which kind of makes you wonder and ask the question, right? Did the person who Mackenzie was meeting that night know that these cameras weren't real and didn't work? Was this park chosen specifically because it was dark and it was a quiet place without surveillance? Possibly. Now, let's talk about the person that she was on her way to meet there. It was a guy that she had been talking to for the last several months on Seeking Arrangements. His name was Ayula Anjayi.

• 14:16Annie Elise?

  And this is where the story really begins to take a turn for the worse. Ayula was born in Nigeria in 1988, and he came to the US on a student visa as a teenager. Eventually, he got a green card, which allowed him to live and work here. And on the surface, he seemed like the kind of guy who really did have his life together. He was well-dressed, wore these like thick, black glasses, had this very polished look sort of vibe about him in photos, and on paper, he also looked successful. Online, he listed that he worked in IT for various companies like Dell, Goldman Sachs, even that he had self-published a novel at one point. And his LinkedIn made it seem like he was thriving. It listed experience in tech, in writing, and even listed some time in the Army National Guard.

• 15:01Annie Elise?

  But then, if you dug just a little deeper, things started to fall apart. For starters, those military claims, they didn't hold up. Official records show that he was actually kicked out of the National Guard after just six months for not meeting medical standards. He also had a pretty big history at Utah State University. He just floated in and out of the computer science classes from 2009 all the way to 2016. And while he was there, he also got caught stealing. He stole like an iPad or something. So not exactly a life altering crime, but still a red flag nonetheless, right? And according to campus police, he used that stolen iPad to browse different dating sites. His search history even included phrases like, quote, "marry to avoid deportation."

• 15:46Annie Elise?

  And this is all despite the fact that he was actually married at the time. He was married to a woman named Tanisha Jenkins. They had met over in Dallas and they got married in 2011. So at that point, what, eight years being married to this woman? But by all accounts, this did not appear to be a very happy marriage and it seemed like it was toxic from the very start. At one point after breaking up, Tanisha said that he was just incredibly controlling and abusive, both emotionally and physically. Things ended up getting so bad that she did leave him. And by January 2019, the divorce was finalized. So divorced when he was on the online dating site and met Mackenzie, but was making searches about getting married to avoid deportation while he was already married.

• 16:30Annie Elise?

  Now around that same time, he did self-publish the book that I mentioned earlier. But before we give him any credit for that, let me just tell you what was actually inside of it. Because the book was called Forge Identity. And it was about a 15-year-old boy who witnesses some very horrific murders and then gets pulled into this like life of crime. The story gets into all of these deeper themes of violence, control, just very suspenseful, kind of a thriller too. And I'll say this, writing about crime and violence certainly doesn't mean anything. It's not indicative that you are going to lead a life down that path, not at all. But we have seen when it comes to self-publishing and when there are very graphic or psychological details,

• 17:13Annie Elise?

  that sometimes that can be indicative of a red flag, right? Now, Ayola also had a roommate named Sakari Moore. Sakari rented a room in his house in Salt Lake City. And the two of them actually went way back. They knew each other from training in the army. Sakari said that Ayola sometimes did have a temper, but he was also the kind of person who loved hosting dinners, hanging out with friends, and just being very warm and welcoming. However, ultimately, Ayula's temper just became too much for Sakiri to handle, and living there became uncomfortable due to the constant mood swings of Ayula, saying he could quickly just go from being his normal chill guy self to then just this seriously intense and downright scary person, someone he didn't even recognize. So Sakiri ends up moving out. He's just like, "I'm not even gonna deal with this. This is

• 17:58Annie Elise?

  way too much drama. Like, your temper tantrums? No, I'm out." And after he moved out, Ayula decided he wanted to make some renovations to the house. So he had a contractor come over and give him an estimate, talk about the project, and he wanted to show him everything that he wanted to have done. But when the contractor got to his home, he couldn't really believe what he was being asked to do. Ayula said that he wanted to build a secret, soundproof room under his front porch. And Ayula even got very specific about this secret room, saying he wanted it to have features like a fingerprint-activated lock, hooks installed high up on the walls,

• 18:38Annie Elise?

  which he claimed were for a wine rack, and some other very disturbing things.

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• 19:01Annie Elise?

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• 19:13Speaker 04

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• 19:19Speaker 01

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice-cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app. Participate at McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper, 7-Up Inc.

• 19:52Annie Elise?

  So Ayula's roommate moved out. He couldn't deal with the Jekyll and Hyde mood swings that were happening and just felt like it was too unpredictable, too toxic. And now Ayula is trying to renovate his house, build this secret room. And he told the contractor that the secret room was only going to be used to hide alcohol from his visiting Mormon girlfriend because he knew that she would be pissed off if she knew that he drank. However, the contractor found the whole thing really weird. Like, why do you need a soundproof room? Why do you need fingerprint access? What do you need these hooks on these high ceilings for? Something just doesn't sit right. And it made this contractor feel so uncomfortable that he ended up declining the job and saying like, "Look, I'm not gonna

• 20:33Annie Elise?

  do this." And that wasn't the only weird interaction that Ayula had with somebody that he was trying to hire during all of this. Because on a different occasion, he had asked a house cleaner to come over and to clean his home. But he also made a very, like, super creepy request, asking her to bring her 12-year-old daughter with her. And it's not clear if this woman did ever bring her daughter with her or not, but she did go herself. And she noticed that when she got there, there were a bunch of cameras set up around the inside of the house. So she was like, super spooked by the whole thing, left and never came back, which, great. I mean, thank God. How disturbing is all of that, period? But especially asking her to bring her 12-year-old daughter with her? Like, what kind of freak are you?

