tonight, repeated calls for help. >> i think they're trying to lure me somewhere. >> calls that just weren't enough. >> i wanted to, i called 911 because i was just concerned. >> the college track star, dating a master panmanipulator, stalking her, breaking it off with him turned out to be the breaking point >> then she just started saying no, no, no, no, like someone might have been grabbing her or something. >> lauren mccluskey on the phone with her mother when he went on the attack. >> you were trying to save your daughter's life in that moment. >> absolutely. >> for the first time, her parents opening up to amy robach

about the final moments of lauren's life. after 20 calls to police, the system they say failed their daughter. >> was her death breathable? >> yes. >> we'll be right back. ack.

this is a special edition of "nightline." the calls for help. now reporting amy robach. >> hi, so i'm dealing with a a

situation where i'm being blackmailed for money. >> reporter: in the last days of her life, lauren mccluskey was begging to be heard. >> i think they're trying to lure me somewhere. >> do you know when an arrest would be made? >> reporter: talking with police over 20 times, crying for help with her ex-boyfriend, a seasoned manipulator who had his sights set on lauren. at first she thought he was 28. the handsome bouncer she met at a bar. >> she looked really mature for a 28-year-old. >> reporter: his true identity, a 37-year-old sex offender out on parole. >> everyone i met or came across, i used my manipulation tactics to get what i wanted. >> reporter: now relentlessly stalking and harassing lauren. she was the lauded college athlete, lover of music and

animals. >> 911 because i was just concerned. >> reporter: her final moments captured on a phone call with her mother. her father immediately calling 911. >> she just immediately started saying no, no, no, no. and like someone might have been grabbing her or something. >> reporter: what they didn't know then, their daughter was already dead, attacked and shot multiple times. that ex-boyfriend killing the promising athlete in cold blood. >> so the last words you heard your daughter say? >> no, no, no, no. >> reporter: those three word the are forever edged in jill mccluskey's memories. the uchb the university of utah now on the defensive. >> reporter: was lauren's death preventible? >> absolutely. >> yes. >> reporter: when you walk into her room at her home in pullman, washington, you see instantly the kind of things she loved and

the kind of girl she was. her talents b recognized even before her 10th birthday. look at these medals, quite a few of the. >> so she started competing nationally as a 9 year old. >> reporter: coming in here is still hard. >> it's nice, though, to look at the things, you know. she did a lot in her life. >> lauren didn't care what you looked like. she didn't care where you came from. sort of fearless, you know. every parent says this, but she was a very kind, very kind person. >> i had noticed that she was very athletic from, from when she was an infant. >> reporter: it was on the track where lauren really shined, where she and her good friend regina snider first became close. >> we really bounded through our workouts, and then like we became really great friends. one of my best friends. >> reporter: colleen hindman first met lauren over 15 years

ago. >> her dad wanted me to babysit for them. as she got older she really blossomed. >> reporter: this all watched as she grew up and decided to go to college in salt lake city. >> she was a senior. >> reporter: it was fall, the beginning of her last year at university. she was at a bar with friends when she met a man. he said his name was fields. friends grew concerned, telling housing staff that she was in an unhealthy relationship. >> what made me feel uncomfortable was how he would be calling every single time whenever we would be out. and she would, she would say, i have to get this. i was like, i'm not necessarily comfortable with how he's treating you. being kind of controlling.

>> reporter: when did you first hear your daughter talk about this man? >> in september, he was very charming. he tried to sweep her off her feet. i was concerned that he was a little older than her. i didn't know his true age. >> reporter: you thought he was a little older. >> yeah. >> reporter: but he was actually 37 years old, something 21 year old lauren discovered when she googled him. shawn wasn't his real name either, it was melvin roland. and most horrifying of all, roland had been convicted of forcible abuse and enticing a minor over the internet. he seemed to question whether he was rehabilitated. >> i know i have that capability of re-offending. >> reporter: just after four weeks of first meeting him, launch confronted him with what she learned and broke up with him. but she let him spend the night and borrow her car the next day

to run arerrands. >> reporter: so when your daughter tells you the guy i've been dating is a sex offender, what did you say? >> i said you're doing the right thing in breaking up with him. >> reporter: the next day, she tells her mom, roland wants her to pete hmeet him at the stadiu parking lot to get the car. >> i'm worried that he's lying to her. and he's actually a sexual offender and lied about his age and things like that. i'd just like someone to accompany her. >> i will give her a call. did you want me to give ah cayo call back or? >> yeah, if you could, that would be good. >> what was your name? >> jill. >> reporter: campus police do call jill. r roland has now decided to drop the car off closer to the dorm.

