Irishman probed over Budapest murder of American woman 'dumped in wood'
Mackenzie Seen Was Tuesday On Early While Visiting "kenzie" Michalski Budapest Last
An Irish man being questioned about the killing of American missing woman Mackenzie Michalski in Hungary concealed her body in a suitcase which he then dumped in a wood, according to Hungarian Police.
The man is a 37-year-old who admitted killing the 31-year-old New Yorker before putting her body in a suitcase and leaving her in a wood more than 140km from Budapest, near Lake Balaton, police said on Saturday afternoon.
The statement said the man lived in a rented apartment in Budapest and identified him in the statement as an Irish man with the initials M.L.T
Mackenzie "Kenzie" Michalski was last seen early on Tuesday, according to friends who raised the alarm with the US embassy when it became clear she was missing. She had failed to check out of the Airbnb in which she was staying while in Budapest.
The police statement said: “The 31-year-old American girl had arrived in Hungary as a tourist. She met an Irish man, a couple years her senior, in a nightclub and together they visited another nightclub, where they danced and became closer. After she had decided to go to his rented apartment in the 7th district, they had gotten intimate, and he killed her in the process.”
“The perpetrator then tried to cover up the murder; so he cleaned his apartment and hid the girl's body in the wardrobe cabinet while he went out to buy a suitcase. He then put the victim's body in the suitcase, rented a car and drove to Lake Balaton with the suitcase in the trunk. He hid his victim in the woods, in an area outside Szigliget and then drove back to Budapest, where he was captured and arrested.”
The police said that the man confessed to killing the woman, but claimed it was an accident.
"After his interrogation, the suspect also showed the detectives where he had hidden the body. He was taken into custody and his arrest was initiated.”
It is alleged by police that the man carried out a number of internet searches following the killing, which included: "Do pigs really eat dead bodies?", "Texas woman killed by a wild boar. ", "Wild boar sighting in Lake Balaton coastal towns", "What does a corpse smell like after it decomposes", "Getting rid of the smell of rotting meat ", Budapest webcams", "What happens after a person is reported missing", "How do the police handle missing person cases?", "How reliable is the police in Budapest?"
Ms Michalski, a 31-year-old New Yorker, was from Fredonia, where a vigil was to take place on Saturday evening. She had most recently been living in Portland, Oregon.
According to a post on a Facebook group called “Find Mackenzie Michalski”, which was created on November 7, Ms Michalski, who was known as Kenzie, was a nurse practitioner who “will forever be remembered as a beautiful and compassionate young woman”.
At a candlelight vigil in Budapest on Saturday night, the victim’s father, Bill Michalski, told The Associated Press that he was “still overcome with emotion” at the death of his daughter.
“There was no reason for this to happen,” he said. “I’m still trying to wrap my arms around what happened … I don’t know that I ever will.” Ms Michalski had visited Budapest before, and her father called it her “happy place”.
“The history, she just loved it and she was just so relaxed here,” he added. “This was her city.”