Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #83

[GRT]

Petition calls for Ron DeSantis to open investigation into handling of Petito-Laundrie case

It appears the NPPD made some errors, but I'm not sure opening an investigation is in anyone's best interest.

 

[NCWatcher]

Suing the Petito’s would pretty much seal the deal for the Laundries to become the most hated family in America.

The lawsuit wouldn't be against them though. The hypothetical lawsuit would be against one of their attorneys.

I don't think they'll sue and I certainly hope the Petitos don't sue the Laundries. That would waste goodwill they need for their foundation. Even a hint that GP's death was being used to make money (because that's what bringing a lawsuit could convey) would likely hurt the foundation.
JMO

 

[10ofRods]

That’s quite a possible scenario and one that could have had a very different outcome for BL, if only he wasn’t being “protected” by his parents. IMO
Involuntary Manslaughter: Penalties and Sentencing by State | LawInfo.com

It's very rare for someone who strangles someone all the way to death to get off with involuntary manslaughter. Further, the climate of the US (including Wyoming) is ripe for making an example of someone who is perceived as a domestic abuser. The fact that he had grabbed her face at least once before and admitted to it would stick in the jury's mind (that he was handsy, went for the face - just inches from the position needed to strangle). The desire to strangle is said by those who do research into those who commit this act...to be related to wanting the victim to "shut up" and it's usually impulsive.

But the continued strangulation as the victim loses consciousness, foams at the mouth, goes into agonal seizure-like movements...well, it's very hard for a jury to see that as unintended. And those are just a few of the ugly details of death by strangulation. Some stranglers release pressure, but if the victim starts to scream or cry again, they return to it. Prosecutors know this and will bring an expert to the stand - and I can't think of any recent cases out here in the West where a strangler got off on manslaughter.

I'm not sure what "different" outcome you mean, but we don't know the family dynamics and sentences for involuntary manslaughter are often 20 years (that's common enough in Wyoming). BL was not the type of man who wanted to spend his life in prison. I do not ee anything particularly strange about his choices - many others have made the same choice and at least it wasn't death-by-cop and at least he didn't do it right in his parents' home...

 

[Kristin Esq.]

I think it can be shown, legally, that they did "help find Brian." They led LE right to him, on the day the park reopened. It was closed due to flooding, not merely because of the search.

True.

 

[esayer]

"CNN asked Bertolino whether Brian's parents believe he's in the reserve or another area. "No, they don't believe he's in another area. They believe he is in the preserve," he said."

So much for everybody falsely claiming that the Laundries were trying to help Brian escape. Lies, lies, and more lies.

source: Gabby Petito's fiancé Brian Laundrie was under surveillance before he disappeared, police say - CNN

They did help him escape by not watching him closely and saying they thought Roberta was him. So, by incompetence.

 

[LRinCA]

I do believe that BL murdered GP. However, in my own mind, I have never been able to fully rule out the possibility that that the murderer was the proverbial bushy haired stranger or even some one else known to GP/BL. Today I realized one exceedingly obvious and simple thing.
To the best of my knowledge, no one - not BL, not SB, no member of BL’s family, no one - has ever said to the public “BL is innocent/BL did not kill Gabby/BL could never do such a thing!” Please, correct me if I’m wrong.
Jmo

This has always stuck in my mind:

“I really wish he had come to me first that day with the van because I don’t think we’d be here,” Cassie tells ABC News.

CASSIE LAUNDRIE: 'Just come forward': Brian Laundrie's sister asks him to 'get us out of this horrible mess'

I don't think we'll ever find out much more from any of the family members, but I would be interested to hear what Cassie meant by the statement above.

