Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #12

[bambibones]

Wouldn't it be ironic if the case is solved because "outdoor dude" can't readily determine N vs S?

Actually, Jackson Hole is south of Jackson dam.

 

[LvsAMystry]

The tarp bothers me. I highly doubt he’d been out camping for days as he told the couple who picked him up. They noted he was clean. The tarp was for another purpose I think.

 

[squareandrabbet]

Even in this new age of telemedicine? Would someone so attached to an in-person physician set off on a long journey like this?

You're correct, and there definitely are telemedicine/telepsychiatry options that do nothing-but a virtual business. I can't remember the precise name, but one of the true crime podcasts was advertising the service by name for considerable amounts of time during COVID.

Of course, we do not know either way about Brian in particular, and IF he were seeing a mental health professional in person, yes he probably would want to continue with that person; but such a service does exist in more than one form, through a platform that renders counseling via nothing but video, etc. calls; and many people do use it.

 

[swanniee11]

I see this (see below) as the timeline. It's clear that Gabby disappears between late Aug 27 and Aug 29. Brian needed two days to drive home to Florida. We don't need tiktok to figure out when she disappeared or where she was last seen. That is widely available without tiktok.

Timeline of Gabrielle Petito’s disappearance

2 July, 2021: Gabrielle Petito and her fiance, Brian Laundrie, leave New York on a cross-country trip in a camper van.

5 July, 2021: The couple stops at Monument Rocks in Kansas.

26 July, 2021: two reviews added of places they stayed in Virginia and Florida.

29 July, 2021: she or somebody posted a review of BLM 378/Willow Springs Rd in Arches National Park

12 August, 2021: 9:00 am - 2:00 pm, GP and BL were at the Moonflower

12 August, 2021: afternoon, separated by PD. Video 2.

13 August, 2021: Brian's last post on IG of him alone

17 August, 2021: perhaps broke the engagement, Laundrie traveled to Florida by plane

19 August, 2021: video implying that they are at a campsite outside Capitol Reef National Park.

23 August, 2021: Laundrie returns to Utah

24 August, 2021: Ms Petito is last seen checking out of a Salt Lake City hotel with Mr Laundrie

25 August, 2021: Ms Petito’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, video chats with her daughter for the last time via phone. Ms Petito reveals she is in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

27 Aug 27, 2021: Gabby tells friend via Snapchat they was heading for meet up at Yellowstone National Park and she will call on her birthday, August 29, to solidify the plan.

29 August, 2021: Missed birthday call with friend to discuss meet up plans at Yellowstone National Park.

30 August, 2021: Ms Schmidt receives a text purportedly from Ms Petito. Ms Smith says she is unsure if the text was actually from her daughter.

1 September, 2021: North Port Police Department said that Gabby's fiance, Brian Laundrie, returned home to Florida ten days before Petito was reported missing by her family.

11 September, 2021: Ms Petito’s parents report her missing.​

Partial timeline from:
Boyfriend returned home 10 days before Gabby Petito was reported missing, police say

I'm still going off the 25th. Snapchat doesn't mean someone else could have sent that. IMO

 

[Beren]

I can't believe people are still asking why they are bothering to look for BL.

He drove back from the West to Florida in HER van. Without HER.

At the very least, he has some explaining to do.

At best, he can provide information that leads to Gabby's whereabouts.

How would you make him explain things if you did find him when he hasn't talked in weeks?

 

[wonderboy74]

I most certainly think BL is dead and the search team knows this as they have trained dogs in the effort etc. The mental state he was in, leaving and not coming back for days now seems too obvious to me. If he abandoned the mustang the parents can only assume he went in and is no longer alive. I think he commutsuicide

 

[RickshawFan]

He does seem a little obsessed with Fight Club and that doesn't seem to match the whole VanLife lifestyle. Living off the grid, living without material possessions. I think he is the type of guy to pull a Chris McCandless "Into the Wild" kind of thing. But maybe, Gabby was also into that kind of thing too deep down, which is perhaps why she hasn't been seen in three weeks. She could be on the Pacific Crest Trail, doing a Cheryl Strayed sort of thing.

Very unlikely a PCT thing. She doesn’t seem like that kind of gal, it’s nowhere near Wyoming, and people keep track of long-distance hikers on the PCT. Her family would have heard from her as well. IIRC above treeline there’s cell phone coverage to facilitate SAR. But really, these are urban types; they’d be spooked as backpackers and likely don’t have equipment. IMO

 

[bambibones]

You're correct, and there definitely are telemedicine/telepsychiatry options that do nothing-but a virtual business. I can't remember the precise name, but one of the true crime podcasts was advertising the service by name for considerable amounts of time during COVID.

