Who owns Moonflower Co-Op? Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie fought at store where murdered Kylen Schulte worked
UPDATE: Utah police have now determined that Gabby Petito’s disappearance is not related to the double homicide of Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner in Moab. Schulte and Turner were last seen alive on August 13 and their bodies were recovered from their campsite in the South Mesa area on August 18.
“It has been determined that the Gabby Petito missing person case is not related to the double-homicide case involving Chrystal Turner and Kylen Schulte,” the Grand County Sheriff said in a statement.
The police were previously exploring a potential connection between the two cases. “We’re looking at everything, I mean, anything and everything that was suspicious around that time or we’re not ruling anything out at this time,” the sheriff’s office had said earlier. “So we’re just investigating the information as it comes in.”
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More details have been revealed in the Gabby Petito disappearance case which indicates a possible link with the Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner murder case in Moab, Utah. According to an incident report released by Moab Police Department on September 15, cops responded to a domestic violence complaint in Moab on August 12, two weeks prior to Petito's mysterious disappearance. The report identifies Petito and her fiance Brian Laundrie as the arguing couple when she was reportedly seen hitting him in the arm.
Coincidentally, the incident of 'violence' took place around 4:30 pm in front of the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab, where Kylen Schulte used to work. Moab residents Kylen Schulte and her wife Crystal 'Beck' Turner were shot dead in La Sal Mountains of Utah on the August 14 weekend. The bodies of the lesbian couple were discovered later by their friends. Now, as the investigation on Gabby Petito's missing case unfolds, police have found more and more bizarre correlations between the two cases.
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Gabby and Brian were spotted fighting on August 12 in front of the Moonflower Co-Op, while Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner went missing on August 13, just a day later. Schulte used to work at Moonflower Co-op as a cashier for four years. After she and her wife were found murdered, the Moonflower community mourned their deaths on social media.
"The Moonflower family is heartbroken to share the news of the recent tragic passing of one of our dear employees, Kylen Schulte, as well as her wife, Crystal Beck. Kylen worked at Moonflower as a cashier (and amazing hat model) for the last four years and was often the first friendly face many of our owners and patrons encountered as they walked in the door. Her genuine kindness, radiant energy, and tireless work ethic touched the lives of countless people and will be deeply missed by Moonflower and the Moab community," the shop posted on their Facebook page.
Who owns the Moonflower Co-op?
Moonflower Co-Operative was started in 1999 as a non-profit organization by four Moab community members Cathy Bonde, Lisa Horzepa, Dave Steward, and d’ahna Chalmers, under the guidance of Conrad Sorensen. Launched as the Moonflower Market, it was changed into the Moonflower Community Co-operative (MCC) in August 2013. Now, it functions as a food store specializing in "local, organic produce, a wide array of herbs and wellness products, and a deli offering breakfast & lunch daily with vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options."
According to the domestic violence report on Gabby and Brian, a bystander saw "Gabrielle hitting Brian in the arm and then climbing through the driver's window as if Brian had locked her out and she was trying to find a way in."
Responding officer Daniel Scott Robbins later located the couple's 2012 Ford Transit on the way to Arches National Park and pulled them over. He then found Gabby crying uncontrollably in the passenger seat. She disclosed to the officer that her and Brian's altercation was fueled by mental health issues.
"Because of her [redacted] and [redacted], combined with little arguments she and Brian had been having that day, she was struggling with her mental health, which led to the incident that was reported to law enforcement," the report mentions, adding that Gabby was continually "crying, breathing heavily, or compose a sentence without needing to wipe away tears, wipe her nose, or rub her knees with her hands."
When the officer spoke with Laundrie, he told him that both Gabby and he struggled with the same issues and their differences had been building up in the past few days. "'That time spent created emotional strain between them and increased the number of arguments," the report said, indicating the 4-5 month duration of their cross-country trip.
"Brian said Gabrielle, thinking he was going to leave her in Moab without a ride, went to slap him," it mentions. "Both expressed a 'desire to remain together and ultimately agreed to be separated."
While no confirmed correlation between Kylen Schulte-Crystal Turner murders and Gabby Petitio's disappearance has been established, the coincides are intensifying the unsolved mystery.