Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #4

[citizen_sleuth]

Thanks for your thoughts on this, @10ofRods. I’m sometimes reluctant to speak in defense of LE on certain cases because I think there would be less weight credited to my statement given that I’m retired LE. Lord knows we’ve seen enough mistakes and sometimes down right criminal activity on the part of LE, none of which is ever justified. That being said there are times when the accusations against them are not true or their hands are tied by the confines of the law and constitution.
I also thought that the officers here did a good job. They got BL and GP separated right away, they diffused the situation, they interviewed both parties, and made an assessment of the situation. They made arrangements so that BL would spend the night apart from GP and gave her the keys to the van.
It is easy to be a Monday morning quarterback but the fact is that when a LEO responds to an incident, he or she has literally seconds or minutes to assess, control, and remedy a situation. More officers are hurt during traffic stops and DV incidents than from any other situation.
When you get a call for a domestic situation you know ahead of time that emotions will be running really high. Your job at that moment is to insure the safety of the parties involved. We have all heard of or seen instances of severe domestic abuse. They can be horrific. There are laws in place to protect victims. They are not always enough. What LE can’t do is force someone to press charges or prevent someone from returning to an abusive situation. It happens all the time for a myriad of reasons.
What those officers in Moab did that day in August is not the reason we can not find GP. It is not their fault that we don’t know what happened to her a month later. Their response was not sloppy. Let’s place blame where it belongs.

I hope you don’t mind me asking, but as retired LE you would certainly know more than me—any idea why the officers didn’t ask about weapons in the vehicle/on their persons when they made the stop? I’ve always assumed (perhaps wrongfully) that when responding to a DV-related call, officers would be extra vigilant about checking for weapons.

 

[hey-Debbie]

Interesting thought, especially since she said she wasn’t comfortable driving the van long distances.

But isn't it like an hour drive between those two parks?

 

[JudgeJoe]

https://twitter.com/kkuizon/status/1438562770455257090?s=21

This is the question many continue to ask. Now it’s posted near Brian Laundrie’s house. #northport #findgabby #gabbypetito @FOX13News

Excellent! Make it uncomfortable to go anywhere. Love the stop sign, “where is she”. Never seen anyone do that before. Great idea!

 

[Herat]

Could Gabbie potentially have gone to camp at the dispersed camping ground where the two women lived on the evening of the 12th, wanting to stay close to where Brian was in Moab, and not their reserved spot further away?

She might have, perhaps on the advice of one of the people at the Co-Op

But she does not appear to have been harmed nor does she mention anything in subsequent calls to her mom. And after traveling w BL, arrives in SLC to apparently stay several days. He purportedly flies to FL and back and they then resume their trip.

 

[MsBetsy]

SIX HOURS in a coffee shop? Has anyone on this WS ever spent six hours in a coffee shop??
A restaurant, bar, perhaps yes, but a coffee shop?
What went on there....

Maybe they were using the WiFi.

 

[HolographicOne]

SIX HOURS in a coffee shop? Has anyone on this WS ever spent six hours in a coffee shop??
A restaurant, bar, perhaps yes, but a coffee shop?
What went on there....

I posted about this before, but I forgot to get into detail.
There's a good chance that they were using WiFi/computer for editing their pics and socials. During the body cam footage she mentioned working on it that morning.

 

[Rocky1]

SIX HOURS in a coffee shop? Has anyone on this WS ever spent six hours in a coffee shop??
A restaurant, bar, perhaps yes, but a coffee shop?
What went on there....

A lot of people hang at coffee shops due to the wifi.

 

[pittie_mcclure]

No mention of BL flying back to Florida from Utah. Did this really happen? I can't believe reporters wouldn't be asking about it.

people are throwing so much around as fact (like “fact” that he left her before when we actually don’t know that) it’s hard to keep it straight. We know they got into a physical fight. We know weeks later he returned with her. We know his lawyer isn’t letting him talk. That’s it. I feel so much for her family.

