The Flute and the Hammock

Jane says that at some point KyCry bought a new van, and the old black van stayed in the parking lot at McDonald's. They drove out to Arizona and got an Econoline and kept the old one at McDonald's, Jane details, and when it got too hot they would go to LaSal. "Kate" bought them their silver KIA, Jane reports. According to Jane, Crystal never worked on Saturday, and she wasn’t there on Saturday when Jane came to work. Ky/Cry were at Woody’s Tavern with friends on Friday August 13th [2021].

Interview with close friend of Kylen Schulte & Crystal Turner- some of this information comes from the Nov. 3 interview of this friends, on YouTube. The information in brackets are my notes woven in from other sources, cited in the Sources list on this blog.

Note: I've redacted individuals' names although their names are available in the actual recorded interview. I did this to protect their privacy. I did not redact names that are already highly reported in the news already).

Pseudonyms used in this summary

"Jane" = friend of murder victims who was interviewed.

"Bob" = police officer in Moab, according to Jane.

"Ashley" = friend who victims visited after Woody's, according to Jane.

"Kate" = a friend who bought Crystal and Kylen their Kia, according to Jane.

"Sue" = the friend who actually called the police, according to Jane.

The Flute

According to Jane, they didn’t say anything about what the creepy guy looked like. [Remember, Jane wasn’t at Woody’s and she is reporting a conversation that happened as told to her. Her boss is the one who told Jane this information, according to Jane.] They said he was camping near them and “he plays the flute at night.” Jane reports the women said, “We’re going to have to move.”

He played the flute, maybe he was going to leave but he showed back up, Jane said, with more clothes and more food, so they knew he was going to stay; he had a hammock too.

Jane reports Crystal and Kylen said, “he is obviously going to stay,” so they would need to move. It was suggested during the interview that the police didn’t want it shared that the creepy guy was playing the flute.

The creepy guy had a car, a hammock, and a flute. Jane says he had a car; the women said he had a car. So the question is, did Brian Laundrie have a flute?

Jane and the interviewer discussed if Brian Laundrie played the flute. On Instagram Brian is obsessed with Lullaby, they discussed. Jane asks the interviewer if the book is about a murderer going to all the National Parks and killing people. The interviewer didn’t know if it was about National Parks. But it is about a guy who goes on a road trip and kills a bunch of people on the road trip, he says.

[I haven’t read Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk (2002). But last night I read the Wikipedia page on Lullaby, which is categorized as a “horror satire.” It sounded like a play on The Ring story – which is a movie based on an excellent book series by Koji Suzuki. Horror happens to be one of my favorite genres.

Anyway, according to wiki, Lullaby centers on deaths which happen in association with a poem or page of a book. The book is left open to a certain page where various dead bodies are found. In Lullaby, the main character begins a quest to destroy the book, or the page in the book, after he discovers he has internalized the poem and caused the death of his own child and wife due to reading the poem out loud to them. At some point in the story, he can cause others’ deaths just by thinking of the poem. “Carl unintentionally memorizes the rhyme and semi-voluntarily becomes a serial killer who makes people die over minor annoyances” (wiki).

As the main character travels around (thus the road trip) trying to retrieve all the copies of the book, additional people die. In the story, according to wiki, one of the characters also engages in necrophilia: “Nash uses the rhyme to kill beautiful models in order to have sex with their corpses” (wiki). Further, at one point in the story the main character is traveling with a small group and the group abandon one of the members “on the side of the highway after he assaults Helen” (wiki).

I don’t remember how the story ends, but as far as I know National Parks are not specifically involved, at least not according to wiki. Personally, I’m not sure if I’ll read the book because I don’t normally read satire. I like plain old horror. Although I admit appreciating the Scream movie series].

Brian L at Woody's Tavern August 13, 2021, the last night Crystal and Kylen were seen there?

According to Jane’s boss, as told to Jane, at the bar [Woody’s Tavern in Moab, Utah] Crystal and Kylen said, if they didn’t come to work, then noted where they were camping, come and look for them. Jane reports (per her friend), Crystal shouted from the front of the bar to the back of the bar exactly where they were camping, as the two women left the bar.

[Note this is a little odd because Cindy Sue, in her interview, said she drove around for five hours looking for the women, on the 18th of August, 2021. Additionally, the police had gone out looking for the women after Kylen’s father contacted the police, once they didn’t show up for work. Apparently, according to Cindy Sue’s interview, the police searched around nearby Warner Lake and Oowa Lake. Cindy Sue suggested in her interview that the police didn’t know where the women’s campsite was. So, what is odd about this interview with Jane, is that she reports Crystal yelled the camp location “from the front of the bar to the back of the bar.” The conflict is, if everyone knew where the women’s camp was, then why did Cindy Sue drive around for five hours looking for it? Plus, Cindy Sue reported she stopped at McDonald’s first before going on her search for the women once they were missing. Why wouldn’t someone at McDonald’s have told her where the camp was?]

