Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #50

[priyaya]

OH dear me!!!

this is so typically florida.

 

[carbuff]

Wait, you're a car buff? I thought it said cat buff!

I do like cats. But my dad was a mechanic. I grew up helping out in the garage. Noticing vehicles is second nature--a skill that has not been much use in this case.

ETA: if there's truth to the report BL is in North Carolina with a white Ford F150, that's a vehicle that's really going to blend in anywhere he goes. Innocuous guy in an innocuous vehicle.

 

[Jurisprudence]

Just out of curiosity what’s the highest number of threads a case on Websleuths has had? This one is going for a record lol

Yeah, I think it's because in this case we not only know who LE is looking for, but also that he's on the run and because of this, information keeps dripping out. Drip by drip by drip. MOO

 

[Jurisprudence]

Let's all hope that by the end of Thread 50, he is in custody. That would be nice.

 

[Kindinstead]

Yes, what you’re saying makes a certain amount of sense. It may in fact be more realistic to hide him at home than anywhere else.

On the other hand, I’d be terrified that at some point the FBI would come searching, and figure the whole thing out.

It would be terrifying, but even if they’re not hiding him inside the house, they already did a lot of things instead of notifying the police or GP’s parents when he got home without her. They seem mostly terrified of any consequences their son might face, including the very <modsnip> non communication with GP parents. LE generally checks attics, closets, under beds, crawl space under the house, garages, storage buildings, and inside cabinets. They don’t typically bang on the walls to see how sturdy a wall seems. Having a lawyer also helps limit tearing up the house. An infrared search also now requires a separate approval that shows justification because of prior misuse by LE when they would look for interior weed growing lights.

 

[Bekind89]

True. Suggests than any anxious concern about being "left" was more about the relationship /interpersonal dynamics.

I respectfully disagree. She had a very real terror of being abandoned, imo. I would be. Think about being her age, left out in the pitch black night all alone with no phone, no shelter, possibly near bears and other wild animals. Maybe some dangerous loner attacking and raping you. Every sound and movement terrifying. That tiny young girl. It was sadistic of him to repeatedly torture her that way, IMO. He DID put her in danger. That abuse from him is the major reason she was always so frightened and nervous, IMHO.
Just imagine being constantly terrified for your very safety.
I truly believe she could no longer endure the torture and threat.
I have always believed that poor Gabby was already dead when the YouTuber took that van video. Now that I have seen the crime scene I am not so sure.
BL is lazy. Would he really carry her dead weight all the way across the creek?
Idk, but it is absolutely evil what he did. All of this is just my honest opinion, nothing more.

 

[Angels Advocate]

Thank you!! I hate that the video cuts right there…I wanna hear what he says after that!! Lol.

Me too. I keep checking and also checking the local news around the AT. So far nothing.

 

[10ofRods]

OMG. These people think they are yelling at BL who is nowhere near. It's hysteria detached completely from reality.

There are some people here on WS who think BL might still be inside his parents' house. That's how crazy this case is. <modsnip>, because if the FBI can't get to him inside that house (so far), and is behaving as if he isn't there, it's unlikely the randos with bullhorns and shouting are going to get the family to cooperate with LE.

I do think people like showing up in videos on Twitter, though. A lot. I used to follow a lot of celebrity trials and was amazed to show up for 1-2 days of trial watching or trial crowd watching if I couldn't get in, and see the same people - even if it was in a different state. I was taking notes (this was before cell phones) and had a little digital camera. I came up with names for these characters, so I could note how many times I saw them. Some of them just wouldn't quit and I'd see them on TV in other states, at another celebrity trial.

Crime groupies are a thing. There is crime tourism, for example.

 

[RANCH]

I lost my reply posts during the previous thread close.

To @samiam33: I doubt the person who stopped for directions has any idea someone is telling the story of the occurence.