 

[esayer]

I was responding to your last sentence in your post. I always wondered the same about his lingering near the crime scene. My thoughts are not how most see it, but I will write it anyway. I don't think BL is what he is portrayed as in social media. Yes, I do believe he killed GP, but I do think it shocked him and sent him into a mental fog due to his anxiety issues. I think that GP and BL fought ALL the time, even before they took off on their road trip. The van life trip just exacerbated their fighting where it became more violent between the two of them,and it does take two people to fight. I do not think BL meant to kill her. Since we don't have the complete autopsy report, I wonder if it was more of a freak accident. Perhaps he grabbed her throat as he had grabbed her face in Moab. He could have been so mad that his anger and strength crushed her windpipe in the process, and she died relatively quickly. It makes me think BL loitered around not believing she was actually dead. I wonder if he left her in the van and ran off in disbelief hoping she would actually still be alive when he returned. When he came back, she would be working on her vlog as he had told the people that he hitchhiked rides with. When he returned, everything was at he left. Perhaps he set her shoes next to her with her backpack and a blanket at the site they had camped at and ran home pretending it didn't happen. I believe that is his MO.....to run away . That way it never really took place. He could pretend it never happened. He couldn't face the consequences, and those consequences were coming in the form of a Long Arm of the Law. I choose to believe BL didn't mean to murder Gabby. It's just that their fights went too far. Should be a lesson to everyone that we should never strike another. In short, he was hoping she wasn't actually deceased. He hoped when he returned, she would be working in the van.

Throttling takes a lot of time and intention. Freak accident is ruled out and talking about alternative ways Gabby died isn't permitted IMO.

 

[esayer]

Also depends upon how many people were around them.

That is to say, if Gabby was indeed strangled at the campsite, the campsite was actually pretty populated, all things considered; and there's quite a difference between Gabby going unconscious in seconds, as my post above potentially says could happen; with respect to what Brian chooses to do next, that is to say:

-If death was quick for Gabby, then this probably increases the chance it was an accident.

-However, if it then was an accident and happened quickly, why didn't Brian do anything to attempt to get help for Gabby? If he knew he "just touched her" and wasn't expecting the outcome from a brief accidental period of contact, why wasn't he frantic? Dialing 911, or at least shrieking to the point where someone else heard him?

We are pretty certain that wherever the strangulation occurred, it wasn't inside a hotel room, restaurant, or similar; and again, the campsites weren't all that remote, in the grand scheme of things; we were thinking about it a lot more romantically, than thinking it was crowded AF as it in fact appears to have been. If a guy started carrying on hysterically about he doesn't know how to revive his fiancee, doesn't this involve either actively trying to find neighboring people or being inadvertently found out by the neighboring people?

Everything that has come out so far, tends to indicate that Brian was in fact fairly calm about the strangulation. Cops weren't called about this sketchy sketcher driving erratically around as the tears blinded them, etc., etc.

IMO, BL killed Gabby in a white-hot rage and felt good about it afterwards; or at the very least justified about it.

Point is strangulation is never 'quick'.

 

[jjonez]

“Closing” a case/Clearing an offense
From ucr.fbi.gov


Law enforcement agencies must meet the following four conditions in order to clear an offense by exceptional means. The agency must have:

• Identified the offender.
• Gathered enough evidence to support an arrest, make a charge, and turn over the offender to the court for prosecution.
• Identified the offender’s exact location so that the suspect could be taken into custody immediately.
• Encountered a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that prohibits the agency from arresting, charging, and prosecuting the offender
• 
  
  Examples of exceptional clearances include, but are not limited to, the death of the offender
  
  full info here
• Offenses Cleared

 

[Cinna]

The (apparent; I've seen it repeated in one of more domestic violence sites) facts on strangulation:

• Only eleven pounds or more of pressure applied to both a person’s carotid arteries for merely ten seconds can cause unconsciousness.
• To completely close off the trachea, approximately 33 pounds of pressure is required.
• If strangulation persists, brain death will occur in 4-5 minutes.

http://dhss.alaska.gov/ocs/Documents/childrensjustice/strangulation/20.Strangulation Brochure.pdf

Now, I've seen people debate how long it "really" takes someone to die via strangulation, but it seems likely that if some sources say 3 and some say 5, we can be assured it's at least 2 minutes.