>> do you feel comfortable with that? >> i think it's okay. >> because if it's all right with you, we're here 24/7. i'm super cool. you could come hang out here and have him drop it off here. >> reporter: but lauren calls back. >> i was wondering if i would get a ride to the stadium, would that be okay? >> definitely, definitely, yeah, for sure. >> reporter: an officer accompanies her and they successfully retrieve her car. dispatch calls jill back to let her know. >> thank you. i feel like he has a little bit of control over her. >> oh, definitely. >> you know, that something bad could happen. >> reporter: you felt safe at that point, my daughter is in a good place in good hands. >> absolutely. >> reporter: but things ramp up. two days later, lauren calls campus police back about texts she's received. >> i got texts about did i want to go to a funeral, his funeral. and i think they're trying to

lure me somewhere. >> reporter: campus police begins a formal investigation this day, and an officer calls her back. but the next day, lauren's situation gets even scarier. >> i'm being blackmailed for money. it's a photo of my, me and my ex-, they're threatening to send it out to everyone and he's asking for $1,000. >> reporter: dispatch relace th that she's being black mailed. she event lually goes down in person to the police department but she wasn't satisfied so she called police. but because she lives on campus in university jurisdiction they transfer her back to campus police. >> like i called 911 because i was just concerned and i wasn't sure. >> yeah.

>> like help speed things up. do you now when an arrest would be made? >> you can talk to an officer if you want. i can arrange that if you want that. >> okay. yeah, that sounds good. >> reporter: that arrest was never made. in fact, officers never even went to see melvin roland. and an investigation into the extortion charges didn't start until a week after lauren reported it. the detective assigned to her case was off. lauren told her mom she felt like she was all on her own, unprotected by those tasked with keeping her safe. >> one thing she did tell me, feels like i'm bothering them, because she was calling so much. and i remember telling her, it's their job to listen to you, you know, if you're complaining. but they weren't listening. no, they weren't. they weren't. they weren't taking her seriously. >> reporter: and lauren's friends reported to campus staff that roland had talked about wanting to get lauren a gun, but no one, including campus police yet, was that roland was on

parole, which should been an automatic red flag. they weren't sharing information with salt lake city police. and they never knew about lauren's complaints, a communication gap which would prove fatal. >> reporter: they missed the fact three was on parole. >> lauren had no law enforcement experience and yet she was able with a laptop to find out all this information, he was a sex offender, lied about his faname his age, but the police couldn't make this leap and discover his parole status, which is public information. >> those are things that should have set off red flags. you don't know necessarily that a suspect is going to commit a violent act. but you don't just leave them alone. you have to do something to make sure the act doesn't occur, in this ca,revent somody fm die being. >> reporte

>> reporter: it's now monday, october 22nd. >> i had a concern, never in my wildest dreams did i think that this individual would hang out at her dorm. >> reporter: but roland was at her dorm, seemingly lying in wait, hanging out with some of her friends. at about 8:00 p.m. that night after getting out of class on her walk home, lauren calls mom just to chat like they often did. >> she was talking about class projects she was working on. it was a fantastic clfonversati. >> she was talking about next semester, too. >> reporter: planning her future. >> and all of a sudden she yes, ma'ams n ma'ams, yells, no, no, no. >> reporter: parents hundreds of miles away in spch of answers. answers. the potential e excited about wed their bld galy ozempic®. and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it.

