Irishman jailed after US tourists body found in Budapest lake after ‘encounter’

The killer rented a car to dump Kenzie’s remains 90 miles south‑west of Budapest

A 37‑year‑old Irishman has been jailed for 14 years in Hungary for the brutal murder of an American tourist he lured from a Budapest nightclub.

Hungarian police officials have so far identified the killer only by the initials LTM, stating that he murdered 31-year-old Mackenzie Michalski, from Portland, Oregon, as she holidayed in the central European country. LTM had attempted to hide Ms Michalski, who went by “Kenzie”, in a suitcase after killing the tourist on November 5, 2024, Dublin Live reports.

A missing person investigation was launched, leading police to review security footage from local nightclubs where they spotted Kenzie leaving with a man later identified as the suspect in several of the clubs the night of her disappearance.

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.