Ayoola ‘AJ’ Ajayi, 31, has been accused of murdering Mackenzie Lueck and burning her body in his Salt Lake City backyard
The man charged with murdering Utah woman Mackenzie Lueck and burning her body in his backyard had tried to have a secret sex dungeon built in his basement, a contractor says.
Contractor Brian Wolf says that Ayoola Adisa Ajayi, 31, reached out to him in April and asked him to build a ‘soundproof’ room in the basement of his Salt Lake City home.
Ajayi first proposed that Wolf build a ‘secret door’ to a space that was about four feet by nine feet, the contractor told Fox News.
But Wolf says that Ajayi ‘slowly started sidestepping into more stuff, like wanting a thumb lock on it with a fingerprint lock, and soundproofing it, and putting hooks in the concrete – it was just weird what he was asking me.’
Pressed for an explanation, Ajayi said he wanted a secret room for alcohol to hide it from his Mormon girlfriend, and soundproof so that he could sit inside and listen to music, according to Wolf.
Lueck, who boasted online of having ‘sugar daddies’ who traded financial favors for sex, disappeared on June 17 after taking a Lyft from the airport to a park
Salt Lake City police are seen at Ajayi’s home this week. A contractor has said that Ajayi asked him to build a secret soundproof basement room with hooks in the walls
‘He just said that his girlfriend was coming into town and needed to get it done before she got there because she was a Mormon girl. He did say she was a white girl,’ Wolf said.
Wolf said he was ‘weirded out’ by the job offer, telling the man he was too busy to undertake the project.
‘Some people say I should have called the cops then,’ he said. ‘But how am I supposed to call the cops and be like, ‘Hey, this guy wants me to build a weird room in his basement,” Wolf said.
Ajayi, a native of Nigeria, is charged with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a corpse, and obstruction of justice. He is being held without bond in the Salt Lake County Jail.
The former Army IT specialist was pictured being taken into custody on Friday by a number of armed SWAT officers outside his 1028 S West Temple home.
Shortly afterwards, investigators charged him with the murder of Lueck, 23, who disappeared on June 17 after taking a Lyft from the airport to a park located miles away from her apartment in Salt Lake.
On Friday afternoon, a number of armed officers were pictured taking man into custody outside a home on 1000 South, Temple West
The Salt Lake City Police department declined to confirm the man’s identity to DailyMail.com, but the individual photographed matches the description of Ajayi
Ajayi was employed by the Army as an Information Technology Specialist for nearly two years before leaving in June 2016, according to his LinkedIn
Investigators conducted a 19-hour search of a Ajayi’s home in a middle class neighborhood on Salt Lake City’s west side in the early hours of Thursday, identifying him as a ‘person of interest’.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown revealed in a press conference on Friday afternoon that an excavation of the property’s garden discovered burned ‘female human tissue’, which forensic experts later matched to Lueck’s DNA.
A number of the 23-year-old’s personal possessions were also found among the charred remains.
According to Brown, Teresa Draheim, a neighbour of Ajayi’s, had observed the suspect burning something in his backyard with gasoline on June 17 and 18, just hours after Lueck was last seen alive.
Police confirmed that Lueck’s remains and personal items were found in a ‘burned area’ in the back yard.
Ajayi was taken into custody at 9:20am on Friday morning, where he will be charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping and desecration of a body.
Police say he met with Lueck at Hatch Park in the early hours of the morning on June 17, believing them to have met online, referencing an ‘online profile’ but failing to specify which site.
Lueck’s last communications were ‘with the arrested person’, Chief Brown said. The defendant and the victim’s phones both pinged in Hatch Park at 3am ‘within a minute’ of one another.
Police say Lueck’s phone shared no further data or locations services from that moment onwards.
Ajayi is said to have admitted corresponding with Lueck via text on June 16, but denied any further contact afterwards and said he never arranged to meet the slain sorority girl.
He allegedly told police he has no idea what she looks like, but investigators say they have found photos of Lueck on his phone, including pictures of her ‘online profile’.
Chief Brown described the moment he informed Lueck’s family that her remains had been found as the ‘hardest phone call I’ve ever had to make.’
He described the victim’s family as being ‘heartbroken and devastated’, passing on their messages of thanks to the members of the Salt Lake City Police Department and members of the public who have helped with their search for MacKenzie.
‘We will continue to look into this situation to see if [Ajayi] had any help, or if he acted alone,’ Brown concluded.
