This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

Lauren McCluskey: The Warning Signs Were Already There (Part 2)

August 20, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Lauren McCluskey: The Warning Signs Were Already There (Part 2)

October 16th came and went. Lauren McCluskey had done everything right—she named her extortionist in person to two trained police officers, receipts in hand. What she walked out of that station with was a promise. Three days turned into six, and six turned into the worst night of her family's life.

The Investigation That Never Happened

From October 16th through the 19th, campus police did nothing to investigate, even as Lauren kept sending them information. When her roommate Diamond Jackson got an update from other friends about the fake identity, the felony and sex offender status, the car incident, the harassment, and the extortion, she didn't pass it to housing officials. She'd already been told twice there was nothing they could do. As the hosts note, "That has now become the cost of being dismissed—she did what she was supposed to do, what she thought she was supposed to do, and she was turned away."

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Summer Blues & Sponsor Break** - Advertisements for Grow Therapy and Amazon Music Unlimited play before the main content resumes.
2 (02:00) **The Promise That Went Unkept** - Lauren waits for promised police follow-up after reporting the extortion, but three days turn into six with no action from Campus Police.
3 (03:58) **The Cost of Being Dismissed** - Lauren’s housing liaison, Diamond Jackson, learns of the escalating threats but stops reporting, having been told twice that nothing could be done.
4 (05:23) **Insider Knowledge & A Dead End** - Roland texts Lauren implying he knows about her police contact, leading her to fear a leak within Campus Police; Salt Lake City Police refuse to help, deferring back to campus.
5 (07:57) **The Detective on Vacation** - After Lauren mentions her parents are worried, Detective Dailiff finally calls but says she is on vacation and won't review the case until October 23rd, asking Lauren to re-send all evidence via email.
6 (09:56) **The Fake Deputy Chief Text** - Roland impersonates a police deputy chief via text, trying to lure Lauren to the station; Officer Darris confirms the text is fake but offers no further action or investigation.
7 (14:42) **The Final Meeting and the Ambush** - Housing holds a long-delayed care meeting with no updated information, concluding the situation is resolved, just before Roland abducts and murders Lauren.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

In the weeks before Lauren McCluskey was murdered, the danger wasn't invisible.

The stalking. The lies. The escalating threats. The extortion. The repeated contact after the relationship ended. Lauren reported what was happening, asked for help, and kept trying to protect herself.

So if the signs were already there, why wasn't anyone able to recognize what they meant?

In Part 2, we step back from Lauren's case to ask the bigger question we've been working toward: Can we actually tell which abusive relationships are most likely to turn deadly?

We look at what researchers know about intimate partner homicide, the warning signs that matter most, why some seemingly terrifying behaviors aren't as predictive as we might assume, and what happens when known risk factors are scattered across different people and systems instead of being seen together.

Because the problem may not be that there are no warning signs.

It may be that recognizing them is only the beginning.