Utah investigators have released their final update on the August 2021 slayings of two Moab women who were found shot to death at a campsite outside the city.
Newlyweds Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner, ages 24 and 38, were found dead on August 18, days after they were last seen alive.
Adam Pinkusiewicz, one of the first persons of interest, was labeled as a suspect earlier this year. Police found the 45-year-old homeless man dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Waterloo, Iowa on September 24, 2021.
An examination of her phone turned up “extreme signs of racism” and anger issues, according to authorities, as well as fantasies about rape and murder.
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Moab murder suspect Adam Pinkusiewicz was one of the first persons of interest in the murders, who had an alleged “animo” toward lesbians and who left town shortly after the shooting death of Kylen Schulte and his co-worker Crystal Turner, without collecting her last paycheck. , according to the family’s private investigator.
(Kylen Schulte/Grand County Sheriff’s Office)
Schulte’s family previously said Pinkusiewicz had a known “animosity” toward lesbians, though investigators revealed Thursday that he himself was in a same-sex relationship with a man who knew about the murders and did not come forward until police tracked it down earlier this year.
Authorities did not identify the “couple” during Thursday’s briefing, but said they were not in Utah at the time of the slayings and the two had separated several months earlier. Pinkusiewicz reached out to him after the slayings and traveled to Iowa to see him, investigators said.
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Schulte and Turner were killed at their camp on La Sal Loop Road outside Moab, Utah, in August 2021.
(Google Maps)
They said he told them that Pinkusiewicz had confessed to him about the murders and that he knew details of the crime scene that had not been made public, including that Schulte and Turner were shot inside a tent and taken outside, where Cindy Sue Hunter, a Moab resident, found her remains four days later.
As Fox News Digital reported, Schulte and Turner were last seen alive on surveillance video at Woody’s Tavern in downtown Moab on August 13.
Crystal Turner and Kylen Schulte were last seen alive at Woody’s Tavern in Moab on August 13, 2021.
(Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
The next morning, they were killed in a remote camp high on a mountain outside the city.
A nearby surveillance camera at Whispering Oaks Ranch picked up the sounds of gunshots and screaming at 11:48 a.m. on August 14. Authorities previously refused to release the recording, saying it was an integral part of the ongoing investigation, and made it public for the first time on Thursday.
Investigators said they determined that the Critical Defense rounds found in the victims had likely been fired from a Glock 9mm.
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Adam Pinkusiewicz was a 45-year-old homeless man.
(Grand County Sheriff’s Office)
At 12:54 pm on the day of the murders, a Toyota Yaris resembling Pinkusiewicz’s was seen driving away from the camp. Investigators said it seemed out of place because it’s not a typical camping SUV.
Police had a number of early ideas about who might be responsible, but they dismissed most except for the “creepy camper” theory, regarding a man Schulte and Turner told friends made them uncomfortable in a series from encounters at his camp, and the idea that the shootings stemmed from an argument with a threatening co-worker.
Pinkusiewicz is now believed to be both the creep and the disgruntled co-worker, investigators revealed Thursday.
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He had a history of arguments with management at McDonald’s, where Turner also worked. Days before the killings, he argued with a manager who told him she needed to work faster, made comments about her sexuality and threatened to “kick her,” police said Thursday. She was so uncomfortable that she left and had another manager replace her.
A hiring sign at Moab’s only McDonald’s restaurant in September 2021, weeks after the murders of newlyweds Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner.
(Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
He was fired, never returned to work after the shootings, and left his last paycheck behind.
Investigators said they don’t believe she confronted Turner directly before the slayings, but that her coworkers overheard her complaining that she made sandwiches at the restaurant for Schulte when she wasn’t working. They were scheduled on different shifts, and due to COVID-19 mask regulations, she may not have even recognized him, according to authorities.
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Police considered Pinkusiewicz a person of interest from the start, but when they went to interview him, he was not at their address.
On August 27, 2021, Pinkusiewicz arrived in Waterloo. On September 24, local police received a call from a motel reporting his death.
Bullets recovered from the victims. Investigators said they determined that the three Critical Defense rounds had likely been fired from a Glock 9mm.
(Greater Utah County)
Grand County investigators discovered his car was sold there in December and contacted their Waterloo counterparts, later learning of Pinkusiewicz’s death.
Although records show that Pinkusiewicz had purchased a Glock 9mm, the likely murder weapon, he committed suicide with a .357 revolver, using Hornady Special Critical Defense rounds. Because his death was ruled a suicide months before Grand County deputies traced Pinkusiewicz’s steps to Waterloo, police turned over his property to his family, including cellphones that police later examined in connection with the Schulte-Turner case.
A bag of bullets found in his car was not documented and destroyed by local police, authorities said.
Schulte and Turner’s store and vehicle where they were discovered on La Sal Loop Road outside Moab, Utah on August 18, 2021.
(Greater Utah County)
He also left behind a suicide note that mentioned being fired by “left-liberal bosses” for not working “fast enough,” according to Grand County investigators.
The note also revealed the existence of his partner, who at the time had not presented investigators with details about the crime.
Pinkusiewicz’s male partner was not interviewed until March 2022, according to Jason Jensen, a private investigator hired by Schulte’s father.
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When detectives finally interviewed him, he was “very forthcoming,” authorities said. He told them that he kept quiet because he was afraid of Pinkusiewicz and he did not know about the suicide.
Authorities said Thursday they believe if Pinkusiewicz were still alive, they would have enough evidence against him to secure a conviction.
However, since he is dead, they announced an official closure of the case, leaving open the possibility that they would reopen the investigation if new information emerges in the future.
