BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Family members of a 31-year-old American tourist who was killed while on vacation in the Hungarian capital mourned their loss as a 37-year-old suspect was arrested Saturday.

The victim, Mackenzie Michalski of Portland, Oregon, was reported missing on November 5 after being last seen at a nightclub in downtown Budapest. Police launched a missing person investigation and reviewed security footage from local nightclubs, where they spotted Michalski with a man later identified as the suspect at several clubs on the night of her disappearance.

The man was detained on November 7 and questioned by police, and later confessed to the murder.

Before the confession, Michalski’s family and friends launched an effort to find her, setting up a Facebook group to gather tips on her whereabouts. Her parents traveled to Hungary to help with the search, but found out on the way that she had been killed.

At a candlelight vigil in Budapest on Saturday night, the victim’s father, Bill Michalski, told The Associated Press he was “still overwhelmed” by his daughter’s death.

“There was no reason for this to happen,” he said. “I’m still trying to wrap my arms around what happened … I don’t know that I ever will.”

Police arrested the suspect, an Irish citizen, on the evening of November 7. Investigators said Michalski and the suspect met at a nightclub and danced before leaving for the man’s rented apartment. The man killed Michalski while they were engaged in an “intimate encounter,” police said.

The suspect, whom police identified as LTM, confessed to the killing but said it was an accident. Police said he tried to cover up his crime by cleaning out the apartment and hiding Michalski’s body in a closet before buying a suitcase and putting her body inside.

He then rented a car and drove to Lake Balaton, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Budapest, where he dumped the body in a wooded area outside the town of Szigliget.

The video released by the police showed the suspect directing the authorities to the place where he left the body. Police said the suspect searched the Internet before being apprehended about how to dispose of a body, police procedures in missing person cases, whether pigs really eat corpses and the presence of wild boars in the Lake Balaton area.

He also did an internet search asking about the competence of the Budapest police.

Crime scene photos released by police showed a rolling suitcase, several items of clothing, including a pair of wool-lined boots and a small purse next to a credit card bearing Michalski’s name.

According to a post by an administrator of a Facebook group called “Find Mackenzie Michalski,” which was created Nov. 7, Michalski, known as “Kenzie,” was a nurse who “will forever be remembered as a beautiful and full of compassion”. young woman.”

At the candlelight vigil in Budapest on Saturday, Michalski’s father gave brief remarks to those gathered and wore a baseball cap he said he received as a gift from his daughter.

Michalski had visited Budapest before and called it her “happy place,” her father told the AP.

“History, she just loved it and was so relaxed here,” he said. “This was her town.”