that you kind of stay in close touch with over a lifetime. shannon would have been one of those. dennis murphy: and monique has a keepsake that ensures shannon is with her every day on her finger. monique melendi: this was the infamous ring that he had taken from her. saying this is the evidence that i have her. i'm guessing that ring and you are never separated for very long. no. no. it makes me feel very close to her. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [music playing] i'm andrea canning, and this ithat she met him in a bar..cd she was smitten. she really went all out for him. she couldn't see the red flags. andrea canning: it was a heartbreaking case.

jill mccluskey: i just didn't realize how much in danger she was. diamond: one of our friends actually looked him up and was like, this is not the guy that you think he is. he conned women to get what he wanted. and he was good at it. he was very good at it. matt mccluskey: he had been peeking in her dorm room window. jill mccluskey: lauren kept saying, well, the police will handle it. diamond: we got the notification on our phone saying, lockdown at the u. jill mccluskey: he had been lying in wait. i was like, this isn't real. this isn't happening. how do you not recognize that this girl needs your help? what should scare every parent is that this could be going on at any campus across our country. [music playing] hello, and welcome to "dateline." college senior lauren mccluskey was known around campus as a star athlete, but few knew that off the field, she was trapped in an abusive relationship.

lauren turned to campus police for protection not once, but several times. most of us would agree it was the right thing to do. so why did things turn out so very wrong? here's josh mankiewicz with "lauren's promise." [marching band playing] josh mankiewicz: graduation at the university of utah in salt lake city, home of the utes-- a time for selfies, smiles, and celebration. go, utes! josh mankiewicz: in may 2019, 8,500 graduates and their families packed the university's huge arena. lauren mccluskey should have been here, too, receiving her degree in cap and gown, as happy as her classmates. except she wasn't. and the story of what happened and why is as sad as it is eye-opening. this wasn't one of those things

where it was out of everyone's control. it wasn't like a natural disaster. how many times do women have to call for help before the university of utah realizes, you know what? we ought to step this up. josh mankiewicz: what are the two of you thinking at that point? i couldn't really fathom what had happened. neither of us slept at all that night. josh mankiewicz: it's a story that could so easily have ended differently, if just one person had stepped up, if just one more phone call had been made, one dot connected. instead, the repercussions of a preventable murder would continue for years to come. lauren grew up in the college town of pullman, washington. her parents-- both professors. and from early on, lauren was a girl in motion. her mom, jill-- she could climb trees when she was two years old. josh mankiewicz: as lauren grew, she excelled at the hurdles and high jump. [cheering] a stack of medals tell her story,

which paid off with scholarship money from the university of utah. her dad, matt-- matt mccluskey: one of the attractions of university of utah was that it appeared to be very safe. jill mccluskey: and they-- they actually sell that, you know, that salt lake city is one of the safest cities. this is a safe place. that's part of the pitch. matt mccluskey: sure. jill mccluskey: yes, yeah. josh mankiewicz: as she headed off to college, lauren was a parent's dream-- a dedicated athlete, studious, not a partier, not a drinker, not active on the dating scene. what were you worried about? anything? matt mccluskey: the only thing i worried about was an automobile. and so i wanted to research a really safe car. and so that was my only real worry. josh mankiewicz: lauren met alex on day one of her freshman year. so we were roommates our freshman year, in august 2015, and we became instant friends.

josh mankiewicz: alex and lauren hung out together, attended church together. and for the next three years, lauren continued to focus on her studies, her track events, and her friends. as for boyfriends-- not so much. was lauren somebody who'd had a lot of boyfriends? i would say no. but i would say she did hang out with her friends a lot. josh mankiewicz: then came september 2018, the start of senior year. lauren and alex went to a bar downtown one night, and lauren met someone. his name was shawn fields, and he was working security at the bar. he let the two women in, kept an eye on them throughout the evening. and then, as they were leaving, he made contact with lauren. she was like, i gave him my number, and i guess we'll see if he contacts me. josh mankiewicz: he did. lauren told alex the next morning. she was like, oh, he texted me, and we're going on a date this afternoon. josh mankiewicz: shawn said he was

