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Gabby Petito Part 2
103 Plays23 days ago
In part 2 of the American Murder: Gabby Petito docuseries we focus heavily on the investigation of the missing aspiring van life influencer Gabby. Gabby has been reported missing by her parents in New York which quickly brings police attention to the Laundrie home in Florida. Gabby's van in is Brian's driveway and Brian has apparently returned without the love of his life. He refuses to speak with police or press while the search for Gabby rages on. We explore the family dynamics that, in part, make this case so compelling.
Listener discretion is advised.
May contain explicit language and unfounded accusations.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Mothers of All Crime'
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Mothers of All Crime. This is a podcast where we deep dive into mothers involved in infamous crimes and scandals. I'm Monica and this is Crystal.
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome back to the Mothers of All
Recap of Gabby Petito's Disappearance
00:00:36
Speaker
Crime. We're going to be picking up where we left off with the Gabby Petito docuseries part two investigation.
00:00:46
Speaker
Yes. So in the last episode, we kind of ended off where Gabby had gone missing. Her family had been trying to contact her and Brian and Brian's family and not getting any responses and They had filed a police report, a missing persons report, and in Northport, Florida on August 11th.
00:01:09
Speaker
Wow. September 11th. I really want to have this and be in August, apparently. You're trying to wrap it up quicker. I am.
Brian Laundrie's Family and the Van Investigation
00:01:17
Speaker
um September 11th, 2021, police officers were sent to Brian's family home where the parents did answer.
00:01:26
Speaker
They refused to talk to the police. They did say that Brian was home, also would refuse, and any questions could be had to their attorney that they had already retained. Yeah. Um, with that being said, b Brian was there, the van was there and the van is fully in Gabby's name, which is important because at that point it allowed the police to tow the van and start really looking in that investigation because the fact that they're talking to like, Hey,
00:01:57
Speaker
The parents just want like reassurance that their kid is okay and these people are completely completely uncooperative, really started throwing those flags up for the police. So that kind of launched this investigation, joint investigation.
00:02:14
Speaker
So I had a thought earlier and I was trying to find an answer for it.
Legal Technicalities of Van Ownership
00:02:18
Speaker
And I've seen this on it's not just my thought, I guess, because I've seen it on TikTok and Reddit as well. And I really wasn't found. I didn't really find anything that satisfied it.
00:02:26
Speaker
But couldn't he have been arrested for Grand Theft Auto at that point because he had her car
00:02:35
Speaker
You know, i don't know because in You know how you can have like an authorized driver from like a insurance perspectives? The car hadn't been reported as miss stolen.
00:02:47
Speaker
So you can't steal something that someone hasn't reported. i think if... there was some kind of report from gabby saying like my my van is missing and someone took it then yes but just because her van is in someone else's possession i don't think that qualifies could be wrong but i mean that's pretty much what i was picking up as well but i just thought that would have been ah way to get him it would have been nice holiday yeah Yeah, but he is, you know, firmly standing with his constitutional right not to speak.
Investigation and Public Attention
00:03:22
Speaker
So yeah, that's, I think their hope with the van was there was going to be something incriminating inside of it that they could see in plain sight, because we have the body cam footage, which I really liked that they incorporated.
00:03:35
Speaker
They're peeking in the van as much as they can. and they told the guy who towed it to not go inside it if possible. And he's like, yeah, no problem. um So they were able to keep the integrity of the inside intact without contamination from like officers or the tow truck company.
00:03:52
Speaker
So when they did, God forbid, if they did go in and it was like a massacre inside, it would have been preserved. So yeah. That didn't happen, but it was a starting point that the police were given.
00:04:07
Speaker
That's true. That makes sense. It's potential evidence for sure. Right. Right. And this was a joint investigation between them and the department in New York where Gabby's family was.
00:04:22
Speaker
And her dad actually, because of this distance, flew down to Florida and in person to put himself there and had a press conference.
00:04:33
Speaker
And I think from here, it became like a national incident. Like it spread. And I think having the dad, in my opinion, doing that press conference really brought her to life. It's not just an officer standing on the screen talking where you can kind of like not connect.
00:04:53
Speaker
You saw like the emotion and the pain in this father's face, which I think helped people start to really step in and look for Kevi. Yeah.
00:05:06
Speaker
I think that definitely happens in missing persons cases where it's obviously sad and upsetting if someone is missing, but if they're desperately missed by their family, by their friends, people are showing a lot of emotion and they have a lot of desperation. i think that people have empathy for that and can see themselves in that situation.
00:05:26
Speaker
And it makes her more relatable and it makes other parents think, wow, you know, I have a 22 year old or whatever. And if this was my daughter, if this was my kid, this situation was like, this would be gutting.
00:05:40
Speaker
Right. So I think that people were able to relate to her and relate to him and they could see themselves in her family.
Impact of Police Body Cam Footage
00:05:46
Speaker
Also the gap, the um body cam footage being released was huge. And that definitely caused a media sensation.
