Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #20

[Shellinaya]

There were several reports earlier of a BL sighting in AL. I don't know if they were ever verified.

Actually, going towards Alabama, Louisiana and the Texas coastal area would make sense for him. The only real way for him to stay on the lam is to find a job that pays in cash. After the last month of hurricanes in that area there are plenty of people that are looking for help to dig out their flooded homes. IMO, many would shell out cash for a young man willing to help with the heavy work.

JMO

He could also be heading south of the border. I hope they have some leads on him by now. He could go up to the panhandle and through southern Alabama and then into LA and Texas straight down to Mexico and beyond. He could hitch the whole way. But I have no idea how the border with Mexico is right now and if he could slip through.

Just all speculation. There was an Apple TV show not long ago that showed a whole family basically doing this - The Mosquito Coast. Wonder if he watched it.

 

[builder]

There is always the option for him to have flown out of Jackson Hole airport; that would have been the fastest why out of there. People fly in and out of there all the time on commercial planes. It would have taken 27 min to get to JH airport from Moran Junction if he hitched a ride or if someone had flown in, picked him and the van up and dropped him at the JH airport. JMO

 

[PayrollNerd]

The best we have at this point (AFAIK) is that the van was sighted going through a toll booth (?) on September 1st (?) - but that either they couldn't see who was driving, or aren't telling.

It was likely a traffic camera not a toll booth. Nor was there any money involved.

The closest toll booth to North Port is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over to St Pete. The other toll cameras are in Tampa. He would have come straight down I-75 south. There isn’t any toll booths. They are a rarity on the west coast of Florida.

 

[whitelilac]

I agree with this. I am totally confused by the timeline. I just can't see him making the trek home in this short of a period of time. It takes 35+ hours. Can he really make it home in such a short window of time?

If he left the night of the 29th. at 10:30 pm, arrived in the morning of the 1st.10:30 am....that's a total of 60 hours. 24 + 24 + 12.
Adequate time to drive, eat, some sleep, bathroom breaks.

 

[milkshakedonkey]

Some bad memory speculation here: the motel room was thought to be the less desirable alternative - like staying there wouldn't be very pleasant. And since she was the one having high anxiety, it may have been better for her to stay in the van.

I actually think the hotel (or the association paying for the room) refused to house her as she was considered the aggressor by LE (which I fully believe was incorrect). It was paid for by an association that houses abuse victims, so obvs didnt fit the situation.

 

[Skigirl]

i'm assuming it was only speculation, but several threads ago it was suggested that she wanted to stay with the van so that he couldn't take it and leave her behind...again, speculation as far as i know.

She didn't get the hotel because he was deemed the victim. The choice the two were presented with was "she goes to jail, or she sleeps in the van"

 

[finsfan]

I wonder if BL ever showed violent tendencies in the past before the trip

A previous thread mentioned a friend of Gabby's saying he was controlling.

 

[TotusTuus]

Some bad memory speculation here: the motel room was thought to be the less desirable alternative - like staying there wouldn't be very pleasant. And since she was the one having high anxiety, it may have been better for her to stay in the van.

I've stayed in the Bowen Motel several times. It's very basic and plain, but it's clean and safe. It's not a bad place to spend the night.

 

[Betty P]

I disagree that a calm BL and an upset GP is consistent with the narrative that she was the abuser. Quite the opposite.

Watching John Walsh right now on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Walsh said he watched it with an FBI friend and both said it was classic signs of an abused woman who was intimidated by her male partner into saying she was the one who hit him. Apparently very typical in cases of DV when LE is called. They could see it very clearly in her behavior.

Very sad, they said if he'd been locked up then, she might still be alive.

Live now on CNN

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John Walsh also saying he had a chance to make a deal, if his lawyer had talked to cops and offered to work with them, the boyfriend might have been able to negotiate something. As it stands now, he will get the book thrown at him. The parents may be in trouble, too.

Walsh calling him a coward who beat to death a lovely 90 lb young woman.

 

[Katerz]

I’m wondering if his parents have him hidden until they finish the autopsy.. that way if it was an accident (I truly don’t see how, either way he left her there and stole her personal property) they can’t get him for murder.

 

[Lillymac]

i'd much rather stay in a hotel room with a bathroom, than a small van without one

How do we know she stayed in the van...we don't. She could also have gotten a motel room. That's what I'd do.

