Friend speaks about finding dead bodies of couple shot dead in Utah campsite after warning of ‘creepy’ man
Local law enforcement is ‘conducting an ongoing homicide investigation’ into deaths of couple in Utah forest
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The friend of a newlywed couple shot dead in the Utah wilderness has described finding their bodies while on the phone to their worried family.
Cindy Sue Hunter has spoken out about finding the bodies of her friends, Crystal Beck, 38, and Kylen Schulte, 24, whom she went to look for following a worried phone call from Schulte’s father, ABC4 News reported.
Schulte’s father, Sean-Paul Schulte, had called Ms Hunter after he had a terrifying phone call from his daughter, who described seeing “a strange man” while she was out camping with her wife. According to reports, the pair were last seen on 14 August. On 17 August, Mr Schulte posted on Facebook on urging people to “find my girls”.
“He said ‘I just found out that there was a creeper dude that they were scared of. That they needed to move their camp,’” Mr Hunter told the news channel. “All of a sudden I had such a sense of urgency.”
After a search, Ms Hunter was able to track down the campsite they were staying at in Moab. Throughout her hunt for the couple, she stayed on the phone with Schulte’s father.
“I saw her body and I turned away. I thinks something inside me didn’t want to acknowledge what I had seen so I was looking at the beauty of the creek and everything and talking to the father the whole time and I turned around again to make myself see and it was her,” Ms Hunter said.
On 18 August, the Grand County Sheriff’s Office said they were “conducting an ongoing homicide investigation”.
Law enforcement stressed that there was no immediate threat to the general public in the area. However, Ms Hunter said she was concerned.
She continued, “How are we safe if you have a double homicide? You don’t have a suspect in custody. You’re not claiming it was a murder-suicide so how are we possibly safe? It honestly feels like they’re trying to protect the tourism industry in Moab.”
“It is suspicious in nature, but we believe that this was an isolated incident. We do have active patrol in the area, and this is an ongoing investigation,” the Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told KSL-TV. “Our hearts and condolences go out to their families.”
According a GoFundMe set up by Schulte’s aunt, the couple were frequent campers and got married four months ago.
“They found their way from the best campsite to the next but always showed up for work with the best ethic and greatest intent. This week their lives were tragically taken from this earth,” wrote Bridget Calvert.