00:05:53
Speaker
There's a lot of attention to that. Yeah, I agree. It was good to include in the documentary for sure. It's a big deal. Do you do you remember yourself seeing stuff because I don't at this point in the investigation. I don't remember seeing anything quite yet. I saw stuff later on, which I'll mention when it comes but I hadn't seen anything yet. Did you see stuff yet?
00:06:15
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely did. But I watch a lot of like YouTube and TikTok true crime things. And I remember this cycling and seeing the body cam footage and thinking the whole situation was bizarre. And then it just got more bizarre. So I did follow it in real time when it was happening.
00:06:35
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah. I'll mention when I discovered it in real time, but oh um so obviously her last known location was out West.
00:06:47
Speaker
So her parents, her step parents, the four of them really started making a lot of noise. They were calling departments and putting up posters and websites and news and Her stepdad actually flew out to Wyoming to meet with the Sheriff's Department as like the in-person for that area.
00:07:09
Speaker
So they really had parents in each of the main locations, which I think was really smart. And she's lucky that she had that family dynamic to do that. So he was that representative for the family, which again, pushes the...
00:07:24
Speaker
This is a real person kind of vibe to people. And it's a lot harder to ignore ah human being in your office than the emails and the phone calls that sometimes happen. Yeah.
00:07:38
Speaker
Definitely. And he was, you know, boots on the ground, getting involved in the search teams. He was physically looking for her as well and working with the police
Efforts and Challenges in the Search for Gabby
00:07:47
Speaker
in the state. And it was clearly a big effort put on by all four of her parents. And yeah, it's I mean, it's heartbreakingly sad, but I do think in ah tough situation like this, it is better to show up and be as involved as possible because you're not going to get brushed aside and forgotten about.
00:08:06
Speaker
Right. And not to mention, the area that they were looking was Teton or Tenten or however you pronounce it. Grand Teton. Grand Teton. Or Teton.
00:08:18
Speaker
The National Forest is right massive. So having to search over this terrain, they had horseback. They had dogs. They had pe search parties, walking, drones. like They really brought all...
00:08:35
Speaker
the ah options out to try and get over this wilderness and the FBI actually ended up getting involved as well yes they did and they stayed involved for a long time because of all the events that are to come yeah it's not very complicated it's sort of um I loved how they presented it in the documentary because they were showing things in chronological order but also adding details when they were important um And I think we're around September 17th at this point where...
Brian Laundrie's Disappearance and Family Involvement
00:09:10
Speaker
There's a welfare call made, which I'd never actually heard the welfare call before. And we could talk about it in a minute. But a welfare call was made basically and saying that Brian needed to be checked on because he may have OD'd.
00:09:25
Speaker
So the cops go to the laundry residence and they say, oh yeah, he's been missing for days. He went camping. He never came back.
00:09:38
Speaker
And my jaw drops every time. Yeah. How did he get out of the house? Because what I think also is important is not only do you have like police kind of checking out the house, but there are protesters outside of this home at this point, like normal civilian people, completely unrelated to the case, protesting outside his house and the sister's house. And Again, it's not a quiet area. And during this time, I thought i also thought was interesting.
00:10:11
Speaker
The sister ended up talking to, i don't know if it was a news person or just one of the protesters or whoever it was, that she also didn't have contact with her family, which...
00:10:23
Speaker
felt a little bizarre because at the beginning it was just that she i kind of thought okay well she probably knows as much as the parents do and at this point i'm thinking the sister doesn't have any clue what's going on and other than to be told to be quiet don't talk to anybody So with Cassie, I go back and forth about what she knew and what she didn't know.
00:10:47
Speaker
Right? Yeah. I think she made a lot of assumptions and maybe they didn't confirm things to her because it could implicate her and just create more problems. So on her on the parents' end and even on Brian's end, I could understand not wanting to give her a lot of details.
00:11:03
Speaker
But I think she... knew more than she would say which also do think is somewhat understandable but I do have a note here from what she said in that interview that she's also very devastated because she's losing her parents her brother and her future sister-in-law all at once and I thought that was very odd yeah that whole interaction was odd but I think it's like a I paired it with that. So here's why i think that that specifically is important is this welfare a check that he apparently OD'd.
00:11:43
Speaker
how How do you know that someone OD'd inside of a house that you haven't been in? Like it had to have, but in my thoughts, it had to have been someone who knew the family, but obviously not his parents because his parents would never do that.
00:12:02
Speaker
But I wonder if it was like her husband who called because thought about that too. All of a sudden, i'm like now the sister is being cut out completely and her nobody's talking to her.
00:12:16
Speaker
I don't know. Because it seems weird otherwise. I mean, it could have just been like a prank call like to get the police into the house by like a civilian. of like That's the only way to get them in? i don't know.