• 21:16Annie Elise?

  Now, earlier, I touched on the fact that his ex-wife said that he could be abusive, right? But it turns out, things were even more disturbing than that. In November of 2014, a woman who worked with Ayula at a financial company in Logan, Utah, had reported to the police that he had non-consensual sex with her at his home. She said that they had started off by, you know, doing stuff with one another, but when she wanted to stop, he didn't listen. He just continued anyway. She felt like it was her fault for not being assertive enough. But the officer, of course, assured her that by saying "no", that should have been enough. "No" is a complete sentence. So the woman ended up not wanting to press charges. She just wanted the incident to be documented in case he did the same

• 22:00Annie Elise?

  thing to somebody else down the road. So because of that, the case really didn't go any further than that. He was actually never even interviewed by the police. Which I know that was a lot to go through, but trust me, to really understand this case, we needed to cover everything in his background, just so that you have a full visual of who this guy is. Especially because remember, Mackenzie agreed to meet up with him in the middle of the night, in this pitch black park with no cameras. And she likely had no clue what kind of history he had. So that's what makes this whole thing feel even scarier, right? Because he had spent years crafting his image, just carefully crafting and curating this image of success and stability, even though in reality,

• 22:44Annie Elise?

  he was hiding a much darker and much more disturbing side of himself. So let's get back to the night, or early morning, I should say, that Mackenzie was meeting up with him, June 17th, 2019. Like I said before, Mackenzie took a Lyft to Hatch Park. And when she got out of the car, she walked directly over to a car that was parked right nearby. And that's when she got inside of the vehicle. Mackenzie's phone last pinged in Hatch Park just before 3 a.m. But after that, her phone was suddenly off, and there were no more records or interactions with her cellphone available. However, Ayula's phone pinged just eight minutes later at 3:07 a.m. at his house. So it looked like maybe he and Mackenzie had planned to hang out over at his place,

• 23:25Annie Elise?

  that he would meet her in the park, pick her up, and then drive her over to his place. Which begs the question, if she was gonna go over there and that was the plan all along, why would they need to meet in this pitch black park in the middle of the night? Why not just have her Lyft take her directly to his house, right? Doesn't really make sense. I mean, he also could have picked her up from the airport to where she wouldn't even need a Lyft. My guess is there was some sort of excuse along the way to where there wouldn't be any sort of digital or paper trail linking them together, right? If he had picked her up from the airport, certainly cameras probably would have shown that. If she had the Lyft drop her off at his house, certainly her Lyft history would show where her destination was. So I don't know what that excuse was, we'll get into more of that.

• 24:10Annie Elise?

  But I would imagine, once more, like his image, this was just very carefully crafted. So the following morning, Mackenzie was nowhere to be found. In fact, a couple of days even passed and no one had heard from her. Her parents, Greg and Diana, knew that something was off because this kind of behavior, it wasn't like Mackenzie at all. She was super diligent about checking in with them all the time. So on June 20th, 2019, after 48 hours of just complete radio silence, her father called the Salt Lake City Police Department and he reported his daughter as missing.

• 24:45Speaker 03

  If it's possible, have a wellness check done on my daughter. She phoned from California, uh, Sunday night. She got in about 1:00 and it was the last time I've heard from her and I've been trying to get ahold of her all week. And her phone just tends to go to voicemail. I was just wondering if I could have somebody maybe go by her house and check on her.

• 25:05Speaker 08

  Okay, what is the address? And is that a house or an apartment?

• 25:09Speaker 03

  It should be, it's, it's kind of like a house, but it's, she's on the bottom floor. So it would be, her door is on 600. Um, and it's kind of like a driveway right there on the corner. She's right on the corner.

• 25:22Speaker 08

  Is there a unit number?

• 25:23Speaker 03

  There's a door. There isn't a unit number. It's the first door on the 600 side. There's the entry door down there. So there's, uh, there's three rooms in there and she rents one of the rooms. My name is Greg Lueck.

• 25:37Speaker 08

  Can you spell the last name for me?

• 25:39Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm. L-U-E-C-K.

• 25:45Speaker 08

  Okay, and what is your daughter's name?

• 25:48Speaker 03

  Mackenzie. She has a roommate, she has two roommates.

• 25:50Speaker 08

  When did you say you heard from her last?

• 25:53Speaker 03

  Last time we heard from her, she got off the plane coming back from LA, it was 1:00 AM. She was gonna grab an Uber and go home, but that's the last I heard from her.

• 26:01Speaker 08

  So 1:00 AM this morning?

• 26:03Speaker 03

  No, 1:00 AM Monday morning.

