New answers bring new questions in 2021 double murder near Moab
May 12, 2022, 7:06 PM | Updated: 8:31 pm
MOAB, Utah — New answers brought new questions Thursday in a 2021 double-homicide case.
Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner were found shot to death near La Sal Mountain Loop Road in the mountains outside of town last August.
On Wednesday, nearly nine months later, the Grand County Sheriff’s Office publicly identified Adam Pinkusiewicz as a suspect, stating that he was a former coworker of Turner’s who was in the La Sals and Moab at the time of the homicides and that he had left the state shortly after the killings and “recently received information” that prior to committing suicide, Pinkusiewicz told someone he killed two women and provided information only known to investigators.
The sheriff also revealed that deputies had located and seized Pinkusiewicz’ 2007 Toyota Yaris.
On Thursday, two women with connections to the case questioned the timing of the announcement and whether it could have been made sooner.
Suspect named in Grand County double homicides of Turner, Schulte
“There’s still a lot of questions that we have for the sheriff’s department,” LD Green told KSL 5. “When did they find out about the confession? When did they find out about the suicide? When did they get possession of the car?”
For Green, it was in part a matter of feeling safe in the community she calls home. She said many people have been worried for months about the idea that a killer was out there somewhere.
“This was a horrible hate crime,” said Green, who said she had learned additional context about Pinkusiewicz from those who had worked with him. “He was very vocal about his homophobic opinions.”
We are heading to Moab, Utah this weekend where the murders of Crystal Turner and Kylen Schulte are still unsolved. Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito were in Moab around this time. We are asking anyone with information to text or call us at 833-TELL-DOG. 🤙 #justice pic.twitter.com/LM6lesBLIO
— Duane Dog Chapman (@DogBountyHunter) May 7, 2022
For Cindy Sue Hunter, it has been a matter of feeling like the scrutiny of detectives was pointed at her as recently as last month.
“They served me with a warrant,” Hunter, who now lives in Arizona said. “I said, ‘I don’t understand, why do you need to take my phone,’ and they said, ‘because you’re a suspect in the murder.’ ”
Hunter said she faced some intense questioning as well.
“They say that my story kept changing,” Hunter said. “It’s like, my story never changed. They told me how much time they and the police department were spending, or the FBI, listening to every interview and reading every interview I had done and that my story was continually changing. They said that my phone pinged up on the mountains. I said, ‘of course my phone pinged on the mountain.’ It was summer and I went up there two to three times a week on average to walk my dogs.”
The investigators also apparently had an interest in photos Hunter took of the crime scene.
“They said that I had posted pictures of the crime scene and I said, ‘I shared those pictures, yes,’ ” Hunter said. “I deleted them off my phone shortly thereafter and I offered them to the police and I went into the department and asked them if they wanted them and they said, ‘no,’ they didn’t need them.”
As of Thursday, Hunter said investigators had still not returned her phone nor communicated with her since the previous encounter.
“So you tell me why they would claim I’m a suspect when they knew he had done it?” an emotional Hunter said. “I just don’t understand what’s going on.”
She and Green both questioned if the timing of the announcement of a suspect correlated in any way to Duane Chapman’s — known as Dog the Bounty Hunter — visit this week to highlight the case as well as a billboard recently installed on the outskirts of Moab.
“It seems incredibly convenient that Dog the Bounty Hunter shows up and is going to get “down and dirty” with Moab and their entire investigation and they miraculously come up with a killer,” Hunter said.
Multiple attempts to reach the sheriff on Wednesday and Thursday — including phone calls, texts, and an in-person visit to the Grand County Sheriff’s Office — did not result in a response.
Green said women in particular in the community in and around Moab have had ongoing trust issues with law enforcement.
“These are all examples of why,” Green said. “There’s just a lot of questions we have.”
