Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #5

[Deleted member 121463]

Gabby's stepfather is in Wyoming now. He's there for a reason.

Yosemite was a ruse. imo.

 

[whitelilac]

Clearly, switching Yellowstone and Yosemite is a common occurrence, and I imagine if you're panicking from whatever altercation you just had with your fiancé that is causing you to flee cross-country in her van, you might be liable to make the same mistake.

Plus, their plan was to end the trip in Oregon (Portland) with friends, in October (iirc around the 2nd) and stay there to include Halloween.
Doesn't make sense to drive all the way to Yosemite, spend some time there, and all the way up to Oregon . No time.

 

[SaranWrapPetunia]

We know one of the text messages, Gabby's mom received, but not the other one, right? What is the source of the text message "no service in Yosemite"? I thought I came across that info being shared by an uncle via an image of his notes. Are we sure this is coming from a vetted source? I'm trying to keep up. Sorry, if I missed the details in prior threads.

 

[Coquette]

I just watched the entire bodycam video.

1. Did she show up at his hotel? The officer told her how far it was and used the store/cafe as reference. Only one hotel there? A few?Let's hope there's surveillance video.

2. Her parents knew about this and said nothing?

3. Where did she spend the night? She said she didn't usually drive the van. Did she go to the store/cafe where one of the murdered women worked? He said they'd spent 3 hours there. The couple had a campsite. Did they offer to let her stay with them for the night? Far fetched, but possible. She knew no one and was vulnerable and alone.

4. IMO, If she had been a man she'd have spent the night in jail. I wish they'd cited her, if only to have a paper trail in place to protect all parties involved. Perhaps that would have been the trigger to send her home to her family. Hindsight.

5. My heart hurt watching them. I truly believe this event triggered whatever ultimately happened to Gabby.

Initial thoughts only. MOO

 

[oviedo]

I agree. Also, had that happened, he could have just told law enforcement that she jumped out at such and such place, and give them that location.

The fact that he won’t do that, tells me that he didn’t just drive off and leave her, at least not alive.

Yep there is no reason at all he should not give her location when he left her - taking HER Van home to his mommy and daddy in FL - unless he disappeared her
JMO

 

[cuffem]

Was what...Sept or August?

August 25 - they are in Grand Teton.

Sept 1 - he is headed back fo FL. If not already in FL. IIRC, he arrives in FL on Sept 1. He also posts on his Insta (now hidden) for two days before leaving. He had to spend at least 3-4 days driving.

No time for Yosemite.

The article from the NY Post had misinformation on the location and date of the meeting with Gabby and her friend. The NY Post was saying sometime in Sept. It was in the link I linked.

 

[Jurisprudence]

Brian's lawyer sure isn't handling this case like he's ever going to need to win over a jury. No jury is going to feel compassion towards a guy who kept silent on the whereabouts of his missing fiancé. Which makes me wonder if Brian and family expects that Gabby will never be found.

This is me saying this - not fact:

Once they finish their investigation and get enough for an indictment, they're gonna eventually have to plead him out when all is said and done IF they have not recovered her because they need to find her for the family. (This is likely what his atty is banking on - Hence, the silence.)

If they are able to recover her prior to him being charged look out for the defense to possibly do the 'the other guy could have done it' standard "reasonable doubt" play.

 

[Rocky Mountain Hi]

It seems pretty clear to me that they broke up by August 17, if not sooner.

Five days after the altercation, Brian flew home to Florida to move her (or joint) possessions from a storage unit, leaving her in a Salt Lake City hotel, returning six days later.

In the altercation, she was the aggressor - or at least the one who struck and left scratches. The reports suggest that he withdrew from the argument because it was getting too heated - first backing off and then getting in the van. It sounds like something like this had happened before, and this was a learned (or counseling-educated) strategy to de-escalate the situation. She had serious anxiety issues and, apparently, abandonment issues, so his withdrawal might have terrified her; after all, that was a stated cause of the altercation. Perhaps he did overpower her or abuse her at some point, but there's no evidence of that other than what we know about how these things often go.

Five days later, he flew to Florida and then back again six days later. In the interim, her father reportedly ordered Uber Eats "for the couple" in the hotel where she was staying; did Dad not know that Brian had flown back home? Did she not want to admit that they were broken up? (Or is my reference mistaken?)

All of this looks like a negotiated breakup - to this point, anyway. He flew back either to help her drive home (or drive on, if they made up), or possibly to drive the van home alone while she flew home - or somewhere else - alone: the hotel where she was staying served the airport.

I don't think things look good for her, but there is a possibility that she gave him the van to drive home and went somewhere else herself.

In a completely different scenario, probably mutually exclusive to the one above, I'm really intrigued that their altercation took place at the Moonflower Food Co-op, which is where Kylen Schulte (one of the murdered newlyweds) worked. Both couples were living in their vehicles, possibly in the same place if they encountered each other at the Moonflower. Perhaps Gabby and Brian encountered the newlyweds while dispersed camping, and were told that Moonflower was THE place to get the beautiful food in their video.

At a minimum, they would KNOW about the same places for distributed camping. That might implicate either Gabby or Brian, but if the two mysteries are connected, I lean towards a third party with some kind of a mutual connection, either from the Moonflower or from camping.

There are definitely some things LE is keeping to themselves, doubtless with good reason: cell phone ping records, gas receipts, CCTV.

Finally, WHY Yosemite in the last text supposedly from Gabby to her mother? I'm trying to figure out how that would fit with either "Gabby goes on alone" scenario OR as an attempt to obscure where she really was if she'd been abandoned.