• 26:07Speaker 03

  So we've been trying to get ahold of her all week and she hasn't, usually it's unlike her to return a call, not return her calls, but it goes straight to voicemail. So I don't know if she's lost her phone, she's unable to communicate, but she should have a laptop or something, so... Just a little concerned, that's all.

• 26:22Speaker 08

  As far as anything with her situation goes, has there been any mention of any weapons being involved?

• 26:29Speaker 03

  No.

• 26:29Speaker 08

  Okay.

• 26:30Speaker 03

  Not the... Yeah, no, she doesn't have any weapons at her house.

• 26:33Speaker 08

  And anything else that would help her stand out? Tattoos, piercings, anything like that?

• 26:37Speaker 03

  Yes, she has a tattoo on her back. It's a star. Like I said, it's unusual not to hear for so many days.

• 26:45Speaker 08

  Right, okay. All right, I've got this in. We will get officers out as soon as possible. And then what I'll do is I'll have them give you a call.

• 26:51Annie Elise?

  Now, at first, and we've seen this many times in many cases, the police department wanted to treat Mackenzie as a voluntary missing adult, which thankfully, her family pushed them to do more. Plus, there were a lot of red flags that were piling up fast. So luckily, it actually was taken seriously pretty quickly from the get-go. Now, not only had Mackenzie gone completely radio silent, but it turned out that after June 17th, there was also zero activity on Mackenzie's bank accounts, not even on her Venmo. She also missed a scheduled midterm exam. So this set people off right away. There were way too many red flags that were stacking up to make this not something more, you know, serious or foul play possibly involved.

• 27:35Annie Elise?

  So the investigators pulled the airport surveillance footage. And sure enough, in that footage, they saw her leaving the airport and getting into that lift. So then they started combing through all of the lift records. And that was actually the big red flag that the police zeroed in on pretty quickly. The red flag being that Mackenzie hadn't gone home after she landed at the airport that day. Instead, she took the lift to Hatch Park, which was nowhere near her apartment. Not to mention, it was the middle of the night. So meanwhile, as the police are starting their investigation, Mackenzie's dad started doing some digging of his own, going through her bank accounts, looking at past transactions, just hoping to find any clue to help figure out where she was.

• 28:18Annie Elise?

  And Mackenzie actually shared a bank account with her parents, so he had easy access to pulling everything up. And sure enough, as he was doing some digging, he noticed that there was a kind of odd transaction on June 10th. And this was flagged to Mackenzie's account. This would have been about a week before she went missing. And it was a deposit for $300. Which yeah, sure, Mackenzie did have a job, but something about this deposit just did not sit right with her dad. Lately, she hadn't needed to ask for help with rent or tuition, which was very out of the ordinary. He also noticed that she had recently bought new furniture. So now, also seeing this extra money just pop and plug into her account, it was definitely suspicious to him.

• 29:02Annie Elise?

  But still, it didn't give any concrete answers. Mackenzie's sorority sisters, family, and community members all started looking for her, just truly hoping for the best. They plastered Salt Lake City with all sorts of missing persons posters, and they did everything that they could possibly do to get her name and image out there, thinking, you know, maybe someone would see her face, and they would be able to call in a tip or offer some kind of lead that would help locate her. But there weren't a ton of tips rolling in at first. However, one lead that actually helped crack things open came from a guy named Rob Joseph. Rob was a private investigator and also a former cop, and he happened to recognize Mackenzie's face when her disappearance hit the news.

• 29:44Annie Elise?

  It turns out, he had met her at a bar just a few weeks earlier. Apparently, they had chatted for a little bit, and during their conversation, she mentioned to him that she was using Seeking Arrangements. So after hearing that she was missing, Rob was like, "Wait, I recognize that girl. I talked to her." So he did a little digging of his own, and he ended up finding her profile on the website. So he took a screenshot of it and passed it directly along to the police. He was never treated as a suspect or anything sketchy. He truly was just trying to help. And that small tip ended up being a pretty big deal because it opened up a whole bunch of conversations that Mackenzie had been having on the site, which that then led the investigators to start digging into her phone records. And when they did, they noticed that on the day that she vanished,

• 30:29Annie Elise?

  she exchanged messages with a burner number, one that wasn't tied to anyone by name. However, it was connected to a Wi-Fi router. And that Wi-Fi router was registered to the home of none other than Ayula. Now, take a listen to Rob's initial theory on why Mackenzie may have met Ayula at the park in the first place.

• 30:52Speaker 10

  The guy that owns the house, the guy that's the person of interest. Lived across the street from that park in 2016 and was evicted from that residence. And that's public record. If he was premeditated in his interest to do this, he would have picked that park, had her meet him there, and then he would have drove to his house with her. So that way, there was no way to trace him from the drop-off point at the park to his home.

• 31:16Annie Elise?

  So the cops had decided that they were going to set up a geofence around Hatch Park for around the hours that Mackenzie was there and then vanished. And my understanding of a geofence is that it's kind of like, almost like a reverse warrant, where you basically are setting up the perimeter of an area, and you can see phone pings, activity, things like that. So this allowed them to see what devices entered the area, and if anything was weird about it. And sure enough, the geofence not only picked up Mackenzie's phone, but it also picked up the Lyft driver's phone and four other devices. And one of those devices stood out. It pinged multiple times, including at the exact time and location of Mackenzie's last-known signal. And that device was also registered to none other than Ayula.