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this special edition of "nightline," the calls for help. >> reporter: it's been 13 days of hell for lauren mccluskey. she had been on the phone with police more than 20 times. >> i'm being blackmailed. >> reporter: pleading for help with her ex-boyfriend. >> they're trying to lure me. >> reporter: but on this night, october 22nd, she was on the phone with her mom walking home from class. >> it was a fantastic conversation. >> reporter: little did lauren know her ex-, melvin roland was waiting for her. >> and then all of a sudden she yells, no, no, no. and then the line was still open. and, and then, and then matt called 911. i, i yelled to him, and he

called 911. >> hi, my daughter lauren mccluskey was talking to her mom, and then she just started saying no, no, no, no, like someone might have been grabbing her or something. >> okay. how long ago was this? >> this was two minutes ago. >> my whole focus was, i'm not sure what's happening, but i have to just give them all the info i can. >> reporter: you were trying to save your daughter's life in that moment. >> absolutely. >> we have to concentrate on helping. okay? the officer is there who knows about her situation. and he is telling that to the dispatcher. >> reporter: melvin roland grabbed lauren and threw her into the back of a car, driving her to another part of the parking lot. there he shot her, time after

time. >> i hoped that she somehow ran away. and at that we would find out, hey, we found lauren, she's a little bit bruised, but we got her. but they never did. >> reporter: chillingly, roland leaves her body in the car in that deserted parking lot. moments later, a woman roland has just met picks him up, and they go out on a date. hours later, police find lauren and are now in pursuit of roland. they chase him to this church where he shoots and kills himself. >> her mom texts and said that we lost her. and i waslikewh do you mean lost her? and she said she got, she got shot. >> reporter: what would you say is the greatest tragedy surrounding your daughter's death? >> the unfairness of it. i know that word gets used a lot. but i'm going to have my 50th birthday, and i don't think i deserve to see 50. why couldn't lauren have had a long and beautiful life?

>> reporter: are you angry? >> mostly sad. >> sadness is so complete, i don't have room for, for anger. maybe i should be. but i'm just not. >> we do want change. >> i would just want to note, this is, of course, a very sad time at the university of utah. and even as we grieve, we are aware that our grief pales in comparison to that of the mccluskey family. >> reporter: after lauren's death, the university ordered an independent review. >> the report does not offer any reason to believe that this tragedy could have been prevented. the individual responsible is melvin shawn roland, an evil, manipulative criminal. >> it's a statement that was probably written by a lawyer, and it defies logic. >> it's a ridiculous position. >> if you look at the police reports that are public, and you read the report, make your on judgment. >> reporter: the report pointed

out where campus police fell short and made 30 recommendations which the ufr d university now tells abc news it's working on. including hiring more police, putting into practice to make sure critical e-mails and voice mails are processed in a timely manner. it's not enough for the mccluskeys. they're pushing for state legislation they believe may have saved their daughter. >> the lauren's law proposal has to do with liability. >> gun ownership. you're responsible for where your gun ends up and in whose hand. >> within reason. >> reporter: roland had borrowed a gun from a friend, and they think the lender should be held accountable. they're pushing for more female officers and how society treats domestic violence. >> we need to take every

comment, every allegation and investigate it, take it seriously. >> reporter: lauren's life ended too quickly. but her parents are now making sure her name lives on forever. why is it important for to you have lauren's name live on, for people to remember your daughter? >> i think, i don't want to be in this world, okay? i don't want to be in a world without lauren, but i'm stuck. so what are we going to do? and this is, you know, a way to do two things. one is to honor her legacy, and the second is very practical, to do as much good as we can, but there are actual people out there who are going to be helped by this. this smegs editispecial edi of "nightline" is sponsor the by swiffer. swiffer. there's no heavy bucket, or mop to wring out, because the absorb and lock technology traps dirt and liquid inside the pad. it's safe to use on all finished surfaces tile, laminate and hardwood.

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lauren mccluskey's life ended at just 21 year old, killed by her ex-boyfriend, a grim reminder of the violence women face every day. nearly three women areurdere ery day the u.s. by current or former romantic partners. >> when the victim leaves the abusive situation, it is the most dangerous time of her life, because the abuse is about control. so when the abuser feels that

control slipping away, it can intensify the desire to control. >> reporter: lauren's parents don't want anyone else to feel this pain. you're starting a foundation now. >> the lauren mccluskey foundation is going to be a public charity, focussing on campus safety, celebrating her life, which is athletics, reflecting her love of animals. >> i feel if we can do something good and make a difference, it will at least take our minds off the