A Irish citizen remains in police custody in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, for the murder of an American tourist.

Hungarian police say 37-year-old Irish man has confessed to killing American nurse Makenzie Michalskiafter trying to hide her body in a suitcase in a wooded area 90 miles outside the city.

Makenzie, a 31-year-old nurse, was reported missing on Tuesday, November 5, when she failed to check out of the AirBnB she was staying at.

CCTV footage reviewed by the Budapest Metropolitan Police showed Makenzie meeting the Irishman in a nightclub before continuing with another, before returning to his flat where police said they were “intimate” before she was killed.

Police said the Irishman, identified by the initials LTM, tried to cover up the crime by cleaning out his apartment and hiding Makenzie’s body before he bought a suitcase and put her body inside.

He then drove her body in a rented car to a wooded area near Lake Balaton, nearly 90 miles southwest of Budapest, where he is said to have dumped it outside the town of Szigliget.

The man was arrested upon his return to the city and confessed to killing Makenzie, claiming it was “an accident”.

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The head of the Life Protection Department at Budapest police headquarters, Lieutenant-Colonel Sándor Gál, said the Irish national was a suspect in the murder.

“He confessed to killing the woman, but claimed it was an accident. After questioning, the suspect also showed detectives where he had hidden the body, and after the body was found, a search was conducted,” he said at a press conference yesterday in Budapest.

“During the search, we also intended to use a cadaver dog, but as the suspect showed us the body, the dog was not used. The suspect was taken into custody, and his arrest was initiated following the interrogation.”

Police also said they found internet searches by the man that included wild boar sightings near Lake Balaton, “do pigs really eat corpses?” and “what a corpse smells like after it decomposes”, as well as how reliable the Hungarian police have been in missing persons cases.

The investigation continues.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of the case and was providing consular assistance.