00:12:27
Speaker
it just felt weird. i do think I do think that it could have very well been someone that knew. i was thinking maybe Cassie's husband as well. The voice didn't super sound like him, but the voice also didn't sound concerned, I didn't think.
00:12:42
Speaker
Right. was very nonchalant. Yeah. that Very blasรฉ, if you will. And that's not how I would call and express my concerns that someone has overdosed.
00:12:54
Speaker
And so it makes me think that it's someone, either someone who's not involved, that is trolling, that wants to have more police attention at the laundry house, which is possible.
00:13:05
Speaker
Or it's an insider in the laundry family who either is genuinely concerned about Brian or... is trying to blow up their spot.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah. And, well, either way, he did not OD. Surprise. Spoiler. But he was missing. And... i I do want to mention that, like, with it, the parents...
00:13:34
Speaker
did state that brian would go out camping ah couple days at a time they wouldn't hear from him because he'd go like off grid come back like this wasn't an abnormal thing so when they the police showed up and they're like oh he's been missing for days the first couple days to them wasn't odd i think it had just now got to a point of now he's been gone even longer than normal Well, at least that's how that's that's their story for sure. Yeah. um
National Interest and Social Media's Role
00:14:07
Speaker
But it's odd to me that it wasn't mentioned until someone says that he's overdosed.
00:14:13
Speaker
Right. Which is why I'm like, it's got to be someone who's inside knowing that like he wasn't there and he hadn't been there for a while. Yeah. I wonder if it was a neighbor that was maybe doing their own surveillance and just noticed that Brian didn't appear to be there.
00:14:32
Speaker
Because the family was going on with their life. So, like, Brian would be seen here and there. And his parents were still, like, going out and doing their thing. So, it's like, you wonder maybe it was a neighbor and they just noticed that he hadn't walked outside in a while.
00:14:46
Speaker
But then wouldn't you have noticed, like, his car is not there either. Like, it's not just him.
00:14:57
Speaker
i think that it could have been... Someone that had a genuine reason to think that Brian wasn't there or maybe that he did overdose. I don't know if I don't know if he had any history of substance abuse. I couldn't find anything that said that. And there doesn't seem to be any evidence of that. But I wonder if with all of the media attention, people were worried.
00:15:17
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah. I'm sticking with Cassie's husband personally, but okay I have nothing to back that up. i It's alleged for sure. Alleged, alleged, alleged. Yes.
00:15:30
Speaker
Probably a great guy, but it could have been him. I agree. But either way, um that also started to spark some flags. And I think that also took the turn of he is missing.
00:15:48
Speaker
And then, okay... Is he also like weird, but is he on the run or is he not okay? Like what's happening with Brian now?
00:15:59
Speaker
Because now you have two messing people and you can't really charge Brian without Gabby if that is the case.
00:16:10
Speaker
So they really doubled down on trying to find Gabby and where Gabby was. And you definitely can't charge Brian without Brian. and this is a double missing person's case.
00:16:21
Speaker
And because this was on the media, it started to attract a lot of attention. And that's when people on TikTok, on Instagram, on social media are realizing that they maybe have had interactions with Brian Laundrie.
00:16:34
Speaker
And so witnesses are coming forward to say, he was hitchhiking. i saw him. i have this weird picture. this is probably him. And it's kind of helping put a timeline together.
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah, they were saying anything that there was two to three hundred tips a day coming in. And most of them were not credible. um right I was going to say like that's the one problem when you open it to the public to give tips is the majority of what you get is garbage.
00:17:02
Speaker
However, when you do get something, it tends to be gold. So they had a couple times where someone like picked him up hitchhiking so they could locate, okay, Brian was here during roughly this time.
Reconstructing the Timeline and Witness Accounts
00:17:17
Speaker
And there were other van vloggers with footage of where the van was parked in like a different spot. So they started taking all these different pieces and putting together a more accurate timeline on that day for them.
00:17:35
Speaker
and okay so gabby's last physical footage of her on a camera was that whole foods right then they went where so you have okay he we drove by the van he hitchhiked i think with two separate people if i remember yeah and he he mentioned that his fiance was waiting for him to them Again, he's the only one who mentioned calls her fiancรฉ, but... think that I think it's yeah so weird.
00:18:09
Speaker
why i don't know ah But yeah, so each time it was, oh you can drop me off here and I'll walk because my fiance is waiting for me.
00:18:21
Speaker
And one of the women who picked him up kind of in the moment she was talking about, like in the moment, I didn't think it was weird. i kind of like made a joke about what you don't want your fiance seeing some woman drop you off.
00:18:35
Speaker
She's like, and then she's like, it felt weird, but I didn't think anything of And then now that she's seeing him on the news, she's like, now I kind of understand. Oh, okay. Maybe something else was going on. So it's so interesting listening to like the after fact, like, oh, that's probably why he was being weird.
00:18:52
Speaker
Absolutely. i mean, the terror of looking in hindsight at who you picked up in your car also probably shouldn't pick up hitchhikers. It's very nice, but probably not a good idea.