a part-time computer science student at a nearby community college. he was 28, a little old, but not a big deal. more dates followed, and lauren told her parents about the man in her life. it sounded sort of old-fashioned, the way that he was paying attention to her and asking her out for dinner and doing all these things. matt mccluskey: yeah, i used to say, oh, she's in love. josh mankiewicz: you could hear it in her voice. yeah. josh mankiewicz: things moved quickly. lauren and shawn were soon exclusive. when did you realize they were boyfriend and girlfriend? probably, like, a week and a half after they met. she wanted to be his girlfriend, and it made her feel special. josh mankiewicz: that special feeling would not last. is lauren's prince as charming as he seems? her friends start to worry about her new relationship. coming up-- carmen: we noticed she was tired. she seemed stressed. you could tell, at least physically, in her face,

that she was going through, emotionally, a lot on her mind and with the relationship. andrea canning: and before long, her friends had a new worry. i was told that he was going to give her a gun he had. josh mankiewicz: was she in any kind of danger, that she might need a gun? no, we never thought that a gun was necessary. andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. (♪♪) ♪ (slow down) ♪ (♪♪) cut!!!! i get it! slow motion. slow down geographic atrophy. but we don't need gimmicks. stick to the facts. ga, the advanced form of dry amd, can irreversibly damage your vision. but syfovre is an fda-approved eye injection that gives you the power to slow ga. syfovre was proven to slow ga lesion growth over 2 years with increasing effect over time. it's the only treatment to slow ga

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josh mankiewicz: at the start of her senior year at the university of utah, lauren mccluskey fell hard for a guy named shawn fields. and soon, he was her boyfriend. lauren's parents, jill and matt, heard regular updates by phone. her friends described lauren as kind of smitten with this new guy. did that come across in talking with the two of you? sure. yeah. a lot of that happiness was just there already, but she clearly seemed very happy about her relationship with this person. josh mankiewicz: but lauren's parents, hundreds of miles away in washington state, knew only what their daughter was telling them. it was different for her good friends at the university. they began noticing that the very independent lauren was now at shawn's beck and call. every time he would text her, she would stop what she was doing to make sure she picked up the phone or text. josh mankiewicz: lauren's friend alex said she was put off by shawn's behavior

when she and lauren went back to the bar where he was working. he was like, don't forget to pick me up at 2:00 in the morning. don't-- like, don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep. he said it jokingly, but then i could tell he was serious. in other words, like, pressuring her to stay awake to pick him up in the middle of the night after his shift ends? yes. josh mankiewicz: the very next night, alex says, came something else that made her uncomfortable. he was asking her, where are you? who are you with? that friday. and she was just with me the entire time. so the fact that he kept asking, i guess, was also bothering me. you say something to lauren? well, i did say it wasn't normal, but then i think she thought he would start to trust her. right, so they're brand new, and he's already kind of possessive and controlling. yes. josh mankiewicz: another friend, a graduate student named diamond, was thinking the same things. diamond knew lauren didn't have a ton of dating experience. she really went all out for him, was really investing--

i personally think-- too much time into it, like, telling him where she was going to be and stuff. and to her, that just translated as, oh, this is a relationship. this is what we do. a lot of, who are you with, where are you going. you ever say to her, this is not normal, acceptable behavior for a boyfriend or for any man? yeah, i did. and i tried to do it as, like, i'm coming to you as a friend, an older friend who's dated quite a few people, and just was presenting, well, him calling you or asking you who you're with and wanting pictures of people around you is not-- that's not protection. and that's not love. that's not, no. and she'd say? she was like, oh, no, it's fine. you know, it's ok. he just want to make sure i'm ok. josh mankiewicz: carmen was in the same circle of friends. she says lauren told her about a fight with shawn. he stormed off, and lauren vowed she'd be the one to change. she just clearly said to us, i don't want to upset him that way again. i don't want to see him that mad ever again.