Interviewee says her boss remembers meeting Brian and Gabby at the bar, and that they were sitting a table away from them. At the bar is when Crystal and Kylen were telling [redacted] and [redacted] and others about the creepy guy, Jane reports. So Jane says that’s how she knows Brian wasn’t the creepy guy because he was sitting right near them and they weren’t pointing him out.

Later in the interview Jane is saying that they may not have been paying attention to Brian Laundrie. So he could have been the creepy guy.

Jane confirms that the two women were NOT followed from the bar, according to her boss who was at the bar. But her boss had a migraine so she wasn’t watching as much as she could have, but she’s pretty sure no one interacted with them or was bothering them at the bar.

The campsite is about 45 minutes from Moab – Jane and the interviewer agree. There are no lights at the campsite. It was a crescent moon, Jane reports.

About Crystal

Crystal had a southern drawl when she spoke, according to Jane who reported having worked with her for about four years. Jane reports Crystal could speak some Navajo and was very interested in learning about various cultures. At the time of this interview, Crystal’s sweatshirt is still hanging up at work, Jane says. The interviewer asks if the double homicide could be a drug deal gone bad, referring to the fact that in the past, as it is reported from various sources, Crystal struggled with drug addiction. Jane says she knew that Crystal used to used hard drugs. But when Crystal got with Kylen, she stopped, Jane says, although “she could have been dabbling.” Jane suggests that “a drug deal gone bad” isn’t a possibility she can imagine. Jane says that Crystal “turned her life around” once she got with Kylen. “Kylen would not be with her” if she was into hard drugs, Jane reports. Then Jane said the two women “smoked a lot of pot” and did mushrooms. Jane noted there were marijuana buds in Kylen's bouquet, and there was a bud on Crystal's jacket at the wedding. The town referred to them as “the girls.” Her fifteen year old brother had an accident and was killed by a gunshot. And Kylen lost a baby as well. Crystal had just lost her brother too. Just recently, Jane reports.

Jane mentions she works three five hour shifts at McDonald's. She says her shift starts at 3 am and goes to 5 pm three days a week. Jane goes on to say that when she started working she was 5 ½ months pregnant and in total, worked with Crystal for about 4 years. Because of how hectic it gets in Moab with all the tourists, Jane states sometimes they don’t get breaks. So, she says, Crystal would always offer to help her out, and a few times she and Crystal went to the lake. Jane describes Crystal as very very strong although she was tiny. Jane reports Crystal changed a lot once Kylen came into her life and she became "really sweet." According to Jane, Crystal was using Meth and would come to work high, and be freaking out. [Note this is also documented in a court case posted in reddit when at issue was Crystal’s termination of parental rights: Beck v Ark. Dept. Human Services, 528 S.W.3d 869 (20 Sept. 2017)].Crystal didn’t have a car, Jane reports.

Crystal and Kylen tended to work the same hours, according to Jane, and the newlyweds always took their breaks together at 11. In the morning, Crystal would get her and her wife coffee, and then Crystal would go back to the van and get ready to work, Jane reports.

Note the interviewee says that Crystal when she first worked at McDonald's talked about “her husband." She didn’t know if she was really married. [Note that in the reddit court case, it states that when Crystal first moved to Utah she was living with an 80 year old man that picked her up hitchhiking, and that she was taking care of him].

The Bible and Kylen

Youtube chat mentions: "Krystal[sic] Schulte was into Bible Quotes ... bunnies ... Marijuana... dreadlocks on her Facebook.” Jane mentions multiple times that Kylen was a positive influence on Crystal. Jane suggests Kylen got Crystal to stop abusing drugs. Crystal and Kylen and Jane studied the bible together, and they were firm believers, Jane reports. [Note that on Kylen’s facebook page, over the years, she posted many inspirational bible quotes, as well as pictures of her pet bunny Ruth].

The Van

Jane says that at some point KyCry bought a new van, and the old black van stayed in the parking lot at McDonald's. They drove out to Arizona and got an Econoline and kept the old one at McDonald's, Jane details, and when it got too hot they would go to LaSal. "Kate" bought them their silver Kia, Jane reports. According to Jane, Crystal never worked on Saturday, and she wasn’t there on Saturday when Jane came to work. Ky/Cry were at Woody’s Tavern with friends on Friday August 13th [2021].

According to Jane, Crystal and Kylen lived in their van because there is not affordable housing in the Moab area. Jane admitted, they enjoyed being van lifers, but before they actually got together and got the van, Crystal was living in a “little, tiny cab trailer” on someone else’s property.

[Note, there’s been some discussion on Twitter about various locations in and around Moab where individuals permanently camp, as in setting up a home, because of the lack of housing. Is it possible someone had encountered one of the murdered women via this living arrangement, and then decided to follow or stalk them? Various reports state that the two murdered women refer to the stranger who moved in on their La Sal camping site as if he were previously unknown to them. So a close former relationship between either of the two women, or both, and the creepy guy who pushed in on their La Sal camping location seems unlikely].

