Found Deceased WY - Gabby Petito, Grand Teton National Park #88

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  • #481
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  • #482
BBM

I don't think the issue is whether Gabby's family suffered. I think we all know they did and still are. No one doubts that. Many of us also think the Laundries suffered and are still suffering. (And it amazes me when people deny that or somehow claim they "deserve it.")

But the lawsuit isn't about whether GP's family suffered. The issue is whether the Laundries should have contacted GP's family. Would they have suffered significantly less had the Laundries called to say "We don't know what happened, we don't know what our son meant by "Gabby's gone" but have you considered your daughter could be dead?" I don't think that would have lessened their suffering myself.
MOO

MOO- I think it would’ve made a big difference to the Petitos to know that Brian told his parents Gabby was gone back on 8/29, and that the last time he saw her was in Wyoming. Here’s an article where her mom describes not even knowing where to start looking for her. By the time Gabby was reported missing on September 11, Brian was already back in Florida with her van so as a mom I can imagine the panic and fear I would have trying to figure out where between Wyoming and Florida my daughter could possibly be and where I should start looking, especially when the person who was most likely the last to see her isn’t responding to your texts and calls, nor is his family. It’s very hard for me to believe that all parties involved didn’t know what gone meant, particularly when Brian arrived back in Florida with the van full of her belongings. Once Gabby’s mom began trying to call them to locate her, they most certainly had to know what it meant because any reasonable person would have to admit it’s extremely unlikely she would’ve up and disappeared without any belongings, and without trying to contact her family for help. MOO


Editing to add, I do hope the Petitos get their apology. I definitely think they are owed one.
 
  • #483
Agree. It sounds like, if I'm reading reports correctly, it's thought BL first called his parents two days after he killed GP. At that point, they didn't know she was dead, but even if they had, by then decomposition was underway. I'm not sure the body would have lent itself to being cradled and kissed by family even the day BL called home, much less by the 3rd day after death. (By then external bloating has often begun.) And as you say, that was not the fault of RL, CL, or SB.

I do hope the families can come to a settlement because I think a trial will be damaging to both sides for a variety of reasons. But I personally doubt a settlement will happen. I've always thought the lawsuit was about a measure of revenge, not accountability or changing laws and Joe Petito has pretty much said that.

“I want to make them hurt as much as they hurt us. As I told Pat, there’s not amount of money that I would settle for, not a dime.”
“And how —how is this lawsuit going to help you change laws?” Petito was asked.
“It’s not. This lawsuit’s not going to help me do anything,” he said.

Those feelings don't suggest settling is very likely to me. MOO

Thanks for posting that--I hadn't heard that before but it makes me sad for JP, because revenge likely won't heal his grief.

I haven't heard a word about today's mediation, but I hope they all agree that they've all suffered more than anyone should have to suffer and that they all wish one another well and go on with their lives.
 
  • #484
"His voice was very upset and I didn't know why," Roberta Laundrie said. "I didn't want to push him, so we just said goodbye. ... When I got off the phone, I told Chris, you know, 'Brian sounded upset. Maybe you should give him a call.'"

When Christopher Laundrie called Brian, his son was "frantic," he said in his deposition. "He was not calm and he got very excited."

Brian repeatedly told his father, "Gabby's gone" but never said he killed Petito, Christopher Laundrie said. His son asked for help, saying he may need a lawyer. "I asked him why. He wouldn't tell me."

Laundrie's father said he never thought his son killed Petito when he said she was "gone." He said, "I had no idea what to think."

After the conversation, Christopher Laundrie contacted the family's attorney, Steven Bertolino, both of Laundrie's parents said in their depositions. Later that evening, Brian Laundrie called his mother to say he was coming home to Florida, she said.

When asked what she thought her son meant when he said Petito was "gone," Roberta Laundrie said several possibilities ran through her mind, including that the couple may have gotten into a fight and Petito could have been considering pressing charges.

