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Man Accused Of Killing California Woman Attending College In Utah Charged In 2018 Assault

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man who authorities say killed a Utah college student this summer was charged Tuesday with sexual abuse and kidnapping of another woman in 2018.

Ayoola Ajayi, 31, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met on a dating app in March 2018 at his house. Prosecutors say they learned about the crime as part of an ongoing investigation of Ajayi.

The woman reported the crime to police after Ajayi was charged in June with murder and kidnapping in the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. He declined to say if police have heard from other alleged victims, but said the investigation remains open.

Lueck's story generated national interest when she went missing after she returned to Salt Lake City from a trip to her California hometown for the funeral of her grandmother and took a Lyft from the airport to a park.

Police have said Lueck was last seen getting into Ajayi's car on June 17 at that park, shortly before her death. Ajayi was arrested 11 days later.

Her body was found with her arms bound behind her in a canyon 85 miles (138 kilometers) from Ajayi's home. She died from blunt force trauma to the head, authorities said.

Police and prosecutors have not said how Ajayi and Lueck were connected or disclosed a motive for the killing, but court documents show that investigators searched social media and dating sites while trying to find a link between them.

The new charging documents reveal Ajayi met a woman on an unnamed dating app last year. She went to his house and had dinner with him. The sexual abuse occurred after dinner while they were watching television, the documents say.

Ajay was also previously charged with 19 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after investigators discovered child pornography on his computer.

He has not yet entered pleas to those charges.

The Salt Lake Legal Defenders Association, which has been assigned to represent Ajayi, said it does not plan to make any comments on the charges.

Ajayi is an information technology worker who had stints with high-profile companies and was briefly in the Army National Guard.

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