{"id":635673,"date":"2026-09-25T14:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T14:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635673\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T14:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T14:10:16","slug":"it-wasnt-true-remembering-the-real-mackenzie-michalski-over-her-killers-lies-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635673\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It wasn\u2019t true\u2019: Remembering the real Mackenzie Michalski over her killer\u2019s lies \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few people will ever know what it is like to have a loved one brutally murdered. Even fewer still can comprehend witnessing that person\u2019s reputation publicly smeared in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

Yet this is how family and friends of Mackenzie Michalski describe the experience.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old American nurse from Portland, Oregon, was strangled to death by Dubliner Lorcan Murphy in his Budapest apartment in November 2024 while she was on holiday in Hungary<\/a>\u2019s capital. <\/p>\n

The pair met in the city\u2019s popular nightlife district before returning to the apartment rented by Murphy, a former property developer turned internet marketing entrepreneur from south Dublin.<\/p>\n

It is 15 months since her death and more than two months since her 38-year-old killer was found guilty of her murder<\/a> but claims made at his trial remain fresh in their minds.<\/p>\n

\"LorcanLorcan Murphy was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the murder of Mackenzie Michalski and attempting to hide her body <\/p>\n

Family and friends, looking back, remain horrified at his attempt to argue that her death arose accidentally from \u201cconsensual BDSM activity\u201d and his claim it was a one-night stand gone awry at the hands of an ordinary guy \u2013 an allegation rejected by the Budapest court that convicted him.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Opinion: The \u2018rough sex\u2019 defence didn\u2019t work for Lorcan Murphy. He wasn\u2019t the first to try itOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew in my heart that it wasn\u2019t true,\u201d Crystal Suarenzo, Mackenzie Michalski\u2019s childhood friend, says in an interview with The Irish Times. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow, there\u2019s some acceptance, knowing the evidence proved to the rest of the world that his story wasn\u2019t even close to the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I didn\u2019t want to take her life,\u2019 Dublin man says in Hungarian trial over killing of American nurseOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

At his sentencing in July, when he was jailed for 14 years<\/a>, the deceased\u2019s mother, Jill Michalski, told the court how Murphy \u201cwas allowed to tarnish our daughter\u2019s reputation\u201d and how her family had \u201csuffered and will continue to suffer greatly\u201d because of his \u201chorrific actions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MackenzieMackenzie Michalski\u2019s mother Jill holds up a white T-shirt with her daughter’s photo on it outside the court in Budapest. Photograph: B\u00e1lint D\u00f6m\u00f6t\u00f6r <\/p>\n

Mackenzie Michalski\u2019s brother, Nicholas, who attended each court hearing in Budapest, called Murphy\u2019s conviction<\/a> \u201ca major step forward, but by no means the end\u201d, referring to ongoing court appeals. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0What caused the Lorcan Murphy I knew to become a killer?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know whether I\u2019ll feel any differently after the final judgment, but we\u2019re not there yet. The fight for justice is far from over,\u201d he tells The Irish Times, speaking over a social media messaging app.<\/p>\n

Traveller, friend, healthcare provider<\/p>\n

Mackenzie Michalski \u2013 or Kenzie as she was known to family and friends \u2013 was described variously by them as \u201cwarm\u201d, \u201cbubbly\u201d, \u201cfunny\u201d, \u201cquirky\u201d and \u201cpassionate about life\u201d.<\/p>\n

They are keen to paint the picture of the Kenzie they knew, reclaiming the public image of her and challenging the court-rejected narrative Murphy and his lawyer attempted to tell in his defence.<\/p>\n

\"MackenzieMackenzie Michalski was \u2018passionate about life\u2019, her friends and family say. Photograph: Crystal Suarenzo <\/p>\n

Suarenzo recalls Kenzie\u2019s more expressive side, demonstrating a mischievous smile she would flash, often preceding a playful suggestion.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s freakishly smart, so brilliant \u2013 very, very capable but also so deeply silly,\u201d says Suarenzo, still speaking of her friend in the present tense.<\/p>\n

