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Gabby Petito is Missing Update: Found Dead; Arrest Warrants Issued


Howl

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2 things stand out to me. 

1)They're calling Laundrie "her fiance". 

2)The FBI was invovled, probably because they were traveling through multiple states. The FBI's involvement expands the resources they have to search for her. If the FBI was involved in more missing persons cases, more missing person cases might be solved.

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3 minutes ago, FiveAcres said:

A news chopper showed a canopy being put up over what appeared to be disturbed ground. If the dogs hit, I am guessing it was shallow grave, which means that her remains were probably not disturbed. She apparently had distinctive tattoos. 

It looks like very flat ground, a wide open area. For me, this makes an accident happening a lot less probable. If he uses that as an excuse, he better have a real good story. 

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8 minutes ago, adidas said:

My guess is that they will find his body soon.

I agree. I guess the search was called off in the nature reserve for today due to bad weather. 

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Apparently another YouTube travel vlog couple were editing footage from the GoPro on their dash, and saw that they had passed Gabby's van around the 27th of August.

The body was found near the location of the van in the video.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/gabby-petito-youtube-video-fbi-search-b1922920.html

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CNN has a time-line.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/16/us/gabby-petito-timeline-missing-case/index.html

Brian Laundrie update-ish

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brian-laundrie-gabby-petito-missing-search-police-fbi/

A bit about the reserve. It's huge. If it's anything like Big Cypress Reserve there are little side roads everywhere. Not that I'd take them. I don't mix well with alligators, pythons, and other creepy crawlies.

https://www.carltonreserve.org/

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Gabby’s family says they doubt that she sent the text message they received on August 30th saying there was no phone reception in Yosemite. With her body being found where the van was seen on August 27, it is going to be very hard for him to claim an accident since - if she was still alive on August 30 to send the text, and he returned home on September 1st, there is no way he could have driven from Yosemite to Florida in that time. No doubt the FBI will be scouring CCTV footage. 

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3 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

A bit about the reserve. It's huge. If it's anything like Big Cypress Reserve there are little side roads everywhere. Not that I'd take them. I don't mix well with alligators, pythons, and other creepy crawlies.

https://www.carltonreserve.org/

No way in hell he's out there. We have nothing but his parents report that he's "missing", and they're the ones who pointed LE in that direction. It's all a wild goose chase, and he's either in hiding far from the Carlton Reserve, or left the country entirely.

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On 9/18/2021 at 9:45 PM, adidas said:

That’s further northwest in the Idaho part of Yellowstone. Grand Teton is solidly in Wyoming so it wouldn’t apply.  Besides, no ones actually tested the theory to see if you could get away with murder. It’s not that it’s legal. It’s just a question of a court having precedent to bring the case to trial. 

6 hours ago, AnnaSofia said:

No way in hell he's out there. We have nothing but his parents report that he's "missing", and they're the ones who pointed LE in that direction. It's all a wild goose chase, and he's either in hiding far from the Carlton Reserve, or left the country entirely.

I think his parents helped him flee the country personally. Probably to a country with a non extradition treaty with the US. 

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6 hours ago, AnnaSofia said:

No way in hell he's out there. We have nothing but his parents report that he's "missing", and they're the ones who pointed LE in that direction. It's all a wild goose chase, and he's either in hiding far from the Carlton Reserve, or left the country entirely.

I agree with fled the country. Some friends are speculating about possible suicide. Do police really not keep an eye on a "person of interest?" Especially in a case that garnered national attention? Maybe I mean keep him in their conscience or awarenesd if that makes sense? I know they can't follow him.

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This is such a sad case. It’s almost unbelievable to look at her Instagram photos, where she seems so happy and full of life, and to know that only a few short weeks later, she was already dead. 

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I agree that I seriously doubt he is - or ever was - in that reserve. His parents are buying time. If anything, the plan was for him to meet someone in the parking lot to leave or try to hitch a ride to get as far away as possible, parents pre-planned to pick up car, and wait days to report him "missing."