00:19:04
Speaker
Almost ever. Yeah. I mean, it used to be super normal and it's probably a very regional thing. um But this is 2021 we're talking about. Don't pick up a man in your car while you're a woman driving alone in the woods.
00:19:17
Speaker
I'm sorry. That is not a good idea. And I don't want to, you know... freak anybody out but I definitely do not recommend that anyone does that um yeah so yeah crazy so the the people who did see him and the people who did see the van helped kind of narrow down the area to look in and
Discovery of Gabby's Body and Investigation
00:19:38
Speaker
the timeline of what probably happened Yeah, so they zoned into the Spread Creek area of the park, and they were able to kind of take that tens of thousands of acres, 100,000 acres, whatever it was, to a much more...
00:19:58
Speaker
tangible area and there were a lot of floods and a lot of rain so you had people doing searches in like waist deep chest deep water the dogs could only do so much because they were getting attacked by alligators which i thought was wild so but that's in that's in florida we're talking about right we're not talking about wyoming yeah Yeah, sorry. I'm just talking about all of the searching different like areas.
00:20:26
Speaker
and i would love to know what they spent on these search. I mean, it was expensive. It was crazy. Crazy. The manpower, week like searching they definitely took volunteers,
00:20:37
Speaker
um which part of me, I was like so ready for them to have a Wyoming volunteer and have it be Brian. I was so ready. I don't know why. i just felt like he was that toxic that he'd be like, I'll help search. It wouldn't be me.
00:20:51
Speaker
Like, I don't know why. or like one of his parents. I was so ready for that to come. It did not come, but I was so ready.
00:21:02
Speaker
So, sadly, they did, well, also, it was good and bad. yeah Bittersweet. They found Gabby. And she was laying on her side. She was wrapped in a sweater.
00:21:17
Speaker
She was very decomposed, but she was not skeletonized. She'd clearly been there for weeks. And her poor stepdad identified the body and had to tell her mom and her dad and her stepmom that they found the body.
00:21:37
Speaker
Yeah, so they found the body on September nineteen and the investigator described it as an unnatural position. And the stepdad described it basically her laying in the fetal position-esque.
00:21:50
Speaker
And to the investigator, he it kind of determined that that was very staged. um There were burn marks on the ground from someone trying to make a fire next to her, but no fire-making stuff.
00:22:04
Speaker
Her boots were just like very nicely placed and it felt wrong. And i cannot imagine being the stepdad having to then make the call.
00:22:19
Speaker
Because it's one thing to have to have a picture sent to your phone identifying your stepchild or really his daughter. But then having to have a conference call with your spouse, her mother, her father, her stepmother, like all of these people to tell them the worst option, which I think is something in the back of their head. They knew it was ah possibility, but it's never something you actually want to hear.
00:22:49
Speaker
As long as she's missing Even if it's very unlikely, the hope remains yeah that maybe she is alive somewhere. And when you find the body, it provides closure, but it also means that she's definitely gone.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah. And there's no fixing the situation. I do really appreciate, though, that they made it a priority to inform the families and protect the scene and Gabby's integrity and her decency. They did a really nice job of like making sure all that was done prior to the national news finding out.
00:23:28
Speaker
um which is where I suddenly found this case. ah I found out who I had watched the news of her body being discovered and the aerial footage of the crime scene and the okay now we're going after Brian to charge him where is b Brian?
00:23:50
Speaker
um so that's where i came in kind of like concerned i'm like okay there's this manhunt for this person in florida who killed someone in wyoming like it was a very interesting random one that again went crazy on the media on social media just everywhere yeah definitely It was a huge story before, but a confirmed murder amps it up substantially.
00:24:24
Speaker
And all of this happened relatively quickly. Like, considering the time it takes to do investigations in general, this case was investigated and her body was found relatively quickly, all things considered.
00:24:38
Speaker
I mean, it probably felt like torture for the Petito family, but it really was only eight days. Yeah. From filing the missing persons report to her body being recovered, it was eight days.
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah. And they kind of determined that she was probably killed on August. Finally have the right month. ah 27th-ish was where they narrowed it down.
00:25:03
Speaker
And... i think between the 27th and the twenty nine Definitely. But it could have. Yeah. It was definitely in that range. Oh, yeah. Because they're not going to know exactly.
00:25:16
Speaker
Because of the time frame. And um a decomp. And that nature. Right. Exposure to the elements is a huge factor in this
Uncovering Evidence and Brian's Suspicious Actions
00:25:26
Speaker
case. And the decomposition.
00:25:29
Speaker
It affects the evidence. Because they looked at her. The last evidence that they could find. to confirm that she was alive was at 823 on the 27th when she was moving files around on her computer and they were video files that she was editing. And that's the only reason that they're like, okay, most likely was probably Gabby because she was the only one who was editing anything. Right.