Initially, the mother said she couldn't recall whether she considered the possibility that Brian Laundrie could have killed Petito, saying, "I didn't know what to think." But she later acknowledged the thought "probably went through my mind."

"As we knew each other longer and longer, we grew closer and we really cared for each other," she said. "I cared for her. I believe she cared for me, too. She always said so."

But when asked whether she made any attempt to contact Petito or her parents after the August 29 call, the mother said no. "I was just concerned about my son at the time and I just figured maybe her parents could come get her," she said.

"My attorney told me not to talk to anybody, so I just didn't talk to anybody," Roberta Laundrie said. When Nichole Schmidt, Petito's mother, contacted her, Laundrie did not return the calls, she said.
It all sounds reasonable, given the circumstances at the time.
 
  • #485
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At the end of the livestream, they had just received information that Bertolino filed papers to verify the credentials of Robert Gordon Phd. I wonder if it's this guy, who might be considered an expert in knowing when messages were deleted, recovering texts and messages from the cloud, etc.

I always thought it was weird that an adult man went to get a new phone with his mommy.
Then again, she did refer to Brian as a "boy".
 
  • #486
At the end of the livestream, they had just received information that Bertolino filed papers to verify the credentials of Robert Gordon Phd. I wonder if it's this guy, who might be considered an expert in knowing when messages were deleted, recovering texts and messages from the cloud, etc.

I always thought it was weird that an adult man went to get a new phone with his mommy.
Then again, she did refer to Brian as a "boy".
I went with my mom to get a new phone on her plan once.
 
  • #487
Thanks for the link.

So that would indicate, this case arises from trauma and unprocessed feelings.

There is another perspective, that truly dealing with PTSD requires some form of mental health attention. Looking inwards, not outwards.

For example, other people deal with similar feelings as JP describes, by violence, or becoming addicted. We disapprove of that strongly, we say, that's the wrong approach, you need to go to therapy, not act out. You must heal from the trauma so you can move on, or it will never let you go.

JMO
BBM. Apparently, there was violence threatened but fortunately for both families, there was no follow through.

In Bertolino's depo he says one of the Petito attorneys told him that someone on "his side" wanted to harm the Laundries and Bertolino. He goes on to point out that what the Laundries were going through wasn't similar, but it was very traumatic.
JMO

Q. By the way, you mentioned that someone on my side of the table wanted to kill someone. Who did that?
A. I don't know who but if Rick Stafford is honest, we'll find out.
Q. What does that mean?
A. Rick Stafford told me explicitly, explicitly.
Q. Told you what?
A. That there were people on his side that wanted to kill us.
Q. Kill who?

A. Myself, Chris and Roberta. And when he told me that, he was so upset how hard it was on his side--"You don't know Steve. You don't know how hard it is on my side to restrain these people, to prevent it from getting worse." My response to that, Counselor was, "Try being on my side. Try being on my side when the whole world who has your client's back wants to kill us. Try being in my shoes, Mr. Stafford, as you tell me it's tough for you to prevent your client from executing their desire to kill us."
 
  • #488
I went with my mom to get a new phone on her plan once.
We've done that a couple of times. It just makes good financial sense!

JMO
 
  • #489
Hi ch-13, yes there is, and it is in the depos. Have we seen communications between Bertolino and the Wyoming crim lawyers? I don't seem to have that. I am not finished the Bertolino depo yet, it exposes a lot of info imo.
Yes there are quite a few attachments of text message at the end for Bertolino and the other lawyers and even reporters and schedulers for talk shows. It's a wild read, and SB's responses were very strange indeed IMO.
 
  • #490
At the end of the livestream, they had just received information that Bertolino filed papers to verify the credentials of Robert Gordon Phd. I wonder if it's this guy, who might be considered an expert in knowing when messages were deleted, recovering texts and messages from the cloud, etc.

