Missing White Girl, Mackenzie Lueck: Round up the usual suspects
A University of Utah sorority sister is missing after taking a Lyft ride from the airport, police said.
Mackenzie Lueck, 23, vanished June 17, the same day she landed at Salt Lake City International Airport, according to the Salt Lake Police Department.
Lueck, who is from El Segundo, Calif., had been returning from a trip home to attend her grandmother’s funeral when she landed around 1 a.m., the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.
The college senior texted her parents to let them know she arrived before using the ride-sharing app to go to a destination in North Salt Lake, police said.
“She said the plane had landed and that was the last text she put out,” her cousin, Jolyn Mendleson, told news station KSL. “Then she got into a Lyft car at the airport and that was the last she has been seen.”
She was brought to her intended location, which was a 20-minute drive northwest of her home near campus, according to the newspaper.
The Lyft driver, who has been cooperating with the investigation, continued to pick up other fares after dropping her off.
Police haven’t released the location, but said it wasn’t a residence, CNN reported.
Lueck’s roommates claim she never arrived at her Trolley Square home and that her car hasn’t been moved, according to a Facebook page dedicated to finding her.
Concerned pals added she never showed up for a school exam, which was uncharacteristic of Leuck, who is also a member of Alpha Omega Chi sorority.
“We don’t believe she would miss a midterm because she was stressed,” her sorority sister Kennedy Stoner told the Salt Lake Tribune. “I am positive something is wrong.”
Her phone has also been shut off and she didn’t show up for work, according to KSL.
“We’ve been calling her phone nonstop,” said another sorority sister, Ashley Fine. “We’re millennials … Even if you’re missing, or you want to disappear, you have to turn your phone on to GPS.”
Leuck hasn’t been active on social media since her disappearance, friends said. In her last Instagram post, she paid tribute to her late grandmother, saying that she “never imagined this day was coming.”
She had a flight booked to attend a wedding Sunday but never boarded the plane to Los Angeles, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Authorities said they haven’t discovered any information that indicates Lueck is in danger, but they are concerned for her welfare.
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“Detectives have been working throughout the weekend & will continue to follow any/all leads,” police said on Facebook. “We are aware of info being shared by her friends & others about this case.”
