Mackenzie Lueck Suspect Wrote Disturbing Novel

2 people burned to death in Ayoola Ajayi's book
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 4, 2019 5:21 AM CDT
Updated Jul 4, 2019 6:11 AM CDT
Mackenzie Lueck Suspect Wrote Disturbing Novel
Salt Lake City police take Ayoola A. Ajayi into custody in connection with missing University of Utah student MacKenzie Lueck in Salt Lake City on Friday, June 28, 2019.   (Kristin Murphy/The Deseret News via AP)

A book by the man accused of kidnapping and murdering University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck has been pulled from sale on Amazon—and its subject matter now seems highly disturbing. In "Forge Identity," which Ayoola Ajayi started advertising last year, a teenager watches his friend and a neighbor burn to death, the Daily Beast reports. Investigators say Lueck's charred remains were found in Ajayi's backyard. His neighbors told police that they witnessed him using gasoline to burn something in his yard within a day or two of Lueck's June 17 disappearance. Investigators say they are aware of the apparently self-published book, which boasted "Inspired From True Events" on its cover, the New York Times reports.

The Amazon page for the book described it as the story of a teen who "must decide if he will join the ranks of a criminal mastermind, or fight to escape the tyranny that has surrounded his young life," per the Times. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Ajayi, who was accused of rape in 2014, was banned from the campus of Utah State University in 2012 after campus police accused him of theft. Police reports state that Ajayi may have been homeless at the time. They also suggested that the Nigerian immigrant may have been using a stolen iPad to search for a woman who would marry him and resolve his visa issues. He was allowed back on campus in 2015 after the visa issues were resolved. The 31-year-old has not been formally charged with Lueck's murder yet, but a judge granted a motion from the DA Tuesday to keep him in jail into next week, the Tribune reports. (Ajayi once asked a contractor to build a secret soundproofed room in his house.)

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