Photo Credit: Miles Peacock @ UnSplash
In this episode… Tara discusses the murder of 21 year-old track star, Lauren McCluskey. Lauren was a beautiful, intelligent, talented track & field athlete with a heart of gold. She studied & trained hard at the University of Utah and was looking forward to graduation. It was during this time, Lauren met a man named Sean. He seemed sweet, caring and fun…at first.
Let’s take a moment and put ourselves into Lauren’s shoes…so to speak. Imagine being blindsided one day, finding out that the man you are currently dating is NOT who he says he is. Not. Even. Close. You find out the man you let into your home, your friend circle and your heart, turned out to be the worst kind of monster imaginable. Suddenly, you’re thrown into a living nightmare you don’t deserve and certainly never asked for. You’re terrified at every turn.
If you’re like Lauren, you would reach out to the police immediately, which she did, multiple times along with her Mom as well, over the next several days.
They would report their fears, share threatening texts, important offender background information and even intimate, private details with the authorities. After all, these are the trusted officers who have sworn to serve & protect the students of the U, right?
What if…in this insane new reality you’ve found yourself in…no one listened or took you seriously? Your repeated cries for help seemed to fall upon deaf ears & no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t quite cut through the red tape?
What if…in a heartbreakingly, unnecessary twist…the monster in this nightmare wins?
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Decide for yourself…as we have quite a bit of back and forth in this case about the gray areas…what the policies and procedures allow for, etc… One thing we can agree on, however, is that this is NOT how Lauren’s story should have ended.
Tara’s Sources:
The Lauren McCluskey Foundation
The Salt Lake Tribune
abc4.com
abcnews.go.com
thecinemaholic.com
