A 31-year-old American tourist was killed while on holiday in the Hungarian capital, and the suspect, a 37-year-old Irish man, has been arrested, Hungarian police said on Saturday.
The victim, Mackenzie Michalski, was reported missing on November 5 after she was last seen at a nightclub in central Budapest.
A Facebook group called “Find Mackenzie Michalski,” founded Nov. 7, Michalski said, was called “Kenzie.” The group confirmed her death in a statement on Friday and thanked US and Hungarian authorities for “their prompt attention, dedication, care and attention”.
Police launched a missing persons investigation and reviewed security footage from local nightclubs where they observed Michalski with a man who was later identified as a suspect at several clubs on the night of her disappearance.
Police arrested the man, an Irish citizen, on the evening of November 7. Investigators said Michalski and the suspect met at a nightclub and danced before heading to the man’s rented apartment. The man killed Michalski while they were engaged in an “intimate encounter,” police said.
The suspect, identified by police by the initials LTM, later confessed to the killing but said it was an accident. Police said he tried to cover up his crime by cleaning the apartment and hiding Michalski’s body in a wardrobe before buying a suitcase and putting her body inside.
He then rented a car and drove to Lake Balaton, about 150 kilometers southwest of Budapest, where he disposed of the body in a wooden area outside the town of Szigliget.
Video released by police shows the suspect leading authorities to the location where he left the body. Police said that before his arrest, the suspect had searched the Internet about how to dispose of a body, police procedures in missing persons cases, whether pigs actually eat dead bodies and the presence of wild boars in the Lake Balaton area.
He also did an internet search and inquired about the competence of the Budapest police.
Michalski’s parents are currently in Budapest, police told the Associated Press.
Friends posted their condolences on the Facebook candle group. Michalski was a nurse, the social media post said, who “used her humor, positivity and boundless empathy to help her patients heal and encourage family and friends alike.”
