Lauren McCluskey: Can We Tell Which Relationships Will Turn Deadly? (Part 1)

We started asking a question recently that's been sitting pretty heavy with us ever since we started digging into it. And the question is, can you actually tell in real time, while it's happening not after, not hindsight, which relationship is going to turn deadly? This is the story of a 21-year-old track star who did nearly everything you're supposed to do. She researched him. She told her friends. She told her mom. She told the campus police more than 20 times. She walked into a police station and reported in detail that she was being extorted by a man that she now knew was a convicted felon. And then nine days later, she was dead. So this is the story of Lauren McCluskey. Did you ever hear a story and think, we're not getting the full picture? That's where we start. On This Feels Criminal, we unpack crime, corruption, and conspiracy with curiosity, context, and just a touch of chaos. We step outside the timelines and ask better questions and explore the systems behind the story, all in a voice that feels more like a friend than a reporter. Because when you identify the patterns, you can't unsee how often they show up. I'm Nikita. And I'm Tarella. And this is This Feels Criminal. And like we said, every case is now asking bigger questions. And we're going to use real cases to explore those questions. And see where the evidence leads us. So just a reminder, this will be a two-parter. This is part one of Lauren McCluskey. And part two will be available to you on Thursday. Unless, of course, you're a patron. In which case, it's available to you right now. So just get on over there. So let's just get started. Lauren McCluskey was 21 years old. She was a senior at the University of Utah. She was originally from Pullman, Washington. And she was a track and field athlete. A good student. And was described by everyone around her as driven. She lived on campus at the Shoreline Dormitory, which is run by the university's own Department of Housing and Residential Education. That is going to matter later. Because campus housing is going to be a big part of this story. She was close with her parents, Jill and Matthew. She talked to her mom on the phone constantly. Which is, again, a small detail. But it's going to become important later. Because of how her family ends up hearing the worst night of her life happens in real time. And this isn't just a story about a young woman who ignores red flags. It's actually the opposite. Like we said, she did just about everything that you are supposed to do. She saw the red flags. She reported them correctly. And to the people whose job it was to respond. So on September 3rd, 2018, Lauren meets a man who's working as a bouncer. At a bar that she'd gone to with her friends. And he introduces himself as Sean Fields. He says he's 28 years old. He's a computer science student. And he works part-time in security. Now, he's a big guy. He is over 6 feet tall. He's about 250 pounds. He's referred to as good-looking. I'll let you decide that yourself. And by all early accounts, attentive and respectful. Now, at this point, Lauren didn't have a whole lot of dating experience. And by September the 10th, remember this is just a week later. They're officially together. Now, that's pretty fast. And remember, we talked about this in the toxic love story episode 2. Like the very, very quickly being in a serious relationship. Something that with Ian Diaz had commitment tied to it. He's proposing. He's hurrying up and rushing into marriage and stuff like that. Right. But this is an intense and very fast relationship. And it's one of the documented risk factors that we're going to come back to in a few minutes. So, just put a pin in that. Now, within days, her friends are already noticing some things that are off that feel concerning to them. He wants to know where she is. He wants to know what she's doing. He wants to know who she's with. At first, they're like, it doesn't feel great. It feels a little overbearing. But at this point, it doesn't feel dangerous. And Lauren had kind of explained to them, look, he's got some stuff in his past. And, you know, past relationships, you know, possibly people had cheated on him before or whatever. So, he's just kind of sensitive to that kind of stuff. So, she's like, yeah, you know, it seems like a lot. But there's a reason for it, essentially. Now, before we get into how fast this all unraveled and what all happened, we are going to tell you who Sean Fields actually was. Because it's so much worse than you could even imagine. Yes. So, Sean Fields, real name, Melvin Sean Rowland. And he is 37 years old. Now, Sean obviously was his real name. So, he kind of built this identity around a partial truth, I guess. Which, you know, is a manipulation tactic, right? It's not just some. It's not just some coincidence. It's not some name he pulled out of thin air. Like, he kind of is that person. And that's like, that's how they do it. They give you just a little bit. It's built enough on truth that. That it seems real. Yeah. It seems real. It's easy to gaslight yourself, you know? Because it's like. Because if you find out his real name isn't Sean Fields, but it is Melvin Sean Rowland, well, then he's like, but Sean is my, you know. Yeah. I just go by something different. Like. Yeah. Yeah. So, in 2008, he was. In 2004, Rowland was convicted of two separate felonies committed just days apart. A second-degree felony