Utah authorities say they have identified a suspect in the murder of a couple camping out in Moab—a fast-food worker who confided in someone that he had killed two women.
But cops say there is no chance that Adam Pinkusiewicz will be brought to justice. After the double homicide of Kylen Schulte and Crystal Beck, he left the state and killed himself.
It’s a stunning turn of events in a case that had frustrated investigators since Schulte and Beck were found shot to death in August off a scenic road that runs through a national forest.
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“Although Adam Pinkusiewicz has been identified as a suspect, this is still an ongoing investigation and the case is not closed,” the Grand County Sheriff said in a statement on Wednesday.
Newlyweds Schulte, 24, and Beck, 38, went missing last summer after telling friends there was a “weirdo camping near them” in the mountains, according to Schulte’s father.
A desperate search for the couple led to heartache when a friend of the family, acting on a hunch, found their bodies.
For months, family and friends tried to keep the spotlight on the case, hoping a break would lead to the killer. They even summoned Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman to the area to investigate last weekend.
In its statement, the sheriff’s office said Pinkusiewicz, who had worked at a local McDonald’s, was identified as a person of interest early in the investigation—but he had already left Utah.
Police “recently received information that prior to committing suicide, Pinkusiewicz told another party that he had killed two women in Utah and provided specific details that were known only to investigators.”
The sheriff did not disclose those details or any other aspects of the investigation beyond the fact that forensic experts are now combing over the suspect’s 2007 Yaris.
An amateur crime sleuth nicknamed Bullhorn Betty interviewed workers at the Moab McDonald’s in November, and one of the employees named Pinkusiewicz as someone they suspected could be the killer.
They described him as a homeless former worker who had gotten into a fight with another lesbian couple and was “bad news.” They said he had failed to pick up his last check after the killings.
