A tech worker pleaded guilty to the strangling of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck whose charred remains were found in his garden.

Ayoola Ajayi met 23-year-old Ms Lueck on a dating app and arranged to meet her in a Salt Lake City park before killing her.

Prosecutors say that after they went back to his home he tied her up and strangled her with a belt before burning her body and burying the remains.

Ajayi pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and desecration of a corpse in a plea deal to remove the possibility of the death sentence. Ajayi also pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a different woman he met online and faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Ms Lueck went missing in June 2019 after attending her grandmother’s funeral in California and the search for her lasted two weeks.

Authorities say she met Ajayi, 32, on the app Seeking Arrangement, which it describes as a way to pair wealthy “sugar daddies” with women, known as “sugar babies.”

Ms Lueck took a Lyft car to meet him in the park and her phone was turned off a minute after her last text message was sent and never switched back on.

Ajayi’s lawyer told the court he had planned the killing and switched off his home security cameras before he left for the meeting.

After police came to his home to question him Ajayi dug up her body and reburied it in a canyon 100 miles north of Salt Lake City.

After a two week search police discovered traces of Ms Lueck’s remains in the garden and Nigerian native Ajayi later revealed where he had disposed of her.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said the guilty plea allowed Ms Lueck’s “a measure of justice.”

Associated Press