[4] Two days before they were reported missing, Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito were stopped by officers of the Moab City Police Department.
[7] After the couple had been out of contact for three days, a local friend received a phone call from Schulte's father, who lives in Montana.
[10] Both women were discovered undressed from the waist down in a creek close to the campsite, with multiple gunshot wounds on their backs, sides, and/or chests.
It included an investigation into a cell tower at Jimmy Keen Flats, near the campsite between August 13 and 15, only for phones within a 2 mi (3.2 km) radius of the crime scene.
[14] In March 2022, a private investigator who volunteered to help Schulte's father[15] claimed that law enforcement had obtained an audio recording from near the crime scene, on which gunshots and screams can be heard.
[20] The first news release by the Grand County Sheriff's Office, issued on August 19, 2021, claimed that there was "no current danger to the public".
[21] This claim was met with skepticism by friends of the couple who believe the statement was to protect the tourism industry while investigating the case.