Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #35

[Skigirl]

I don’t know if I’m lost or not. Did you mean when he got back home to Florida, not Long Island?

Thanks for catching that. I went back to correct it. I meant FL (where his parents live now), not LI (where they used to live).

 

[kittythehare]

Touché, though I feel the onus would be on the prosecution to prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, that BL murdered GP.

I think it's going to be a tough task, unless forensic evidence is unearthed that cannot be disputed. Again though, with DNA, the defence could simply claim they were a couple, in a relationship, living in a tiny space together so it's natural that DNA will be found..

JMO

And if the exact same DNA is found on the murder weapon, possibly a massive rock, did it just blow up there in the wind?
There WILL be forensic evidence and all kinds of evidence we cannot even imagine- the budget was BIG for this case!
But he might be dead.
I don't want to speculate on a trial for a possible ghost until after he is captured, if that ever happens.

 

[Sassafrass]

Without BL's 'fingerprints on a murder weapon' so to speak, the evidence so far is circumstantial. Maybe that would be enough for conviction, I don't know.

MOO

Circumstantial evidence can absolutely be sufficient to support a guilty verdict.

 

[jamicat]

Without BL's 'fingerprints on a murder weapon' so to speak, the evidence so far is circumstantial. Maybe that would be enough for conviction, I don't know.

BL’s fingers were likely part of the murder weapon. Maybe actually the weapon

 

[10ofRods]

BBM
Thank you, @jamicat and @tiara1972 for sharing an alt theory to BL killing GP. I agree with you and others that this is a low probability scenario, but I feel as prudent sleuthers, we must always be flipping the proverbial coin around in our minds. And given the scant amount of directly incriminating evidence that BL killed GP, there is room for other options. So I am going to take a spin, as I think I did many threads ago, but this time building off of your ideas.

So here is an "Alternative" scenario, all IMO.

8/27:

• This day was a breaking point for GP after the ugly scene at the Texmex restaurant.
• Back at their campground on the side of the road, GP tells BL they are done.
• In a rage, BL packs and leaves for a hike to clear his head and avoid doing something bad to GP (leaves his flip flops outside the van for his return).
• GP is left in the van alone and may be the one closing the back of the van door as the Vloggers drive by 6/6:30pm - she just wants to be alone.

8/28:

• Sometime during this day or evening, GP goes for a walk alone across the river basin towards where she was found
• A nefarious character has been watching GP, perhaps since they were seen in Jackson Hole or from SM postings, and he stalks her
• The stalker catches up with GP, she has no defenses and he kills her (perhaps raping her first, sorry... I don't know if forensics could do a rape kit).

8/29:

• BL returns to the van via his hitchhiking rides - the story he has told the drivers is true, as others postulate could be the case... "he just needed a break".
• BL cannot find GP and comes to the decision that she has actually left him... this would have to presume he does not process information like most people.
• BL decides to wait for another day but believes he might as well head home if she went home... this would require a suspension of normal social expectations.

8/30:

• BL blindly, naively, and foolishly leaves the Tetons for home. He uses her debit card and van without concern

9/1:

• BL arrives home, tells his family GP left him and he blissfully returns to his life there, mowing the lawn, going for a trip, like nothing happened

Then all hell breaks loose and BL and his family realize something is very wrong. He looks guilty as all get out. NY family lawyer says stay quiet... then tells BL to get out of dodge and hide... Hide until the FBI completes their investigation and finds you did not kill GP. And so the family rallies around BL and helps him hide.

IMO.

So she left him with all her stuff? Including phone and debit card. How unusual.

And what an incredibly thing to have happen - a nefarious actor, who apparently. steals nothing <modsnip - no link for fact>. Wow. That's one for the true crime books.

Or did he take her phone and text Stan as well as Gabby's mom? Since LE already have those records, it's truly concerning that they aren't looking for a serial killer in WY. And not a single camera so far has picked up evidence of this person - who had to have a car, as he couldn't exactly trot behind their vehicle all the way to Spread Creek.'

And LE also has Brian's phone records. Why didn't he call Gabby to see what was up, if she just disappeared? Why don't his parents tell. Gabby's parents what. happened? Why is Brian the only POI?

 

[Bertha96]

DNA evidence or fingerprints on a murder weapon is still circumstantial evidence.

And we have no idea what evidence they have or if there are fingerprints...

 

[tiara1972]

So, what stopped the parents getting in touch with her parents when their lawyer begged them to get in touch?

MOO!!! The ONLY theory I can come up with on this one is that all of this happened around the same time that the LE + Gabby's Dad "incident" happened. I have no idea, from what we have access to, what came first (and I think this is important to consider), the unanswered calls or the police visit to the house over the 10th and 11th of September. IF the police showed up first and it was adversarial in nature, it makes sense that they retained an attorney and chose not to engage. Outside of that, it is impossible make sense of this lack of response without MORE reliable information regading the family dynamics. Again, MOO

 

[Cecelia]

Without BL's 'fingerprints on a murder weapon' so to speak, the evidence so far is circumstantial. Maybe that would be enough for conviction, I don't know.

