Newly released footage shows some of the last moments captured on camera of murdered newlyweds Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner, who were shot to death at a Utah campsite last week.
The footage, taken in Woody’s Tavern in Moab, pictures the semi-regulars smiling, chatting and hanging out with friends. There has been local discord regarding when the women were last in the bar, with police initially claiming it was on 14 August. But Woody’s owner publicly posted on Facebook that it was a night earlier – while railing against authorities.
The bodies of the women, aged 38 and 24, were discovered by a friend after they’d been missing several days – and after they’d allegedly told friends and family that a “creepy” man was camping near them in the La Sal mountains.
The FBI and state authorities have been called in to help locals with the investigation, which has left residents of Moab and surrounding areas in fear – and not entirely encouraged by law enforcement efforts so far.
In a Facebook post on 22 August, the owner of Woody’s wrote that the bar had turned over footage to the police – but had found the process “incredibly frustrating”.
“It didn’t matter how many times we told the police they had the wrong day and therefore the wrong timeframe on their last days it did not matter,” the owner posted. “We provided the footage from when the women were actually in there and the day they keep saying they were to prove it was Friday not Saturday ... We don’t care about the cameras or the footage what we care about is that while they are wasting time looking at video that is completely irrelevant to anything the killer is getting further and further away.”
The post continued: “Have you caught the killer? Do you have even a clue as to who did this? NO, you don’t ... when two women were just murdered for no reason.”
On the same day of the post, locals held a vigil for the murdered women, who’d gotten happily married in April.
“It was sombre, for sure,” Maggie Keating, one of Kylen’s co-workers and a vigil attendee, told The Independent. “It was nice. I think it was just a nice space for people to express themselves and express their thoughts and offer to hear from other people whose lives they touched ... I think we’re all probably feeling some of the same emotions.”
Ms Keating, who had worked on a regular basis for two and a half years with Kylen, said of her late co-worker: “She was one of our main cashiers, just there every morning, just the friendliest person you could ever imagine.
“She was always the sweetest to every person she interacted with.”