An Irish national has been handed a 14-year prison sentence in Hungary for the murder of an American traveler in Budapest in 2024.
The victim, Mackenzie Michalski, aged 31, from Portland, Oregon, went missing on November 5, 2024, during her vacation in Hungary after being last seen in a nightclub in Budapest.
Following a missing person report, authorities reviewed security footage from local nightclubs, identifying Ms. Michalski, known as “Kenzie,” with a man later revealed to be the suspect at several clubs on the night she disappeared.
The suspect, identified as LTM with an age of 37 at the time, was apprehended on November 7, confessed to the crime after being interrogated by the police.
According to investigators, Ms. Michalski and the suspect met at a nightclub, engaged in dancing, and then proceeded to the man’s rented apartment, where the tragic incident occurred.
The man admitted to assaulting and strangling Ms. Michalski during an intimate encounter, leading to her death.
On Thursday, the Budapest Metropolitan Court convicted the man of murder, sentencing him to 14 years in prison with no chance of parole, counting his 18 months in pre-trial detention towards his term, followed by deportation from Hungary.
Additionally, the man was ordered to pay court fees of 2.5 million forints (£6,000) and his legal counsel filed an appeal against the judgment.
Despite claiming the death was accidental after his 2024 arrest, evidence showed the man attempted to conceal his actions by cleaning the crime scene, hiding the victim’s body in a wardrobe, and eventually disposing of it in a wooded area near Lake Balaton.
Police disclosed that the man researched methods to dispose of a body, police protocols for missing persons cases, animal scavenging behavior, and the local wildlife habitat before being caught.
Furthermore, he inquired about the efficiency of Budapest law enforcement through an internet search.