When Kylen Schulte came to Moab to live in 2016, her father said that “she really blossomed.”
“She became spectacular, the tallest, brightest sunflower,” Sean-Paul Schulte said.
His daughter said that moving to Moab saved her life. It was in Moab that Kylen met her wife, Crystal Turner, and the couple were married earlier this year at a small ceremony in Arkansas, where Turner is from.
“[The wedding] was so beautiful,” Schulte said. “Kylen looked like Geena Davis and Crystal was so handsome … the way she looked up at Kylen and the way Kylen looked down at her was so loving.”
This week, Schulte returned to Moab to try to find out what happened to “the girls,” after Kylen and Crystal were found murdered at their campsite in the La Sal Mountains on Aug. 18.
The couple had been missing for days with Schulte directing search efforts from afar until a friend found the women. Since then, Schulte says he’s been on a “roller coaster” of emotions as he works through his grief.
He’s set up a “clue booth” in Moab’s Swanny City Park, hoping that he can connect to his daughter’s friends, community members and anyone would could lead to a break in the case.
While the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Utah State Bureau of Investigation are helping local investigators with the case, no information on suspects or leads has been published.
A search warrant released to the Salt Lake Tribune on Sept. 8 reported that the women were each shot multiple times. Friends of the couple told authorities that the women were uncomfortable with a “creepy” man around a previous campsite and had grown concerned for their safety in the time before their deaths.
On Aug. 31, the Grand County Sheriff’s Office announced that an anonymous donor had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspect in the murders.
On Sept. 2, the Grand County Sheriff’s Office announced that Moab business Sacred Earth One, LLC, is also offering $10,000 for information in the case, bringing the current reward offered by community members to $20,000.
There will be a memorial for the two women on Friday, Sept. 17 starting at 11 a.m. at Old City Park.
Cindy Sue Hunter, a family friend who found the women after they had been missing since Aug. 13, visited with Schulte as he spoke to people in the park.
“We need to catch this guy,” said Hunter. “We can’t forget these girls.”
The Grand County Sheriff’s Office asks anyone with information on this case to call the office at 435-259-8115.
