Utah State University barred Ayoola Ajayi, who is in jail on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering MacKenzie Lueck, from its campus after a theft investigation, according to documents from the Logan school.
Campus police reports also describe Ajayi, a Nigerian immigrant, as overstaying his visa and perhaps using a stolen iPad to find a wife to reduce his chances of being deported. When USU police booked Ajayi into the Cache County jail in 2012 on suspicion of misdemeanor theft, officers notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a Nigerian consulate.
The police reports also raise the possibility Ajayi was homeless and living in buildings on campus.
(Photo courtesy Salt Lake County Jail) Ayoola Ajayi
“This letter is to inform you that if you feel you need to visit our campus,” Eric R. Olsen, associate vice president for student services, wrote to Ajayi on Aug. 2, 2012, “you must first contact the Utah State University Police Department and have them escort you on and off campus. If you violate this mandate, you will be cited for trespassing and will face additional legal consequences.”
While Ajayi was booked into jail on suspicion of theft, a search of Utah court records gives no indication he was charged.
Ajayi, 31, was booked into the Salt Lake County jail Friday on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Lueck, a 23-year-old student at the University of Utah, and then desecrating her body. Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown has said Ajayi met Lueck early June 17 at Hatch Park in North Salt Lake.
Brown reported the pair went to Ajayi’s home in the Fairpark neighborhood of Salt Lake City, though the chief has not said when or where detectives believe Lueck died. Brown said police executing a search warrant on the home found charred tissue that was a DNA match to Lueck.
(Jeremy Harmon | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah president Ruth V. Watkins speaks during a vigil for MacKenzie Lueck at the University of Utah on Monday, July 1, 2019.
Ajayi has not yet been formally charged in connection with Lueck’s death. A state court judge granted a motion Tuesday from Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill to keep Ajayi in jail, without an opportunity to post bond, into next week.
USU said Ajayi attended classes off and on between 2009 and 2016, with a break in attendance between 2011 and 2015. He did not earn a degree. The Salt Lake Tribune obtained copies of the USU police records Tuesday.
The first report is from May 18, 2012. Officers on patrol found Ajayi sleeping in the lounge at San Juan Hall apartments. Ajayi told officers he was waiting on his girlfriend, who lived in another campus housing complex, Aggie Village. The officers told Ajayi he was not allowed to sleep in a building where he didn’t live.
Officers later went to Aggie Village to find the girlfriend and check out Ajayi’s story. The report says a woman told police she knew Ajayi but neither he nor any girlfriend lived in Aggie Village. Reports written over May 20 and 21, 2012, describe officers reaching Ajayi by phone and then in person, accusing him of being “deceitful” and warning him that he would be charged with trespassing if he was found on campus again.
Leah Hogsten | Tribune file photo Old Main Building is at Utah State University.
The final sentence of the report says USU police contacted ICE. The federal agency informed officers Ajayi had overstayed his visa and ICE needed to be contacted if he was arrested.
Then, on July 22, 2012, campus police investigated the theft of an iPad. The next day, campus technology staff found that someone was using the tablet to access the internet. Police found Ajayi using the iPad in the iconic academic building known as Old Main, a report says.
An officer searched the iPad’s web history and found that, though Ajayi was married, he accessed dating sites, listed himself as single and was pursuing “a female as a prospect to marry to keep from being deported.”
Ajayi was booked into the Cache County jail July 24, 2012.
The July reports also describe campus police further investigating where Ajayi was living. Officers found three bags belonging to Ajayi in a janitor’s closet in San Juan Hall.