• 32:01Annie Elise?

  So that was enough for the investigators to request a search warrant for his home. But before they showed up at his house, the police decided that they wanted to make contact with Ayula. And on June 25th, Ayula willingly went to the police station and spoke with them, claiming he had absolutely no clue what was going on. He was just there to clear his name. He just wanted to be helpful.

• 32:23Speaker 11

  You're not under arrest. You're not being detained. You can leave anytime you want to, okay? It just doesn't make sense. I just want to, I want to get to the root of it too. Sure, yeah. Because when you said my IP is showing, that means something is wrong.

• 32:34Annie Elise?

  Now, after that initial conversation with Ayula, the police apparently were not feeling great about it. Because they decided to execute a search warrant on his house the very next day, specifically June 26th. Now, when the police went to Ayula's house, he totally played it cool. Said, you know, "No, I rent out rooms on Airbnb, so the burner number that's registered here, it could have belonged to any guest. People were in and out of here all the time, trying to make excuses for the burner phone, for the Wi-Fi router, for everything, being like, it's not me. It could have belonged to anybody." He also said he had an alibi as well, and that he could prove it. So the police were like, "Okay, great. Prove it." And sure enough, he pulled up some home security footage from his Ring camera system.

• 33:16Annie Elise?

  And he showed the cops a video of himself and a different woman at his house. He also claimed that he had last communicated with Mackenzie via text message on June 16th. He denied ever meeting her in person. But obviously, the police weren't really buying it because investigators had already dug into Mackenzie's seeking arrangement profile. They had discovered messages that had been exchanged between her and Ayula dating all the way back to 2018. So now they were like, this doesn't make any sense. We don't believe what you're saying. And that is when things really started to unravel. Because now, as they were pushing him, his demeanor was changing. And it was changing fast. Suddenly, he seemed a lot more concerned about what was happening.

• 34:00Annie Elise?

  And take a listen to Ayula's reaction when the officers took his phone.

• 34:04Speaker 12

  But he questioned why they confiscated his phone as evidence. They then proceeded to search the house.

• 34:15Speaker 13

  Hello? Salt Lake Police, can you come out, please?

• 34:20Speaker 12

  The police told AJ he was free to leave.

• 34:23Speaker 13

  You're free to leave, right? I'm not taking you, you can leave whatever you want.

• 34:27Speaker 12

  You want to check in before I leave? No, I just don't want you guys to use anything when I'm gone. Because I gave them my phone and they used that against me before. So I just want to make sure that you guys approve everything before I do it.

• 34:42Speaker 13

  You're free to leave when you want. Any idea where you want to go?

• 34:47Speaker 12

  Just, I don't even know, I don't have my phone on my car, so I have no destination.

• 34:53Speaker 13

  Okay. Again, and I don't have a timeframe, right? Like, I don't know.

• 34:59Speaker 14

  Could be 10 minutes, could be a little bit longer.

• 35:01Speaker 13

  Yeah, so.

• 35:02Speaker 14

  I would assume you'd want to be here.

• 35:04Speaker 13

  Yeah, so I mean, you don't have, you're sitting right there. I have no problem with you sitting in the shade on the porch if you want to. That, that looks miserable.

• 35:11Speaker 12

  Yeah, if you guys have my phone without my permission, and if you guys, they give it to you guys where you are here, and I can see what you guys are doing with it, that makes more sense. But it took it with them. I don't know what.

• 35:22Speaker 13

  And I don't either.

• 35:23Speaker 12

  So that, I just think that has no fear.

• 35:26Annie Elise?

  Now, since the cops told him that he was free to go for the time being while they were continuing to search his home, Ayula left and said he was gonna go to the library. However, they secretly followed him, followed him undercover just to see what he was doing, where would he go. And big shocker, or not so big shocker, he didn't end up going to the library.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper, 7-Up Inc.

• 36:24Annie Elise?

  When Ayula left his house that day, while the cops were still there searching the property, he didn't go to the library as he said he was going to. Instead, he went to a grocery store. Which, I know, that's not the most crazy twist in this case. Okay, so what, he went to a grocery store, Annie, big deal. But he wasn't there to buy groceries. And the undercover officers actually saw him go into this grocery store and buy another burner phone. Then, they got ahold of his Google searches. And like we always say, the Google searches, they will get you every time. Because it turns out, he had been searching things such as... How to clean blood from a carpet? And what does a decomposing body smell like? Now, when the authorities talked to some of Ayula's neighbors,

• 37:07Annie Elise?

  a few of them reported seeing Ayula burning something in his backyard, saying he had been burning something in the fire pit in the back of his house on June 17th and 18th, the same days that Mackenzie was missing. One of the neighbors even said that whatever he was burning smelled so bad that they nearly called the fire department. The neighbor went on to say that they told him he needed to stop because of the local pollution restrictions, but that Ayula apparently told them that he was just burning goats, which apparently, I don't know, that was something that was pretty regular for him. I've never heard of anybody burning a goat, the animal, but maybe I'm just sheltered, I don't know. I get everybody has different beliefs, different diets, but burning goats in your backyard with your neighbors nearby? Maybe not the most neighborly thing to do?

