Sheriff’s office in Utah has persons of interest in newlywed double homicide
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MOAB, Utah — A Utah sheriff’s office has announced it has persons of interest in the double homicide case of a newlywed couple who was gunned down at a campsite near Moab, Utah, last summer.
However, the sheriff’s office released on Facebook on Thursday, investigators have not identified a suspect yet. They have not released the names of the persons of interest.
Kylen Schulte, 24, and Crystal Turner, 38, were found dead on Aug. 18. Their bodies were discovered in an irrigation ditch west of their campsite in the South Mesa area of the La Sal Mountains. Who killed them remains a mystery.
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Deputies collected evidence from the scene, which included the victim’s tent and personal belongings inside and outside the tent and their vehicle and blood, as well as shell casings, bullet fragments and video evidence.
Deputies have now determined the victims died on Aug. 14.
Additionally, the state medical examiner determined the following:
- Both victims had been shot multiple times.
- The shell casings and bullet fragments found at the scene were consistent with evidence obtained from the bodies of both victims.
- There was no sign of forcible sexual assault of either victim.
Schulte previously lived in Billings, Montana, while Turner was a native of Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Schulte’s aunt Bridget Calvert previously said the couple told friends that a “creepy guy” was making them uncomfortable in the days before their deaths.
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In the course of the investigation by the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, there was speculation that a woman who went missing and captured the nation’s attention and her boyfriend were somehow involved in the double homicide. Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie were on a cross-country road trip and had visited Moab, Utah.
Authorities had been looking into the cases as possibly connected due to the proximity of all four people being in the same place at about the same time. However, Petito’s body was found in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest in September. It was determined she was strangled to death. Brian Laundrie died by suicide from a gunshot wound to the head. His body was found in Florida in October during the midst of a massive manhunt to find him.
RELATED | Sheriff: Double homicide of Utah newlyweds and Petito missing person case not linked
The FBI and Florida investigators determined that neither Petito nor Laundrie were involved in the Schulte and Turner case. The FBI continues to assist the Grand County Sheriff’s Office with this active and ongoing double homicide case.
“GCSO request the Moab community be careful about sharing information on social media. Such information tends to be misinformed, inaccurate and unhelpful to the criminal investigation, if not dangerous,” according to a news release.
If anyone has any information on the case, they are asked to call the sheriff’s office at (435) 259-8115 or (435) 259-1397.