I always thought it was weird that an adult man went to get a new phone with his mommy.
Then again, she did refer to Brian as a "boy".
Failure to launch IMO. I could see if he was 16, not 25 but more importantly why did he suddenly need a new phone? We know he also had Gabby's phone because he was impersonating her from it in texts sent to Gabby's mother.

JMO
 
  • #491
Failure to launch IMO. I could see if he was 16, not 25 but more importantly why did he suddenly need a new phone? We know he also had Gabby's phone because he was impersonating her from it in texts sent to Gabby's mother.

JMO
One could say "failure to launch" about both GP and BL. Both were in their 20s (B was 24 & G 22) but neither had ever rented a place to live independently. GP had lived with family in NY and in NC with a family friend. As a couple, G&B lived with his family (initially his sister, then in his parents' condo, then with his parents.) Her parents leased the Nissan for G&B's first trip out west. NS said she and JP helped fund the second trip. The level of support seemed a bit odd to me. But these days, even before the craziness brought on by COVID, people in their 20s seem to live at home more often than was the case in the 70s, 80s, & 90s. Because of that, it seems sometimes people expect the parents to behave in ways one might expect to see if their "children" were still teenagers (although I don't find the "getting a phone with mom" thing to be especially weird. We know BL had a phone & the Laundries knew it. CL called him back on the "Gabby's gone" day. But we don't know what BL may have said later about needing a new phone.)
MOO
 
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  • #492
I don't know what case you are following but this one doesn't involve BL's parents delaying anything.
It isn't their fault the local cops mistook RL for BL.

JMO
Oh, sorry if you were confused. The Laundries delayed what would (IMO) have been Brian's arrest by not speaking to police. He would almost certainly (IMO) have been arrested once Gabby's body was found, if not earlier. Had he been arrested, it would have been harder for him to commit suicide because he would have been monitored in custody and not allowed to go to a nature preserve with a firearm.
 
  • #493
I don't feel that the Unabomber case is a good analogy for this case. In the Unabomber case LE didn't have a person of interest to investigate until after Ted Kaczynski's brother contacted the authorities.

In Gabby's case, BL was an obvious suspect from the very beginning, being he was the last person to be with her. So the two cases are not close at all. JMO.
To your point, it was even more difficult and courageous for the Unabomber's family to identify him to police and help the police build a case than it would have been for the Laundries to make the decision to harbor Brian.
 
  • #494
To your point, it was even more difficult and courageous for the Unabomber's family to identify him to police and help the police build a case than it would have been for the Laundries to make the decision to harbor Brian.
Sorry but I don't understand why it would be more difficult for TK's family. They had evidence that pointed to him being the bomber.

I see it the other way since BL family says they didn't know he killed Gabby. JMO.
 
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  • #496
  • #497
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Thanks MassGuy. So the prolonged personal conflict has come to an end. JMO.
 
  • #498
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That must have been a heck of a good mediator, these families were miles apart and so were their attorneys. Reluctant or not, it's finally over.

Congrats to all of them for being able to find resolution.
 
  • #499
Oh, sorry if you were confused. The Laundries delayed what would (IMO) have been Brian's arrest by not speaking to police. He would almost certainly (IMO) have been arrested once Gabby's body was found, if not earlier. Had he been arrested, it would have been harder for him to commit suicide because he would have been monitored in custody and not allowed to go to a nature preserve with a firearm.
Telling LE that Gabby was "gone" was not probable cause for BL's arrest. And NP police WAS monitoring BL...until they mistook his mother for him.

JMO
 
  • #500
Sorry but I don't understand why it would be more difficult for TK's family. They had evidence that pointed to him being the bomber.

I see it the other way since BL family says they didn't know he killed Gabby. JMO.
It would have been more difficult for TK's family because no one in the world was looking for TK in connection with the bombings, whereas it was pretty obvious that people were going to have questions about BL immediately upon hearing the story.
 
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