• 37:52Annie Elise?

  Just my opinion, take it for what it's worth. But regardless, what he was doing and what goats he may or may not have been burning, now the police heard firsthand from the neighbors that he had a fire pit in his backyard and that he was burning something super smelly. So authorities brought in canine units and cadaver dogs to search the property thoroughly. And when the dogs got into the backyard, they immediately picked up the scent of human remains. And sure enough, that scent was right near the fire pit. So they started digging through everything in the pit. And the investigators ended up uncovering charred fragments of clothing, a toothbrush, and most horrifying of all, pieces of human tissue.

• 38:34Annie Elise?

  The smoking gun was a piece of scalp with blonde hair still attached, hair that matched Mackenzie's. And the human tissue would later be matched to Mackenzie as well. It matched her DNA through dental records. Other evidence was found at the house, too. Several knives, a gun, some dirt, even debris in Ayula's car that seemed like he had been somewhere rugged. Investigators also learned that Ayula had recently given away a mattress on the app Let Go. That's basically an app that is used by people who have items that they want to sell or get rid of, kind of like Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp, and you can post like for free, for five bucks, whatever you want to post. So anyway, cops now believed that the mattress that he gave away

• 39:18Annie Elise?

  likely had evidence on it and that that's why he wanted to get rid of it. Even more so that it might have had some of Mackenzie's DNA on it. And by the way, remember how I said earlier that Ayula would rent his place out on Airbnb from time to time and that's why he said, you know, the burner phone could have belonged to anybody. People are in and out of here all the time. Well, when the cops came over that day to search his house and yard, there was actually an Airbnb guest staying there at his house.

• 39:45Speaker 15

  They found another occupant of the house, a guest who was staying in AJ's spare bedroom through an Airbnb booking.

• 39:52Speaker 14

  Hi, it's the police department. Um, are you renting this room?

• 39:56Speaker 16

  Yes.

• 39:56Speaker 14

  Okay. Um, we are gonna be serving a warrant on this house. So we need... Is there anyone else here?

• 40:04Speaker 16

  Just me.

• 40:05Speaker 14

  If you want to just grab your wallet?

• 40:06Speaker 16

  I got my wallet.

• 40:07Speaker 14

  Okay, we'll need you to come out then.

• 40:09Speaker 16

  Okay.

• 40:10Speaker 15

  He'd only arrived from the airport that morning and had no idea why the police were suddenly conducting a search on his host's house. Other than this guest, there was no one in the house. And there was no sign of Mackenzie.

• 40:24Speaker 14

  House cleared, just the one Airbnb guy in the whole place.

• 40:29Annie Elise?

  Can you imagine that just for a moment? Imagine you're traveling and you're staying at an Airbnb. I've stayed at a ton of Airbnbs in my life. I don't know if you have. But imagine you're staying there and all of a sudden, police start banging on the door, they're executing a search warrant, they're searching the yard, and they bring in cadaver dogs and get a hit on human remains. I mean, how terrifying would that be? First and foremost, I hope that person got a refund. But also, if it were me, I'd probably never go on Airbnb again. Never again. Honestly, the evidence was just overwhelming. And investigators knew that they had more than enough to make a case. And they actually detained Ayula that same day. And during his first interrogation, they started shifting the conversation towards

• 41:12Annie Elise?

  some very explicit messages that they had found on his phone. Very graphic in detail, very just explicit conversations.

• 41:21Speaker 14

  Earlier, you said we could have to take your phone and download it. Are you still willing to do that or no?

• 41:27Speaker 16

  I just need to call my lawyer and she's, okay? Because I want to help as much as I can.

• 41:33Speaker 14

  Sure.

• 41:34Speaker 16

  But she's saying that some police just want to pin it on someone that... They can pin it on me. But I actually, I have the hard drive in my car. I downloaded the whole hard drive. I have the whole security camera. I even downloaded my own, the whole text and all my text messages from my phone provider. I was, I brought everything with me. On my way here, she was like, "You are going to shoot your seventy-four."

• 42:00Annie Elise?

  According to Ayula, Mackenzie apparently rejected him and sort of just stopped talking to him initially after he sent a picture. He went on to describe how he wasn't outdoing anything the night that Mackenzie was killed. According to him, he was asleep. He also told the cops that he had a girlfriend by the name of Michelle and that his girlfriend, Michelle, was eight months pregnant. But as he was telling them all this, he apparently didn't even know her last name. So eventually, the cops got tired of this like, "I don't know what happened" kind of story that he was clearly trying to push. And they pressed him a little harder on how Mackenzie's phone could have possibly pinged in the same place that he was that night in the park.

• 42:36Speaker 06

  You forget one point. You're talking about your information that you can hide and that you can delete as much as you think you can. Because I, I believe you are very skilled in IT and technology.

• 42:48Speaker 16

  No, I'm not.

