Kaylynn Blue’s sister remembers her as the ‘sweetest, kindest, most innocent soul I’ve ever met’

IDAHO FALLS — Kaylynn Blue couldn’t wait to celebrate her niece’s first birthday.

Her family was planning a party for little Danika’s special day in Colorado, where Blue is from, later this summer. Blue was planning to attend.

Instead, her family is now making preparations for Blue’s funeral after she was brutally killed early Sunday morning in her Idaho Falls home.

“It’s been rough. We are all devastated. She would never hurt anyone or anything. I don’t even know how she could ever do something to set this chain of events off. It’s not even possible in my mind,” Brittany Kochar, Blue’s sister, tells EastIdahoNews.com.

Blue moved to Idaho Falls a few years ago with her boyfriend, 33-year-old Philip Schwab. Police say he stabbed 33-year-old Blue multiple times before burying her in the backyard. He is charged with first-degree murder and is being held in the Bonneville County Jail without bail.

Family members tell EastIdahoNews.com that Blue and Schwab met in Colorado several years ago. Both have minor mental disabilities, according to Kochar, and were unable to live on their own.

“Phil’s dad died and he moved in with our parents,” Kochar says. “Our family has always been very hesitant of him and he just was taking the situation for granted so my parents kicked him out of the house.”

Schwab moved to Idaho Falls to live with his mother and Blue came with him. She had been working at Walgreens in Denver and transferred to a store in eastern Idaho. She loved her job and the people she worked with.

“They’ve always been really good working with her disabilities and just being really patient with her,” Kochar says. “Her coworkers were really the only friends she had in Idaho, besides Phil.”

Blue was the oldest child in her family. She and Kochar also have a brother. They, along with their parents, were concerned about her relationship with Schwab. He didn’t work, they bickered frequently and he posted disturbing content on his Facebook page.

“He’s always been strange. My sister had anxiety and he would poke and prod at that fact,” Kochar says. “I hadn’t been following him (on Facebook) for a long time because I’ve always thought some of his stuff on there is very strange. It was creepy, it was weird and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.”

Blue visited Kochar a few weeks ago in Colorado and everything seemed fine. They talked about her love of gardening and growing vegetables and Blue spent every minute she could with little Danika.

On Monday morning, Kochar received a message from one of Blue’s colleagues asking if she had heard from her sister. Blue had not shown up to work and didn’t call to say she would be absent.

“My sister would never not to show up to work. It does not matter the circumstance. She would at least call. She does not miss work,” Kochar says. “I reached out to everyone and no one had heard my sister.”

“I picked up the phone and I called Phil. I asked him what was going on, and this was well after he had already killed my sister. He answered the phone and said, ‘Your sister’s missing. Her car is here but nobody’s heard from her. I don’t know where she is.”

Kochar asked Schwab if Blue was home the previous night and he responded, “I don’t know.”

“I thought, ‘Really? She lives with you.’ He said, “Well, I’m calling the cops now. I’ll let you know when I know more,’ and he hung up on me. And that was it,” she says.

Hours later Kochar, her brother and parents learned the horrific news from the Idaho Falls Police Department. The family has since traveled to Idaho Falls and met with Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Clark.

They also met with Schwab’s mother, who expressed her remorse for what has happened, Kochar said.

“I have talked with his mother and his aunt and they’re just destroyed by it. They loved my sister so much. My whole family feels really bad for his mother. We’re not angry with her. It’s not her fault.”

One person Kochar does not want to see is Schwab. When she learned how he allegedly killed her sister, “it destroyed” her and after watching video of his first court appearance, Kochar wasn’t sure what to think.

“Part of me just wants to know what the hell was going on in his mind. The other part of me thinks that he doesn’t deserve any attention,” she says.

“He can rot in hell. He did horrific things to my poor sister and I would at least expect for him to look like he was going to cry but no. There’s no emotion in that video. None whatsoever. He didn’t seem upset, he just sat there. I don’t feel anything for him. He doesn’t even feel sorry for what he did. He’s been with my sister for eight years and he doesn’t feel one bit sorry for what he did.”

Kochar said the couple had been engaged for years.

Blue’s body has been taken to Boise for an autopsy and her family is unsure when funeral services will be held. Kochar says her family doesn’t have a lot of money so a GoFundMe account has been created to help cover travel, funeral and other expenses.

CLICK HERE to visit the GoFundMe page

Blue’s services will be held in Colorado and Kochar hopes her sister isn’t remembered for the way she died; rather, for how she lived.

“She was seriously, I’m not even kidding, the sweetest, kindest, most innocent soul I’ve ever met. She just wanted everyone around her to be happy and she just wanted to help everyone. I love her so much,” Kochar says.