josh mankiewicz: a couple of weeks into the relationship, shawn was practically living with lauren in her dorm on campus. he'd made friends with other students there, and so was able to come and go without a key card. lauren's friends thought she was sleep-deprived, and she seemed sad. carmen: we noticed she was tired. she seemed stressed. you could tell, at least physically, in her face, that she was going through, emotionally, a lot on her mind and with the relationship. josh mankiewicz: then, something more ominous-- lauren told her friends shawn wanted to give her a gun for her protection. that immediately-- that was the first trigger. i was like, hmm. josh mankiewicz: a trigger, because diamond was then working for the university's housing department. at the time, she was lauren's resident assistant, living in a nearby building. was she in any kind of danger, that she might need a gun? not that i know of, or just, when i'm with her, no. we never thought that a gun was necessary.

josh mankiewicz: it's not illegal to have a gun on campus, but do a lot of students have guns? not to my knowledge, but it still has to be concealed. so you have to have a license for that, which means you have to go through the necessary channels. from what i was told, he was just trying to give her a gun he had. and that would have been against the rules. yes, it was. and it would have been something that you would have had to report. yes. and that's what i did. josh mankiewicz: diamond says she called her superior in housing to report what she'd learned. she wrote an email, too. the university asked us to make clear that diamond is speaking for herself, and what she says is that the response from housing officials to her alerts wasn't exactly proactive. it was a lot of, oh, we're going to have a meeting about it. we'll talk about it later, or just stuff like that where it seems like-- it's not a big deal. yeah, where, like, this is normal. and i'm like, this is absolutely not normal. and i don't understand why you are not heightened about it. josh mankiewicz: it was one of many decisions

that university officials would later look back on and regret. andrea canning: coming up-- alex: she had called me, and she seemed very shocked and scared. andrea canning: shawn had a secret, an ugly one. josh mankiewicz: did she have any idea what she was going to find when she started searching? alex: no. andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. [suspenseful music] what grandpa. >> used to play. when our hearing wouldn't allow us to use a regular phone, it made us feel isolated. >> it became. difficult to communicate with our friends and family. >> clear captions was an easy solution for us. >> clear captions provides captions on a phone. like captioning on your tv so you can see what the caller is saying live as they say it. >> making it easy to understand and respond immediately.

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josh mankiewicz: by late september 2018, lauren mccluskey's good friends at the university of utah were increasingly unhappy about her new relationship with shawn fields. carmen: i would make comments like, this guy is literally not good for her. he throws us off. josh mankiewicz: you were afraid of him? yes. physically afraid? yes. because he was a huge guy. josh mankiewicz: and when lauren's friends heard that shawn wanted to give her a gun, their concern intensified. carmen: we would just tell her, like, no, you don't need it. your safety is fine. if anything, he's compromising your safety. josh mankiewicz: then, in early october, lauren made a frightening discovery. alex: she had called me, and she seemed very shocked and scared. josh mankiewicz: lauren had seen her boyfriend's id. it had his photo with a different name. suspicious, she turned to google.

did she have any idea what she was going to find when she started searching? alex: no. josh mankiewicz: because suddenly, shawn fields is melvin rowland. yes, mm-hmm. josh mankiewicz: it was stunning. most of what she thought she knew about her boyfriend was a lie-- from his real name, melvin rowland, to his age, 37-- 16 years older than lauren-- and finally, this-- lauren's boyfriend was a registered sex offender. melvin rowland had been convicted of attempted forcible sexual abuse and enticing a minor over the internet. and so you said, you've got to break up with this guy. and she said, i will? yes, she was going to. josh mankiewicz: lauren talked with her mom, told her what she'd learned about her boyfriend and that she wanted to break up with him. jill mccluskey: and she was sort of asking me advice about the best way to sever ties with him. and i'm thinking you said, get as far away from him as you can, and make sure you never see him again.