In other words, as the coroner in this case has (I believe) specifically tried to say; strangulation is not and never has been a possible "heat of the moment" defense/possible outcome for BL.

It took him time.

It was a conscious decision he had to make.

He had to decide to maintain pressure upon Gabby's trachea; and it was not quick based upon these facts, IMO.

The coroner is also basically telling us, and common sense also indicates, that Brian/any human can only apply a certain amount of pressure per inch with their bare hands, no matter how fit and strong those hands; and the coroner (not IMO, but factual, IIRC) has also told us it was manual; i.e., he can tell the difference between fingers and a wire loop, or fingers and a brick/macadamia-nut-splitting elephant/any other type of object that doesn't leave marks which look like human fingers.

I found this article to be very interesting. They discuss sudden death with minimal strangulation.

Death by Stimulation of the Left Vagus Nerve in a Case of Neck Grasping in a Healthy Young Man | Medico Legal Update

 

[10ofRods]

“Closing” a case/Clearing an offense
From ucr.fbi.gov


Law enforcement agencies must meet the following four conditions in order to clear an offense by exceptional means. The agency must have:

• Identified the offender.
• Gathered enough evidence to support an arrest, make a charge, and turn over the offender to the court for prosecution.
• Identified the offender’s exact location so that the suspect could be taken into custody immediately.
• Encountered a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that prohibits the agency from arresting, charging, and prosecuting the offender
• 
  
  Examples of exceptional clearances include, but are not limited to, the death of the offender
  
  full info here
• Offenses Cleared

Thank you so much! Very much appreciated. "Cleared" is the word I needed and this is a concise definition.

 

[MountainGal33]

Very reputable medical blog just released this article from Amy Barnhorst, MD Vice Chair for Community Mental Health at the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and the director of the BulletPoints Project.

Worth the read.

Gabby Petito and the Silent Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence

https://www.medpagetoday.com/popmed...110521&utm_term=NL_Gen_Int_PopMedicine_Active

"One of the reason people were so drawn in by the Gabby Petito case: the disintegration of her dream road trip into a nightmare was a familiar narrative" from her Twitter.

 

[mlhenn]

FBI probe Brian Laundrie’s texts and emails - follow updates live

LIVE Updates

4 mins ago


‘Gabby’s law’: Joseph Petito calls on states to make it compulsory to report missing persons cases to national database

Gabby Petito’s father is calling on states to make it compulsory to report missing person cases to a national database.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) is a federally funded resource centre to help law enforcement track cases.

The site is described by cold case investigators as the nation’s most effective database for tracking missing persons, but many law enforcement agencies don’t use it.

Only 10 states have passed legislation requiring law enforcement to report missing persons cases.

Joseph Petito, whose daughter was killed during a van-life tour, has become a vocal campaigner in trying to improve the way missing persons cases are investigated.

On Wednesday, he asked his 100,000 followers on Twitter: “Should every state make it a law to report to http://Namus.gov or create a site so that all the missing in all states can be found in 1 database? If yes, tag all the politicians to help make it so.”

Home is one of the only places to see who is missing in all states. Only 10 states made it so law enforcement has to utilize it. Let me know: 1. If you heard of it. 2. If your states doesn’t take part, do you want them to? #gabbypetito #missinginamerica

 

[Nikynoo]

I know I'm annoyingly stubborn about this, but I cannot make sense of BL hiking for 2 days after he killed GP and then hitchhiking back. I would actually believe somebody else killed her while he was gone over the idea he hiked afterwards. Sigh. I'm sure I'll be proven wrong. I just honestly think there are giant puzzle pieces missing from our box, but not the FBI's.

ETA: I do think BL killed GP, though, just to clarify...

I am in exactly the same place as you.

 

[mlhenn]

FBI probe Brian Laundrie’s texts and emails - follow updates live

LIVE Updates


The little-known reporter who broke the biggest story in America
After spending every waking moment of the past seven weeks covering the Gabby Petito case, NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin is finally taking a day off to spend time with his golden retriever, Shelby.

