GABBY PETITO INVESTIGATION
Grand County Sheriff’s Office investigating Moab murders & Petito disappearance
Sep 16, 2021, 7:32 PM | Updated: Sep 17, 2021, 9:18 am
MOAB, Utah — It didn’t take long for those close to two open Moab investigations to draw the connection to timelines involving Gabby Petito’s visit in Moab with the murders of a married couple in early August.
“We are not ruling anything out,” Grand County Sheriff’s Office Captain Shan Hackwell told KSL TV.
Hackwell said they have been sharing information with investigators working on the Petito case.
On Aug. 12, Moab police responded to a report of Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, fighting. They caught up with the couple and were told the fight started over a website that Petito was trying to create.
BODY CAM VIDEO: We know more about what the couple was fighting over.
Gabby: "I've been building a website, so I've been really stressed and he doesn't really believe that I can do any of it so that's been like a.. I don't know. We've just been fighting all morning. "#findgabby pic.twitter.com/7i3OSnRC00
— Morgan Wolfe (@MorganWolfeKSL) September 16, 2021
“I have been really stressed. And, he doesn’t really believe I can do any of it,” Petito said whipping away tears in the video.
She told police they had been fighting all morning. Meanwhile, Laundrie told police that they had a “really nice morning.”
Police believed Petito was the main aggressor. They asked her why she tried to slap Laundrie and she said, “ I was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down.”
Laundrie told officers they had been traveling in a van together for months and have had additional arguments. He told officers that one of his biggest fears is that she is going to drive off without him because he doesn’t have a phone.
After officers decided not to charge Petito with domestic violence, she gave officers the message to tell Laundrie she loved him and to not forget his phone charger before police separated them for the evening.
Officers brought Laundrie to the Bowen Motel in Moab. KSL TV’s Morgan Wolfe talked with the manager of the motel that cannot confirm if Laundrie slept there that evening.
A representative for the family says they have been instructed to not talk abou the police incident that happened in Moab on Aug. 12.
Adds that Laundrie's family knew he showed up on Sept. 1, which wasn't part of the trip they had planned. #findgabbypetito
— Morgan Wolfe (@MorganWolfeKSL) September 16, 2021
The following day, Aug. 13, was last time someone saw or heard from Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner, a married couple found murdered on Aug. 18.
Grand County Sheriff’s Office said this was a cold-blooded crime.
KSL TV’s Morgan Wolfe confirmed Schulte was employed for five years at Moonflower Co-op and was working there on Aug. 12, though a manager said Schulte was not working when the fight was reported. She had left the Co-op before the fight.
CONFIRMED:
My source tells me Kylen Schulte was working at Moonflower Coop on Aug. 12.
She was not working at the time of the dispute between Brian Laundrie and Gabrielle Petito. She got off work about an hour an a half before.
No surveillance video available at the store. pic.twitter.com/mdOG7dy6mh
— Morgan Wolfe (@MorganWolfeKSL) September 16, 2021
Schulte’s father wants investigators to take the proximity of these two developments into consideration.
He texted KSL TV’s Morgan Wolfe, “haven’t you guys figured out that it is possibly the same story yet?”
#BREAKING Officially confirmed that Grand Co. Sheriff and FL investigators are sharing info on the murders of Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner and Petito case.
Laundrie/Petito dispute happened Aug. 12.
Couple was last seen Aug. 13.
Found shot dead & partial nude Aug. 18.
— Morgan Wolfe (@MorganWolfeKSL) September 16, 2021
Grand County Sheriff’s Office has not named anyone a suspect or person of interest in the murders of Schulte and Turner.
Investigators are working to piece together a timeline of where Laundrie and Petito finished the rest of their Moab visit before Petito was confirmed to be in Salt Lake City on Aug. 20 – 21. Her father ordered her food to a hotel.