yes. josh mankiewicz: that night, rowland showed up at lauren's room, peering in her window and startling her. when he finally came in, she confronted him about his lies. alex: he was like, i was set up, i was set up. i didn't do it. they're trying to frame me. but then, she kept telling him, like, they needed to break up. and every time he said he was going to leave, he would force himself upon her. he's, like, twice her size. i would say, maybe, four or five times her size. he was a huge guy, like, very muscly, very tall. so she would not have been able to resist him. no, there's no way she could have gotten away. josh mankiewicz: rowland stayed until morning. and when he finally did leave, he was driving lauren's car. and so letting him use the car was, kind of, the price of getting him out the door. yes. josh mankiewicz: so now, how to get the car back? rowland was going to leave it in a distant university parking lot where lauren could pick it up.

jill didn't like that plan one bit. and that's when she jumped into action. josh mankiewicz: jill called the university of utah campus police. josh mankiewicz: the dispatcher got lauren's contact information. jill had more. and he was actually. >> a sexual offender. okay. and >> a sexual offender. okay. and in lied. josh mankiewicz: in the end, campus police sent an escort with lauren, and the car was retrieved without a hitch. the dispatcher called jill back. josh mankiewicz: the mccluskeys were relieved. we were assured that they would be,

in essence, on the lookout. and so we thought the situation was very safe. josh mankiewicz: they were wrong. and had they known what lay ahead, they almost certainly would have been on the next plane to salt lake city. andrea canning: coming up-- i didn't know her, but she sounds scared. does she sound scared to the two of you? yeah, she does. andrea canning: new threats, but the campus police didn't seem overly concerned. that kind of cyber extortion-- that's a crime. yes. josh mankiewicz: did the campus police understand that and take it seriously? they kept saying it's a scam, it's a scam. andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. ok, noah's going to make a fire. our job is to let him do it...by himself. what kind of wood you got there? gregggg! it is important to challenge young homeowners turning into their parents. -mm... -oh!

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dude, i really need a new phone. check out my new samsung galaxy s25 ultra. it's got galaxy ai. imagine this thing running on our superfast xfinity mobile network. and i also heard that it can do multiple things with a single command. —with google gemini. let me try it. add recipes with overripe bananas to my “dessert ideas” note. that's what you chose to ask it? i had other things planned. ask how to get up to one thousand dollars off the new samsung galaxy s25 ultra with xfinity mobile. to. >> grab friday. >> plans before they change their mind. >> i'm richard lui with a news update. a shooting at upmc memorial hospital in southern

california. >> southern pennsylvania. >> saturday left one police officer dead and five people injured after being held hostage by the gunman. police have identified. >> the. >> suspect as a 49. >> year old man. a motive is not known. >> and one airman is dead and another injured after. >> shooting at kirtland air. >> force base in new mexico. security forces responded early saturday morning. one airman. was found dead at the scene. local authorities are still investigating. for now, back to investigating. for now, back to dateli andrea canning: welcome back to "dateline." i'm andrea canning. college senior lauren mccluskey was stunned to learn her boyfriend lied about his name, age, and criminal past. he was not shawn fields, but melvin rowland, once convicted of luring an underage girl online and attempted sex abuse. lauren quickly ended the relationship but was about to discover the real terror was just beginning. back to josh mankiewicz, with "lauren's promise."

josh mankiewicz: after lauren mccluskey got her car back from her ex-boyfriend, her parents exhaled. they believed the university of utah police, who now knew lauren had broken up with a registered sex offender, would keep an eye out for melvin rowland, and lauren hoped rowland was out of her life. a flurry of texts suggested otherwise-- messages to lauren from people who identified themselves as rowland's friends. alex: they were like, oh, why didn't you do this to the big guy? he really loved you. now, he's upset. josh mankiewicz: the messages seem to be anonymous, but lauren and alex wondered if it was rowland disguising his number. the texts told a dramatic story. rowland was in an accident, then at the hospital. then, he died. lauren blocked all the numbers and called her mom. jill mccluskey: we talked about it, that, you know, he couldn't have died in a car accident, because it would have been reported, you know, that there was a fatal accident.

