exactly, i dont understand all these posts thinking the officers could have done ANYTHING to stop what happened, these are two adults we are talking about, they are not children that you can make do something,if either of them wanted to leave the other one they could have that very night. Gabby had the van, she could have left that night if she wanted too. have yall ever tried to keep a young girl away from their boyfriend if they werent ready to be away? wasnt gonna happen no matter what they did, they certainly couldnt lock him up for life, <modsnip - opinion stated as fact>!!!
I agree.
GP had also spoke to her parents during that stop, said to LE 'it was the first time' for this type of behavior. I think as i've said it was a tough call...For me, As a female, and if i were there I know i would have found her crying and fragility concerning, I would have done something. . . But I wasn't there and hindsight is 20/20. Someone way back posted some study / journal article about issues like this (i think thread 34 or 35). . IMO there was a lot of discussion about what to do, and review of standards, and I started to think that LE had some degree of decision fatigue after an hour.
Things I don't understand still: *the phone thing-i'll probably never make sense of that, (because even now with him missing he left his 'phone' at home, * no speeding ticket and his failure to maintain control (he crossed the double yellow lines too), * Witness statements, I heard LE on the phone only once discussing ONE witness statement which aligned with BL's statement. So, I think it was like a game of telephone. 2 LE's talking to 2 people separately then discussing what each said (which can be open to bias or interpretation or even bad listening).
*IMO retrospectively, LE should have both spoke to each of them as a team. Then had discussion. But maybe that's not SOP.
So, i'm not a cop, I'm sitting as a monday morning quarterback and it changes nothing.
***I think that there are many things that are a mystery that we will never know
I noted that Gabby had spoken with her parents. From what I remember, the words were vague to if this already happened, was still going on, or was just in the didn't get done pile.
I know that when doing crisis work, having been told they had already contacted their parents would have been a sign of the couple having good supports. In my opinion, strangers had reason to alert the authorities and did. Whatever they saw was scary.
This couple was so young and fresh faced, even though having been in a toxic pattern for years! Deceptively simple.