Shocked friends of missing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck claimed they spotted activity on her Instagram on Wednesday. Police confirmed she was murdered on June 17
Ajayi was employed by the Army as an Information Technology Specialist for nearly two years before leaving in June 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He currently works at Dell as a Senior Technical Support Analyst and has so for the past 10 months
Born in Nigeria, Ajayi appears to have briefly explored a career in modelling, according to a profile on ModelMangement.com.
Listing his height as six-foot-one, Ajayi goes on to describe himself as ‘tall, buffed, funny,’ as well as ‘a victim, Romantic, Violent and character actor [sic].’
Just last year, Ajayi self-published a book titled ‘Forge Identity’, which details the story of a young boy witnessing two brutal murders, in which neighbor and a friend were both ‘burned alive in front of him’.
Just last year, Ajayi self-published a book titled ‘Forge Identity’, which details the story of a young boy witnessing two brutal murders, in which neighbor and a friend were both ‘burned alive in front of him’
‘Ezekiel was almost 15 when he witnessed a gruesome murder. An angry mob burned his neighbor alive in the street and the man died at his feet,’ a synopsis of the book reads.
‘Sadly, it was not the last time he witnessed such horror. With his well respected father as guide and mentor, Ezekiel saw this death, then a death much closer to home when a loved one was killed in the same brutal, terrifying way 50 feet from him, and he could do nothing to stop it.’
The book claims to be ‘inspired from true events’.
The arrest comes just hours after shocked friends of Mackenzie Lueck revealed they spotted activity on her personal Instagram account.
Lueck appeared to like a page called ‘fatherless’, around noon on Wednesday.
Her friends took screen grabs of the activity and shared it with police.
They noticed her personal Instagram account liked a page called ‘fatherless’ at around noon
The account, which claims to be for people with ‘daddy issues’ appears to collect very sexual photos and memes and invite its 47,000 followers to share stories and tag friends
DailyMail.com previously revealed that Lueck claims to be a ‘sugar baby’ seeking men over the age of 35 online. Her Instagram bio includes the hash-tag #callherdaddy
Ajayi was taken into custody at 9:20am on Friday morning, where he will be charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping and desecration of a body in relation to Mackenzie’s death
Police investigators remove multiple bags of evidence during their search of Ajayi’s home
Police investigators carry in multiple rakes and shovels into the backyard of a home belonging to a person of interest in Lueck’s disappearance
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said on Thursday the male person of interest is not in custody
The account, which claims to be for people with ‘daddy issues’ appears to collect very sexual photos and memes and invite its 47,000 followers to share stories and tag friends.
DailyMail.com previously revealed that Lueck claimed to be a ‘sugar baby’ seeking men over the age of 35 online. Her Instagram bio includes the hashtag ‘#callherdaddy’.
The college senior’s social media accounts reveal that she considered herself a sugar baby, and boasted about having at least two unidentified sugar daddies which she found through online sites Seeking Arrangement and Tinder.
DailyMail.com obtained screenshots of Lueck’s posts made nearly three months ago in a private Facebook group where Lueck gave advice on how she finds sugar daddies – wealthy older men who lavish younger women with gifts and money in return for company or sexual favors.
Officials were searching for a mattress and box spring that Ajayi had given away for free on resale website LetGo five days ago. Pictured: The mattress Ajayi posted to give away
He currently works at Dell as a Senior Technical Support Analyst for the past 10 months
The sorority member disappeared after taking a Lyft car on June 17 from the airport to a park located miles from her apartment
On Tuesday Salt Lake City Police shared these images of Lueck after she got off her plane at Salt Lake City International Airport at 2.09am. She was returning to Utah after spending the weekend in LA to attend her grandmother’s funeral
She was last seen with her hair in a bun, wearing a white hooded sweater, black pants, and sandals. She carried a large blue handbag with her, a small black backpack on her back and a wheeled brown suitcase
DailyMail.com can reveal that Lueck was a self-proclaimed sugar baby, using sites Seeking Arrangement and Tinder to find men over 35 years old
About three months ago Lueck wrote these comments in a private Facebook group offering advice on how to be a sugar baby, ‘Try tinder and be blunt about it. Mine says ”I want a SD/SB relationship with a real connection”’
‘Try tinder and be blunt about it. Mine says ”I want a SD/SB relationship with a real connection.” If [they] don’t know what a SD/SB is, tell them bluntly sugar daddy and sugar baby. But if they don’t know, they aren’t really worth your time,’ Lueck’s comment reads.
‘Set your age preferences from 35+. You’ll have the most luck there. Private message me, if you have more questions! I have experience.’
In another message Lueck revealed she has two sugar daddies and which sites she uses to obtain them.
‘I have some experience on seeking arrangements, online only, tinder, and currently have two lol.’