for enticing a minor over the internet and a third-degree felony for attempted forcible sexual abuse. His sentence should have kept him incarcerated until 2019. He was released early on parole, though. So, just let that sink in. Yeah, because they met in 2018, September of 2018. Exactly. So, if he had served out his full sentence, he would not have met Lauren. In December of 2018, after Lauren's death, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole released audio from five of Rowland's parole hearings, spanning from 2010 to 2018. And those are public record, if you would like to go listen to those. And in a 2012 hearing, a board member asked Rowland how many women he'd raped. And his answer was, well, like that, two. But. As far as women that I manipulated into sex, probably 50. And I was like, oh, my God. You want to play a game? Okay, that's my best saw impression. But for real, though, let's play a game, okay? False or fact, some cat food brands use the same meat grade that you would find in a hot dog. False or fact? And if you said fact, you would be correct. Most cat food is filled with water and fillers. All right. False or fact, a bag of cat food labeled natural has zero legal definition behind it. That's also a fact. 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ESPN investigated this far more than any other law enforcement agency did, so. Love that. Love that. But listening to those parole board hearings, how many women did he get arrested and convicted of raping? One. Forcible sexual abuse. One. He just said two. He just said two. That means there is another person he has outright raped. And has admitted to. and has admitted to it. The parole board heard that and said, but listen to him. He's taking accountability. He said, but, but, you know, two and, um, you know, women that I manipulated into sex and they elaborated on that. Do you mean manipulated into it by not being upfront and honest with them about certain things? And so they sleep with you thinking one thing. And he was like, yeah, you know, all that kind of stuff. Like I did that with everybody. That's how I was with everybody. Run of the mill, run of the mill stuff. Run of the mill shit. And I, I really think that these people were like, wow, you know, he's saying it out loud. Such growth. Yeah. And I'm incensed. That's yeah. So parole officers flagged his manipulative behavior across nearly a decade of hearings. At a 2016 hearing, officer Peggy Stewart described a documented pattern of Roland using a jail employee to get internet access, getting removed from the jail, a prison program for lying and manipulating staff and writing to a woman he'd been incarcerated with asking her to quote, wear provocative clothing outside the prison fence. So he could see her just registered sex offender here. Yeah. No big deal. No big deal. It's fine. But despite all of that, and despite the board's own paper trail describing exactly this sort of predatory and manipulative pattern, he gets paroled. And when he met Lauren, he was not only on parole, he was legally a category one restricted person that was barred outright from possessing a firearm. Let's remember he is working in security right now. Does that mean he has a firearm? No. But should he be in this position of power? Yeah. Should he be in this position? I don't think so. So the parole board wasn't working blind though. So let's come back to that. They had years of documented behavior in front of them. And the closest thing to a risk assessment that existed on Roland himself. And they released him anyway. That's the first system in this story that had the information and did not stop him. And unfortunately, it will not be the last. And we will come back to that part in part two. But put a pin in it for now. Okay. And this is also bringing up another question, you know, because we're now we're like using cases to answer questions. And I want to know more about the parole system. Why would he get paroled with? Look, this is not a person who has been a model prisoner. This is not a person who's come in, put his head down, done his time, worked on, you know, school, kept himself, whatever. He is over and over and over again, violating his conditions. And they've caught him in it. And they actually ask him about it. And they're like, but you did this, but you did that, but you did this, but you did that. Yeah. And they're like, you know what, let's let him go. Let's see what happens. Uh, yeah. Yeah. So let's just go back to that. To the 50 women thing. Right. Because he was like, no big deal. It's fine. But we don't want to overstate research that we've actually read. Right. So that figure is Roland's own self reporting. Could it be more than that? Probably. Could it be less than that? Maybe either way, that's his ballpark number. And that's very concerning. Right. That his own by his own admission, he is. He's a well trained manipulator at this point. He's telling you to your face. He's saying the quiet part out loud. Yep. And you're not hearing it. And you as the parole board know that it is beneficial for somebody to walk in there and sound remorseful to lay all the bad shit out on the table to make it sound like, yeah, I've accepted it. I'm taking accountability for it. That's who I was, but that's not who I'm going to become. He even said something to one of them, like, you know, I know all you have to judge me on is, you know, what I've done. And yeah, I've continued to violate while I'm in here. But