Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #19

[imstilla.grandma]

The search warrant was signed to allow detectives from the North Port Police Department to examine an external hard drive currently located at the North Port Police Department’s evidence locker. On Sept. 17, Brian Laundrie, Petito’s fiancé, was reported missing and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation removed items from the home to help search for him.

In the warrant, police were given authority to search “any and all external storage device(s), commercial software and hardware, computer disks, disk drives, tape drives, disk application programs, data disks, system disk operating systems, electronic mail, system storage devices, tape systems and hard drive and other computer-related operation equipment, in addition to computer photographs, graphic interchange formats and/or photographs, or other visual depictions.”

Additionally, the warrant gives police access to any digital documents, notes, passwords, encryptions or data security devices which might keep them from accessing the hardware, software, or data on the devices, as well as all data and files associated with the external device.

This includes data files, password-protected files, images, texts, files that show emails, text messages, and internet browsing history as well as computer files showing who owned, possessed or used the computers, and storage devices to include but not limited to email associated files.

The warrant said that there was probable cause for issuance as a result of the item potentially containing evidence that a felony had been committed. In the affidavit submitted by North Port detectives, a timeline of Petito and Laundrie’s trip and the video journey they had taken together across social media platforms were detailed.
Gabby Petito investigation: North Port police search warrant provides new details | WFLA

 

[newsatfive]

They did have a woman there. I understand you are upset but what else do you think you hey should have done?

The report says that Brian had locked Gabbie out of the van and tried to take off without her. Gabbie freaked out and tried to crawl back into the van through the window, to prevent Brian from leaving without her.

Remember: It was Gabbie's van, and they were thousands of miles from home. The fact that she was freaked out was 100% reasonable.

 

[Keyedin]

Interesting - Warrant #8 & 9 - license plate reader picked up the van entering North Port 9/1 at 10:26. Van located on 9/11. BL's parents state he was not at the residence and refused to allow BL to speak with LE and directed officers to their attorney. (BBM for emphasis)

If he was not at the residence, how could they refuse to allow him to speak?

 

[Lexiintoronto]

As we just heard on the 911 call. However, that is not what LE stated when they pulled them over. It was that a report of her hitting him. They even stated if they had to arrest someone, it would be Gabby since she was the agressor

How did the information from the 911 call (which obviously states he is the aggressor) not accurately get relayed to the LE

A KSL reporter said that there was more than one 911 call. She spoke to a witness who said they saw BL in the van with the window down and GP was slapping/hitting him.
KSL 5 TV
(I’m not sure if that link will embed the video. If anyone can tell me how to do it, I will. 23 hours ago, the report which states ‘evidence found’)

I’m not discounting or minimizing the released call AT ALL. I’m just adding what the reporter said.

 

[pizzaman12]

I think they found her because of the Youtuber video placing her van in a specific location and the help of SAR teams.

Has this been confirmed. It also was around the time they stated they now had access to phone location data. I'm just wondering if the youtubers info helped support what they were already looking into or it was solely the lead that found her location. Maybe @MassGuy will know. I've been trying to figure this out since it came out

 

[elidar]

Thoughts from Montana.
I agree I think she was killed in the van on the 27th in that very parking- camping area seen in the Bethunes film--then he buries her that night close by in shallow grave. Then leaves to some other parking area in GTNP, I imagine madly trying to figure a way out of this disaster, the hitchhiking event occurs on 29th -then he drives to Florida-many people I know have done that drive in less than 3 full days. I have to say when I first saw that film of the van, as they drove by, the eerie closing door, I was filed with dread the whole aura of that van and place radiated sadness and death.

 

[jjonez]

Why does the search warrant say signed 9/16 but they just did it today?

On WFLA they said that was the search warrant for the van, not today’s activities

 

[StarryNight]

So according to the search warrant, they know the van returned to North Port, FL on September 1, at approximately 10:26A.M. because it was clocked on a license plate reader on I-75. Does this necessarily prove that Brian was the driver? Would the video from the license plate reader show the occupants of the vehicle?

Unfortunately, it does not prove that BL was the driver. Unlike what you might see on CSI/NCIS/etc, these license plate readers do not normally create images with a high enough clarity to be able to see the driver in great detail.

 

[Veronica Sawyer]

Was this warrant for the external hard drive, not for today? This says that it was acted upon days ago.

Correct, it’s not the warrant for today’s search.

 

[Arkay]

Went to the beach for an hour, came back, checked to see if Brian has been found. It looks like there was a body in Alabama and it isn’t him? I missed that entire conversation.

I think so many are involved on this forum because the circumstances speak to an elemental fear. In the Libby and Abby case, the fact that there were recent pictures of them in the area and then the man on the bridge in the video, it just screams out about kids playing and then a dangerous stranger actually DOES come upon them. A snippet of video gives everyone a lot to chew on and discuss here, and makes it so real and confounding.

In Gabby’s case, I think it speaks to the elemental fear that someone you know intimately may be a danger, too. How you can never really know another person, even those closest to us. I used to teach a short story called “Button, Button” in which this was the theme, and the kids always loved it and were very into discussions about human nature and duplicity.

That there exists video of GP and BL at the police stop launched it into high gear. Now we kind of “know” them from a video they hadn’t intended to be public.

Of course it’s true that missing females get more media attention than missing males, that white people seem to get more attention than other ethnicities, and that pretty people get the most attention. At least IMO so I guess I retract the “of course it’s true.”

 

[ogrechan]

Would the license plate reader have been able to see who was driving the van on Sept. 1st?

Unlikely, the cameras focus on capturing the plate and don't usually take good enough images to show who is driving. It's not impossible but it's not as simple as it taking a good quality photo of the vehicle - they're specially designed to recognise and capture the plate in an image.