00:25:56
Speaker
So that confirmed it. But after that, everything, it was radio silence, computer, phone, everything. So, I mean, Their guess was that she was killed roughly sometime after that, and then her body was moved to where they found it.
00:26:15
Speaker
Right. Which is very, very disturbing to think about. um Another disturbing thing that comes out at this point in the documentary is the call records from the end of August, specifically August 29th, where there's a 55 minute call from Brian to his mom.
00:26:32
Speaker
And then that's the day a lawyer is retained for Brian. And there was calls back and forth. Yeah. Between her parents.
00:26:45
Speaker
Yeah. So he was calling back and forth between his parents and himself. And there was that weird text. If people remember that her mom got about Stan.
00:26:57
Speaker
Right. Now looking at that timeline, it is assumed that Brian was actually the one who sent that text. And then he started texting back and forth between his phone and Gabby's phone To make it seem like they were having a conversation and, oh, i miss you and i'll see you soon. and again, establishing an alibi.
00:27:19
Speaker
He was aware enough of what was going on to start creating his alibi. If that was him, if that was his advice he was given, will ye will never know. but we will either this.
00:27:33
Speaker
you're calm enough to do this
00:27:37
Speaker
So August 30th is the last text from Gabby's phone, and that's to her mom, Nicole, and it says, no service in Yosemite, which...
00:27:49
Speaker
does a couple of things, right? It provides a different location than where they actually are. They're not in Yosemite. They're in Grand Teton. They also, he's telling her mom that she doesn't have service. So when her mom is trying to call and text or other people in her life are trying to call and text, if she's not responding, it provides some time and distance because you're going to presume like oh, she'll get back to me when she has service.
00:28:19
Speaker
So laying the groundwork for giving himself some time, basically. Right. And at that point, he started his drive back to Florida, which very casual.
00:28:36
Speaker
um Got in the car. He used Gabby's debit card periodically for gas and food. And again, establishing that she's with him. And one thing that I thought,
00:28:50
Speaker
was both ridiculous but also like i see the thought process is he's zelled 700 from gabby to brian um with the caption of goodbye brian i'll never ask for anything again and i thought that was a interesting tactic because she had already mentioned to her mom like oh if i buy out him i can go solo travel which my assumption is with the way he had seemed to be behaving he probably had been reading her texts and all that stuff so he knew that this was a conversation she had had right by doing that it could be oh well she went off and did her thing
00:29:38
Speaker
and here's the money for it to prove that that she went off and did her solo adventure right I mean he clearly had her phone had access to everything in it including her banking apps so he probably read all of it all of her text messages and was shaping the narrative around that also I don't think he had any money so I think he was looking to get every last penny he could out of her yeah and and Gabby's family had been sending her money periodically um And think that's probably most of what she had would be my assumption. But again, we have no idea. Yeah. And her Taco Bell money. Yeah. Her Taco Bell.
00:30:19
Speaker
um This is where, in my opinion, if I was a murderer.
00:30:27
Speaker
Which you're not. I'm not. For the record. um i if I was going to do this, you send that Zell. I would probably find some state park somewhere or something and leave the van, fly home.
00:30:47
Speaker
Sorry, I don't know where she went. I don't. She paid me for the van. She went off and did her thing. Like, it wouldn't be the first time that Brian flew home and left Gabby by herself somewhere.
00:31:01
Speaker
You've done it very recently. Yeah. You clearly could do it again. Why wouldn't you just leave the van? why And if he had left the van somewhere else, completely not connected to where her body was, it would have been way harder for anyone to find it.
00:31:20
Speaker
They might never not. I do think with the way that her parents handled it, they would have eventually, but I, they might not like there is that chance that it would have been just enough different. Like if he left it in Texas or something.
00:31:34
Speaker
Right. It was possible to figure out a way around it. i just He drove it to his parents' house and parked it in the driveway. like do Which makes me think the lawyer was not giving him that advice. Because I have a hard time believing that that was the advice. Like the legal advice.
00:31:51
Speaker
But I think that maybe he was paranoid to get on a plane or something like that. right Which is silly because no one's looking for you yet. but And it would have definitely... been smarter for him to drive somewhere else ditch the van call his parents say gabby and i got in a fight she bought me out of the van can i come home can you help me get a plane ticket and then when the cops knock on the door you say oh my god what do you mean ah she was totally fine she was mad at me but she was fine yeah
00:32:24
Speaker
But yeah, it was not his decision. Just saying would have been my guess. I don't think he thought things through. i also don't think the lawyer knew the extent of the situation or he was not listening to his advice because I just I have a hard time believing that. Oh, I think evidence across the country with. Yeah.
00:32:44
Speaker
I think the advice would have been coming from his parents, not the attorney. Right. um Because an attorney can't tell you advice on how to get away with a crime. But.
Massive Manhunt and Media Involvement
00:32:54
Speaker
For sure.
