Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #26

[Aunt2AnAngel]

Surely to God some of the neighbors have cameras out there. Right?!

 

[Devil In The Details]

YUP Wrongful Death jmo

It would probably be a waste of time and money as BL appears to be judgement proof.

 

[JayWill]

Im thinking about proving in court, not in the court of public opinion.

Well of course, but there will be plenty of circumstantial evidence. We have no idea what LE has or what was found on her body.

 

[derpderpy]

Anyone have a link for John Walsh tonight at 10? TIA

I believe it's on the Cable channel Investigation Discovery

 

[Balthazar]

Did the neighbors see him after the three day trip with his parents?

The reporter did not ask that question. I hope that LE did. If not, LE needs to pay these neighbors another visit and find out. The neighbors also stated that the camper for the pickup truck was purchased in September and BL and his dad spent considerable time working on it, then loaded it up and off BL and his parents went in it for a long weekend. Given the circumstances, it is a suspicious turn of events, which I hope will be investigated in detail and LE can verify this story and find out where they went.

 

[RickshawFan]

This whole manhunt thing is reminding me of the Escape from Dannemora event in 2015. It's possible BL got some of their techniques from the movie. They holed up in a vacant cabin, scattered pepper? to throw off the K-9's, etc....

 

[cady]

To help his dad move stuff into or out of storage apparently. I'm not certain if he did end up flying home and back. Struck me as odd.

I think he let them know that he wanted to get away from her so Mummy and Daddy bought him a ticket and furnished an excuse for him to go home. Just speculation, on my part. jmo

 

[Stoneymetal]

I was just thinking.. that a potentially smart move (moreso than helping him try to hide IMO) if the parents knew anything at all during the alleged camping trip, would be to stash him away in a mental health facility or something for "treatment". So when/if he becomes a suspect, he is already being treated for "insanity" and they can blame everything on that. Thoughts? Am I just totally ignorant about how an insanity plea might work? And would a facility have to disclose that he is there? Sorry if this has been brought up before! I know the potential of Gabby secretly going to one was floated in the earliest threads but if it were my kid and I was callous enough to act how they have been, that's what I'd think of doing.

 

[MyJoey]

YUP Wrongful Death jmo

Against BL ? What are they going to get? He’s got nothing.

 

[Aunt2AnAngel]

If August 27th is being narrowed down as the potential day she passed, then maybe the man in the background of the youtube video "digging" wasn't actually digging but doing something far more sinister? It does not seem as though her body was found buried

Perhaps burying evidence.

 

[dacjess]

I’m sorry, but just NO. How is there a debate over Gabby’s van?!? If I give someone my keys to drive to the store, they do not own my car. If I let my boyfriend drive because he prefers driving, he does not own my car. It’s my car, I paid for it, I hold the title. Until I give that title to another person (and it’s notarized), it is MY car. If I want my car back and ask and it is not returned, I can report MY car as stolen.

What Is a Car Title? Everything You Need to Know

What to Do If You Know Who Stole Your Car - Someone Stole My Car

Gabby being killed does not mean that her van is now BL’s van.

 

[jamicat]

I'm really not sure what type of evidence people think you need in a murder case. Most murders are not captured on CCTV to be played for a jury. Most cases are circumstantial. Direct evidence, like eye witness testimony, is notoriously unreliable. All the CSI-style scientific evidence is circumstantial.

Sigh. Around here, you have to have hard evidence. Yes circumstantial evidence is included but if there is a plausible alternate scenario or explanation, case is thrown out. Doesn’t even go to court.
There is no string motive here. That they had an on again, off again relationship? Happens a lot. DV incident? It’s on tape and despite all the reviews, LE did not determine it serious enough to charge. Restaurant rage? Happens a lot. It’s difficult to get DV convictions without documented charges of a history.
If coroner could not place time of death, anyone could have killed her. She could have met someone and gone off. They could have broken up and she disappeared while he stalked off so he just took van. I can come up with too many scenarios where someone else did it.
Do I think he did it? Yes. But his silence and parents getting an attorney which are huge red flags are not permitted to be used against him. That’s a huge advantage his Defence team will have—that no one has said anything, him or his parents. Though now that this is a murder case, his parents may have to cough up so info that they did not have to when it was just a missing persons case. I’m not sure whether the 5th will cover their unwillingness to talk. I don’t think it will

 

[Bertha96]

Each state is different as far as titling vehicles. I am a DMV supervisor in a Midwestern state. Most scenarios, unless there is a TOD on the title, the vehicle must go through probate. In a situation where someone is married and their spouse is not listed on the title as a joint owner or as a TOD, the state will allow one vehicle to be transferred to the remaining spouse. So say the couple has 3 vehicles listed only in the deceased spouse's name without a TOD (transfer on death). One vehicle can be transferred to the remaining spouse and the other two vehicles have to go through probate. Even if there is a will involved, as my state does not recognize wills as far as transferring ownership of vehicles. The validity of a will is determined by the probate court.
I am not familiar with Florida's laws but if BL isn't on the title as a joint owner it is highly unlikely that he has any claim to the van.