• 42:49Speaker 06

  But there's the one thing that you forget. You forget that there's another person that didn't delete their stuff, didn't delete their conversations. And that's why I can tell you that I know that there was conversations going past the screenshot that you showed me. You don't have access to her stuff.

• 43:10Speaker 16

  After I did the last one that I sent to you?

• 43:12Speaker 06

  AJ, I just told you that your phone records and the location put you up at the meet. Do you think honestly and expect me to believe that you ended that conversation and somehow you and her and her location end up in the exact same spot?

• 43:33Speaker 16

  Oh, I'm not doubting you. If I see that too, if I'm in your case, I would be asking myself, "What are you asking me right now?"

• 43:40Speaker 06

  It's not a miraculous question.

• 43:42Speaker 16

  Yeah, I, I agree with you.

• 43:44Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 43:44Speaker 16

  Stuff doesn't just happen.

• 43:45Speaker 06

  No!

• 43:46Speaker 16

  Yes, I agree with you.

• 43:48Speaker 06

  I'm telling you to explain that. And so far, you have not. How do I explain something I don't know?

• 43:55Annie Elise?

  Now, I gotta just say, he obviously thought that he was incredibly smart. But he didn't realize that if another person's phone is involved, he has no control over what is in that data, what can be recovered, what's found. He can't wipe it. So clearly, he's either stupid or sloppy, or both. And sure enough, later, he was officially arrested and charged with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a body, and obstruction of justice. And Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown announced the charges in a press conference. Now, at the time, Iula was still claiming that he was innocent. But here's the twist: Once his face hit the local news,

• 44:36Annie Elise?

  someone recognized him, and this person decided it was time to come forward to the police. And sure enough, it was that contractor that he had tried to hire to build that secret torture room on his property. The contractor called the police and told them all about that disturbing visit, and it just gave the authorities even more evidence to build their case. But even though Iula had been arrested, and some of the body parts of Mackenzie and also her DNA had been found, most of her body was still missing. So they continued to question him, continued to press him, just hoping that he would talk. And days after his arrest, the full scope of what he had done finally came out. On July 3rd, 2019, search teams could be seen combing through an area of Utah called Logan Canyon.

• 45:22Annie Elise?

  It's a beautiful but very rugged and remote spot about 85 miles north of Salt Lake City. And it was there that the investigators made a truly heartbreaking discovery. Sure enough, in a shallow grave just off of a main road, they found the burned remains of Mackenzie. And when her body was found, her arms were tied behind her back with zip ties. Now, the investigators were finally able to locate Mackenzie's burial site because Iula had come forward with a partial confession. On July 2nd, he had admitted the truth to his attorneys, who then worked with the prosecutors to help the authorities recover the body, just striking a deal, right? Like, all right, if you reduce the sentence, or... Pull these charges off, we'll tell you where her body is.

• 46:05Annie Elise?

  The grave where Mackenzie was found was barely 18 inches deep. And her body was so badly burned that dental records were the only way to officially confirm that it was her. Forensic experts later determined that Ayula had probably poured gasoline all over her body and then set her on fire behind his house. Then moved her remains to that very shallow grave in Logan Canyon. In the canyon, cops also found some of Mackenzie's belongings. They found her melted clothing, some of her jewelry that she had been wearing the night that she was killed. They even found her iPhone. But honestly, even before his confession, police had already started putting all of the pieces together, thanks to those cellphone records that I mentioned earlier.

• 46:47Annie Elise?

  They knew that he had traveled to Logan Canyon on June 25th, shortly after the police first questioned him. Their theory was that after burning Mackenzie's body in his backyard, he probably panicked and then tried to hide the evidence deeper in the wilderness, you know, where nobody would ever find it. After her body was recovered, Mackenzie's body was sent for an autopsy, which then that revealed the absolute devastating extent of the violence that she was put through. The Utah State Medical Examiner's Office determined that Mackenzie died from blunt force trauma to the left side of her skull. The blunt force trauma led to a massive brain bleed. The autopsy also pointed out that there was a five-centimeter hole in her skull. Also, that part of her left scalp was missing, which that was consistent with that piece

• 47:32Annie Elise?

  of scalp that was found in Ayula's fire pit. So all of this, not only does it show the brutality of it and just the graphic nature of it, but it begs the question, what actually went down that night? Sure enough, before leaving to meet Mackenzie that night, he had turned off his home security cameras, a move that prosecutors later described as a deliberate attempt to erase any digital trace of her visit. He was covering his tracks before anything had even happened, proving that this was definitely premeditated. And what he did to Mackenzie after that, it was unspeakably gruesome.

• 48:14Speaker 01

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper 7-Up Inc.

• 48:46Annie Elise?

  After picking Mackenzie up from Hatch Park, the two of them went back to his house as planned. But once they were inside, things took a very dark and terrifying turn. Ayula tied Mackenzie's hands behind her back with those zip ties, and he began choking her with his bare hands. Allegedly, she tried telling him to stop, but he didn't. Instead, Ayula forced Mackenzie onto her stomach, and he used a belt to strangle her until she stopped moving. That was it. That was how quickly this all unfolded. Now, the act itself was brutal, but what's even more disturbing is just how deliberate it was. There was no hesitation, no panic, just cold, calculated murder.

