An Irish man has been handed a 14-year prison sentence in Hungary for the murder of an American tourist in Budapest. The verdict was delivered by a Hungarian court on Thursday.
Mackenzie Michalski, 31, from Portland, Oregon, was on holiday in the country when she was reported missing on 5 November 2024. She was last seen at a nightclub in central Budapest, prompting a police investigation.
Detectives reviewed CCTV footage from local venues, which showed Ms Michalski, known to friends as “Kenzie,” with a man later identified as the suspect. The man, identified only by his initials L.T.M and then aged 37, was detained on 7 November and subsequently confessed to the killing.
Investigators revealed that Ms Michalski and the man met at a nightclub and danced before going to his rented apartment. Police stated that the man beat and strangled Ms Michalski during an “intimate encounter.”
The Budapest Metropolitan Court found the man guilty of murder, sentencing him to 14 years imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The eighteen months he has already spent in detention will count towards his sentence, after which the court ordered his deportation from Hungary.
The man must also pay 2.5 million forints ($7,995) in court costs. His attorney has appealed the verdict.
After his arrest in 2024, the man claimed Michalski’s death had been an accident. But police said he had attempted to cover up his crime by cleaning the apartment and hiding 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 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest 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.
