Mackenzie Michalski was spotted in CCTV leaving multiple nightclubs with her eventual killer
An Irishman has been locked up for 14 years after murdering a young American tourist during an “intimate encounter” after luring her from a Budapest nightclub.
The killer, known only as LTM, strangled 31‑year‑old Mackenzie ‘Kenzie’ Michalski before stuffing her body into a suitcase and trying to dump it miles from the capital city. Detectives launched a search when Kenzie was reported missing on November 5, 2024, trawling through CCTV footage from nearby nightclubs.
This line of inquiry led officers to identify Ms Michalski’s Irish killer when the tourist, from Portland, Oregon, was spotted in footage leaving several nightclubs with the man now behind bars, Dublin Live reports.
Police were able to identify LTM, who was aged 37 at the time, and eventually detain him on November 7 for questioning. The Irishman confessed to the killing.
Investigators said that Ms Michalski and the suspect met at a nightclub and danced before leaving for the man’s rented apartment. Inside, he beat and strangled Ms Michalski while they were engaged in an “intimate encounter”, police described.
On Thursday (July 9), LTM was found guilty of murder and sentenced him to 14 years’ imprisonment without the possibility of parole at Budapest’s Metropolitan Court.
The 18 months he has already spent in detention will count toward his sentence, at the end of which the court ordered his deportation from Hungary. The man must also pay 2.5 million forints (£6,000) in court costs. His attorney has appealed against the verdict.
After his arrest in 2024, the suspect insisted Ms Michalski’s death had been accidental. However, investigators said he went to considerable lengths to conceal the killing, scrubbing his apartment and stuffing her body into a wardrobe before buying a suitcase and transferring her remains into it.
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He is then alleged to have rented a car and driven to Lake Balaton, some 90 miles south‑west of Budapest, where he dumped the suitcase in woodland outside the town of Szigliget. Police later released footage showing him leading officers to the spot where he had abandoned the body.
Detectives said his internet history revealed searches on how to dispose of a corpse, police procedures in missing‑person cases, whether pigs consume human remains, and the prevalence of wild boar around Lake Balaton. He also queried online the competence of Budapest’s police force.
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