An Irish man has been jailed for 14 years by the Budapest-Capital Regional Court for the murder of Mackenzie Elizabeth Michalski, a 31-year-old nurse from Portland, Oregon, who was killed while on holiday in Hungary in November 2024. The relatively short sentence — imposed without the possibility of parole — has drawn attention given the brutal nature of the crime, in which the victim was strangled during sex and her body concealed and dumped in woodland.

The defendant, identified only by his initials LTM under Hungarian anonymity laws and aged 37 at the time, met Michalski at a Budapest nightclub and invited her back to his apartment. According to the court, he tied her up, beat and strangled her, then cleaned the flat, bought a suitcase, and drove her body around 90 miles to woods near Lake Balaton. The court found he intended her death, noting he made no attempt to resuscitate her or call for help.