An American nurse’s trip to her “happy place” turned to tragedy when she was killed this week by a man she met at a nightclub in Hungary, police said Friday.
A manhunt erupted when Kenzie Michalski, 31, from Portland, Oregon, vanished from the Budapest night scene on Nov. 5, and police immediately suspected she had been murdered, according to Budapest police.
Security footage from the area showed Michalski on the night of her disappearance bouncing between different clubs with a man, who was later identified as a suspect.
While in custody, the 37-year-old Irish man, only identified by the initials LTM, confessed to the killing and led police to her body.
LTM allegedly told cops the murder was an accident and occurred while they were engaged in an “intimate encounter.”
The pair had met at a nightclub and danced before leaving for his rental apartment, investigators said.
The man allegedly tried to cover up the slaying by cleaning the apartment and hiding the nurse practitioner’s body in a wardrobe before stuffing her in a suitcase he purchased to sneak the body outside.
LTM then rented a car and drove to Lake Balaton, around 90 miles southwest of Budapest, where he dumped the body in a wooden area outside the town of Szigliget.
His internet history was riddled with searches 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 — as well as the competence of Budapest police.
The stunning murder occurred just one day after Michalski and her friend had concluded a trip through Europe.
Michalski remained in Hungary for a final night while Gretchen Tower moved on to visit some friends in Italy, the grieving friend told WKBW.
The duo remained in communication until shortly after midnight Tuesday. Michalski then failed to check out of her Airbnb or make her flight back to the US — prompting Tower to call the US Embassy.
At a candlelight vigil in Budapest Saturday, Michalski’s father Bill said she had visited Budapest before, and called it her “happy place.”
“The history, she just loved it and she was just so relaxed here. This was her city,” the grieving dad told the Associated Press.
“There was no reason for this to happen. I’m still trying to wrap my arms around what happened … I don’t know that I ever will.”