00:32:54
Speaker
um i think his parents probably were giving him advice that he was listening to plus his own creativity. yeah But either way, at this point, he's now like he officially became a federal fugitive as of September And.
00:33:12
Speaker
and The hunt was on. And the FBI alone was getting over 4,000 tips a day for him and where he was. Like everyone got involved.
00:33:24
Speaker
I think the charge was just debit card fraud at first. Because that's really all they could no so oh i will say and they they vaguely mentioned it in the documentary is like they're always going to undercharge it first because they want to get their ducks in a row so my guess is they probably did that first while they were processing evidence gathering having the lab do stuff um right well it took a while to get the autopsy back yeah exactly like that had to be done like it's not going to happen overnight uh
00:33:59
Speaker
But like dog, the bounty hunter got involved, which I think is kind of like dog gets involved in a lot of the, cause he was involved in Casey Anthony, that stuff too. He's, he gets really in there with these high profile cases.
00:34:14
Speaker
And ah partially I think it's because it's high profile. He's got to like, he's getting older and he, he doesn't do as extreme stuff. So like, that's how he keeps relevant. But I also really loved it. I'm not going to lie.
00:34:26
Speaker
Yeah, it it was a blast from the past to see him. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, listen, he he also has a lot of resources and he's got funds and I think... Yeah, and he'll throw his funds around.
00:34:40
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. If it's going to get him media coverage, which it did, he's going to throw a lot of resources at a case that needed it. So, yeah yeah, more power to him. I think that, you know, because at that point they're still looking for Brian. Mm-hmm.
00:34:56
Speaker
and this is the he was very confident that he would yeah he's like i got this he watches me like no don't think he has anything to back that up but he's like no he probably is my fan probably not because brian was like a 23 year old guy who probably had never even heard a crunchy guy yeah yeah crunchy super crunchy yeah for sure um but this is where that i'm sorry sorry I going to say, this was waist-deep search party that I mentioned before. um
00:35:28
Speaker
Right. There was a lot of natural elements happening and a lot of weather impacting this specific search that, again, had to have had a lot of resources being put to it.
00:35:41
Speaker
Right. And this is where the gators are, which had to make everything extremely terrifying. I cannot imagine wading through chest-deep water knowing there's alligators in it. nope yeah and there was like 20 000 acres that they were searching and the park had oh we should mention that it was in a park um right they had found the car he had driven um at one of his favorite parks that had been there for a while it got ticketed um
00:36:14
Speaker
And the park was closed because of all that rain. And so it was one of those, I'm like, all right, if he's out there, he was out there while the park was closed. So he had time to do whatever he needed to do or go as far as he wants to. 20,000 acres is a lot of territory. It's huge.
00:36:34
Speaker
It's huge. Yeah. um Which makes it even odder how things ended up.
Discovery of Brian's Remains and His Notebook
00:36:42
Speaker
Because after the park is finally reopened because the weather improves, which after Brian's been missing for 37 days, October 20th, 2021, his parents start searching. And this is the first time that they've been there to search because the park has previously been closed.
00:37:05
Speaker
And within one hour of them being there, they find his waterproof book bag.
00:37:12
Speaker
And then about 30 minutes after that, they find his skeleton. His mom and dad found his skeleton within two hours of searching after three, almost four weeks of the FBI and volunteers and the police searching. professionals can't find you. Right.
00:37:34
Speaker
But... two hours within what did they say like a mile of where he his car was you're right they definitely wouldn't have checked there like come on definitely not right so pretty odd so they find his book bag that has ah waterproof notebook which also seems like a very handy thing to write on in this kind of situation where you're going to be in a flooded park.
00:38:04
Speaker
um So I have the note. It's pretty long that he wrote that's in there. I don't know if you want me to read the whole thing.
00:38:14
Speaker
Do you have a snippet of the part you think is, is big? I mean, I have literally the whole thing, but I could just say, what it be the gist of it if you don't to read the whole thing because it is pretty rambly yeah i feel like it rambled give me ah little t tidbit here and there in the gist Okay, so he starts it addressed to Gabby.
00:38:41
Speaker
i wish I was right at your side. I wish I could be talking to you right now. I'd be going through every memory we'd made, getting even more excited for the future. i can't live without you.
00:38:51
Speaker
It goes on like that for a long time, where he's basically saying that she was the love of his life and they had all of these crazy memories together. They're all so great. That love bombing we mentioned. Yep. A lot of love bombing.
00:39:05
Speaker
um Apologizing to her family. Apologizing to his family. Saying that everyone is grieving because they all loved Gabby so much and they all loved him so much.
00:39:19
Speaker
um And then there's a bizarre description, which I think I may read this part.
00:39:27
Speaker
They loved as much, if not more than me, a new daughter to my mother and aunt to my nephews. Please do not make this harder for them. This occurred as an unexpected tragedy. Rushing back to our car to cross the streams of Spread Creek before it got too dark to see, too cold.