Reply: To my knowledge based on posts by members this morning, this has now been picked up by national news outlets. IMO if I'm that guy, I'm speaking up. And, I'm speaking up quick before they find me. MOO


To @rosesfromangels: Or he truly believes that's all that happened.
Not trying to give this guy a hall pass of any sort, but I truly think he will be declared incompetent to stand trial. From various bits of info that is emerging, it sounds like he has been unwell for awhile. Likely GP and the parents held him together, until they couldn't any more. All amateur opinion and speculation

Reply: MOO, I think that will be a tall order, as would an insanity defense. It depends on the jurisdiction. If the jurisdiction follows the M'naughten (McNaughten) Rule the issue hinges not on whether he suffers from some form of mental incapacity, but rather only whether he knew that what he was doing at the time was wrong. MOO Not fact.
M'naughten Rule

I agree. Plus BL fleeing shows us he knew what he did was wrong.

Flight, when unexplained, may indicate consciousness of guilt if the facts and the circumstances support it.

Consciousness of Guilt Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc.

 

[LAhiker]

Having been in a similar relationship at the ages that Gabby and BL are, I will say that paramount for both of us was maintaining the illusion that we were grown up enough to get married and stay married. We had agreed to marry, we considered ourselves "as if" married, etc. So each time we had a huge fight and one of us ran off, we felt defeated and tried to hide what happened - from others, and from ourselves.

I was especially hell bent on the marriage thing, and my style is decidedly avoidant/stalk off when angry. My then partner got very anxious when I'd do that, but wouldn't admit it or talk about it. We would just resume as if nothing had happened.

The similarities don't end there, of course. My ex was physically abusive, although always with a view to not having LE involved or leaving bruises, or if he left bruises, it would be on places I could cover up. He was much better at just freezing me out. We'd be on road trips, and he'd just disappear from an overlook and I'd have to just wait - sometimes for a very long time. Once, it was overnight. When he came back, he wouldn't speak to me or tell me why he was angry. I'd plead and try to get him to tell me, at least, what I had done?

Years later (many many years later), he says he has no memory of those events until I jog his memory, and that he has no clue what he was angry about. We've both been in therapy several times. He still is. He says that many memories have come back, but he now thinks that he didn't know at the time what he was angry or frustrated about. He simply wanted to abandon everything in life at that moment (me, our lifestyle, our vacation, our schooling - whatever it was at the time). An inchoate "run away" response, with an inability to talk about any of it at the time. "Blanked out" which I interpreted as anger. He'd bump into people as he walked/ran away. He'd bump into me in our apartment as if I wasn't there (I interpreted this as physical intimidation; it hurt, it left bruises on my shoulders).

It got worse.

That's awful! I shudder to think of the "worse," and am glad you got out of that relationship!

Your experiences do give me a better idea of what might have been going on between GP and BL.

JMO

 

[Soliloquy]

Thanks for posting this. I couldn't find the post that AngelsAdvocate (hope I've got that name right!) mentioned.

I've got to say (MOO) - I believe this guy. He gives a lot of detail and the part about the profile of the truck driver's face was really interesting. I'm going to go back and look at the map I was looking at late last night. I'd like to see the location of the parking lot and try to figure out what happens to Waterville Rd. I think it may just dead end.

Again, thanks for the link.

I found this engineer to be very credible, too. I read the transcript provided by another Websleuther (thank you!!). He may be right and he may be wrong, but I believe he is convinced that the guy in the white truck was Brian Laundrie, and this sighting should be taken seriously. I thought the part about the profile was very interesting as well.

Now, as far as the truck driver's (BL?) demeanor and bizarre comments regarding California and taking the road he was on to get there, is it possible that BL could be dehydrated enough to exhibit such behavior? I'm not sure why a young, ambulatory man WITH transportation would allow himself to get that dehydrated, but I know the condition can cause some very confused and bizarre speech and actions. MOO

 

[dacjess]

Scene at the Laundrie house.
https://twitter.com/BrianEntin/status/1444683853243748352

I may be in the minority here but IMO everything about the “protestors” at the Laundrie house seems exaggerated. When I looked, there’s 3 people. Honestly, for how the parents have publicly acted, I’m surprised there’s not 50 people standing there. If the neighbors have an issue, it’s certainly their right to contact the police about the disturbance. Idk, maybe because of living in cities, I don’t really notice a lot sounds… there’s ambulances, honking, yelling… it’s just the sounds of life to me.

I just don’t see how we have any idea about what Gabby would feel about a few people yelling at the family of people who have been of no help in finding justice on her behalf. I understand that the media being camped out there is the reason we’re discussing it, but I don’t really see the point in discussing this on Gabby’s thread. And I don’t mean that rudely at all, I just literally don’t know what the point is and maybe someone can fill me in?

