Salt Lake City police made more pleas Tuesday for help in finding missing University of Utah student MacKenzie Lueck.
Assistant Police Chief Tim Doubt asked the person Lueck met early June 17 in a North Salt Lake park to come forward.
He asked for anyone who knows whether Lueck has an extra cellphone or social media accounts to share that information.
And Doubt made another appeal to Lueck.
“MacKenzie,” Doubt said, “in the case you just want to be left alone, please let us know you are safe.”
The brief news conference Tuesday revealed little new information yet emphasized the questions that might lead to the goal of finding Lueck. Whom did she meet in North Salt Lake at such an early hour and has anything bad happened to her?
“We don’t have any evidence to suggest any foul play,” Doubt told reporters.
He said detectives have served several search warrants in the case. He declined to elaborate.
The Salt Lake City Police Department also provided new photos of Lueck. They show her at Salt Lake City International Airport minutes after she got off the plane at 2:09 a.m. June 17. Lueck was returning from her grandmother’s funeral in California.
Lueck is wearing a white jacket or sweater and a small black backpack. A second photo shows Lueck picking up a brown or brown suede suitcase at the baggage claim before going to meet the car she ordered from the ride-hailing service Lyft.
Lueck texted her mother that she arrived safely. She then took a Lyft to Hatch Park in North Salt Lake. It is 8.5 miles away from her home near Trolley Square in Salt Lake City. Her friends and family haven’t seen her since.
Salt Lake City police, who lead the missing-person investigation, asked questions of the Lyft driver. They have said the driver and Lyft’s corporate offices were cooperating. Data from the ride-hailing app showed nothing unusual in the driver’s route to the park that morning, and the driver picked up other passengers immediately afterward.
The police investigation determined Lueck arrived at Hatch Park at 2:59 a.m. to meet someone in another vehicle. Doubt said police don’t even know whether Lueck met a male or female, nor do they know the make and model of the person’s car.
Juliana Cauley, who described herself as a friend of Lueck, also appeared at Tuesday’s news conference. She asked for the public to continue helping to find Lueck and said Lueck’s parents would make statements only through Salt Lake City police.
Lueck is majoring in kinesiology and prenursing, according to the U. Doubt said Salt Lake City officers have had three interactions with her over the years — once when she was ticketed for a moving violation, once when police were investigating an assault and another time when police found property belonging to Lueck. Doubt and other police representatives on Tuesday declined to discuss whether Lueck was the victim, suspect or witness in the assault. A search of court records shows that, other than the moving violation, she has never been charged with a crime in Utah.
Police last had an encounter with Lueck when she picked up her belongings in January, Doubt said.
Doubt on Monday announced a tip line had been established at 801-799-4420. At Tuesday’s news conference, he said 125 tips had been received.
