Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #79

[CocoTutu]

I believe they can do a toxicology report from the bone marrow. We don't really know how much if any tissue or non-skeletal remains they were about to collect, so we really don't know what we don't know, nor if we'll ever know more in regards to how he died.

 

[CharlestonGal]

It's my understanding that FBI is in charge and they are asking NPPD to conduct searches, etc.
I know that Taylor sometimes directs the press to the FBI for answers to their questions.
He did it today.

Michael Ruiz
@mikerreports
Update from Taylor: “Earlier today I was told there were some reports that turned out to be nothing. If something was found after that, I don't know. Again, the question about possible materials found should be directed to the fbi as it is their case.”
Michael Ruiz
@mikerreports
FBI has not yet responded to my inquiries.

Thank you. That's why I have some confusion. I understand that overall FBI is the lead on this case and appeared to be the lead in the Carlton Reserve search. But the search at Myakkachatchee was over and it had reopened. The parents, 1 NPPD and 1 FBI found the remains and the items. But who exactly was officially charged with securing and processing that crime scene? Did FBI leave it to NPPD since it was their local jurisdiction? I don't know.

I'm being nitpicky because I guess it ultimately really doesn't matter. Bugs me though. I just want closure on who is accountable for that search. jmo

 

[CocoTutu]

Interesting question! I know there are stats on the methods used by women vs. men, but I don't think this question has ever been explored? Thinking on a couple cases I know, the answer is yes.

Amateur opinion and speculation

If he did hang himself it's even more surprising that the cadaver dogs weren't able to fin him, but I don't know the terrain and perhaps if he went that way it wasn't a high branch and wildlife would've had access.

 

[CocoTutu]

Interesting question! I know there are stats on the methods used by women vs. men, but I don't think this question has ever been explored? Thinking on a couple cases I know, the answer is yes.

Amateur opinion and speculation

If he did hang himself it's even more surprising that the cadaver dogs weren't able to fin him, but I don't know the terrain and perhaps if he went that way it wasn't a high branch and wildlife would've had access.

I am literally sitting here thinking, what if LE already has that bottle?! Which I think they do. JMO

Hmmm, couldn't there be 2 of the same bottle if they each had one & that's the one BL had on him? LE should not have missed it but they are human.

 

[BCSleuth]

When were they offered immunity? And for what crime?

They were not offered immunity, as far as we know. In fact, their lawyer has specifically stated there was no deal and no immunity. But some are speculating anyway.

As far as we know, the Laundries (parents) have not done anything for which they even need immunity.

 

[AdahJo]

Well, there is some statistics. Not much, of course.

1) that in all cases, the perpetrator was a man. The victim could be a woman or a child.
2) that while methods of homicide differed, suicide almost always involved a gun (not surprising).

I think BL felt guilty and remorseful, and that he loved her. They were both so young, constrained in a very narrow space. One wonders what role the van itself had played. People have different perceptions of “individual space”, usually it is at least an arm’s length.

Maybe there was some dissociative fugue after BL killed her, and he really was in the state of “make believe”, telling others that she was in another state. Who knows? Incredibly sad story.

That's what I wondered too. He seemed so aimless according to the witnesses in Wyoming. I have wondered if he was a bit out of it, maybe even made a phone call to his parents and they said just come home. We will likely never know. JMO

 

[10ofRods]

I think what is important is the fact that they would not know if it had forensic value without examining it. And this would go for anything else at all they might find.

As far as the water bottle might go, I would imaging they would want to examine contents and create a flow chart from there. What if it contained poison? Or a high concentration of medication? If yes, who put it in the bottle? Who injested it? And so on.

Or, as someone suggested already, if this was GPs , does it indicate GP was left with no water, if a later claim was made about her status when BL left her. I think it needs to be remembered, that the skull remains had not been identified as BL when the area was canvased.

Just that alone makes me think they would have bagged and tagged everything. This could have been a completely different investigation.

When the van left Wyoming, Gabby was already dead, IMO. She didn't need water. It was their "kitchen bottle" and I assume they both used it (and had a much larger container for their main water supply).

Gabby seems to have been left with only her boots and the clothes she was wearing - so I think we can all agree that she didn't have that bottle with her when she was found dead in WY. If it is the same bottle, then it went to FL with BL.

Where is it now? If LE knows BL wasn't poisoned, then...what is its relevance?

I will concede to that. It is my own sentimentality coming through.

I guess because I presume he went there to commit suicide, bringing his notebook with him, it makes me curious. If he had brought along some of GP's possessions, too, it all looks like a person in a mindset of reflection. But it really is likely me projecting.