• 49:28Annie Elise?

  A young life just taken out in a matter of seconds. And after he killed her, he already had a full cover story in the works. When the police came knocking, he tried showing them that alibi video, which I mentioned earlier. You know, footage from his Ring doorbell showing him supposedly with another woman at his home that same night that Mackenzie went missing. But as it turns out, that whole thing was staged. Investigators determined that the video wasn't even from the time that he claimed it was. It was just another manipulative move that he had planned in advance so that he could throw the investigators off his trail. So it seems as though he carefully planned things. Not only what his alibi would be, but removing the surveillance cameras before he even left to pick Mackenzie up from the park that night,

• 50:12Annie Elise?

  which in my opinion, absolutely illustrates premeditation.

• 50:17Annie Elise?

  He seems like he was very thoughtful, very strategic, or at least to himself. But we still don't know the why, or we don't know the why yet, I should say. What was he thinking? And what was going on inside that sick and twisted brain of his? Well, after news broke that Mackenzie's body had been found, the people who loved her were, of course, extremely devastated, just distraught. While they had held on to hope, the reality was heartbreaking. And now they were left to grieve a loss that felt just impossible to process. Yet still, her friends knew that they wanted to honor her, they had to honor her. So a vigil was held at the University of Utah, where Mackenzie's friends, classmates, and her sorority sisters all came together to mourn and remember her,

• 51:01Annie Elise?

  to just support one another, showing up for her in the most meaningful way that they could. Mackenzie's friend Kennedy spoke out about her too, saying that Ayula, quote, "took my best friend away from me, her family, her sisters." She also said something that I'm sure everybody else was thinking, quote, "It breaks my heart knowing she died alone in such a scary place." Ashley Fine, another close friend, said that Mackenzie had this gift, that she always made people feel loved and always knew what to say, adding, quote, "Everyone that knew Mackenzie loved her, and she is so greatly missed." Now, one thing that Mackenzie's friends made clear at the vigil was this. Although Ayula had taken her from them in the cruelest way possible, he was not going to take their strength or their voices.

• 51:46Annie Elise?

  They were determined to keep saying her name. Her friend Ashley shared that they hoped to start a foundation in Mackenzie's honor, using her story to advocate for others and fight for those who might one day find themselves in a similar situation. So then, fast forward to October of 2020. And Ayula finally found himself in front of a judge, and there he pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and desecration of a human body. He also officially admitted that he strangled Mackenzie, that he burned her body, and that he later buried her remains. He ended up accepting a plea deal in exchange for not having to go through a lengthy trial. And I think also, he had to tell them, of course, where her remains were.

• 52:27Annie Elise?

  And honestly, that's something that benefits Mackenzie's family as well because now they have where her remains were. They can have her as a whole and grieve her and lay her to rest. And also, it spares them of having to go through a lengthy trial and hear all the grotesque, disgusting sort of details. It also helped ensure that nothing would drag out and they would get the justice that they deserved. But as part of this plea deal, Ayula was going to also avoid the death penalty.

• 53:03Speaker 01

  Time for a quick break to talk about McDonald's. It's the tangiest time of the year. For a limited time, head to McDonald's and get a McRib sandwich. Make it a meal by adding a medium fries and a soft drink like an ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper. So grab a McRib sandwich and embrace the tang. Save time by ordering ahead on the app. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. Dr. Pepper is a registered trademark of Dr. Pepper, 7-Up Inc.

• 53:35Annie Elise?

  So on October 23rd, 2020, Ayula was officially sentenced for the murder of Mackenzie. Now, because this was all going down during the pandemic, there were still courtroom precautions in place and in-person attendance was limited. So because of that, only, quote, "essential parties" were allowed to attend. The whole thing was actually livestreamed for the public to watch, though, since it really was a high-profile case at the time. And there, he stood right before the judge, just very emotionless as his sentence was read. Life in prison without the possibility of parole. On top of that, he also got additional time, up to five years for the abuse of the desecration of a human body, and then another one to 15 years for

• 54:16Annie Elise?

  forcible sexual assault relating to a different case where a woman actually came forward and said that he had sexually assaulted her years earlier. The judge made sure that these sentences would run consecutively, guaranteeing that he would never walk free again. Now during this hearing, Mackenzie's mom addressed Iola directly. And when it was finally Iola's turn to speak, he just stood and gave a very short, very flat apology, saying, "I'm sorry for what I did. I know this won't bring her back." And it was 30 seconds of just monotone words that I'm sure felt hollow to everyone in the room. And then the judge actually responded by highlighting the severity of his crimes, saying

• 54:57Annie Elise?

  that his actions went beyond just wrongdoing, basically kind of calling complete bullshit on his apology. So he's currently serving his sentence at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, which is about 20 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. However, what I can't seem to wrap my head around is that he had absolutely no rational motive, like none. No money to gain, no revenge plot. He didn't even know Mackenzie in person beyond that meeting. It was strictly a crime of passion. It also wasn't spur-of-the-moment rage. It was literally murder for the sake of murder, apparently just wanting to know what killing somebody felt like. And that's what makes this so terrifying, because how do you wrap your brain around

• 55:39Annie Elise?

  somebody doing something so brutal just to see how it makes them feel? And remember, he wanted that whole torture chamber built at his house as well. So had he not gotten caught for Mackenzie's murder, and had that contractor built this torture den, would he have been a serial killer? Would he have lured a ton of women online into this chamber and kept them alive for days on end, sexually assaulting them, torturing them, and then ultimately killing them? It seems as though because he was caught for Mackenzie's murder, that his crime spree was cut short. That's my opinion. We also know he did sexually assault a woman in the past. So I would imagine that that was partially his motive, was sexual in nature.