 

 

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The FBI raided the Laundrie home today and the parents are being questioned.  The FBI will make some type of statement this afternoon, early this evening. 

The police have abandoned their search of the wildlife preserve where Laundrie was thought to have been "hiking."  

They've also removed the Mustang that Laundrie's parents drove to the preserve, but they later retrieved.  Here's the deal.  If the parents thought there was ANY chance he was still at the wildlife preserve, they would have left SOME type of transportation for him.  If they'd been in contact with him and knew he didn't need the Mustang...

Gonna guess their cell phone records are being searched.  

Edited by Howl
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IMO the parents need to be interrogated separately. My bet is that they know a lot. A heck of a lot. 

My prediction is that the FBI will soon say that Brian is wanted on suspicion of murder and there will be a reward for information leading to him being captured. 

My personal speculation is the Brian killed poor Gabby in a rage, and has now killed himself.

Unfortunately this case is reminding me of Lucas Fowler’s murder, because the van - my ridiculous brain makes small connections and goes from there. Lucas’ murder was featured a lot on Australian news. I believe his girlfriend’s name was Chyna. 

I don’t know that I think Brian has left the country. The US is a big country with lots of hiding places. 

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1 hour ago, alwayscaffeinated said:

I'm behind on this. I just watched the body cam video from Moab. and it's chilling. 

It is chilling. I keep seeing her referred to as "hysterical" and hate that she is painted that way. She seems so very sad and so very terrified and fully believes she is a bad person. 

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Having been with someone when they had anxiety and OCD so badly that they were voluntarily hospitalised within hours, Gabby’s mannerisms and the look in her eyes were both familiar to me. And her diagnoses had been used against her as attacks, I am 100% sure.

More information from our news:

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/the-unanswered-questions-about-the-tragic-death-of-gabby-petito/news-story/36ef51ad66695a878adc27389121acec
 

Police have gained access to a hard drive found in the van belonging to Gabby Petito as details have emerged of the “odd” last texts sent to her mum from her phone.

A Florida court granted permission to investigators to access a hard drive that was recovered from the van during a search on September 14.

Investigators believe the hard drive could have information crucial to the disappearance.

The search warrant filing also includes the text of the last message Ms Petito’s mother received from her phone, which reads: “Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls.”

Ms Petito’s mother said “Stan” was meant to refer to Gabby’s grandfather, but since he rarely goes by that name, she found the text “odd.”

Ms Petito’s phone was turned off later that day after the text was sent.

According to the filing, the hard drive may also contain “evidence relevant to proving that a felony has been committed,” WNYC reports.

The hard drive was recovered from the same van that her partner Brian Laundrie drove back to Florida alone from Wyoming 10 days before Ms Petito was reported missing.

The search warrant was granted based upon new information suggesting Petito was “unable to care for herself due to her increased anxiety,” including footage of police stopping Ms Petito and Mr Laundrie on a Utah highway after they received a 911 call about the couple.

(there is more at the link) 

Edited by adidas
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@PoppyPeace and @alwayscaffeinated and @adidas, yes to you all. 

-I just listened to the recording of the 911 call to Moab police reporting a domestic violence incident and clearly reporting that Brian was slapping and HIT Gabby in front of the Moonflower Co-op.  He was driving by the incident, stopped when he saw it and as he was reporting it,  Gabby and Brian got in the van and drove away.  (According to anchor on this CNN segment, the caller was subsequently interviewed by police and in the police report, the caller said he "feared the worst" so we can assume it was a violent interaction.) The 911 caller gives information on where the white van was going and the police then stopped Gabby and Brian just outside of Moab. 

I was reading a Twitter thread by people who were trained in how to spot domestic violence who watched the police video of that stop.  They noted so much that police missed that IF THEY HAD BEEN TRAINED IN HOW TO SPOT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, their response would have been different. 