josh mankiewicz: lauren saw some social media posts from rowland, so she knew he wasn't dead. then, she received this text. "will you come to funeral?" lauren answered, "i know he's alive. please leave me alone, and don't text this number. i got police involved." she did, and told the campus police dispatcher her fears. josh mankiewicz: what did they do about it? initially, when she told them about the harassment, they told her there wasn't much they could do. josh mankiewicz: not much, because the cops said the texts weren't threatening violence. they asked lauren to call back if the situation escalated, and it did. the very next day, she received an email saying explicit photos taken during their relationship would be posted on social media,

unless lauren paid to keep them secret. she called campus police again. i'm being blackmailed for money. i'm being blackmailed for money. so a photo of me and my josh mankiewicz: i didn't know her, but she sounds scared. she sound scared to the two of you? yeah, she does. josh mankiewicz: she sounds like she's worried that this guy is out there, and nobody's, kind of, looking for him, and nobody's really taking her seriously. that's sort of what i hear in her voice. matt mccluskey: sure. absolutely. josh mankiewicz: lauren was scared enough to pay the $1,000, and then went to the campus police office to file a report in person. alex went with her. what you're describing, that kind of cyber extortion--

that's a crime. yes. did campus police understand that and take it seriously? they kept saying, it's a scam, it's a scam. josh mankiewicz: police seemed to think rowland's phone could have been hacked to get the photos and that both lauren and her ex might be targets of this scam. so the attitude of the campus police is, they're both being victimized here. this is some scam using his phone number and her photo. yes. but this is not him victimizing her. yes. josh mankiewicz: however, alex says lauren was almost certain rowland was behind it all. that day, lauren also told campus police about the frightening time she caught rowland peeking through her window. they seem concerned? this is like a boyfriend-girlfriend thing, not a big deal. i figured they thought we were overreacting in a way. josh mankiewicz: lauren was embarrassed by those photos and deeply concerned about them getting out. she shared them with campus police and hoped for an immediate arrest.

the campus police had promised an update in three days. maybe hoping to spur them on, lauren called the much-larger salt lake city police department. josh mankiewicz: the salt lake city police followed their usual procedure and referred lauren back to the campus cops, who had jurisdiction. josh mankiewicz: during the following days, lauren called campus police repeatedly. one officer gave her his personal cell number, and the two exchanged 16 calls and texts. lauren was still getting more harassing texts and still waiting for that promised update. and the police response would be what? alex: for the most part, it was just, oh, we'll get back to you later, the detectives should be contacting you soon.

josh mankiewicz: by now, lauren was worn out. diamond saw her around that time. diamond: and she was like, oh, hey, yeah. like, just not even making eye contact, where i could tell something was up. but i was like, ok, well, i haven't seen you in a while, and i hope everything's ok, and-- but everything was not ok. everything was not ok. josh mankiewicz: then, 10 days after the breakup, lauren received a particularly chilling text. "what did you tell the cops?" it said. "we know everything." rowland was tech-savvy. had he found a way to hack her messages? lauren called salt lake city police a second time. u. and last saturday i reported, and i haven't gotten an update. >> okay. >> okay. >> but someo josh mankiewicz: once again, the city pd bounced her back

to the campus police-- a small force with some 30 officers, responsible for more than 30,000 students on a big public campus. that day, lauren did get a hold of the campus police detective assigned to her case. alex listened in. any sense of urgency in the way the detective was talking? alex: no. i remember she said, send me an email with all the information later on when you can. and the detective even said it was a scam, like someone's probably just hacked into the account and is trying to scam you. josh mankiewicz: and so the idea being, this is not really anything to worry about. yes. josh mankiewicz: now, it was monday, october 22. another text-- this one claiming to be from a campus cop asking lauren to meet him. again, it was phony. the real police told her to just not answer it. mr. rowland, who's been stalking her, is impersonating a police officer, and the police response is, just don't text him back?