Of course, we do not know either way about Brian in particular, and IF he were seeing a mental health professional in person, yes he probably would want to continue with that person; but such a service does exist in more than one form, through a platform that renders counseling via nothing but video, etc. calls; and many people do use it.

Now this is a really interesting angle. I can pretty easily imagine him already being in therapy, and trying to contact his therapist - cell phone - when he got into trouble. But confidentiality rules and law would prohibit the therapist from initiating contact with LE.

 

[mlhenn]

Spread Creek area closed in search for Gabby Petito

The Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest on the east boundary of Grand Teton National Park is closed until further notice in conjunction with the search for Gabby Petito.

The FBI's Denver Field Office issued the closure notice at 7 p.m. tonight, Saturday, in coordination with its Wyoming Resident Agencies, the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, the Teton County Sheriff's Office and the Jackson Police Department.

 

[shelbycat]

This is from yesterday but it’s a MSM reporting of the Victor, Wyoming sighting of both GP and BL.

Victor store owner says missing woman and fiance were in store - Local News 8

 

[twentyfivebaker]

First-time poster here, drawn to this extremely sad case by my love of the outdoors, my teenage son’s interest in van life, and his entire generation’s understandable but lamentable inability to look away from Instagram.

I have not spent time in the Tetons (someday with luck), but have climbed and paddled throughout the northeastern US and Canada, and done a fair bit of mountaineering, in places including the Colorado Rockies, Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias mountains, the Alps, Andes, and the Himalayas. Some of this was expedition-style, but most of it was self-sufficient, alpine style in teams of 2 to 5, and sometimes solo. In the course of these and other explorations, I have accumulated wilderness experience in areas including orienteering, bushwhacking, survival, and long-distance canoeing. That said, I am not a professional climber or wilderness instructor, and the following should be taken only as the opinions of an experienced amateur.

I also have zero professional background in mental health / illness or criminal investigations, but after having read through many of the posts on this case, agree with posters whose theories of this case include the assumptions or inferences that BL was at least at times a controlling and abusive partner to GP; had justifiably grave doubts about is own suitability as a mate for her; had fears of losing her; loved her in a way that could not abide the possibility of losing her; and/or is deeply mentally ill in ways that have only been hinted at by others, including a friend of GP’s (reporting GP saying he “hears voices”).


IMO a possible scenario that I have not seen discussed, and that I believe should be examined, is one in which this was a more or less pre-meditated murder, and that GP’s body is at the bottom of one of the deepest parts of Jackson Lake (Jackson Lake (Wyoming) - Wikipedia), e.g. at a depth of about 400 ft about 1.5 miles west or west-south-west of Coulter Bay Village. Or possibly, in some IMO less-likely alternate scenarios, in neighboring Leigh or Emma Matilda Lakes, which are even deeper (Jackson Lake water depth map - marine chart), but lack direct car access.

This scenario makes sense of the reported facts as follows:

- On or after Aug 12, BL concluded explicitly or subconsciously that he and GP were not going to make it in life as a couple

- BL returned to FL with among the stated aims, “gathering more gear for the next phase of the trip,” and retrieved from his house or storage, or otherwise procured, among other things, a packraft, kayak, or other inflatable large enough for 2 people and with at least a partial covering. As a sometime Floridian from a part of the state with lots of low-lying water and canals, he would have been familiar with various water-craft, including small boats and inflatables.

- Sometime between Aug 25 and 28, most likely the 27th or 28th, whether as the not-explicitly-intended outcome of a fight that arose spontaneously, or out of a fight he provoked for the purpose, BL ended up killing GP; this could have occurred at any remote campsite, possibly Spread Creek Dispersed Campsites (of which more, below)

- Either in the night of the Aug 27 or 28, BL drove to the shore of Jackson Lake north of Jackson Dam where an access road off of Teton Park Rd approaches the beach; inflated the packraft; transferred GP’s body and appropriate ballast to the raft; parked at Jackson Dam; returned to the packraft; and launched.

- if Aug 27, he would have camped the night on one of Elk Island’s unregulated campgrounds, before setting out the following evening, Aug 28, under cover of dusk, but before it got too cold, for the point at which he would have cast GP’s body into the water, likely returning to Elk Island again for the rest of the night​

- if Aug 28, he would have paddled directly to the drop-off point (about 7 miles, likely between 3 and 6 hours, depending on boat type and wind direction), and then towards Coulter Bay Village​

- Depending on the variant above, either sometime during the day on Aug 29, or late in the evening of Aug 28 / early am Aug 29, BL beached the inflatable at a point near Coulter Bay Village; cached, abandoned, or sunk the boat; and blended in as a “hiker,” until finding a likely ride back towards Jackson Dam

