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Women killed in Moab told friends that if something happened to them, they were murdered

Recently unsealed court documents show the women were found in a creek days after saying they were intimidated by a “creepy man” near them.

(Bridget Calvert) Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner fell in love after bonding over their passion for the outdoors. Just four months after their marriage, their bodies were found in the South Mesa area of the La Sal Mountains near Moab.

  | Sep. 8, 2021, 7:07 p.m.

New court documents unsealed Tuesday reveal that the two women killed near Moab last month feared for their lives in the days leading up to their deaths.

The bodies of Kylen Schulte, 24, and Crystal Turner, 38, were found in a creek near their campsite in the South Mesa area of the La Sal Mountains near La Sal Loop Road on Aug. 18. Schulte and Turner were married in April and were living at different campgrounds near town.

The documents state that both women were partially undressed when they were found.

Investigators found gunshot wounds on the backs, sides and chests of the victims. The women were reported missing on Aug. 16 after last being seen on Aug. 13 at Woody’s Tavern in Moab. Schulte had told her friends that “if something happened to them, that they were murdered,” according to the filings.

Schulte had also told her friends that there was a “creepy man” around their camp and they had been intimidated by him, the filings state.

Investigators found the couple’s blue Kia Sorento, a tent and other camping gear near La Sal Loop Road. The Grand County Sheriff’s Office filed a search warrant with Utah’s 7th District Court to search a gray 1987 Ford Econoline that was also registered to the couple.

Police recovered a black journal with newspaper clippings, a Bible, miscellaneous mail and paystubs for the victims inside the van.

Moab art collector Cindy Sue Hunter was the first one to discover the campsite, according to Schulte’s aunt, Bridget Calvert. Hunter had made it her personal mission to find the women, and alerted the sheriff’s office to the location after she found the Kia Sorento near La Sal Loop Road.

An anonymous business contractor in Moab posted a $10,000 reward on Aug. 31 for information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible for the deaths of Schulte and Turner. On Sept. 2, Sacred Earth One, a private lending company based in Moab, offered a second $10,000 reward.

The Grand County Sheriff’s Office is collaborating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Utah State Bureau of Investigations on the case.