MOO

Again with the circumstantial evidence. As we've gone over in previous threads: Circumstantial evidence is real, guilt-determining, proof-providing evidence. Fingerprints, DNA, most forensic evidence is circumstantial. The problem IMO is TV -- decades of lawyer and cop shows leading people to erroneously believe that circumstantial evidence isn't probative, isn't useful, isn't enough to convict in a criminal trial.

It is.

Circumstantial evidence - Wikipedia

 

[JuneRose]

do we know what the amount of bounty is on BL,s head now?

 

[OtisC]

She was covering for him. She is dead, not him. There is nothing that she could do which should provoke him to murder her.

There is no evidence that she was covering for him.

I agree that she did nothing that deserves dying for.

 

[SouthAussie]

<modsnip>

IMO from the information that has been made public about GP’s death and the events proceeding and following it, BLs defense team (which is a team of one, right now) will have an uphill battle to create reasonable doubt. Circumstantial evidence is still evidence (and people can be and have been convicted of murder on circumstantial evidence alone) and it overwhelming points to BL killing GP. MOO.

I am certainly not implying that BL is not the perpetrator, as I think he is.

But the prosecution does have the onerous task of dispelling any credible reasonable doubt that may be brought about by the defense. imo

Nobody needs that one juror, who may be swayed by the defense, to be swayed the wrong way.

In case reviews, we can see closing arguments where the prosecution tries to hammer home that there is no-one else who could have committed the crime, that no credible alternative perp has been produced by the defense.

 

[bellyup]

Is this a private reward fund that people are donating money towards? Something that can't be regulated by a crowd funding organisation or similar? (Sorry, I don't know the details of the reward accounts.)

Just wondering if it is a risky venture for genuine people wanting to help offer a reward.

Personally MOO - I would only contribute to a reward fund that LE is behind.
At this time in GPs case I haven’t seen one.

 

[Sassafrass]

He wouldn't be running like he is if this was manslaughter. He knows he killed her.

Manslaughter doesn't mean a person didn't kill another person.

 

[ShadyLady]

Either way, if he didn't slap her at that time he had most likely done much worse before and after that particular incident. IMO.

I cant assume he had ever hit her before Spread Creek, and hopefully autopsy will give evidence to watch happened at her death.

I also understand some WSers think the 911 caller got it right 100%. I just felt the need to state why I thought he saw incorrectly. If Brian had slapped her repeatedly, there would have been physical evidence, and I think if she admitted Brian grabbing her face and scratching it, there would be no need to lie about a slap.

It could have been that Brian snapped at Spread Creek, and that it was the first time their fights had became so aggressive.

I prefer to think that most of their trips were happy and they were able to enjoy their travels, before it became dark. AND that does not excuse one bit her death and his running away!

 

[SuziQ]

Without BL's 'fingerprints on a murder weapon' so to speak, the evidence so far is circumstantial. Maybe that would be enough for conviction, I don't know.

MOO

Almost all evidence is circumstantial. Even forensics.

 

[Wicked Strong]

It was described as an access key as far as I remember. We use those here too.

This is the indictment and arrest warrant.

https://static.fox13news.com/www.fo...s/2021/09/Laundrie-indictment-and-warrant.pdf

 

[ShadyLady]

I have really been avoiding the entire abuse convo - but you could slap me silly and it would never leave a mark. You can punch me and it won’t. I mentioned earlier in the thread I broke all the bones in the top of my foot with a metal object and it never showed a mark on the outside.

My skin doesn’t bruise on the surface and many people do not. I look at my partner funny and he has a bruise. Whether one has “marks” or not is an awful litmus for if abuse has occurred or not.

Yes, but the right side of her face did show a red mark. And a scratch.

 

[JayWill]

Without BL's 'fingerprints on a murder weapon' so to speak, the evidence so far is circumstantial. Maybe that would be enough for conviction, I don't know.

MOO

Most murders are convicted on circumstantial evidence. And fingerprints are circumstantial.

 

[citizen_sleuth]

And we have no idea what evidence they have or if there are fingerprints...

Of course (which IMO is a good thing—the FBI/NPPD keeping things under wraps will lessen the ways the defense can argue for a mistrial). I was just clarifying that DNA evidence and fingerprints are still circumstantial evidence and are given the same legal weight as, say, phone records that place someone in the area at the time of a crime. It is a common misconception that DNA/fingerprints are “hard” evidence when in reality they are circumstantial and can and have been used to both convict and acquit.

 

[Skigirl]

There is no evidence that she was covering for him.

I agree that she did nothing that deserves dying for.

Well, except that the one contemporaneous, pre-police account says that he was running after her and slapping her.