- In the evening of Aug 29, he was picked up by Miranda Baker and boyfriend, who deposited him back at the van at Jackson Dam at 6:10 pm

- The night of Aug 29, BL drove (back) to and possibly camped at the remote Spread Creek Dispersed Campsites, where the van was reportedly sighted by elk hunters; possibly BL simply stopping there to regroup or nap, before continuing on that night towards FL



This scenario has the following advantages:

1) Explains necessity of a FL trip: although an inflatable might no doubt have been purchased in UT or WY, this would have required spare cash or credit (somewhere between $250 and $2000); a set of explanations to GP vs. a different set of explanations to parents and GP for a FL trip; and likely created a record of a sale of an inflatable in UT or WY

2) Explains why BL is in Coulter Bay Village, away from the van, in hiking clothes with “scruff,” but “clean” (per Miranda Baker), with only a small pack and a tarp, and wanting to return to Jackson Dam rather than Jackson Hole

3) Explains why GP has not yet been found, alive or deceased, near any campsites or trails in GTNP

4) Is physically feasible for a healthy, fit 20-something under good conditions (see below)

5) Would be a “rational” way to avoid going out and coming in at the same spot on Jackson Lake, while accessing its deepest waters


It also has some limitations, namely that wind or weather (principally wind and wind-driven waves) might have made it difficult or impossible for a solo paddler of an inflatable, however fit, to cross several miles of open water on a very large lake and make time, or even stay upright. Winds usually are lighter at night, but not always.

Surface water temperatures in Jackson Lake would likely have been in the low to mid 60s (Jackson Lake's current water temperature is 57°F. Today's forecast is: , with a high around 67°F and a low around 41°F. Winds are out of the SSW at 11 mph with gusts of 34 mph.), which is survivable for long durations by experienced cool and cold-water swimmers (The Bible of Cold Water Swimming – Index), and likewise for those who are able to right a capsized craft and re-enter it, then get dry clothes on out of a dry-bag that was well-attached to the craft, including insulating layers and a wind shell. Without such backup gear and skills, and with nighttime temperatures in the 30s or 40s (Jackson, WY Weather Calendar | Weather Underground), and any degree of wind, even a couple-minute dunking in 60 degree water would leave one in a perilously exposed condition, even if the paddler could continue to stay upright for the rest of the trip.

For these reasons, a person in his / her right mind would only attempt a solo, nighttime, multi-mile circuit in the middle of a lake the size of Jackson with water in 60s and air in 30s-40s, if he or she were extremely sure of his skills and gear (and even then, such a person would not go solo unless it were absolutely necessary, or in the context of a planned solo expedition by a very elite paddler / adventurer) AND/OR (ideally “AND”) that the wind / wave forecast for the duration of the trip was a) likely highly reliable and b) calling for flat or nearly flat water. Of course, with BL, we are not necessarily talking about someone in his right mind, and we are talking about someone acting under some subjective version of “necessity.”

Perhaps someone with an intimate knowledge of the Tetons and Jackson Lake could opine on the feasibility of this scenario under late August conditions, and ideally, under the wind conditions the nights of Aug 27 - 29, 2021.

One question such a scenario raises for LE, should they talk with BL, his parents or others in FL, is whether he had access to and skills with inflatables.

Another question it might raise, is whether it is possible for LE to systematically search Jackson and other nearby lakes at depths up to 400 - 700 ft.

 

[dtowndetective411]

Doctor appointment? I’m not clear on his conditions but anybody with any psychiatric problem wants to see their own physician and yes they would pay to do that. Having an episode or needing meds. They go to many lengths to see their doctor.

It could be anything. Someone mentioned earlier she could have been unintentionally pregnant, they were 6 weeks into the road trip, could’ve just found out. He could have gone home to get money or something to do with that. (But staying 6 days without her is weird so I doubt that was the case). He could’ve gone home for ANY reason! Doctor, funeral, storage….

 

[Veronica Sawyer]

I really respect you Otto, but I disagree on this one. People should watch the 5 or 6 videos she has posted. Miranda said BL stated he left his "wife" (verified by Miranda's text to her mother) for several days, and hiked down the Snake River. Only Brian hiked away from the van.

Actually Miranda said in all the videos he left his fiancé. It’s only in that text to her mother that she says “wife”.

Personally I believe her story. I just don’t believe the guy in her story was ever Brian but rather a random man with a wife.