00:39:44
Speaker
I hear a splash and and heavily gasping my name. Oh wait, I'm sorry. I hear a splash and a scream. I could barely see. ah couldn't find her for a moment. Shouted her name.
00:39:54
Speaker
I found her breathing, heavily gasping my name. She was freezing cold. We had just come from the blazing hot national parks in Utah. The temperature had dropped to freezing and she was soaking wet.
00:40:06
Speaker
I carried her as far as I could down the stream towards the car, stumbling, exhausted, in shock. When my knees buckled and knew I couldn't safely carry her, I started a fire and spooned her as close to the heat.
00:40:18
Speaker
She was so thin had already been freezing too long. I couldn't at the time start the fire, but I just wanted her out of the cold. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So when I pulled Gabby out of the water, she couldn't tell me what hurt. She had a small bump on her forehead that eventually got larger.
00:40:34
Speaker
Her feet hurt. Her wrist hurt. But she was freezing, shaking violently. While carrying, she continually made sounds of pain laying next to her. And she said, little time last lapsing between violent shakes.
00:40:47
Speaker
It's just this whole description of her gasping in pain and him saying that he... ended her suffering. He took away her pain in an act of mercy.
00:41:00
Speaker
And the moment he did that, he knew he could not live without her.
00:41:06
Speaker
Which...
Contradictions in Brian's Account and Autopsy Results
00:41:08
Speaker
The autopsy report did come back and said that Gabby died by her cause with homicide as a result of blunt force trauma and manual strangulation. Mm-hmm.
00:41:22
Speaker
So... If we take his letter, we'll start there, and take it for what his version is. She slipped on a rock, hit her head, fell into the stream, and like, I don't know, got pulled under and broke all her bones.
00:41:46
Speaker
And he took her out and ended up strangling her because she was in so much pain.
00:41:53
Speaker
As a mercy? it That's how I took his version? i think that's what he's saying. me, hard to imagine.
00:42:05
Speaker
ah Several elements of it are hard to imagine. its It's so freezing cold...
00:42:13
Speaker
That all of a sudden the water is extremely cold. And all of a sudden she's so injured and she's shaking so violently that this is the only solution.
00:42:30
Speaker
And not to mention, i get that like they had been hugging all day and totally get it. Totally get it. But like wasn't exactly in bad shape. And she wasn't exactly a large girl.
00:42:45
Speaker
Like you're telling me you couldn't have like super tarney threw her on your back and moseyed your way over?
00:42:54
Speaker
I feel like I'm really, really fixating on the weather, but it's the end of August. So I just Googled it. that Because i just I did the same thing. and um I hadn't looked it up before.
00:43:05
Speaker
in August, in Deaton National Park, the daily high temperatures are about 80 degrees, 75 to 80. And the average lowest temperature 40 to 44 degrees.
00:43:22
Speaker
Cold but not freezing. Right. Like, if you're wet in 40 degree weather, you you're not a happy camper, but you'll live. You don't need a mercy killing. Like, from a bump on, she had a bump on her head and you mercy killed her?
00:43:38
Speaker
okay. Why couldn't you just keep walking at the car? go get some help. Call someone. Like, again, i can only imagine you're probably in a very remote area,
00:43:49
Speaker
but There's park rangers. There's people who are literally their job is to come save you if you get hurt in these parks. People get hurt all the time.
00:44:03
Speaker
So you have to mercy kill her because there was an injury that happened? Sir. What doesn't make sense to me is he was eventually able to get back to the van, get back their phones, contact people,
00:44:18
Speaker
and So it's like you could have still done that at the time. There's no difference. There's no element that changed where you suddenly can now walk to get help.
00:44:31
Speaker
You could have done that because you called your mom for 55 minutes. so And let's also remember the the quote unquote burn marks. So he is telling the truth that he tried to light some kind of fire.
00:44:43
Speaker
But you were also in a park somewhere. You're telling me you lit this fire and there's absolutely nothing there to make it larger? Yeah.
00:44:55
Speaker
I just, i want to read the last paragraph of this though, because I just, I, yep. I find it so infuriating that he wrote this. I rushed home to spend any time I had left with my family.
00:45:08
Speaker
I wanted to drive north and let James or TJ, Gabby's dads, kill me, but I wouldn't want them to spend time in jail over my mistake, even though I'm sure they would have liked to.
00:45:19
Speaker
I'm ending my life not because of fear of punishment, but rather because I can't stand to live another day without her. I've lost out on our whole future together. Every moment we could have cherished. I'm sorry for everyone's losses.
00:45:32
Speaker
Please do not make life harder for my family. They lost a son and a daughter, the most wonderful girl in the world. Gabby, I'm so sorry. i have killed myself by this creek in the hopes that the animals may tear me apart, that it makes some of her family happy.
00:45:47
Speaker
Please pick up all of my things. Gabby hated people who litter.
00:45:52
Speaker
And it was determined he committed suicide by gunshot to his head.