I don't think anyone here is saying that BL made GP hit him. That's language you are choosing. Several of us are talking about GP's actions possibly being reactive abuse.
Key word there being abuse; as in GP's actions were abusive.
BL admitting pushing her and grabbing her face are also physical abuse so we do have evidence that he was also physically abusive to her.

It doesn't have to be one or the other (and it often is not)
People of all genders are abused and people of all genders commit abuse. In fact, same sex couples have high domestic violence rates. This just isn't at all about gender to me.

I'll re-iterate my statement though.
People who regularly physically abuse their partners generally don't tell police that they've hit their partner. That in itself is pretty telling.

Do you think him pushing her away to keep her from hitting him is abuse? He claims that is what he did. BL also doesn’t deny touching her, screaming at her, being mad. He admits all of that to the police. I have read many comments here saying his abusive behavior drove her to lay hands on him. Apparently the only explanation re: her hitting him and leaving marks is that HE drove her to it through abuse. I’m trying to deal with what we know and I’m not sure we know that. Sounds like they were both mistreating the other. Maybe they were both being reactive to the abuse inflicted on one another and it got to a point where gabby was fatally injured?

I don’t think she was evil or a malicious abuser - i think they are both very young, emotionally immature and struggling - but she clearly hit him and left marks. Women can be manipulative and emotionally abusive as well. How do we know she wasn’t consistently having breakdowns and when he tried to leave her or defend himself she used her mental state as a weapon? Can I make that assumption or is that not ok? Would still make him a criminal and awful as no violence is EVER ok but how do we know? If he came out and said he was a DV victim (he WAS taken to a DV hotel room and was given the option to press charges by LE) and left his abuser somewhere and won’t cooperate because as a guy he’s scared he’ll be charged with a crime if something happened after he left would you give him the benefit of the doubt or still question him? Her being 110 pounds is irrelevant to her being an abuser. My husband was abused by his mother, even through adulthood. She always tried to pin it on him and as he got older and larger is was easier for people to believe her. The second he would try to physically restrain her from touching him she would scream abuse. I know statiscally men abuse women at extremely high rates. No argument. Just want to be clear there.

<modsnip> I’ve also mentioned they were clearly toxic and harmful to each other. He’s not anywhere near clear in my head- not by any means. GP’s family deserves to know if she’s ok or not and if not where to find her. Period. My heart breaks for them not knowing. But he WAS being physically assaulted by his partner and all assumptions that clear her behavior don’t sit right with me until we know more information.

 

[Tibeliz]

I think LE is only doing this to put pressure on BL and they need to investigate every lead.

BL is a person who could provide valuable leads that they could investigate. He is the main person who could provide those leads and he won’t.

 

[milkshakedonkey]

Just to be clear. Moab and the location GP was last seen in SLC are about a 4-5 hour drive apart. Some theories being thrown out seem to be assuming these locations are close. GTNP is another 5 hour drive on the other side of SLC.

 

[fr brown]

For anyone else who didn't watch this portion of the video BL
has a discussion with the officer (who is originally from Cali) about Yosemite.

I did see that part, and the discussion of Kings Canyon and Sequoia. Robbins seemed entirely comfortable with Laundrie.

 

[mlhenn]

Gabby Petito and her boyfriend kept lists of campgrounds they wanted to visit around Grand Teton National Park

The couple appeared to keep lists of campgrounds across several states, including Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, on an app called Dyrt. Dyrt is a social media network for campers where people share campground reviews, photos and camping tips.


The couple had a list on their Dyrt account called "CRATERS TO TETON" that includes three campsites spread throughout southeastern Idaho, ending near the border of Wyoming by the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.

A private investigator told Insider that since Laundrie has refused to speak to police and retained a lawyer, they believe he may have left her behind somewhere in Grand Teton National Park. Experts also suggested authorities look within one mile of Laundrie's home for a body, although police have said they have no evidence of a crime.

 

[JudgeJoe]

SIX HOURS in a coffee shop? Has anyone on this WS ever spent six hours in a coffee shop??
A restaurant, bar, perhaps yes, but a coffee shop?
What went on there....