like, I would just love for you to give me the opportunity to prove to you that that's not who I am anymore. And when I get out of here, I very much think that I should be on a parole board. I think I'd be very good at it because there's nothing I love more than to tell people. No, it's, it's my default setting. I love a good, no, it feels good to me. And I, but I'm also willing to change my mind. I'm willing to change my mind. I'm right. So if you can, if you can get me to, yes, I'm willing to go to yes, but I'm starting at no. And I don't feel like enough people on this parole board were willing to start at no. No. And also I think you're really good at seeing these kinds of behaviors for what they are. I'm going to be fucking so real with you. I probably would have heard how he sounds like he's atoning and been like, well, he's, I mean, he's saying it out loud. Like that, that sounds like growth to me. I probably would have, I would have maybe been swayed by that again. I just, I know this about myself, but I would have been like, I'm sorry, two, you were only convicted for one. You've manipulated 50 women. Where was that doc? What do you mean? No. And then also explain your history while you're in here. Exactly. This is a pattern that is repeating. Yeah, it is. And I mean, maybe my only assumption is that maybe he. Was paroled early because it was just going to be within the year that he was getting out anyway. And so they were just like, we need more space in jail or something, which I think is a lame excuse. But anyway, let somebody else go. Not this guy. Not this. Yeah. Let somebody go who has not violated anything, who is not still practicing manipulative and predatory behaviors. Yeah. Yeah. And we looked at some broader research as well on whether abusive men, you know, repeat the exact same pattern. across different partners, and there's really like a gap in that kind of study. And so there's not really a settled statistic that we can give you. But I would say in this case, by his own admission, he has a pattern. He's got an MO, guys. But we can obviously verify one other relationship in his parole history where a different woman describes the same love bomb than control pattern. And in her own words, that's how she describes that relationship. And then, of course, he admits that he's done this to at least 50 women and forcibly raped two of them. So again, the writing's on the wall. 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That's rula, R-U-L-A dot com slash queens for quality therapy that's covered by insurance. Rula will help you find the right therapist, help you schedule your appointments, and they'll monitor your progress. Plus, Rula is committed to see you succeed in reaching your therapy goals by making sure that their providers are carefully screened and vetted, and by monitoring the quality of their care. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit rula.com slash queens to get started. That is rula, R-U-L-A dot com slash queens. You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. That's rula, R-U-L-A dot com slash queens. So that kind of gives you an idea of what Lauren is up against at this point. So she doesn't know any of this. At this point, she believes his name is Sean Fields, that he is 28 years old, that he works in security and he's a student. She thinks that he's just been hurt before. And she thinks that he's just been hurt before. And so that's why maybe he's a little overbearing at this point. So there is also research on actually possibly identifying which relationships will turn deadly. And it is a clinical tool. There are studies and it's used. So it's called the Danger Assessment and it's developed by a John Hopkins nursing researcher named Dr. Jacqueline Campbell. And it is used by police departments, hospitals, and domestic violence shelters. To score how likely an abusive relationship is to turn lethal. It's a checklist. So let's run Lauren's relationship through it. We have a short, very intense courtship. They go from meeting to full-on together within a week. That's a check. Check. Extreme jealousy and hostile monitoring. He is conducting these interrogation-style calls, you know, where she is, who were you with, who did you see, you know, all of these things. That's a check. Isolation from friends and family. He's discouraged. her from going to social events without him present. He doesn't want her going anywhere that he can't watch her. Check. Attempts to control daily activity. He would go through her texts and emails. He would dictate what she wore. That's a check. Stalking. The way that he did it is he told her outright that he was watching her. Specifically so that she would be afraid that he could be watching at any moment. So that she didn't stray from any type of behavior that he wanted her to do. And that is an intentional control tactic. And stalking, I was horrified to read this. Stalking specifically is one of the strongest predictors that researchers have found. A landmark study of femicide cases found that 76% of women killed by a partner had been stalked by that partner beforehand. And when the woman had also been physically assaulted by that partner, the number climbs to 89%. That is horrific. That is horrific. And I will tell you that one of the things that I did not realize, I read that and that really sent a chill because the relationship that I was in in high school, that could have been me. I mean like, he stalked me pretty relentlessly. But