The case profoundly affected Mr Entin, who continues to honour Petito’s legacy through his journalism by providing a platform for stories on domestic abuse while also drawing attention to other missing persons cases across America.

My colleague Bevan Hurley reports on how Mr Entin became one of the most trusted journalists covering the case that gripped millions of people around the world.

…

Where does the investigation go from here?
When asked where the Gabby Petito case will go from here, NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin said that he was hopeful that lingering questions surrounding the case would be answered.

Mr Entin said that he sees two possibilities from here. The FBI could quietly wrap up their investigation, without saying anything publicly on the case again.

Or, the FBI could lay out the information that they have connecting Laundrie to Petito’s death, through a press conference or the release of a memo.

Laundrie’s cause of death is yet to be determined, and the contents of his personal notebook and digital communications have not been made public. Similarly, most details from Petito’s autopsy have not been released.

…


The moment that everything changed
NewsNation reporter Brian Entin said that the release of the Moab Police’s bodycam footage of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie on the side of the road was the moment that everything changed in the case.

…


Laundrie family have yet to receive Brian’s remains
Brian Laundrie’s remains have not yet been returned to his family, despite having been found in Florida’s Carlton Reserve, a 24,000-acre nature preserve, more than two weeks ago.

Steven Bertolino, the family’s lawyer, confirmed this on ABC7, and added that he believed the FBI had all the information it needed to conduct its investigation into the 23-year-old man’s disappearance and death.

…


Abduction survivor Elizabeth Smart on Petito family ‘closure’
Abduction survivor Elizabeth Smart said that the Petito family will not receive the kind of “closure” that she got when her captor was sentenced.

“I mean, I can only speak for me. And I know, when I finally saw that my captor was sentenced, that the trial happened, that it was finished, it really was the closing of a chapter,” she told CBS News.

 

[mlhenn]

FBI probe Brian Laundrie’s texts and emails - follow updates live

Timeline of events in Petito-Laundrie case

2 July – Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie leave New York for van-life road trip.

12 August – The couple is seen arguing in Moab City, Utah. Concerned bystanders call the police, who intervene, capturing the altercation on video on the officers’ body camera. One officer describes the incident as a “mental health crisis”.

17 August – Laundrie flies from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Tampa, Florida, alone, to collect some items and close a storage unit as the couple allegedly contemplates extending their road trip.

23 August – Laundrie returns to Salt Lake City to rejoin Petito.

24 August – Petito spotted checking out of a hotel in Salt Lake City with Laundrie.

25 August – Petito has a video call with her mother.

27 August – Louisiana couple see Petito and Laundrie involved in a “commotion” at the Merry Piglets Tex-Mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming. Last known sighting of Petito.

30 August – last text messages sent from Petito’s phone.

1 September – Laundrie returns to North Port, Florida, where the couple lived, without Gabby.

11 September – Petito’s family launch missing person’s investigation

14 September – Police declare Laundrie a “person of interest” in the case.


17 September – Laundrie’s family call investigators to their home, admit Brian has been missing since 14 September.

19 September – FBI announce that a body has been discovered in Wyoming, believed to be Petito.

20 September – FBI search the Laundrie home, declared it a crime scene.

21 September – Petito family attorney confirms that the body found in Wyoming is Gabby. FBI confirm her death to be a homicide.

23 September – FBI issue federal arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie, related to “activities following the death of Gabby”.

12 October – Teton County Coroner announces Petito’s cause of death was strangulation.


20 October – Human remains discovered in Florida’s Carlton Reserve, alongside personal items that belonged to Laundrie.

21 October – FBI match Laundrie’s dental records to human remains found in the Carlton Reserve.

 

[NCWatcher]

I do think they are using "peer" to mean "students in the art program at LI." (Gabby's high school, right?) It might be all the art students (students perhaps taking a capstone class or are in an art club...they'll work it out). Peer would say to me "no faculty involved in choosing." I think the rest of the verbiage is intended to guide these 16-18 year olds to choosing someone who is like Gabby: positive, cheerful, artistic, etc. To me, it also says "choose a girl" but without saying that, because that wouldn't be okay most places. I'm sure some boys will apply and win occasionally, as well - but the idea is that they need to be free-spirited and in touch with their own peers.