 

[khaki]

I apologize that I am not sure of this because it is probably in these threads somewhere, but does anyone know when Gabby's family notified LE of her missing? Were Gabby's family's attempts to communicate with BL's family before notifying LE or after? Thank you

We learned about how Gabby's mom was made aware of more and more tension between Gabby and BL, and that Gabby's mom received "strange" texts (Stan text on Aug 27 and Yosemite text on Aug 30). Also, that there was no more communication from Gabby after that. I'm not sure of the date of Gabby's last social media blog post/instagram post.

 

[els]

You would think he'd add more than just that handful for a days long roadtrip.

Spotify is clever, if you put some songs together and you have a premium account it will just carry on playing ‘similar’ things - I put the SELFCONSUMPTION playlist on this morning at my work and let it play out and it goes to all sorts for hours. I personally have a few playlists with less than ten songs on of certain genres so Spotify will create me a mix based off them. It’s a pretty dynamic thing and by the looks of thier account they used the deeper options on it as opposed to just playing a bit of music.

 

[mcmaffy]

There appears to be a fundamental assumption running through all the reports that BL was at the family home between 1 & 14 September and left on 14 September “to go on a hike”. But there is no independently verified evidence reported to date that establishes he was actually there (eg a LEO who attended the family home confirming he or she saw BL). The lawyer appointed appears to be acting for the “family” as opposed to BL as an individual, so we dont know of that lawyer has ever seen/spoken to BL since he was retained.

I would be drilling down on this issue to verify important question(s) of when (and more fundamentally, if) BL returned to the Laundrie home in GP’s van and, assuming that can be verified, when he left.

Because obviously if the only evidence of BL’s return & departure (other than the toll recording) is the family’s say-so, that’s simply not reliable.

 

[Kyshoegal]

I swear I'm about to get the timeline with maps up on my wall and start setting up some red string 0.o

Did something similar last night, it made much more sense once I did this.

 

[isrod]

I’ve heard of people arrested because they did just that sort of thing.

Seriously would be awesome if someone here uses this to nail him with the FBI. He's past the I couldn't find her when I went back excuse.

 

[Hyway]

Because she was terrified he was going to drive away and abandon her

That is not correct. They were discussing charging her and instead of taking her to jail they asked BL if they had money to put her in a motel? He said no. maybe they didn't or maybe being the jerk he is he didn't want to waste money on a motel if she could sleep in a jail cell. So then they decided not to charge her with domestic violence. But since she was the aggressor according to both their statements and Christopher's, she couldn't go to the womens's shelter, but the group that managed the shelter could pay for a room for BL since he was technically the victim of DV. They weren't doing him a favor, especially since he said he would rather camp in the Arches, but instead trying to fix away for them to be separate for the night and not take her to jail.

 

[captdj]

Some bad memory speculation here: the motel room was thought to be the less desirable alternative - like staying there wouldn't be very pleasant. And since she was the one having high anxiety, it may have been better for her to stay in the van.

I thought the hotel was for victims only ... so BL got it... boy did they get that wrong

 

[JuneRose]

Ok here we go......
Ive been thinking and thinking on this case and I have a scenario that most probably won't agree with but I can really relate too.
I have a foster daughter who is 5'3 and might weigh 105lbs.
Now she is the sweetest thing you would ever want to meet, but child let me tell you what, behind the scenes she thinks she is 6foot 300lbs. She gives her husband a run for his money which he isn't much bigger then she is.
Now, I believe Gabby could and did have fights with Brian, I believe the whole relationship was full of fights and arguments. I also believe that BL's parents living right there in the home also was aware of how they faught.
Now the first time Brian flew home IMO he and Gabby broke up. He wanted to go home, she didn't, he called Mom and Dad, they sent him a plane ticket home, he got there an said, we are through, its over I can't take this anymore....they packed up all of Gabby's things and put it in the storage shed so that when she came back she could pick up her stuff.
Of course after a few days of talking in the phone and messaging each other they decided to get back together and Brian flew back to be with Gabby...after a couple days of being back together as often happens, the relationship went right back to the argueong and fighting, only this time it went to far and things got out of control and Gabby paid for it.
Brian of course instead of doing the right thing went home, scared and I'm pretty sure told his parents exactly what happened and instead of being the kind of parents that would make him call police and explain the whole thing decided that they would help him to stay out of jail and this is where we are today!!

This is a pretty good summation in my eyes.

 

[CrimeDawg123]

Yeah, google says its 17 miles by road from the van to Culter Bay. That's not even a 8 hour road walk. Its even shorter cross country.

Why do you think he would have made that trip to Coulter Bay? I can't wrap my head around why he left the van, then had to hitchhike back to it, if that is what he did.