A few things that stood out to them: 

  1. Brian had Gabby's phone and knew how to unlock it. 
  2. Not sure if she had her own key to the van
  3. Gabby was identified as the overemotional one; she put herself down. Typical for abuse victims. 
  4. Brian was overly calm and joking, so he came across as the "rational" one. 
  5. Brian had some scratches on his face; might they have come from Gabby defending herself?
  6. Why the **** did they allow distraught Gabby to spend the night in the van alone and send Brian to a hotel?  
  7. And this is key: Although the caller clearly identified that Brian was slapping Gabby and also hit her, at the police stop Gabby was identified as the aggressor, based on Brian's assertion that she came at him, was slapping him and he had to push her away.  

I just took a minute to read the article in @adidas's post.  It has the audio and a transcript of the 911 recording.   https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/he-was-slapping-her-new-audio-of-distressing-gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-fight/news-story/9bf91b83ffb36d31cd04b82919fd5b95

Edited by Howl
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I haven’t had the time to watch the entire footage yet. But you are absolutely right @Howl - 37 seconds - he was slapping her.

I was searching around and the following video was posted at a forum called Websleuths. It has a LOT of threads so I only read a couple of posts. Someone with some extra time might be interested in reading more? I’m not sure if it’s okay to post the link.

Anyway a tech savvy guy has cleaned up and analysed the video in which other bloggers drove past the van. It is excellent. It clearly shows the door to the van closing (did Brian hear the other van approaching and seek to hide whatever was in the back?) 

My personal theory, and it’s a bit dark so feel free to skip the next paragraph. Since Gabby’s remains were found less than 300 metres from the spot the van is parked and she made her last social media post earlier this day, I think that Brian strangled her and the other bloggers unwittingly drove past just after the murder - that’s why the door is closing. 

The guy who made the video says he thinks they’re Gabby’s sandals at the back of the van, but someone on Websleuths said that Gabby’s sandals had a cross over at the front. Brian is wearing the same style at the back of the van in the body cam video but I’m not sure if they’re the same colour? About 15 seconds onward. I took a screen shot but it’s not good.

 

981AB705-BCE0-4F55-B92A-1CEDF83B6184.png

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This post on facebook goes into great detail pointing out things that indicate that this was a deeply abusive relationship.  I have no idea what this person's credentials are, but everything she writes makes sense (to me).  She does give the police great credit, which I don't.  This was domestic violence and they completely missed it, although part of it was that both were begging the police to not make an arrest. 

Worth a read: Important lessons to learn from Gabby’s tragic life and death.

Spoiler

1. Based on the body camera video posted by the officers who pulled Gabby and her fiancé over for suspicious driving, some viewers assumed Gabby was suffering from mental illness and Brian was the stable one.

2. Some people may have assumed both partners were equally abusive and equally at fault. The old “it takes two” myth that doesn’t really apply to most abusive situations.

3. Some people may have even assumed Gabby was the abuser and Brian was the victim.

4. These assumptions are classic. Why? Because, in many cases, the target manages to keep things together until her breaking point, at which time others may see her crying or hear her yelling or see her breaking, and then they assume she’s “crazy.”

5. Meanwhile, the abuser plays the part of the poor, patient partner who has to deal with this crazy person. But all the while, he’s been acting very differently behind closed doors, pushing her to this point intentionally and feeding on her emotional break. He LOVES to see evidence that he has hurt her. He LOVES to see her pain.

6. For this reason, “breaking her” has been his goal from the start. It may take him hours or weeks or months or even years to break her, but he won’t stop until he gets that reaction, and then he’ll point the finger and say, “See? She’s crazy. I’m just trying to keep her calm.” And then he’ll do it again. And again. And again.

7. As a result, some people will buy into that false narrative. Even the target. Which brings me to my next point.

8. In the video, we see Gabby making many excuses for Brian’s behavior, and she takes all the blame for everything he does.

9. We also see Brian blaming Gabby and saying he was just trying to keep her calm.

10. This is also the norm for victims of long-standing abuse. A target becomes conditioned to believe everything the abuser does is her fault.