yes. matt mccluskey: right. don't text him back, and don't go to where he says. and that was it. but not, we're going to go to that place and find him. mm-mm, no. josh mankiewicz: in the end, it was rowland who found lauren. here he is on campus security cameras, loitering in lauren's residence that evening around 6:00. he's waiting for her, holding a black bag, and pacing. two hours later, the camera shows him leaving lauren's residence, heading out to confront her as she returns home from an evening class. at that moment, lauren was talking with her mom on the phone. jill mccluskey: she sounded positive and telling me that she was going to go home and finish an assignment. when she went inside-- what happens next? then i just hear her yell, no, no, no. and then, she must have gotten tackled or something,

because i hear some noise, and the phone fell to the ground. and then, i kept calling for her, and she didn't answer. josh mankiewicz: what happened after that would be almost more than lauren's family and friends could bear. the abrupt ending to lauren's call triggers the mccluskeys' worst fears and a campus-wide lockdown as university cops race against time to save her. coming up-- i thought she was abducted. i knew her life was in danger at that time. andrea canning: an attack that some say campus police could have prevented. the university of utah was not equipped with the detectives that had the know-how and the knowledge to investigate a case like this.

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the ex-boyfriend lauren had caught in a series of lies. from the family home in washington state, matt called 911. josh mankiewicz: at the "salt lake tribune" newspaper, courtney tanner was the reporter on duty that night. she heard the police scanner sputter. just started hearing some crackling about a possible kidnapping on the campus. josh mankiewicz: she drove to the campus and found a parking lot cordoned off, students at their windows. i talked to a couple that just didn't have any idea what was going on but had seen police dogs and police officers running past their doors, and they were scared. officer (on radio): possible shots fired. we're going to expand the crime scene. josh mankiewicz: the university sent an alert to students. "shooting on campus," it said. "secure in place." then, hours later, confirmation

of the worst news possible. they said that a student had been killed on campus. josh mankiewicz: the university released photos of the suspect, melvin rowland. the victim wasn't named, but lauren's friends knew. yeah, i was like, it's lauren. it has to be lauren. i know it. josh mankiewicz: it was. after all the calls to police, all the steps she took to protect herself, all the advice and concern of her parents, lauren mccluskey had been murdered. she'd been shot multiple times, her body left in the back seat of a car in a campus parking lot. it was almost like just being hit with a heavy object. i couldn't even-- i couldn't really fathom what had happened. and it's just-- it's still, you know-- still, even now, it doesn't seem real, you know. we were just sobbing. i, in my head, was like, this isn't real. this isn't happening.

josh mankiewicz: diamond blamed herself. diamond: i really hated myself. (crying) i'm sorry. because i felt like i didn't do as much, and i didn't know what to do. i didn't know what to tell her parents or our friends. i could have helped her. josh mankiewicz: you have a badge? no. yeah, you're not a police officer. that wasn't your duty. that was someone else's duty. i don't know why they didn't do it then. reporter: i've seen police, at times, moving around. they've been running, and some have guns drawn. josh mankiewicz: police launched a manhunt for melvin rowland, spotting him near a church not long after midnight. courtney tanner: the doors were locked when police got there, and when they opened them, he had died by suicide on the inside. josh mankiewicz: by then, a key fact about melvin rowland had emerged. not only was he a registered sex offender, he was on parole.

campus police finally learned that minutes after he murdered lauren. they missed that mark. josh mankiewicz: debbie dujanovic is a former investigative reporter and spokesperson for the salt lake city fbi office. she now hosts a talk show here on ksl newsradio. we have to think of parole as an extension of prison. parolees don't enjoy the same freedoms you and i do, walking around on the streets. they are supervised by the prison system, and they're supposed to play by the rules when they're out on parole. josh mankiewicz: which means there might have been an opportunity to have melvin rowland pulled off the university of utah campus and into custody. and that would have meant he would have been locked up and not able to hurt lauren mccluskey or anybody else. right. josh mankiewicz: except, campus police never checked rowland's parole status, never knew that he could be in violation by having a gun or a social media account. he'd spent more than 10 years of his life in prison, paroled three times, and twice returned