Brian's Death and Ongoing Speculations
00:46:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:03
Speaker
Right.
00:46:06
Speaker
Which... Did we ever find... So, to my understanding, they also never found the gun. That's my understanding as well. They That they found bound this bag of stuff. Right. That wasn't actually with his body. Right.
00:46:20
Speaker
And his body had clothes, I guess, with it a little bit. was mostly just bones, though. Right. And him decaying, because I think they said he was discovered on October 22nd because the park had have been closed for a bit.
00:46:36
Speaker
So, yeah, he had been there for a while. In theory, he had gone out a couple days before the welfare check. So decomposure probably would have happened with all of the animals and the rain and he was submerged.
00:46:51
Speaker
Yeah. All right. but completely just bones feels like a lot. I, again, don't know much about decomposition.
00:47:03
Speaker
We've done a little bit of research on it for another case, but still feels like a lot. And this bag of stuff was in the, it again, water. It assumes that it moves, but you would think that at that point we're going to start searching for the gun.
00:47:19
Speaker
Because obviously if you shoot yourself in the head, you can't like put it back in the bag. like Right. And a lot of animals, a lot of water probably is a good place for it to go missing in a swamp.
00:47:32
Speaker
um Sure, sure. But it just still also, you find all this other stuff, but you don't find that. just feels bizarre.
00:47:42
Speaker
Yes. I agree. And I have a lot of thoughts about Brian's actions, his family's actions. I don't know if we want to save some of that for part three, because i feel like I'm going to go on like a tirade. But I mean...
00:48:03
Speaker
Yeah. Well, i think part three is a really good, this might be a good place to stop then because we have lot of questions. We also have a civil wrongful death suit that gets filed and some legislation action that the Petito family gets involved in that is really Gabby motivated and trying to help other people and change the way that the world works.
00:48:31
Speaker
um So that's all going to be coming in episode three. um But before we start that, do you have any final thoughts up in the investigation or any, the disappearance, anything up until this point?
00:48:46
Speaker
um I feel like, Not probably without getting into the weeds of all my conspiracy theories. But I just I am impressed that they were able to find Gabby's body as quickly as they did.
00:49:00
Speaker
And i think that it probably was not appropriate for Brian's parents to go searching. But I also understand at that point that many weeks in letting them participate, especially since they had not been charged with anything.
00:49:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think, listen, if you have a missing child, you have the right to go search for them. Because from our outside understanding... They don't know where their son is. Their son is missing just like Gabby is.
00:49:28
Speaker
So Gabby's parents were allowed to be involved in her search. b Brian's parents have the right to be involved in his. So I i do. I know. i know. It's just because we don't like him.
Hosts' Reflections and Skepticism
00:49:40
Speaker
But I do think i' kind of funny that if by fluke chance they did just happen to come across his body, I do think it's kind of ironic, maybe is a better word, that his parents found his body. Yeah.
00:49:55
Speaker
That's horrible. just think. And I feel bad saying that. But like, good. Your son murdered someone. I'm glad. Like, not that you deserve pain, but.
00:50:07
Speaker
Well, that remains to be seen. But I just, to me, I'm skeptical that they're that good at search and rescue and they're way better than the FBI and the police.
00:50:18
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, part of it also, I think things can move around. So maybe they searched that and it wasn't there at the time. Hypothetically, that is possible.
00:50:29
Speaker
i don't necessarily possible believe that, but it is possible. It is possible. Is it probable? i don't know.
00:50:41
Speaker
Do you have any final thoughts for this episode? No, I think my final thought was that I think it's funny that his parents were the ones that found him. um
00:50:52
Speaker
Which I just think is horrible. But it, I don't know, it kind of was weird to me. um But I am also very glad that the Petita family was given the closure of finding her.
00:51:04
Speaker
um They can put her to rest. They can start to heal. Because it's a lot harder to heal when you don't have something... to tangible i guess um well it brings an end to the search phase which had to be excruciating for all of them yeah exactly so that's really my last thought and uh he should have ditched the van i guess that that also would be there I know. I hesitate to give tutorials on how to get away with murder, but some of these things are just so obvious.
00:51:38
Speaker
Right? Like, let's watch Eddie True Crime and you probably could have figured that one out. he's just a slacker. You know what? He wasn't watching TV. He was out there hiking. that This is why hiking isn't good for you.
00:51:51
Speaker
I only hike places where i still have cell service. I'm not going out into the middle of nowhere. So call me whatever. But this situation is not my situation by a million percent. It's not relatable.
00:52:05
Speaker
Gabby a little bit relatable to me. Brian, I do not understand. And it sounds like his life was horrible. His own choices. Yeah. I know. We've got to find an earthy, crunchy friend who can give us insight.
00:52:19
Speaker
Maybe i'll ah ill I'll ask around. We'll see what they say. All
00:52:26
Speaker
all right. Well, here we are. Ready for episode three? I'm ready. All right. We'll see you guys next time. Bye.