The estranged wife of Ayoola Ajayi, the man accused of killing Utah college student Mackenzie Lueck, said that he violently abused her, at one point slashing her with a butcher’s knife.
The marriage to Tenisha Jenkins Ajayi provided the alleged murderer the opportunity to shift his immigration status but proved harrowing for Jenkins Ajayi, who said she was finally forced into hiding due to the extent of the violence.
“He was telling me not to talk to anybody. He used to check up on me. He started to get more and more aggressive. Eventually, he said he would kill me if I didn’t go to Utah,” she told the Daily Mail. “He tried to tie me up with a phone cord. When I went [to] run, he blocked the door. I ended up jumping through a window and cutting my arm on the glass.”
Ajayi soon followed with a butcher’s knife, his estranged wife added, displaying a scar of where she was cut on her arm.
“He chased me into the street with a knife and cut me in the hand. I didn’t go to the police but I moved out of my apartment so he couldn’t find me,” she added.
“I was really frightened. He kept saying he was going to kill me.”
Some reports had indicated that Ajayi and Jenkins Ajayi were divorced but she said he would not sign the papers.
She also denied that they were married for immigration reasons, stating they fell in love and he initially treated her four children well.
Sakari Moore, a friend of the accused killer who met Ajayi while they were in basic training together, became Ajayi’s roommate after moving to Utah in January 2018.
Moore told the Salt Lake Tribune that Ajayi would become “irate and disruptive” over issues like how the furniture was set up in the house or how high the heat was when a meal was being cooked.
“He doesn’t like to be told anything other than his way. He snaps or loses his temper, [then] he comes back to his sweet self,” Moore said, noting he eventually moved out. “I was nervous, because the polarity in his emotions [was] just switching very quickly.”
Moore said he couldn’t imagine Ajayi turning violent and didn’t know he was married.
According to police records, Ajayi was investigated for a rape complaint in 2014 but the case wasn’t pursued because the reported victim said she did not want to press charges. He did not have a criminal history apart from traffic violations.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown told reporters during a press conference announcing the charges against Ajayi that he admitted texting with Lueck around 6 p.m. on June 16 but said he did not talk to her later or know what she looked like, reported The Associated Press.
Police found multiple pictures of Lueck, including a profile picture, on his phone.
Police haven’t said how Lueck and Ajayi knew each other but said Ajayi was the last person that Lueck communicated with, prompting a search of his house on June 26 and June 27. He was arrested on June 28.
Police said they found a “fresh dig area” in his backyard along with some of Lueck’s belongings, charred. Brown said that human remains were also found that matched Lueck’s DNA profile.
According to a now-deleted LinkedIn profile, Ajayi was an IT worker for Goldman Sachs, Dell, and Microsoft. It said that he attended the University of Utah, where Lueck was a student, off and on until 2017.
Correction: A previous version of this article included the wrong name for the victim. NTD regrets the error.
