An Irish national has received a 14-year prison sentence in Hungary for the murder of an American tourist in Budapest in 2024.

The victim, Mackenzie Michalski, a 31-year-old from Portland, Oregon, vanished while on a holiday in Hungary and was last seen in a Budapest nightclub on November 5, 2024.

Following her disappearance, authorities conducted a search and analyzed security footage from local clubs. The footage showed Ms. Michalski, known as “Kenzie,” with a man later identified as the suspect at several clubs on the night she went missing.

The suspect, identified as LTM, aged 37 at the time, was apprehended on November 7 and admitted to the crime after questioning by the police.

Investigators revealed that the victim and the suspect met at a nightclub, danced together, and then went to the man’s rented apartment. There, he assaulted and strangled Ms. Michalski during an intimate encounter.

Subsequently, the Budapest Metropolitan Court convicted the man of murder and sentenced him to 14 years in prison with no chance of parole. The time he spent in detention during the investigation will be credited towards his sentence, and he will be deported from Hungary upon completion of his term.

Additionally, the man has been ordered to pay 2.5 million forints (£6,000) in court expenses. His legal representative has filed an appeal against the court’s decision.

Initially claiming the victim’s death was accidental, the man later attempted to conceal the crime by cleaning the apartment, hiding the body in a wardrobe, and ultimately disposing of it near Lake Balaton, approximately 90 miles southwest of Budapest.

Police revealed that the suspect had conducted online searches on body disposal methods, police procedures in missing person cases, animal scavenging behaviors, and local wildlife while also questioning the competence of Budapest law enforcement.

Video evidence released by the police showed the man leading authorities to the location where he left the victim’s body.