 

[riolove77]

Wouldn't that depend on the manner of death? For example, if it is blunt force trauma (a hit on the head) there may be the possibility that Gabby died from being shoved, falling down, and hitting her head.

Absolutely not saying that this is what happened, but just picturing what a defense team might come up with (if BL is caught, charged, and goes to trial).

Well manner of death here is homicide. What you speak of is cause of death. If cause of death ends up being, for example, blunt force trauma, and the jury buys this defense of "oops I shoved her and she fell and hit her head", it is likely what could or would reduce from murder to manslaughter. But one would not get off of a murder charge entirely by that absent a showing that what SHE did required in response by him the amount of force necessary to cause her to fall and hit her head, subsequently dying. Things like height and weight difference would be taken into account here.

 

[whirrledpeas]

I blame Matlock. And Ally McBeal. And all of the combined CSI and L&O franchises.

I’m no longer in the field, but I have a BS in Forensic Biology with a specialization in blood spatter analysis and lemme tell you - it is absolutely nothing, NOTHING like TV portrays. It’s not as fun and glamorous as it is on the tube. At all.

 

[Veronica Sawyer]

Well, if you're almost 24, work an entry-level job at Publix, and live with your parents, you ARE financially reliant on them.

Fair point. Though a grocer is certainly better than nothing, and nothing is what a number of people insistently claim he does on a daily basis here.

 

[Born2BWild]

Not sure if this has been posted (I can’t keep up) but the Merry Piglets restaurant where a witness reported seeing Brian in an argument with the staff has posted on their Facebook page to confirm that Gabby and Brian were there

The Merry Piglets Mexican Grill

The updated statement from the restaurant does NOT state the date of that incident.

 

[Coquette]

I’m not saying that isn’t suspicious! But from their point of view that van was theirs (gabby and Brian’s) they both worked on it, put time into it, drove it and lived in it. It was also registered to the Laundrie’s home, no? Yes the title was in her name technically but I’m sure people who knew them saw it as theirs. And who knows what crazy story he told his parents! “She broke up with me again and ran off with a guy! She’s awful! She hurt me so badly! Now i have this stupid van and i don’t know what to do!” I’m not saying it’s believable, the truth, makes sense, none of that. But it could have happened. We DONT KNOW.

Her father said it was her van on Dr. Phil. It's why she was terrified of him taking HER van and leaving her. In the end, that's exactly what he did.

MOO.

Can we put the whole "stolen van" thing to rest? It doesn't matter. Both myself and my husband are on the title for our vehicles. If we vacation across the country in it and I decide to drive it back without him, who cares. That isn't the important part. The important part would be if he ended up dead without so much as reaching out to someone to let them know that he was left behind/stayed behind, and that, upon being confronted with the information that no one had heard from him, I said not a word and didn't help his family when they begged me for answers. Those are the important details.

I would be the one being hunted down by the FBI all the same, no matter the status of vehicle ownership. Is it appalling that he drove it home? Yes. Does it change anything that he didn't own it? No.

You are absolutely entitled to put it to rest, yes. Many of us don't agree with your position so we might choose to continue the discussion. Brian took something that was not his away from the legal owner who made it clear on police dash cam footage that she was terrified he'd take her van and leave her. There are witnesses that saw him lock her out of her van and watched her crawl back in. IMO, her van being driven back to Florida by the POI in her homicide is very important indeed. It shows a pattern of disregard for her that very probably led to her death.

MOO.

 

[jvikes]

Now that Gabby is dead, the van goes to next of kin which are parents, unless she stipulated otherwise in will or whatever state of FL recognized as such.
If it were in BL’s —the title, he would get the van when LE releases it. If it were GP’s father’s van , he could have demanded it immediately, at any time, when LE released it, and it would be released to him now.

Maybe wondering how they'll detain him if not named a suspect is answered here. With GP officially identified, her family has legal rights to the van. Perhaps there's a legal definition LE advised them on in terms of Brian being a suspect in the theft of that vehicle. Now they can hold him on auto theft?

 

[Newsjunkiejen]

Thank you. This seems like a significant detail to me. The bridge offered an easy route from the van to where GP was found. Is that because they were camping there and something happened leading to her death? Or was it an easy route to carry her body?

I think the spot he chose to park the van in was convenient to him for two reasons:

1. The van was parked so that as soon as he crossed that little bridge, he would be hidden from view from any passing vehicles on the road/dirt track. Running at right angles to the end of the bridge are a row of small trees/shrubs which would've given him immediate cover.
2. The van was right next to the passing road/dirt track (that the YouTubers drove along when they passed the van). This would've given BL a fast escape route HAD someone seen him dragging/carrying/burying a body.

I think he purposely parked the van as close as damnit to that little bridge knowing that he just had to get the body out of the back doors of the van (it was parked in the right direction to allow this), and quickly across that little bridge 5-10metres away, and then he was afforded cover from the road.

MOO