All JMO.

 

[Bluebythec]

Maybe this idea has already been posted, I haven’t read through all the threads…
If I had a grown son with no job and a girlfriend living in my house, who liked camping, didn’t like shoes, and had emotional issues, I would immediately hide him inside my house. I would do that if my only focus was my dumdum son and not what anyone else is experiencing because of his actions.
I would make sure I could hide him quickly if LE showed up at any time, and preferably in his own room with all his smells already there if they brought search dogs.
In BL’s room there is a support column covered in Sheetrock, with a wood frame and hollow inside. It has plenty of room for him to stand inside of it for however long LE might be there, and easy to exit when they leave.
No new painting would be required if done carefully with a Sheetrock knife. I would take one hinge off of two doors in the house, use scrap leftover wood from the van project, and a wire to pull the hinged Sheetrock panel shut. The same could go for his built-in book cases, or the drop down in the ceiling for the air duct. There are lots of options in that house.
I would create diversions like leaving his car at a park long enough to get an abandoned vehicle sticker, and have him appear outside in the neighborhood so the neighbors can watch him leave. I might even charge a phone completely, leave it on, put it in a waterproof pouch and toss it in the swamp where his car is parked. I would make sure several people saw him leave the house and not come back. He would be back though, and I would have him climb out of the camper in the middle of the night, slide under the slightly opened garage door and walk into the house and stay there.
I would not risk my dumdum son getting shot by LE or by a crazy “vigilante”, or dying of hunger alone. I would lawyer up before he even got home and plan to point in every direction except my house. My possible theory is that he is hiding inside the house. It might be a stretch, but it seems more likely than dumdum, who can’t survive without mom and dad, being able to evade the general public and LE for a month.

Could you explain what you mean by dum dum?

 

[nancy57]

Seems at this point BL is either very lucky or very dead. IMO

Or very much in North Carolina. (MOO).

 

[Angels Advocate]

Hiker claims he saw Brian Laundrie near Appalachian Trail

A Florida man hiking the Appalachian Trail claims he saw Brian Laundrie driving in a white pickup truck around 12:30 a.m. ET on Saturday in Tennessee near the North Carolina border.

Dennis Davis, who spoke to a number of news outlets on Saturday including Fox News Digital twice, said it didn't at first register that the driver may have been Laundrie, but after the encounter, he looked up photos of the fugitive wanted on debit card fraud charges, and he then felt convinced enough to call in the sighting to FBI twice, as well as 911 operators in Tennessee and North Carolina.

"There is no doubt about it. That was Brian Laundrie I was just talking to. 100%. Not a doubt in my mind," Davis said of the encounter after he looked up both a portrait and profile shot of Laundrie on his phone.

Laundrie is on the lam and is wanted on bank fraud charges after his 22-year-old fiancée, Gabby Petito, was found dead in Wyoming last month.

Davis and some other hikers were going to leave a car at the Northern Terminus of the AppalachianTrail, and he was going to sleep at the trailhead Friday night. He accidentally passed a parking lot near the trail and was going to make a U-turn on Waterville Road when "a vehicle approached" from behind him and flashed its headlights as if signaling to Davis that he could complete his U-turn.

After completing his U-turn, he was driving back in the direction of the pickup truck when the man driving it stuck his hand out of the vehicle.

"I pulled up alongside of the vehicle," Davis explained. "…I rolled my window down and I started talking with the gentleman. I could tell right away that something wasn't right with him."

His immediate thought was that the driver was "on drugs at first," but after reflecting on it, Davis said he "looked mentally shot." Davis added that the driver "didn't look dirty at all."

The driver then told Davis that he was lost and was trying to get to California after getting in a fight with his girlfriend.

"He said me and my girlfriend had a fight, and man, I love her, and she called me, and I need to go out to California to see her," Davis explained. Davis then told the driver to take I-40 West, but the driver said no and that he would rather stay on Waterville Road by the Pigeon River.

"He said, ‘No, I think this road that we're on — I'm going to take it to California,'" Davis said.

The hiker thought about the encounter afterward as he started driving again and began to wonder whether it was Laundrie.