Your scenario, of maybe she was going to fly home after he left, insofar as the hotel they were at served the airport, actually sounds plausible. I wonder where the money for an expensive hotel, and fior flying around is coming from, if they told police they were low on $$. But anyway, if he left thinking she would catch a flight home, maybe she ran into trouble at the hotel; some perv, or whatever, or in town.

But is your scenario based on the assumption they never got to Grand Teton? Just clarifying.

 

[mlhenn]

*****************************************

The Yosemite text was, according to her mother, sent on August 30, not August 28.

Correct.
The friend’s birthday was the 29th when Gabby was supposed to call back, but didn’t (according to article).
A day later, Aug 30, the no signal text was reportedly sent.

 

[CarleneInspired]

Hi there! Years long lurker, account since 2018, and this may be my first or second ever post.
Been really intrigued by this one the last few days. Nothing new to add, but just wanted to say, even though in MOO Brian made her happy Halloween post, in my age group and younger beginning to “celebrate” begins around now. I have friends that have decorated and said Halloween things already.

 

[chuppa74]

Beyond the hair, the timing of the message re Halloween is odd. Monarchs are orange and black so it is a cute message but why send out end of August when they had stated they were trying to get to the end of trip by Halloween? Very odd.
(And thanks to all for correcting me re the location of the Monarch mural in Ogden not Moab.)

Why? Because they were in Ogden, where the Monarch exhibit is, and they were there in August.

 

[fr brown]

They also asked him if he was on medications because he seemed “hyper,” FWIW

Yeah, he was agitated when he got out of the van. He hadn't pulled over right away, which the officer didn't like. Gabby said she had been punching him in the arm while he was driving. That could account for him crossing the double yellow and then smacking into the curb.

It seemed to me that he soon calmed down and became comfortable even though he did a lot of "fig leafing."

 

[Beren]

Sorry to ask such a basic question but is it correct to assume GP’s phone is missing along with her and we don’t have records of where her phone last pinged? She’s been gone so long. Why not?

How did the friend make plans to meet up with GP in Yosemite? Text? Before the 27th or only on the 27th and never to be confirmed on the 29th?

If this was last minute, sounds to me like it was a way to throw off her scent - make it look like GP’s phone (and therefore GP) went there. Perhaps he went through there to chuck her phone. Where did BL’s phones ping during the same time? If his phone was not charged would it ping?

This will have to come down to technology.

 

[Trebor5591]

Certainly publicly LE are stating that currently they do not suspect criminality.

Also, if he is 'innocent', how could speaking to LE hurt him? He's a white young man. It doesn't appear that he has a criminal history and there is a video portraying him as a domestic violence victim.

I realise the US justice system isn't perfect, but I don't see the police's priority or aim to stitch Brian up, IF he had no role in her disappearance and whatever has happened to her.

Here is a very enlightening Youtube video by an attorney and a police detective that explains quite clearly why people should never talk to the police. I believe it was an educational seminal in Norfolk, Virginia, sponsored by the Virginian Pilot newspaper and the Regent University School of Law. It may answer a lot of folks questions on why people should never speak to the police (unless reporting a crime).

 

[Alkali13]

Okay, I will think out loud (out type?) here.

Last seemingly likely contact with GP would've been the friend on the 8/27 via Snapchat. BL is back in Florida 9/1. Five days later. We know GP missed calling her friend on 8/29 (per the friend). So somewhere between 8/27-8/29, something happened. If it was, at the latest, 8/29, that's 3 days to get back to North Port, FL, which is a 35 hour drive. ~12ish hours of driving every day if so. I'm thinking the most likely scenario would be something happening on 8/28.

Also, if GP and the friend were supposed to meet in Yellowstone and they were supposed to solidify that plan when they spoke on 8/29, that seems odd to me. How long did GP & BL plan to spend going from SLC to GTNP to Yellowstone?

 

[gliving]

But the message the mom got said "no cell service in Yosemite", so how do you explain that?

For one thing, BL doesn't have a cell phone plan so he can only text using a wifi connection. Secondly, if it's him texting the mom, it's good a way to throw her off Gabby's location by implying she's in Yosemite. Does anyone know if wifi texts are traceable? ty

I bet her mother would like two minutes alone with BL.

 

[Daae]

Did anyone else watch the very end of the full length webcam video? It's posted back a ways. The officer said over and over again that Yosemite Park in California was the place they needed to visit. This conversation was only with Brian. It made my antennas go up! Maybe the text did say Yosemite? Brian could have slipped up ......

 

[insatiable]

Strange when in the car with LE on the way to the hotel the officer and BL talked about Yosemite. Then the text supposedly from Gabby to her mom Yosemite is mistakingly written in place of Yellowstone. more reason to think BL wrote it not Gabby, IMO

 

[Deleted member 222031]

In the police video, she says she's scared to drive it.

I know, I know, if I was scared of driving a particular vehicle I certainly wouldn't (a), buy that vehicle, (b), make someone else do all the heavy lifting driving said vehicle 24/7 on a cross country road trip no matter how hard my beloved swore he didn't mind doing so; but, it is what it is.

I find that very, very odd. She agreed to go into the wilderness but doesn't feel she has the skill to drive herself? Hmmm.....

 

[vanlifelady]

Did anyone else watch the very end of the full length webcam video? It's posted back a ways. The officer said over and over again that Yosemite Park in California was the place they needed to visit. This conversation was only with Brian. It made my antennas go up! Maybe the text did say Yosemite? Brian could have slipped up ......