A passionate lover of animals, Kenzie\u2019s pets included hamsters, rabbits and even a tarantula, but her first love was dachshunds, including Juniper, her pet dog at the time of her death.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she saw a weiner dog in public, she\u2019d say \u2018ween!\u2019 in a really high-pitched voice, and had no sense of embarrassment, because that was just so much of who she was,\u201d says Suarenzo, sitting in her Portland office where she works as a therapist.<\/p>\n

A native of Fredonia in New York state, Kenzie graduated from high school a year early and started nursing school, from which she also graduated early. She then worked as a nurse in Buffalo, New York, for eight years, later specialising in neurocritical care.<\/p>\n

Diane Clark, her boss at Providence St Vincent Medical Centre in Portland, recalls Kenzie arriving \u201cyounger than age 30, with years of nurse practitioner experience\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"DianeDiane Clark, Mackenzie Michalski\u2019s boss at Providence St Vincent Medical Centre in Portland. Photograph: Jordan Gale for The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was so enthusiastic, passionate, but also you could tell she was trying to come across as very professional,\u201d Clark says of her interview with Kenzie.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it was an immediate yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenzie was a favourite among the neurosurgeons for her ability to examine and present patients to them thoroughly and seamlessly. <\/p>\n

She could stay calm under pressure, Clark says, describing a time when Kenzie responded to a patient suffering a medical emergency. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was cool, calm and collected,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Anna Hoenig became close friends \u2013 \u201cwe clicked\u201d \u2013 with Kenzie soon after she started at St Vincent in 2022 and remembers her gift for connecting with patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was just great at reading people and meeting people where they were,\u201d Hoenig says. <\/p>\n

\"MackenzieMackenzie Michalski (right) with her friend Anna Hoenig <\/p>\n

Kenzie could break down \u201cdoctor lingo\u201d for patients into \u201can easily digestible way to patients to help them understand the larger picture\u201d. <\/p>\n

A passionate traveller, Kenzie had racked up dozens of country stamps in her passport stamps from her solo travels or trips with family or friends. <\/p>\n

Her travel included humanitarian trips to Ghana and Haiti. She departed Cairo, Egypt, just days before the Arab Spring in 2010.<\/p>\n

She had a particular love for Egypt, Thailand and Vietnam. Before her final visit to Hungary in 2024, she had visited the country several times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever Kenzie went, she immersed herself in the local culture. She was never a casual tourist or vacationer,\u201d says her brother Nicholas. <\/p>\n

\u201cKenzie was a lifelong student and lover of history and she never shied away from the difficult parts of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

In memory of Kenzie\"MackenzieMackenzie Michalski was a passionate traveller, with a particular love for Egypt, Thailand and Vietnam <\/p>\n

Kenzie was reported missing on November 5th, 2024, after last being seen at a popular nightclub in Budapest. Her family and friends learned of her death three days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything reminded me of her,\u201d says Paula Prince, another close friend, of their shared workplace at St Vincent. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d walk up the stairs and I\u2019d see someone that I knew knew her, or I\u2019d come around the corner and think I could just picture the two of us talking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kenzie\u2019s killing came soon after the murder of Melissa Jubane, another nurse who worked at the US hospital, in September 2024. (A 27-year-old male neighbour has been charged with her killing and is awaiting trial.)<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was upset. Really upset,\u201d says Prince of the violent deaths of two young women working in the same hospital.<\/p>\n

There were three candlelight vigils held shortly after Kenzie\u2019s death and three public celebrations of her life: in Portland, Buffalo and Budapest.<\/p>\n

Friends found another way to remember her: teal (her favourite colour) tokens carrying Kenzie\u2019s photo were snapped in various places and at landmarks around the world and posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n

They include photos of her in Hawaii, Portugal and at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.<\/p>\n