to prison for violations. during one parole hearing in 2012, which was recorded, rowland was frank about what had been his approach to women to show he'd changed his ways. josh mankiewicz: by making one phone call, university police could have learned so much more about rowland in plenty of time to act on that information. in this case, the university of utah was not equipped with the detectives that had the know-how and the knowledge to investigate a case like this. josh mankiewicz: apparently, checking parole status simply wasn't part of campus police protocol. the sense i get is that the university police department was kind of not set up to deal with the modern age. it's the exact sense i got. and they didn't seem to have a culture of knowledge of how

to investigate crimes that are happening against women at the university-- things like extortion, sextortion, social media extortion, date rape. josh mankiewicz: at a news conference three days after lauren's murder, campus police chief dale brophy faced reporters and defended his force. we did believe that rowland and/or his associates both were threatening her financially and reputationally, but there was no indication from lauren to us at any point in this investigation that he was threatening physical harm. josh mankiewicz: facing a pr nightmare, the university of utah commissioned a review of the case and how it was handled. that review would reveal how profoundly the system and her own university failed lauren mccluskey. andrea canning: coming up-- we know that mistakes were made, and we own the fact that mistakes were made.

andrea canning: tough questions for lauren's school. josh mankiewicz: how could your campus police department not check to see whether this guy was on parole? i don't know the answer to that question. i don't know why that didn't happen. andrea canning: and the latest-- matt mccluskey: parents deserve to know that the university is going to do the very best job they can to protect their students. andrea canning: --when "dateline" continues. with dupixent, stay ahead of moderate-to-severe eczema. as you welcome the feeling of touch with clearer skin and less itch. the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, helps heal your skin from within. severe allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for face, mouth, tongue or throat swelling, wheezing or trouble breathing. tell your doctor of new or worsening eye problems, like eye pain, vision changes, or blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma or other medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent. always dry scoop before you run. listen to me, the hot dog diet got me shredded.

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despite repeatedly calling campus police for help, university of utah senior lauren mccluskey was gunned down by her ex-boyfriend melvin rowland. now, instead of asking the tough questions, authorities had to answer them, starting with the most crucial. could her death have been prevented? here's josh mankiewicz with the conclusion of "lauren's promise." josh mankiewicz: lauren mccluskey's murder in october of 2018 exposed the university of utah to serious criticism. ksl news radio host debbie dujanovic-- lauren mccluskey did absolutely everything right. law enforcement did not do everything right. they dropped the ball. and now a young, budding track star has paid the price with her life. josh mankiewicz: two months after the murder came the results of that review the university had asked for. its conclusion-- there were shortcomings,

both systemically and individually, that contributed to lauren's death. there were 30 recommendations for change. and then university president ruth watkins said this. the report does not offer any reason to believe that this tragedy could have been prevented. that made me sick to my stomach. and i just couldn't believe that she said that. i haven't talked to a single person who agrees with that statement. josh mankiewicz: it was hard to reconcile those words with the review's own findings, that there were serious problems with campus safety procedures. we wanted to speak with both the administration and the campus police. instead, we were offered an interview with barbara snyder, then vice president of student affairs. lauren's death was a tragedy that affected all of us in very, very difficult ways. and we know that mistakes were made, and we own the fact that mistakes were made.

the university was unprepared for this, and everybody was sort of slow to get out of their chair and realize how serious this was and maybe didn't realize that until she was dead. i'm not sure that any institution can really fully prepare for a sociopath coming on their campus and targeting one of their students. i don't think there's anything you could have done to prevent a homicidal maniac from coming on campus and killing someone if that had happened in a vacuum. but it didn't. you knew about him. you knew who he was. you didn't know everything about him, but you knew what she was telling you. and you-- i don't mean you specifically, but you as a representative of the university. you didn't do anything. i think that's a very harsh critique. it's a critique that's yours to make. josh mankiewicz: the report recognized that campus police did some things well, like helping lauren retrieve her car. the review was critical of an understaffed campus police force that was not trained to recognize or deal

