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Irishman jailed for murdering American woman he met in Hungary nightclub

An Irish man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in Hungary after being convicted of murdering American tourist Mackenzie Michalski before attempting to cover up the crime and dispose of her body.

[Mackenzie Michalski]

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Mackenzie Michalski

A court in Hungary has sentenced an Irish citizen to 14 years in prison for strangling an American tourist to death in the country's capital in 2024.

The victim, 31-year-old Mackenzie Michalski, from Portland, Oregon, was in Hungary on holiday and reported missing on November 5, 2024, after she was last seen at a nightclub in central Budapest. Police launched a missing person investigation and reviewed security footage from local nightclubs where they observed Ms Michalski, who went by "Kenzie", with a man later identified as the suspect in several of the clubs the night of her disappearance.

The man, whom police identified by the initials LTM and was 37 at the time, was detained on November 7 and questioned, and later 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.

The man beat and strangled Ms Michalski while they were engaged in an "intimate encounter", police said. The Budapest Metropolitan Court on Thursday found the man guilty of murder and sentenced him to 14 years imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

[Mackenzie Michalski]

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Mackenzie Michalski

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 man claimed Ms Michalski's death had been an accident. But police said he had attempted to cover up his crime by cleaning the apartment and hiding Ms Michalski's body in a wardrobe before purchasing a suitcase and placing her body inside.

He then rented a car and drove to Lake Balaton, around 90 miles south west of Budapest, where he disposed of the body in a wooded area outside the town of Szigliget. Video released by police at the time showed the man guiding authorities to the location where he had left the body.

Police said he had made internet searches before being apprehended on how to dispose of a body, police procedures in missing person cases, whether pigs really eat dead bodies, and the presence of wild boars in the Lake Balaton area. He also made an internet search inquiring on the competence of Budapest police.

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