It's a cool idea - and it sounds like the $1000 could go to a promising young artists to support them in a project, as opposed to helping to pay for college.

There are two scholarships, one at a high school GP attended and the other at the high school where she graduated. I think you are probably correct about what peer means but it's a little unclear if that covers all students who take art, drama, or music (the awards are for visual or performing art) or just all graduating students who do.

I think the scholarships are a good thing but it's not clear to me how it all meshes together with the prevention stuff. So the foundation mission seems a bit scattered to me.
JMO

 

[mlhenn]

Gabby Petito case: 3 unanswered questions about her mysterious death

•there are still three major unanswered questions in the case that need to be solved.

1. Who killed Gabby Petito?
2. When was Gabby Petito killed?
3. What happened leading up to Gabby Petito’s death?

These questions remain unanswered, of course. But we have a few reports that could indicate how it happened and when she might have died.
(Full article at above link)

 

[Nikynoo]

Also depends upon how many people were around them.

That is to say, if Gabby was indeed strangled at the campsite, the campsite was actually pretty populated, all things considered; and there's quite a difference between Gabby going unconscious in seconds, as my post above potentially says could happen; with respect to what Brian chooses to do next, that is to say:

-If death was quick for Gabby, then this probably increases the chance it was an accident.

-However, if it then was an accident and happened quickly, why didn't Brian do anything to attempt to get help for Gabby? If he knew he "just touched her" and wasn't expecting the outcome from a brief accidental period of contact, why wasn't he frantic? Dialing 911, or at least shrieking to the point where someone else heard him?

We are pretty certain that wherever the strangulation occurred, it wasn't inside a hotel room, restaurant, or similar; and again, the campsites weren't all that remote, in the grand scheme of things; we were thinking about it a lot more romantically, than thinking it was crowded AF as it in fact appears to have been. If a guy started carrying on hysterically about he doesn't know how to revive his fiancee, doesn't this involve either actively trying to find neighboring people or being inadvertently found out by the neighboring people?

Everything that has come out so far, tends to indicate that Brian was in fact fairly calm about the strangulation. Cops weren't called about this sketchy sketcher driving erratically around as the tears blinded them, etc., etc.

IMO, BL killed Gabby in a white-hot rage and felt good about it afterwards; or at the very least justified about it.

Thanks for your post! It reminded me that I looked again at the Bethunes original footage, and I was counting the seconds off between 'campers'. You are right. There were campers both sides in relatively close proximity. If Gabby was attacked in the late afternoon/evening time, it is possible that other campers heard a commotion or disturbance. This is what is bothering me. Where G&B were camped was not remote. There were people around.

If B attacked G in a 'white rage' or if they had been fighting - would that fight be noisy enough to alert people nearby? After the incident that we can't mention at the place we can't mention either - would this have made them both more aware not to fight where they could be overseen/heard.

This case is most perplexing - but I am sure if any additional information is released - we will all say 'of course!'

 

[Nikynoo]

There's not, to my knowledge, any way of knowing when someone else put up a pin. That pin about the Burnout book was likely not the last pin that Brian made, his most recent pins were surely repins of some items that Gabby was pinning pertaining to their wedding and future children. She pinned those (and instagrammed some of them) right after their engagement. The category into which the book was pinned seems to be abandoned. I subscribe to BL's pinterest (and Gabby's) and when I first subscribed, pinterest showed me "BL's latest pins," and the book was not included - it was all wedding and baby stuff. Since the book had to be pinned from somewhere (he pinned it from Etsy), I went to see if the book was still available on Etsy but it is not. It is self-published by an Etsy person and that appears to have been around 3 years ago...

I don't 'do' pininterest, so I have no idea how it works or even what it is for.

To me though, it seems odd that Brian would have pins relating to marriage and children.