what I would love for everybody to know, because I think that Lauren felt the same way too. Yes, he was showing up where she was. Yes, he was watching her. But they were together. And so when I was in the relationship that I was in and I would go to work, I worked part-time at this restaurant, and it had this big glass window in the front. I worked as a cashier. He would park and sit, and he'd watch me the whole time from the time I clocked in to the time I clocked out. And he'd just sit there. And the guys that I worked with were like, that's fucking weird. Some of the guys in the kitchen were grown-ups, what I would consider grown-ups. Some of them were also in high school. Some of them were in college. And they were all like, that's fucking weird, girl. They weren't comfortable with it. They wanted to walk me to my car. And later, after we broke up, he continued to stalk me, and I had to be walked to my car. And my boss had to call the police several times and all this stuff. But anyway, but he would watch me while I was working, and I thought it was sweet. I didn't know. You know, I'm like 16 years old. And I thought, it never occurred to me that it could be stalking because we were together. I didn't think you could be stalked by somebody that you were with. And, you know, he's allowed to be where I am, right? Like, I like spending time with him. I want to be around him. And I think that Lauren probably, this is my own speculation, probably didn't realize how dangerous that was either. Yeah. Especially at that age, which I mean, you were 16. She was 21. 21 is still a baby. Are you an adult, technically? But are you really? Absolutely not. No. But, I mean, at that age, I would not have considered that stalking either. I would have considered it very fucking annoying because, like, why are you so obsessed with me? I mean, you should be, obviously, but, like, why? It's weird. Like, yeah. But I am also a person who needs hyper, like, I can be very hyper-independent. Like, I need space. Yeah. And I need you to leave me alone and let me do things on my own. Yeah. And so, like, that would be something that would be concerning to me in a relationship, but not for this reason. Not because I would think, oh, this is stalking. Right. I would be like, you're a stage five clinger and I can't. Yeah. I simply cannot. Yeah. You're bothering me, but I'm not scared. Yeah. Exactly. I wouldn't have been scared by it either at this point. Yeah. Because I would have thought, this is a person I'm in a relationship with. Why would he be stalking me? We're already together. Exactly. Yeah. Because you think of stalking as this, like. Of, like, wanting something you don't have. Exactly. Like, you're trying to predator prey catch something, right, that's not yours. Yeah. And it clearly is not that. No. And most of it is stuff like this. It occurs within the relationship, and then when you leave it, you know, escalates. Yeah. Also, chronic unemployment and financial dependence. Mm-hmm. He was unemployed. He was relying on Lauren for food and a place to stay. So that's a check. He was, I guess, a part-time bouncer for at least part of their relationship. It doesn't seem like that continued, so. Yeah. No, it doesn't. But when they first met. Yeah. Yeah. And presumably for at least the first seven days before they were officially together. Right. Access to a gun. Hmm. Horrifyingly checked on September the 23rd, in direct violation of his parole, remember, he's not supposed to have one, and his restricted person status, he took her out to shoot guns with friends and was talking about getting her a gun of her own to protect her from other men. And her friends were like, what? That's wild. That's wild. On the danger assessment specifically, firearm access is one of the single biggest predictors that there is. Campbell's research found an abused woman is roughly five times more likely to be killed when her abuser has access to a gun. A finding significant enough that it has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2024. That's horrifying. That is horrifying. Another one. Threats of self-harm used as manipulation. Check. We'll get into that. Manipulative behavior, narcissism, grandiosity, invented heroism. Check, check, check. The entire Sean Fields persona was built on invented credentials. He's a protector. He's a bouncer. He works security. He's also a student. He's also a student. And, you know, all of these things. So, the research also cited in the family's complaint notes that danger to a victim spikes hardest in the first three months after she tries to leave and then stays elevated for close to a year. That's crazy. And only tapers after that. I didn't realize it lasted for a year. I mean, I knew obviously, like, in the immediate aftermath, things escalated, but I don't think I had a timeline, like, a solid timeline in my mind for how long we would say that that lasts for. Yeah. But a year is insane. It's insane. And you'd think it's like, okay, well, we broke up, so, like, he'll move on. Yeah. We'll get some distance. It'll be fine. But it's about control. They don't move on. Right. They have to have that control. And at this point in the story, she's trying to leave. She's about to try to leave. Mm-hmm. There's also the physical and behavioral warning signs that Lauren's friends were noticing independently, okay? She had been losing weight. They said she looked absolutely exhausted. She stopped wearing makeup. Her grades were slipping. They said that there was unexplained bruising on her body, and they were like, you know, this is. They referred to it, some of them, as she stopped taking care of herself. Like, her hygiene was slipping. Her just overall appearance and demeanor was shrinking. And she just. She was not the same Lauren that they knew. Shrinking is such a good word for that. Yeah. Because in these types of situations, I feel like that's what the abuser, manipulator, person in control wants, is they want you to get smaller because they need you to be under them. Exactly. And they need to be able to keep you there. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because somebody who loses confidence in themselves is so much easier to control. Yes. And it's also wild because so many times, these relationships start because the person is so confident and is so bubbly and has this big personality and people are drawn to them. And the abuser is also drawn to them, but then they want to diminish that. Exactly. Quickly. Very, very quickly. Very quickly. And, you know, this is one of those situations where all of these signs. Again, we just went through this checklist and she hits. This relationship hits, like, all of them. Mm-hmm. And. These were visible signs in the moment to multiple people who knew Lauren. Mm-hmm. And these are people that. Most of them are very young. These are all. Yeah. These are friends that are around her same age. Some of them who don't even go to school with her. Yeah. Yeah, they're all in college. Some of them like her friends from back home and they are noticing these things, too. So these are very palpable and obvious signs that they're putting together. And so the question isn't really necessarily, could anyone have seen this coming because. Yeah. Yeah. But now the question is, well, who saw it? What did they do with it? Yep. And what should have happened, right? Yeah. Which is where we're going to go next. If you're new to This Feels Criminal or you've been listening for a while and aren't sure where to go next, we put together something just for you. It's called the This Feels Criminal Essentials and it's a curated collection of the episodes that best capture what the show is all about. Around here, we believe every case asks a bigger question. We don't just retell the story. We ask the questions that help us understand why it happened, what it reveals, and why it still matters. We're not here to tell you what to think. We're not your real mom and we never will be, but we are here to give you enough context to think for yourself, explore your perspectives, and understand the system, not just the story. If that sounds like your kind of true crime, you can get the TFC a Essentials and join our email community at thisfeelscriminal.link slash essentials. We can't wait to hang out with you. So on September 26th, Lauren tells her close friend, Alexandria Mumphrey, that she's frustrated and sad about Roland's controlling behavior and mentions like almost in passing that he's planning to get her a gun so she can protect herself from other men. Alexandra is alarmed by this. She calls two of their other friends their sisters, it's Alejandra and Carmen Sanchez, and all three of them had independently noticed this same shift in Lauren. So she mentions it to the one friend. She reaches out to some other mutual friends, and they're like, yeah, girl, we see it. Yeah. On September 30th, she becomes concerned enough to act, and Alejandra goes to the dorm's graduate assistant, who is a woman named Diamond Jackson, and she lays it all out. She says, you know, this relationship is unhealthy. It is controlling. She's with an older man. He goes into these jealous rages. He does these interrogation-style check-ins with her, and we've seen visible changes in Lauren's appearance and her mood. She has unexplained bruising. Roland also has compromising images of Lauren that, you know, he could use against her, and he's, essentially, been living in her dorm room, and he's planning to get her a gun. So the friend, they tell, this is their, what do you call the dorm person? I never lived in a dorm. It's like the, like the hall monitor. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. The RA. So basically, they go tell the RA of their dorm building what's going on, right? And she goes, this is Diamond, goes the same day and escalates it. Based on the procedures that she knows. And I was like, good on you, girl. Good on you. So she, I know, she goes to the resident director, who is Emily Thompson, who was new to the role and was unsure of what to do, and to the area coordinator, Heather McCarthy. And according to the complaint, McCarthy's response was to tell Jackson not to check on Lauren directly and not to call campus police because she says the concerns were, quote, speculative and saying that the university needed, to respect Lauren's privacy. And I was like, girl. First of all, I'm not blaming Diamond Jackson. No, she did what she could. She did what she could do, what she thought she was supposed to do. She escalated it. And at this point, if they're like, no, we don't need to do these things, I would probably also be like, okay, well, I'll probably just keep checking in on her because I will be concerned personally. But I'm assuming, because I've now escalated this, that you're handling it. The way it needs to be handled, right? And yeah, and by the way, Diamond Jackson continues to stay involved and she continues to report things. Like, it's