11. Also, she clearly doesn’t want Brian to be in trouble. She’d rather pay the price and protect the man she loves. Also, remember she truly believes he only acted this way because of her, so she doesn’t want him to be blamed. This is also the norm.

12. Smart officers see right through this. Others buy the cover-up story. (And because some officers are also abusers, they all too frequently side with the abuser even when they know exactly what’s going on.)

13. I actually credit the police in Gabby’s situation. They were calm, they separated the couple, they interviewed them individually, they split them up for the night, they did everything right. I’m sure the officer has tremendous guilt about the end result and wonders if he could have prevented it, but I don’t blame the officers in this case. I was actually pretty surprised and impressed with how well they treated both Brian and Gabby (and, sadly, I was thinking how rare it is to see that.)

14. Many people have been shocked by Brian’s family’s refusal to cooperate with police. I’m not shocked at all. Let’s look at that a little more closely.

15. I’m also not surprised to learn that Gabby lived with the Laundrie family for a year. We all see this family will do anything to protect their son, even at the cost of an innocent young woman who was a real part of their family and soon to be their daughter in law. While most of us can certainly understand them wanting to protect their child, they crossed a moral line when Gabby went missing.

16. But I think it goes deeper than that. I think it shows them as a system of enablers who not only allowed Brian to abuse Gabby over a long term (which probably led to her intense anxiety) but also a system of gaslighters who were probably always shifting the truth to keep Gabby confused and make her believe she’s the problem. She was caught in an entire system of abuse. And once you’re in that web, it’s very very very difficult to see a way out.

17. I imagine they probably contributed to her abuse from the start and encouraged their son’s abusive behaviors by rewarding him, making excuses for him, blaming Gabby, flipping the script, and keeping her in the fog that breaks down a person’s psyche and spirit over time.

18. Gabby and Brian had been together since their teens. This is also common. These immature relationships work beautifully when both partners grow together and mature emotionally. But when one wants to keep the other down, naive, and under his control…and the other is growing, learning, and maturing, it doesn’t work.

19. We hear Gabby tell the officer that Brain didn’t think she could do her travel blog. It seems clear that he didn’t believe in her and was trying to make her not believe in herself.

20. She also says he didn’t like her working and that he locked her out of the van because she wouldn’t calm down. But when you listen to the full video, it sounds like he was upset because they’d spent too much time at the coffee shop with her working on her website when he wanted to go hiking. She wasn’t in her seat when he was ready to leave. Control issues?! He squeezed her face with his hand in anger. He cut her down and criticized her, verbally abusing her until she was a wreck of tears. He was breaking her spirit, intentionally.

21. Why? Because her focus wasn’t 100% on him. And because she had found a job she enjoyed and was good at and that allowed her to connect with other people, when he wanted her all to himself.

22. She now had this one little piece of her life that he couldn’t completely control, so he wanted to get rid of that. It angered him. He punished her for it. See the pattern?

23. The overall takeaway? When you see someone crying like this, don’t assume she’s crazy. Don’t buy into the false narrative given by the abuser. Don’t believe the cover-up story by the target who has been conditioned to carry all the blame and shame. And don’t assume she’s going to be okay. She just may end up your next recovered body.

24. If you or someone you love are in an unhealthy relationship, please don’t assume it will get better in time. I haven’t heard one single story where it got better. Not one. Not with therapy. Not with church. Not with prayer or forgiveness or complete surrender. Nothing works when the abuser is determined to destroy that target. He will not stop until she is erased from this world or from her life. And in many cases, he’ll walk away without any consequences.

Please don’t let the next Gabby be you or someone you love.

Domestic violence hotline: 1-800-799-7233

credit: Julie P Cantrell

 

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Interesting article from Deseret News (Utah) about the traffic stop just outside of Moab at the entrance to Arches National Park.

‘I can still hear her voice’: Arches park ranger warned Gabby Petito her relationship seemed ‘toxic’

I wasn't aware that it lasted 90 minutes and that a female law enforcement ranger from Arches spent the majority of that time with Gabby,  telling Gabby that the relationship seemed to be a toxic one.  I take back what I said about law enforcement's failure to recognize the domestic violence aspects of the relationship.  This ranger clear realized exactly what was going on. 