 

[milkshakedonkey]

Interesting - Warrant #8 & 9 - license plate reader picked up the van entering North Port 9/1 at 10:26. Van located on 9/11. BL's parents state he was not at the residence and refused to allow BL to speak with LE and directed officers to their attorney. (BBM for emphasis)

If he was not at the residence, how could they refuse to allow him to speak?

Read it again. They mean GP was not at the residence. I had to read it twice before it made sense too.

 

[arrogantcat]

Re: the seized hard drive - as a fellow YouTuber, my guess is this was likely where GP stored all of her clips and footage, as it quickly fills up a laptop and slows it down.

Unlikely to hold a clear smoking gun, but VERY likely to hold multiple snippets of the couple’s real unfiltered interactions, captured as incidentals at the start and end of the picture-perfect clips performed for the camera.

A lot of my clips start with me telling my husband, “shh now, I’m recording!” and end with my kid coming in crying about a broken crayon or similar. How was BL speaking to her while she made these recordings? Does he tell her to stop? How does she react? There’ll be lots for LE to gather and use to form a clearer picture of their relationship, IMO.

 

[LAhiker]

Because if the whole point of sending the text was to make it seem as if Gabby had sent it then that would only make sense if he referred to the person he was texting about as Gabby would or as Gabby would have it in her phone. The text to the mother was acknowledging voicemails and calls Gabby’s phone received from her grandfather. My guess is Brian listened to the voicemails or saw the amount of calls as alarming to the point where he had to acknowledge them in some way. So if the point was to keep up the appearances of Gabby still being alive when she wasn’t then he couldn’t possibly answer or return the calls and maybe her grandfather doesn’t text or he didn’t feel comfortable texting him. So instead he texts her mother as Gabby and asks her to deal with it. To refer to him as Stan if he wasn’t in her phone like that tells me he wanted to spark suspicion and get caught.

Or that he isn't very smart -- or was freaked out because he'd just killed Gabby -- and didn't think to refer to her grandfather the way she herself would have done.

I mean, if it was he who sent the text, God knows what his unconscious motivations were. But if he wanted to get caught, he probably would have been caught a while ago.

JMO

 

[MassGuy]

Has this been confirmed. It also was around the time they stated they now had access to phone location data. I'm just wondering if the youtubers info helped support what they were already looking into or it was solely the lead that found her location. Maybe @MassGuy will know. I've been trying to figure this out since it came out

Unless I've missed something, law enforcement has not stated what specifically led to the discovery of her body. So this appears to be an open question.

I think it was likely a combination of things, and that video may have played a big role. We'll likely have to wait until there's an arrest affidavit.

 

[oviedo]

The search warrant was signed to allow detectives from the North Port Police Department to examine an external hard drive currently located at the North Port Police Department’s evidence locker. On Sept. 17, Brian Laundrie, Petito’s fiancé, was reported missing and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation removed items from the home to help search for him.

In the warrant, police were given authority to search “any and all external storage device(s), commercial software and hardware, computer disks, disk drives, tape drives, disk application programs, data disks, system disk operating systems, electronic mail, system storage devices, tape systems and hard drive and other computer-related operation equipment, in addition to computer photographs, graphic interchange formats and/or photographs, or other visual depictions.”

Additionally, the warrant gives police access to any digital documents, notes, passwords, encryptions or data security devices which might keep them from accessing the hardware, software, or data on the devices, as well as all data and files associated with the external device.

This includes data files, password-protected files, images, texts, files that show emails, text messages, and internet browsing history as well as computer files showing who owned, possessed or used the computers, and storage devices to include but not limited to email associated files.

The warrant said that there was probable cause for issuance as a result of the item potentially containing evidence that a felony had been committed. In the affidavit submitted by North Port detectives, a timeline of Petito and Laundrie’s trip and the video journey they had taken together across social media platforms were detailed.
Gabby Petito investigation: North Port police search warrant provides new details | WFLA

I almost think they are trying to use her computer and potentially her activity to tie into a time of death. Did he strike her while she was on the computer and they found blood evidence?

 

[Caring4Many]

Great question! I think it depends on the state & that camera. I know recently one of my adult kids traveled through multiple states and ended up in the wrong lane and had a "warning" sent. It showed his car and him driving it.

Would the license plate reader have been able to see who was driving the van on Sept. 1st?

 

[infinit]

Regarding the traffic stop...

Maybe its time that we collectively stop automatically labelling anyone showing emotion as out of control or manic and start being concerned with people who are able to show little or no emotion in a heated situation. It seems to me that the "emotional" ones are usually the ones that know exactly what's going on.

It's not this simple sadly and I really wish people would stop boiling DV down to this black and white thing where it's apparently incredibly obvious from the traffic stop she was a victim of DV, it's incredibly easy to say now with hindsight.

My mother was abusive verbally and physically to both myself and my dad for a period of years. I saw my dad covering for her when asked questions by the Police and he acted far more like BL when asked questions than Gabby. Slightly awkward, wanting to play it down, minimise it and almost make light of the situation. My mother was infact the one more likely to turn on the water works and say she'd got a bit worked up because of her mental illness as a way to down play she'd gone bat <modsnip> with her fists.

Just because someone is upset and emotional when stopped by the Police doesn't mean they are necessarily the victim. Just because someone comes across as awkward and odd doesn't make them the perpetrator.

DV perpetrators and victims come in many different flavours. If it was as fundementally simple as some seem to make it out on here, it wouldn't be a problem anymore.

 

[ocsalumni]

I think it’s Gabby’s former phone number, not her mother’s.

Yeah, the way it's written is that it's Gabby's.

 

[TTF14]

Was this warrant for the external hard drive, not for today? This says that it was acted upon days ago.

It wasn't for today. WFLA said this live on air. They said they are still waiting for the one from today.