not like she has a one and done. Like, she stays involved. But it doesn't help. Nothing happens. Yeah. On October 1st, there is a follow-up area meeting and Jackson gives even more detail to McCarthy and Thompson at that time. She tells them about the isolation, about Lauren's fear of angering Roland, the exploitation risk, from the photos and the stalking, the bruising, the gun plan, like everything. And this is basically now becoming a textbook domestic violence report delivered to staff of the university who are trained to deal with these kinds of things or supposed to be trained to deal with these kinds of things. And again, the response is that officials say there's nothing they can do because of privacy concerns. They suggest waiting, until Lauren asks for help herself and promised to loop in another administrator and schedule a review with the university's care team. And I was like, what do you mean, wait till she comes to ask for help? What do you think this is? Yeah. What is she doing right now? Yeah. Like, it's not her specifically, it's her friends pointing it out, but. Yeah, but still, her friends are asking for help because they're also in danger. Everyone in this building is in danger, potentially. Well, a hundred percent. And also, a person that is. In this relationship, you can't always see these things. Exactly. And Lauren saw them much faster than many other people are able to. Yes, she did. Yeah. And that's not blaming anybody who's in an abusive relationship. It took me months and months and months. And I didn't figure it out until somebody came to our school to talk to us about abusive relationships. And there was a pamphlet with checkboxes. And as she's reading them out, I'm like, oh my God. They're like, wait a minute. I checked all but three, and it was a three-page thing. And I was like, oh, shit. Like, I didn't know. I was finding that out for the first time, right? Lauren is spotting these things faster, but at this point, her friends are spotting it. A person in that relationship is not always able to see it. And if they are able to see it, they are explaining things away. They are, but he was so nice at first, you know, but, you know. Well, and they're also afraid. And they're also afraid. Because what if she had told Diamond Jackson and they had done something? And they had done something. And they had done something about it. And they had come out there to do a check. And they didn't arrest him. They didn't find anything wrong. But now he knows. But now he knows. That she's reported this. And now he's going to be even more pissed out. Like. Exactly. Anyway. Exactly. So they, like I said, they looped in another administrator and they scheduled a review with the university's care team. And that team exists specifically for these kinds of situations. And they were supposed to meet on October 8th. So that happened October 1. They're scheduled to meet October 8th. On October 2nd, a technical glitch blocks a formal referral from being filed. So Jackson sends an email instead. And officials tell her that they will, quote, keep Lauren on their radar. But nobody follows up. Not with Jackson. And not with Lauren. Perfect. Perfect. I was hoping that's exactly what would happen. Well, today's your lucky day. Then on October the 3rd and 4th, during that period of time, Lauren figures out that. Because remember, up until this point, she thinks this is Sean Fields. Her friends are reporting Sean Fields. She finds out that Sean Fields is Melvin Sean Rowland. She finds out he's been lying about his name and his age because he leaves his ID out, which is fucking stupid. Yeah. Because he's essentially living with her. And she sees his ID. She takes a picture of it. And she's like, what the fuck? Who is this guy? Like, I don't, you know, like, that's not what he gave me or whatever. She leaves campus for fall break. She goes back home to Washington State to see her family. During this period of time, the housing officials meet multiple times to review, quote, unquote, the situation. But there's no report ever passed to the campus police. Now, remember, that one meeting with the care team was supposed to happen on October the 8th. But they canceled that. We don't know why. And then there was no follow-up to reschedule it. Yeah. It just got canceled. Now, we'll come back to this detail in part two. But the complaint, which we'll talk about, alleges housing had an internal culture of only calling campus police as an absolute last resort because campus police had a reputation for either not responding or being completely and totally a waste of fucking space when they did. So that's good. That's great. I'm glad they're there. Yeah. Meanwhile, in Washington, Lauren and her friend, Regina Snyder, do an internet search on the new name that Lauren now knows. He's not Sean Fields. He's Melvin Sean Rowland. And that's when they find out that he's a convicted felon and a sex offender. And by the way, she found this on the Google that all of us have. Yeah. Basic Google search, guys. Not like hacked into some weird thing and paid for a background check. Like, literally just Googled him. Just Googled him. So Lauren's like, Mom, I got to break up with this guy. And her mom is like, absolutely. That's a that's a great idea. And she says, but I need to do it in a public place. Very smart. That is so sad for me, like, to think about because. Yeah. I mean, it's so sad that she had to think that, but it was so smart of her to recognize