Persons of interest have been identified in the double slaying of a newlywed couple in Utah — after the FBI officially ruled out Brian Laundrie as the killer.
Kylen Schulte, 24, and her 38-year-old wife, Crystal Turner, were found shot to death at a campsite in the city of Moab on Aug. 18 after complaining about a “weirdo” and “creep” who had been camping near them.
Investigators in September revealed they were “actively looking” into possible connections between the double slay and the disappearance of Laundrie, 23, and his Long Island girlfriend Gabby Petito, 22, who were both still missing at the time.
Before Laundrie killed Petito, they were last seen when they were stopped by police in Moab during a fight on Aug. 13 — the day after Schulte and Turner were last seen. The fight also appeared to have started outside a community cooperative where Schulte worked.
In an update last Wednesday, Grand County Sheriff Steven White noted in a Facebook post the “considerable conjecture that Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie were somehow involved in the double homicide.”
However, the sheriff insisted, “Upon investigation, the FBI and Florida Investigators have determined, based on electronic transmission evidence, that neither Petito nor Laundrie were involved in this case.”
The sheriff did not elaborate on what evidence ruled out a connection but warned that continuing to spread the rumors can be “unhelpful to the criminal investigation, if not dangerous.”
White said the double-homicide investigation is “active and ongoing,” with ongoing help from federal agents.
His office “has persons of interest but has not yet identified a suspect,” he wrote.
The medical examiner confirmed that Schulte and Turner — who also used the name Crystal Beck — were “shot multiple times” but had not been sexually assaulted, the update said.
Schulte’s father, Sean-Paul Schulte, told KSL News Radio that ongoing “speculation by web sleuths” was a distraction in the hunt for the real killer.
“They have told us that Brian and Gabby were not involved in our case. We have no reason to dispute that,” he said, saying the only known link is all four were in Moab at the same time.
“There is no point in continuing to waste time, energy, effort, news and press over Brian and Gabby,” he said of the couple, who were on a cross-country trip at the time.
Laundrie later admitted killing Petito in a notebook entry he wrote shortly before he took his own life, the FBI revealed Friday in its final report on the case.
