SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – The mother of Lauren McCluskey said she sees so many similarities between her daughter’s death and the recent death of a University of Utah student.
Back in 2018, U of U student Lauren McCluskey was murdered by a man she had dated. Her family sued the university, ending in a multimillion-dollar settlement.
Jill McCluskey said the University called her before it released its findings in the murder of Zhifan Dong.
In that recently released report, the university admitted to “shortcomings” in how staff responded. The report showed Dong told housing staff her boyfriend, Haoyu Wang, assaulted her, but the staff did not report that to campus police. Mccluskey said the most upsetting thing for her was seeing a lack of urgency among everyone who was aware of what was going on.
“Once they received the email that the murderer sent saying that they were going to commit suicide, they were able to find her within about two hours. And I was just thinking, I wish I wish that all that effort had gone in, you know, days earlier, instead of when, when she’s probably already gone,” said McCluskey
While McCluskey said the University has improved a lot since her daughter’s death, it still has a long way to go. McCluskey added she is not angry with the university. She is sad. Sad for Dong and her family. “That’s all you can think about nothing, nothing, there’s nothing else, all you can think about is what happened and that nothing will ever be the same. And it will never be okay,” said McCluskey.