 

[ninvestigate]

I'm a long-term websleuther but don't post too often. This case has me going. I have so many scenarios! Because they didn't answer GP's parents, BL's parents clearly know something. I'm of the opinion that BL either (a.) came home to parents with van and they deducted something bad happened, perhaps due to BL's behavior, or because he told them OR (b.) he never came home, but one of his parents retrieved the van so that it wouldn't be found abandoned. My gut says BL harmed GP, then took off. He may have relied on his parents to call their lawyer friend in NY, then get him out of town/country. Then the parents could report he took off and they don't know where.

Super interested in the "he never came home" theory. And, you know what? I DID think it would be just too bizarre for BL's family to drive home the van to FL for BL, but now we're getting nascent reporting that it looks like BL's family drove home the Mustang he left in the Reserve parking lot.

I've never found anyone's car anywhere, and driven it home. I can't even think of anyone ever telling me they did this. Is this the family's MO?

 

[NuttMegg]

Actually, Jackson Hole is south of Jackson dam.

Thanks I am aware of that, but my point is that real outdoors people are constantly, basically innately aware of NSEW.

 

[Hyway]

Exactly. A woman called in a tip to FBI. Then she made sure that everyone knew about her tip to the extent that it is reported in the news. There are pages of comments discussing the tip that she called in to FBI even though it is an uncorroborated tip. Should we discuss what must be thousands of other tips as well? What makes this tip different? The FBI certainly have not treated this tip as special.

It's a nice story that makes no sense regarding Gabby and Brian walking 10 miles or so to camp. Why would they do that when they have a perfectly good vanlife van for sleeping safely? Where was the van allegedly parked while Brian was freaking out about hitchhiking to Jackson after asking for a ride to Jackson?

I have no idea what happened but when I see someone say something makes no sense I feel a need to expand the imagination. They are camping in the van/tent in a van friendly spot but then go off for a Instagram friendly sunset pic. He has backpack with minimal supplies. They get in a fight. He does her harm. He carries her far away from the location they are camping to get away from the other campers. He ditches the body but now its night and he gets lost and hikes in teh wrong direction away from the van. He eventually ends up the next day (or the day after) at the place where he hitches the ride from the TikToker. He doesn't really know how to get to the van from there so he says Jackson. He eventually sees a location he recognizes (the dam) and now knows how to get to the van. He hitches another ride and gets to the van and high tails it out of there.

While he is hiking lost he plans his entire strategy in a fugue of desperation. Its a dumb plan but then, he just did a very dumb thing so he isn't really thinking straight anyway.

 

[Skigirl]

Now this is a really interesting angle. I can pretty easily imagine him already being in therapy, and trying to contact his therapist - cell phone - when he got into trouble. But confidentiality rules and law would prohibit the therapist from initiating contact with LE.

I may be missing the context because this thread is moving so fast, but if what you're suggesting is that he may have called a therapist to talk about having been involved in the death of his fiance, his therapist would be ethically allowed to report that (and probably would).

 

[bambibones]

They slept in a tent, the van was too small for sleeping with all of their stuff crammed in.

It wouldn't be too small for many van-lifers - but they had a lot of stuff. Just think about all the different clothes she wore.

I car camp in a small station wagon. I would never think to bring that sort of clothing along - maybe a single outfit for dressing up.

 

[samanthadaniels1995]

So going back to the odd unbelievable txt to mom. "No reception in Yosemite ". Why did this occur ?

1. A clue for mom of out of the ordinary behavior and to provide a GPS location in the case her situation had changed for the worst ?

I can not imagine another reason of txting mom this nonsensical txt.

2. Another person had access to her phone, determined who her mother's contact info and sent the txt to provide a reason to not respond to mom's calls.

I presume that the phone location for Gabby are where they are currently focused in their search.

But still, why the txt message ?

 

[PommyMommy]

This FBI request had me confused but I just mapped it out and it fits. Northern most location Yellowstone; Colter Bay is south of that; Spread Creek southeast of that. This tidbit from them sounds VERY encouraging to me. They know something.

This is what I narrowed it down to last night:

8/24: Gabby checks out of Fairfield Inn and Suites
8/25 0r 8/26: Owner of Rustic Row in Idaho says Petito and Laundrie spent about 15 to 20 minutes in the store.
8/25 or 8/26 - Possible sighting of BOTH in Grant Village, Yellowstone
8/26 - UNVERIFIED sighting of BL alone in Bullwinkle's Bar, West Yellowstone, MT
8/27 - ??? (whereabouts unknown)
8/28 - ??? (whereabouts unknown)
8/29: Laundrie alone. Hitchhiking. No vehicle. Stated he had been at Snake River (probably a cover). Picked up Colter Bay, Grand Teton. Skittish when he realized they were traveling back to where he left, instead of away from it. Exited vehicle abruptly at Jackson Damn.

This leads me to think that whatever happened occurred in that 3-day span of 8/26-8/29.

Bump