that that was something that needed to happen. Yeah. And her friend was like, girl, yeah, you've got to stay in a public place. Like, you can't you can't be going anywhere private with this guy. So on October 9th, she gets back home and she's going to break up with him publicly. But instead, he shows up at her dorm window first. So she's kind of freaking out because she wasn't expecting him to be there. Right. So she opens the door to confront him. He pushes his way in. He refuses to leave and essentially holds her hostage in her own dorm room overnight and is telling her because she's like, what is this conviction? Like, you're a sex offender and you have, you know, this like felony. And he's like, that was a setup. It was a frame job. Like, it's not what it seems, you know, like all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So Alex, her friend, who was was the one that was like, you've got to break up with him. We got to do it publicly and all that kind of stuff. She was trying to get a hold of Lauren that night and she couldn't. And so she was starting to get really worried. And the next morning, Lauren finally calls her, but she's like hushed on the phone. And Alex is like, are you OK? And she said that Lauren sounded really scared. She was like whispering or whatever. And she was like, are you alone? And Lauren was like, no, call you later. And so they knew that he was there and he was controlling her communication with other people, which is. Crazy. Crazy. The next morning, she is able to talk her way out. She tells him she has track practice and she's like, here, you take my car. I can get to track practice without it. Like, if you need to borrow my car, that's fine. Just borrow my car. And he's like, OK, great. And so he finally leaves. Yeah. But that same evening, Lauren starts getting texts that are supposedly from Roland's friends. And she suspects immediately that it's actually him. And she was right about that. One of them read, quote, hey, bitch, your car is at Stadium Key in passenger seat on floor. Good luck, idiot. And. another simply said quote go kill yourself okay and i was like wow okay we get to october 10th and roland calls offering to return the car in person she's afraid it's a setup to isolate her again i was like so smart girl yes so smart and lauren calls her mom instead and jill calls campus police explains that roland is a registered sex offender and asks for a police escort so campus police do arrange one and lauren safely retrieves her car but nobody follows up on the longer pattern that she and her mother had just described no and at first when they called lauren and they're like i mean do you feel safe to go by yourself or do you want us there and at first lauren is like i mean i think it would be okay you know because and that's what happens you're like well they're acting like a lot of nothing yeah but they're also acting like it would be an inconvenience to them to show up like that's your job yeah and then finally the dispatcher is like i mean we can send somebody there yeah just to you know be there to make sure nothing happens and lauren's like actually that would be really great yeah when somebody says hey i don't feel comfortable i don't feel safe and you act like it's a huge inconvenience for you to help them and they've called you for help like how do you think that makes them feel like they already feel very vulnerable and they're scared and now you're questioning whether or not they actually are scared because you might have to drive five minutes across campus on the off chance that you're not going to be able to drive five minutes that nothing does happen yeah and like what are you there for what's exactly so october 11th more texts start coming in this time it's a more elaborate manipulation and roland it's that roland has been in an accident and that it's her fault and eventually that he has died and she needs to come to a funeral he does this whole suicide hoax and uses that as leverage which is wild wild it's absolutely it's absolutely wild and it's fucking stupid because he's also texting her separately and she's like telling her mom and her friends she's like he said he these people are texting me saying that he's dead and it's my fault but i'm pretty sure he's still alive because he's yeah me too like you didn't plan this very well my friend but okay um october 12th it is early morning she starts getting more texts that say sean is gone because of you don't come to his funeral we had his phone texting you you called bitch and lauren describes that she's involved the police and they respond with well so do we and i was like okay good great yeah like please call the police that would actually be very helpful if you would do it because i've been trying and it's not working yep but she is again suspicious this is another attempt to lure her somewhere and so she calls campus police to report these harassing text messages and their response is there's nothing they can do right now call back if it escalates and i was like wow okay bitch i did this is escalating yeah this is do you have the call log of the any of the other reporting i've done thank you so much i hate everyone and everything it gets worse guys and so just you know buckle up yeah on october the 13th in the morning lauren calls the campus police she's following up on the report that she had given the day before and she says okay those texts are all from roland himself none of them were from his quote-unquote