Quote

I was imploring with her to reevaluate the relationship, asking her if she was happy in the relationship with him, and basically saying this was an opportunity for her to find another path, to make a change in her life,” she said.

“She had a lot of anxiety about being away from him, I honestly thought if anything was going to change it would be after they got home to Florida.”

 

Edited by Howl
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On 9/19/2021 at 7:46 PM, adidas said:

Gabby’s family says they doubt that she sent the text message they received on August 30th saying there was no phone reception in Yosemite. With her body being found where the van was seen on August 27, it is going to be very hard for him to claim an accident since - if she was still alive on August 30 to send the text, and he returned home on September 1st, there is no way he could have driven from Yosemite to Florida in that time. No doubt the FBI will be scouring CCTV footage. 

I'm not gonna lie, in a year or two I'm going to be excitedly watching documentaries on this. He arrived at his home in Florida around 10am September 1st - he definitely couldn't have gotten there leaving on August 30, it would take at least a day and a half of solid driving with no stops, I'd think. There's got to be a trail, though - gas purchases, food purchases, CCTV, people's dash cams, cell phone pings, etc. I don't think it'll be terribly long before the authorities know exactly where he was, and when, on the drive to Florida. 

If she had disappeared and he'd reported her missing and a search had been started, she'd just be one of thousands of people who mysteriously disappeared in national parks over the years. But instead he seemed to go out of his way to make himself look as guilty as possible, and now has disappeared himself. 

I think it's likely he killed her, buried her, drove home in a panic and fled with his parents' help. I hope he's found alive and the truth comes out. 

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29 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

I'm not gonna lie, in a year or two I'm going to be excitedly watching documentaries on this. He arrived at his home in Florida around 10am September 1st - he definitely couldn't have gotten there leaving on August 30, it would take at least a day and a half of solid driving with no stops, I'd think. There's got to be a trail, though - gas purchases, food purchases, CCTV, people's dash cams, cell phone pings, etc. I don't think it'll be terribly long before the authorities know exactly where he was, and when, on the drive to Florida. 

If she had disappeared and he'd reported her missing and a search had been started, she'd just be one of thousands of people who mysteriously disappeared in national parks over the years. But instead he seemed to go out of his way to make himself look as guilty as possible, and now has disappeared himself. 

I think it's likely he killed her, buried her, drove home in a panic and fled with his parents' help. I hope he's found alive and the truth comes out. 

She apparently didn't like driving but wanted to do her vanlife thing anyway. So, just from a practical point of view, no driver means no trip and no vlog. 

I love the western National Parks but am truly phobic about driving mountain roads. Fortunately, my partner doesn't mind doing the mountain driving, and I drive the boring freeway part. I took a trip to Yellowstone with a friend two years ago (Colorado native and she had never gone to Yellowstone!) I did the bulk of the driving, but she drove the scary bits. If Petito was as phobic about mountain driving as I am, she could NOT have gone alone. (We don't do anything resembling camping: we get reservations at lodges, hotels and motels.) 

I think one of the reasons Petitio's story has grabbed me so hard is that I feel like I know these places from having been there: Yellowstone and GTNP, Moab and Arches. 

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31 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

he definitely couldn't have gotten there leaving on August 30, it would take at least a day and a half of solid driving with no stops, I'd think.

Estimated actual driving time behind the wheel from Wy to his house in Fl is 42 hours.  Gas stops, snacks, fast food, a solid two-day drive at minimum.   I doubt if he was sleeping much. 

3 minutes ago, FiveAcres said:

I think one of the reasons Petitio's story has grabbed me so hard is that I feel like I know these places from having been there: Yellowstone and GTNP, Moab and Arches. 

It does make a difference, doesn't it? It's been too long for me to remember more than snippets about GTNP, but Moab and SE Utah are very familiar.  

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