\"MackenzieMackenzie Michalski was \u2018freakishly smart, so brilliant \u2013 very, very capable but also so deeply silly\u2019, according to her friend. Photograph: Anna Hoenig <\/p>\n

At Providence St Vincent Medical Centre, each month nurses participate in \u201cMichalski neurosurgery rounds\u201d \u2013 educational seminars on topics such as types of neurosurgeries or patient diagnoses \u2013 in memory of her neurosurgery rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would always step up to the plate,\u201d says Prince.<\/p>\n

In August 2025, women\u2019s soccer team the Portland Thorns, which she supported, presented her parents with a custom-made jersey in her name. Loved ones attended wearing T-shirts bearing her face and the line: \u201cWe love you to infinity and beyond\u201d, a nod to her love of the Toy Story franchise.<\/p>\n

Friends and colleagues remember her in their own way.<\/p>\n

In the hospital office of her boss Clark, there sits a memorial of Kenzie, including her photo, her funeral booklet and a dachshund figurine.<\/p>\n

\"DianeDiane Clark in her office at Providence St Vincent Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Photograph: Jordan Gale\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

In Suarenzo\u2019s livingroom sits an altar where a picture of the two as children, caked in mud, rests alongside letters from Kenzie over the years. Around her neck she often wears Kenzie\u2019s birthstone (garnet) on a chain. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnywhere I go, she\u2019s with me,\u201d Suarenzo says.<\/p>\n

Hoenig\u2019s livingroom has a \u201cKenzie corner\u201d where there is a flameless tealight from the St Vincent vigil. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll turn it on for her birthday and the anniversary of her death or sometimes when I\u2019m missing her or when I\u2019m thinking about her,\u201d Hoenig says.<\/p>\n

Life without Kenzie<\/p>\n

Kenzie\u2019s friends were surprised at Murphy\u2019s 14-year sentence<\/a>, viewing it as too lenient compared to the jail time a US court might have handed down for murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, there was never going to be any amount of years that would have ever resembled anything close to justice,\u201d Suarenzo says.<\/p>\n

Life after Kenzie\u2019s death has been different for different people. <\/p>\n

For Clark, leading her team through the loss was a challenge. She made time for colleagues and sought counselling to manage her own grief.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Lorcan Murphy\u2019s use of \u2018spy pen\u2019 to record women in Dublin part of \u2018path to future crime\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI manage life and death every day, but it\u2019s not supposed to be your colleague,\u201d Clark says. \u201cIt\u2019s not supposed to be a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenzie\u2019s brother Nicholas is steeped in grief, describing the pain as \u201cbeyond words\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife without Kenzie is very empty and what\u2019s left is very dark … There\u2019s no escape from the pain,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cCelebrating holidays, including my own birthday, is too painful, something that would horrify Kenzie, who always worked so hard to make these days special for her loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PublicPublic celebrations of Mackenzie Michalski\u2019s life have taken place in Portland, Buffalo and Budapest. Photograph: Anna Koenig <\/p>\n

Prince misses the sight of her friend walking through the hospital in her lab coat and glasses. She misses their lunch breaks. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy I got to know her,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Hoenig\u2019s grief over Kenzie becomes more intense as autumn approaches, remembering their mutual love of Halloween and their attendance at the musical Sweeney Todd shortly before the trip to Budapest.<\/p>\n

After her friend\u2019s murder, Suarenzo experienced a paradigm shift, struggling to make sense of her place in a world with such senseless violence. \u201cIt felt like my life exploded into a million pieces,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But grief has changed her, she says; she has stopped being afraid of the unknown, her fear of flying has dissipated and she is going on spontaneous adventures such as camping or trips to US national parks, channelling her late friend\u2019s passions, \u201cas though some part of her spirit lodged itself in me\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few people will ever know what it is like to have a loved one brutally murdered. Even fewer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[631,42,1840,43,40,38,41,39,90],"class_list":["post-635673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-for-you","tag-headlines","tag-hungary","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}