• 56:21Annie Elise?

  But I just can't help but think, like, the possibilities of what else he could have done had he not been caught, right? He was also super methodical in this whole thing. He disabled his own security cameras. He had Mackenzie meet him somewhere that didn't have cameras, the middle of the night, pitch black. He bound her, he burned her in his own backyard. And I just keep thinking, if he was on Seeking Arrangements and other apps, I bet that he was talking to a bunch of other people too, or at least trying to. And I can't imagine what they might have felt after they saw his face everywhere and learned what he did. Were any of them scheduled to meet up with him at any point? Oh, and just one more thing before we move on and never talk about this piece of filth,

• 57:02Annie Elise?

  dirtbag freak ever again, because honestly, he doesn't deserve another word spoken about him. I did read that he has a profile on meetaninmate.com. This guy is actively still trying to make friends and talk to people. He's also written a pretty bizarre bio, and it ends with this. "If you are interested in knowing more about me and my world now, or about the world I lived in before my arrest, I would like to hear from you. I promise to open all letters and respond to you even though my past is in my rearview." Which, I'm sorry, who the hell do you think you are? Who wants to like, ask questions about your past, you freak? He thinks he's like some kind of celebrity or something. I don't get it. He doesn't even matter. The person who matters is Mackenzie. She was smart, she cared about her future.

• 57:47Annie Elise?

  She usually, and I don't wanna, I wanna be careful with what I say, she wasn't reckless, and I'm not saying she was reckless this night, but there may have been, hopefully this serves as a precautionary tale for anybody who's doing middle-of-the-night meetups. But she also did her homework on sugar dating. She was cautious, she knew the risks, and she still tried to protect herself. She was doing what a lot of women do, trying to take control of her life, trying to survive in college, trying to carve out some freedom in a system that makes everything from tuition to housing to job prospects just way harder than it should be. And I've also gotta say, while I was researching this case, I came across a lot of comments victim blaming Mackenzie. Saying, you know, "Well, she shouldn't have been on Seeking Arrangements. She shouldn't have met up with him in the middle of the night.

• 58:32Annie Elise?

  She put herself in danger." All of these things, which, let's just be clear, okay? Nobody deserves what happened to her. Somebody meeting somebody off an app is not an invitation to be murdered or to be sexually assaulted, not that it was shown that she was, but you get what I mean? Being a sugar baby, isn't it some sort of like moral fail? Plenty of people are sugar babies and sugar daddies and tho- those kinds of situationships work for them. My point is, safety isn't something that people should have to earn. It's something that everybody deserves from the get-go. Now, as for Mackenzie's family, her sorority sisters, and the many friends who loved her, they're now left to live with the weight of what she went through every single day. It's something that they

• 59:15Annie Elise?

  will never fully get over or forget. Truly, it is just like an image that is embedded in your mind. However, I do hope that they can find some sort of peace, knowing that her killer is behind bars for good. Thank you guys so much for listening to Mackenzie's story today. The reason we share these cases, although very heavy and difficult to hear, is to not only generate awareness about the dangers of online dating, of predators, of what people can be, because maybe now, if you've heard this, you'll think twice before meeting somebody in the middle of the night, or you'll think twice before going on seeking arrangements and meeting up with a random person in person. I mean, it's to do that, but it's also to make sure that Mackenzie's voice and her legacy carries on. So, I would appreciate it if you would

• 59:58Annie Elise?

  share a link to this episode, whether it's on your social media pages, in your group chat, wherever it is, because I think the more people, especially young women, and, you know, millennial women, young women, women who are dating, the more people who know about the dangers of these kinds of situations, the more armed they are with knowledge and can possibly protect themselves from becoming a future victim. So, thank you for hearing Mackenzie's story, for allowing her voice to continue, and I'm just thankful that this freak, creep, douche canoe, little twerp is behind bars for the rest of his sick, deranged life. So, adios, Ayula. Nobody's gonna miss you. Alright, thanks again for tuning into another episode of Serialously. I will be back with you on Thursday with headline highlights, where we are breaking down everything happening

• 1:00:43Annie Elise?

  this week in true crime. Alright, guys, thanks again, and until the next one. Be nice, don't kill people, don't do any middle-of-the-night meetups in dark parks, maybe don't go on seeking arrangements, and don't go out with anyone named Ayula. Sorry, I know that's general, I know that's general, but just, you know, err on the side of caution. Alright, bye.

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