Kylen was with a man just prior to connecting with Crystal, and Kylen called him her husband but they weren’t legally married, Jane didn’t think.

[On FB, scrolling back through the years, Kylen does have pictures of herself with a young man around the year 2017, and notes in FB that they celebrated their one year anniversary back then.]

Moab Police Office Who Pulled Over Gabby and Brian

The younger guy who pulled Gabby over, he did the best job he could do, Jane insists. He was a rookie, she says. "Bob" is her friend (the cop). According to "Jane" the fight between Gabby and Brian started at the Moonflower. Kylen wasn’t there when the fight started as she got off at 2pm, according to Jane.

When Crystal and Kylen were still “just missing”

Jane says, then on Sunday Crystal didn’t show up for work, and they were wondering if maybe she wasn’t working on Sunday-- she didn’t show up, but normally she would call. Cry/Ky didn’t have a phone with cell service so they could only call if one had a cell with wifi and one had access to a landline, Jane reports, and she goes on to say some locals called the police when both of them didn’t show up for work Monday. Cindy Sue came in to McDonald's looking for the women [this was confirmed in Cindy’s interview by Cindy]. "Sue" (an employee at McDonald's- no longer an employee at McDonald's) called the cops.

On Friday night Cry/Ky went to Jane’s friend Ashley’s house (an apartment). It is right down the street from Woody's. Like 2 minutes away by car, Jane reports, and she goes on to say they were just hanging out- there were kids there- just hanging out “with the kids.” “Smoked a bowl,” maybe, says Jane. The interviewee states that there “were no drugs,” just marijuana. We do understand Crystal struggled with drug abuse, the interviewer notes. The interviewee says Kylen changed that.

They would have gotten out to LaSal campsite after midnight, Jane reports.

On Wednesday late afternoonish, Jane reports she went with a group including little children and adult friends, to look for her missing friends Crystal and Kylen. At that point the two women were just missing, she says. The group went up to the two women’s campsite and got out and looked around and there was nothing. Everything was gone and cleared away. Jane said on the way up the mountain there were sheriffs, and on the way down the mountain law enforcement stopped the group (they had two vehicles) and Jane et. al asked if police had found their friends, Crystal and Kylen, and the police would only say they were asked to get information from everyone going on and off the mountain.

At that point in the interview, Jane really broke down crying because she had lost her friends, Crystal and Kylen. She was upset because while they asked for her husband’s ID, they didn’t ask for her ID.

Law Enforcement and equity

Law enforcement hasn’t revealed anything about the murder, Jane laments. Jane was upset the police haven’t revealed how many times they were shot, the type of gun used, and nothing, no information. Jane noted that it was raining as hard as it ever rained there when the bodies were found. The FBI is on standby, according to Jane.

It’s hard to ignore how people get treated, the interviewer notes, the downtrodden (he’s referring to Crystal and Kylen). Jane says the two women would do anything for another person. They were totally innocent. The interviewer says he sent a call out to ask for a press conference for the two women. The interviewer and Jane were noting the lack of information coming from law enforcement regarding the nurders of Crystal and Kylen.

She said she was a born again Christian when she was 21 after making a number of mistakes with drugs and such. She’s 34. She lost her son when he was five and got him back now, he’s 14. And she has a 3 year old.

Context for the interview

1:00 in the morning he calls Utah. The person he calls is [redacted- pseudonym assigned "Jane"]. She says she’s very good friends with CryKyl.

He calls her without showing her number. So they are having tea together while talking. I’m going to only note things of importance.

Jane has a toddler. She asks him how he found out about her friends Crystal and Kylen. The interviewer lives in Arizona about 7 hours away from Moab and he found out about their murders in a news story. Jane started crying, and says the murder victims were so happily in love. Jane repeats: “They were so happily in love.”

Conclusion

[There was some speculation about the crime scene and the bodies, between the interviewer and Jane, however I’m not going to document that here because it made me a little uncomfortable. So, for that information the interview is available on Youtube as cited in my source list on this blog.]

The interviewer says the double homicide could have been completely unprovoked and random, but it’s hard to picture because the area was so isolated.

“It’s absolute evil,” the interviewer said. He then suggested it might be Brian Laundrie because of Laundrie’s drawings and such. Jane and the interviewer agreed the two women were in heaven. Everyone in Moab is heartbroken about the murders – life is not the same without the women, Jane reported.

Janes says a lot of people would be willing to do an interview with this guy if he was to come to Moab. Sean Paul (Kylen’s father) wants hardcore evidence.

Crystal’s mom called today and talked, Jane reports. She goes on to say there is a memorial at McDonald's and a tree.

Above information taken in part from: "Exclusive Interview with close friend of Kylen Schulte & Crystal Turner!" See Sources in this blog.