friends and there's more she had paid him a thousand dollars that morning via venmo the same morning after he threatened to release a compromising photo of her from the relationship and now he's coming back and he's saying i want another thousand dollars to not release a second one so he's out actively extorting her they're like okay well we'll have somebody call you back like they kind of blow it off and so she's like you know what i'm just gonna go to the police the campus police station her friend alex goes with her and this infuriated me officer miguel derris remember that name because we're gonna come back to him he comes out to take her report but he doesn't bring her into a room he doesn't bring them anywhere even though they have rooms specifically for shit like this yep he stays standing up lauren and alex are sitting on the like it's like a you know it's an open lobby they're just like chairs and he gets all the information there and lauren is like okay so here's what's going on okay i met this guy he gave me a fake identity he's got felonies on his record for forcible sex abuse um he is he's a registered sex offender which is the fact that he's on campus and no one seems to care about that when she's repeatedly told them is wild because she found that out with a very basic google search which i assume they are also capable of doing which and while they're sitting here at the thing lauren pulls up the search on her phone and is like see this is who he is like this is what it is he is like following me around looking in my windows he's harassing me he's stalking me he um got a thousand dollars out of me he's actively extorting me and so now there's he's wanting another thousand dollars and she brings like text and payment receipts all of the stuff and so at first the officer is like yeah it actually sounds like a scam so i would just ignore it and she's like yeah he does say that at that point lauren says i can't say for sure that it's him i guess like because he's like well how do you know it's him and she's like i mean i guess i can't for sure say that it's him i don't see him yeah i'm not watching him text me but who else the would be yeah and so they pull him up and they look in the university's database so he's not a student but they pull up a different person with a similar enough name and they decide he seems like a good guy yeah also she's told you he's not a student so why are you looking at the student database why are you doing that yeah i don't i just don't they're like yeah i mean this guy seems like a nice guy to me how the fuck would you know that how the fuck would you know that well so did john wayne gacy he looked nice oh what the fuck so they finally do a criminal history check they find his convictions but nobody checks his parole or supervision status which they could have done because they have the ability to do that yeah so nobody contacts his parole officer who could have found him in violation and sent him back to jail and they have her fill out a witness statement and she's trying to include you know everything and they tell her to just focus on the extortion and leave the rest out because an officer daris is like well i just thought it was like a simple like extortion case i didn't know about all the other stuff it's like but why is that because you told her to stop talking about it yeah not because she didn't try and so the officers are like we'll follow up with you uh by october the 16th and just i feel like it's worth only want to focus on the extortion sure fine he's extorting her with compromising photos that is still a sexually charged crime and we know he is a sex offender yes and if your whole thing is but we don't know that he was the person that was doing it did you investigate it but did you check because you just check to make sure exactly she shows them the phone numbers that all of this stuff is coming from and she's like some of these phone numbers i have seen him use before so again they don't do any of that they don't interview him they don't talk to him they don't look into it any further than that they just say whatever yeah well they're not real police they're campus police and that's different exactly so october 16th lauren writes that down as a date on the calendar that was supposed to mean that somebody's going to finally do something right now we're going to end part one here with lauren walking out of the police station on october the 13th having done everything right one more time and being told we'll be in touch with you later because what happens between october the 13th and october 22nd is the part of the story that turns a preventable crime into a federal lawsuit a 13.5 million dollar settlement and a law with lauren's name on it and it's going to force us to actually answer the question that we opened with can you tell in real time which relationship will turn deadly not after not with a documentary and a court file and two years of hindsight we want to know in the moment so come back thursday for part two we're going to finish lauren's story we're going to walk through the closest thing this case ever got to a trial we're going to test what we've learned against a second case on the other side of the world and land on the question that this case leaves us with which is why does it take a body for institutions to finally act and remember patrons are already getting part two and every episode early and ad free the link is in the show notes we'll see you thursday bye you