with relationship violence. did no one understand that extortion and looking in the window and harassing texts, that that's all sort of part and parcel of relationship violence or at least, the potential for it? obviously, it was not put together in a way that made the difference that would have possibly prevented this. josh mankiewicz: remember, even though they knew rowland was a registered sex offender, campus officers never checked his parole status. how could your campus police department not check to see whether this guy was on parole? i don't know the answer to that question. i don't know why that didn't happen. the sense i get is that each one of these things was sort of taken as its own separate incident and that no one ever kind of put them together into a threat that was kind of growing. hindsight is always 20/20. it is, i think, a correct assessment that all the pieces of the puzzle were never put together. josh mankiewicz: at all levels of university life, lauren mccluskey's death has had a profound effect, sometimes institutional,

sometimes personal. there are no words to express how sorry i am at the loss of this precious child, no words. there's nothing i can say to apologize significantly to have meaning. but we are truly sorry. you want to take a minute? i wish people could know how hard it's been. josh mankiewicz: i'm sure-- i wish people-- josh mankiewicz: --because this is-- --could understand. i'm sure this is exactly the thing that you least wanted to happen. josh mankiewicz: since our story first aired in june 2019, much has happened. the university police chief retired in october of that year. the officer assigned to investigate lauren's extortion claims was later found to have inappropriately shown off the explicit photos involved to his colleagues without a work-related reason. by the time that was learned, that officer

had already left the force. others were fired. the university of utah president ruth watkins says she's resigning. josh mankiewicz: then university of utah president ruth watkins, who'd shockingly said lauren's death could not have been prevented, stepped down in the spring of 2021. the questions about how lauren's case was handled never went away. the university says it has implemented the recommendations in the review to improve student safety and gone further, appointing a chief safety officer, overhauling the school's safety apparatus, adding specialized employees, like social workers, who can deal with relationship violence. in october 2020, the university settled a lawsuit brought by lauren's parents, agreeing to pay the mccluskeys $10.5 million. the university acknowledges and deeply regrets that it did not-- josh mankiewicz: at the time, president watkins finally acknowledged the university

did not handle lauren's case as it should have. as a result, we failed lauren and her family. josh mankiewicz: lauren's parents say, their goal was always to get the university of utah to start thinking differently about student safety, hoping other parents will not suffer as they have. matthew mccluskey: the parents deserve to know that the university is going to do the very best job they can to protect their student, and that is not only increasing a budget or hiring a person, but it's going to be a cultural change, where, in fact, they really embrace what went wrong and embrace responsibility. [music playing] josh mankiewicz: under the settlements, the university paid another $3 million directly to the lauren mccluskey foundation, which funds campus safety efforts across the nation. remember lauren. josh mankiewicz: the mccluskeys pledged their settlement money to the foundation, which also champions a pledge called lauren's promise, 11 words

that professors, students, and law enforcement officers at more than 300 campuses so far have endorsed. it reads, i will listen and believe you if someone is threatening you. matthew mccluskey: there's nothing that i can do for lauren except to honor her memory and maybe prevent some other parents from going through this. if colleges look at lauren's case and make some changes, then maybe-- that's what my great hope is, is that it will then lead to some very common-sense, much-needed changes at colleges. big price to pay to get that far. yeah, too, too big of a price. josh mankiewicz: at what should have been lauren's graduation, other students look to the future. it didn't stop her family and friends from thinking about the past.

i would love to hear her voice again. i would love to hear her laugh. i tell people i won the kid lottery. and she was such a part of our lives, that i would talk to her at least every day. woman: she was a genuine person. she was super fun, like, that she lived to be with people and to just engage. and it was amazing. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. [music playing] i'm awoman: vanessa was this is data good soldier.ork-tv. andrea canning: did she go into the army to help people? yes. woman: another soldier notified command that she was missing. woman: they're searching their company areas. they're searching the installation.