"So I got to the next spot where I was going to park and I pulled open my phone and I started looking through pictures. And the thing when I was talking to him which really stood out to me was: He had a very full but short, very thick, dark, black beard and mustache. And so when I parked my car and I pulled up the picture of him on the internet…and there was that beard and mustache," Davis said.

As of Sunday morning, neither the FBI nor the police had contacted Davis. The FBI, nor several police departments and sheriff's offices in the areas of Tennessee and North Carolina Davis described, responded to inquiries from Fox News.

At that point, the hiker was 95% sure he had seen Laundrie and called the FBI. When he got off the phone with the FBI, he looked at another profile shot of Laundrie and then felt 100% convinced that he spotted the fugitive, at which point he called the FBI a second time, as well as Tennesee and North Carolina police.

The Haywood County, North Carolina, Sheriff's Office said on their dispatch that they received a call from Davis around 2:40 a.m. Saturday near the Waterville exit, where he had cell service again to look at more photos of Laundrie. He related the story to police, and the sheriff's office dispatches two to three deputies to the area. Deputies came across three idle vehicles, which they ran, but all came up inconsequential and were likely hikers' vehicles.

 

[Van Helsing]

True. Suggests than any anxious concern about being "left" was more about the relationship /interpersonal dynamics.

GP may have been concerned about damage to her credibility as a van life blogger. If she had gotten a citation due to that Moab incident, or if he had left her stranded somewhere, if made public that information could have ruined her chances and all her efforts and investment be lost.

 

[Michaellan]

That's awful! I shudder to think of the "worse," and am glad you got out of that relationship!

Your experiences do give me a better idea of what might have been going on between GP and BL.

JMO

I think a lot here would be surprised at the stories some of us could tell. I think that's why there is so much interest in the case and empathy for Gabby. A lot of us relate, more than we wish we did. IMOE

 

[Jurisprudence]

I agree with 99% of what you said. I do believe, tho, that calling the Engineer back to get his first hand story should be part of that follow up.

Timing is critical. And, LE while not prosecutors know this. They work hand-in-glove with DAs and AUSAs every single day. They know that contemporaneous notes are admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule. They know that recording recollection as soon as possible after the occurrence of an event can be critical when details are fresh in mind. So, I have to believe that while we are not hearing any updates, they assigned someone to go talk to this guy by now. I just have to believe it. And, from there they will either follow it or dismiss it. This is MOO. Not fact. Just my thoughts.

 

[rosesfromangels]

I lost my reply posts during the previous thread close.

To @samiam33: I doubt the person who stopped for directions has any idea someone is telling the story of the occurence.

Reply: To my knowledge based on posts by members this morning, this has now been picked up by national news outlets. IMO if I'm that guy, I'm speaking up. And, I'm speaking up quick before they find me. MOO


To @rosesfromangels: Or he truly believes that's all that happened.
Not trying to give this guy a hall pass of any sort, but I truly think he will be declared incompetent to stand trial. From various bits of info that is emerging, it sounds like he has been unwell for awhile. Likely GP and the parents held him together, until they couldn't any more. All amateur opinion and speculation

Reply: MOO, I think that will be a tall order, as would an insanity defense. It depends on the jurisdiction. If the jurisdiction follows the M'naughten (McNaughten) Rule the issue hinges not on whether he suffers from some form of mental incapacity, but rather only whether he knew that what he was doing at the time was wrong. MOO Not fact.
M'naughten Rule

Thx for your reply. I speculate this fellow might have some legit medical challenges that will weigh in the Defences favor. Time will tell.

Amateur opinion and speculation

 

[jdglove]

They have good enough evidence for the credit card charges, that's why the grand jury returned an indictment.

If they have good evidence to link BL to Gabby's death, the grand jury would have indicted him and there would be an arrest warrant of that charge. LE doesn't play games with serious crimes. And grand juries are just normal people. If they did not issue an indictment, it is because the evidence was too weak, or so weak that prosecutors did not yet put it before the grand jury (most likely). They may be hoping BL is found and incriminates himself or has some physical evidence on his person. I wouldn't assume they have tons of evidence on anything until they take action that reflects that, like indicting, charging, getting an arrest warrant. moo