I confess I have. Catching up w a friend. Getting wifi, AC, & waiting for family while travelling. Doesn’t stand out to me.

 

[hey-Debbie]

For those who are bashing the police that showed up to the incident, where I live (LEO spouse), not sure about other places, if a cop shows up to a DV call and observes marks on a person, the other person is automatically arrested. So the first thing I thougtht of when I saw they let her walk is they were actually doing her a service.

Agreed and they kept mentioning she was so small and tiny. In my mind I'm thinking they were thinking that she's so small, young tiny, cute. Let's try to give her a break because no way she would really hurt his guy and he can defend himself. Well, it does happen women when they are really irate and irrational have done very horrible things to their partners. Like I said if they actually had arrested her this situation might not even be happening right now.

 

[Herat]

Yes, WIFI, air conditioning in the desert, good water with ice, slowly drinking a coffee now and then. Been there, done that.

And with tensions in the relationship already arising, this is one place they can separate for a bit: Her working on her blog, him? Walking around mebbe?

 

[Evergreen1]

RSBM. I think you are on to something here. I suspect that not only was Gabby unaware that she was a victim, I think he gaslighted her into thinking she was the aggressor, based on what I've watched of the body cam footage so far. My brothers used to do this to me all the time -- say horrible things to me, make fun of me, pick on me, until I lost it then I would get in trouble for making a scene/hitting one of them. And he is giving me ALL those vibes. All of them.

This is my impression as well. She even downplayed his aggressive behavior and didn’t mention his shove (which he admitted to and was witnessed).

 

[Rocky Mountain Hi]

The official reports state otherwise.

And this is where concerns about sloppy police work come in. One officer observes marks on her face, but the one writing up the report excludes that info.

For those who are bashing the police that showed up to the incident, where I live (LEO spouse), not sure about other places, if a cop shows up to a DV call and observes marks on a person, the other person is automatically arrested. So the first thing I thougtht of when I saw they let her walk is they were actually doing her a service.

Yes, they were doing her a service, but they were also doing him a service by not filling out the story, and asking why she had marks on her face, and asking why he refused to give her the keys to her car.

To a certain extent, you could say "hindsight is 20/20", where--knowing how things turned out, we can look back and say, police should have done this or that, or questioned them more, etc. But if one officer observed they both had marks on them, how could it be so cut-and-dried as to say she was the aggressor beyond doubt?

 

[mlhenn]

Gabby Petito timeline: Everything we know about her disappearance

According to Petito's stepfather, Jim Schmidt:

"She would go off the grid... doing her van life stuff, exploring these different areas. So it wasn't uncommon for her to go off for few days at a time, but she'd always make her way back to someplace where she could get on to a Wi-Fi connection, upload to her Instagram, make phone calls, FaceTime," he said.

 

[I wonder]

The argument involving the police occurred because she thought he was going to drive off in the van and leave her. She basically fought to get back in the van through the driver's window.

The police officer told her he wasn't going to charge her with domestic violence. Gabby seems like a good person prone to anxiety, though to be honest, most people would experience anxiety living the way they were.

But someone like Gabby would be terrified at the idea of being arrested. Not for the usual reasons because she got caught, but because of the unknown, made even worse by being hundreds of miles from home.

She was essentially threatened with being charged with domestic violence.
When the police spoke to her she was in a police car. That's quite intimidating.
He got buddy with several police officers, joked around and asked about the music system in the police car.
She was left with a vehicle she didn't drive and told to go to presumably a homeless place to pay $4 for a shower.
He got the lift to a hotel from the police and shared a joke with the police about washing his feet.

Brian would consequently have even more power over her. Poor Gabby must have been so scared knowing that ultimately she was virtually completely powerless. Brian completely controlled her.

I don't know what happened, but it's pretty obvious something very, very bad has happened and I find it impossible to believe that Brian is sat at home as bewildered as the rest of us.

 

[whitelilac]

I go out to talk to the gardener, and come back to 13 more pages....
geez