Oh, I totally think he could have been sentimental - but a shared object like a water bottle is not as sentimental as, say, taking with him a picture he had drawn that he associated with Gabby or something that is more obviously hers. If they find Brian's DNA on that water bottle, my first hypothesis is that he took water with him. Suicide is a weird process. People do it in all kinds of ways, sometimes lingering, sometimes acting very quickly. Perhaps he did take a bunch of sleeping pills (but dissolving them in water would decrease their effectiveness and sipping the water to down the pills cannot be seen from the bottle itself - even if it's known to be his bottle).

Instead, as the drugs enter the blood stream, they concentrate in certain places in the body - and some of those places are not soft tissue. Hence, they have sent the bones to a forensic anthropologist. If fentanyl or whatever is found in the long bone marrow chambers, that's going to show that he put himself to sleep. The water bottle is very unlikely to contain residue of what he swallowed - and if he dissolved it in the bottle, that must have been a long suicide, to choke that down and hope it worked (because it would take longer to get the drug into the system and dilute its effectiveness).

Again, since LE has stated publicly they believe CoD will be known, such a theory is near the bottom of my personal list.

 

[CocoTutu]

I wasn't asking you to bite, I was just replying to your post

this is what I had typed as a reply but I edited it out & replaced it with a one-liner:



- if next week, we were told that......insert next scenario

we can go with the probable scenarios to the highly unlikely ones.
we don't know what LE have retrieved & what they did not find or what was potentially left behind.
If the bottle is genuine ( & not another grifter fake) it is indicative of a careless search which could mean there is stuff still out there. We can't know if that stuff is important cause we don't know what is vs what LE managed to find

100% Agree with you. If bone marrow toxicology shows he OD'd on something, a water bottle is certainly important. It's important no matter- everything he had with him is potentially crucial evidence.

 

[Arkay]

If people can access that area it is almost a given. Ghost hunts, scavenger hunts, the sky is the limit. . IMO.

I'm sure some idiot is going to go there on Halloween to make some macabre Tik-Tok. Someone somewhere will find this amusing.

In my personal view, the significance of the water bottle, if it really is GP's and not a fake, would be that BL actively chose to bring along something of GP's to the park that day. Something she kept with her, held, and touched to her mouth. That seems meaningful to me. Jmo.

But I'm sure I'm getting ahead of myself...

I'm sorry that I even have to think about this, but IMO since Gabby held and touched Brian and they were kissing in their videos, he didn't need a water bottle to feel her presence.

 

[AdahJo]

What info from the Laundries was so instrumental that it was immunity worthy?

Where to find Brian? Maybe they waited too long. JMO

 

[cady]

Thank you. That's why I have some confusion. I understand that overall FBI is the lead on this case and appeared to be the lead in the Carlton Reserve search. But the search at Myakkachatchee was over and it had reopened. The parents, 1 NPPD and 1 FBI found the remains and the items. But who exactly was officially charged with securing and processing that crime scene? Did FBI leave it to NPPD since it was their local jurisdiction? I don't know.

I'm being nitpicky because it ultimately really doesn't matter. Bugs me though. I just want closure on who is accountable for that search. jmo

Well, I agree. If it was just a walk in the park, because the search was over, then what was the point of the FBI and Local PD being there? The L's, in that case, did not need escorts. Nothing was official, apparently, so why the cops? jmo

 

[MsBetsy]

I have a stupid question and I can't find the answer.

How do we know that the water bottle was Gabby's and not Brian's? The back of the van was filled with both of their belonging, so it can't just be from that single pic. I'm sure I missed something. Thanks.

I'm not sure LE has confirmed that it belonged to either one of them. It could be someone else's water bottle. Or maybe they shared it.

 

[TL4S]

I'm sure some idiot is going to go there on Halloween to make some macabre Tik-Tok. Someone somewhere will find this amusing.



I'm sorry that I even have to think about this, but IMO since Gabby held and touched Brian and they were kissing in their videos, he didn't need a water bottle to feel her presence.

I guess by my post I meant that the water bottle was something of hers (if hers) that maybe either held meaning for them, or he wanted a water bottle so chose hers simply because it was hers. Not necessarily the physicality of it. Perhaps it was one of the few items from their trip he had removed from the van before LE took it away. I'm having as hard a time with my words tonight as SB...

 

[Bertha96]

I'm sure some idiot is going to go there on Halloween to make some macabre Tik-Tok. Someone somewhere will find this amusing.


m sorry that I even have to think about this, but IMO since Gabby held and touched Brian and they were kissing in their videos, he didn't need a water bottle to feel her presence.

Not specifically referencing BL, but in the past, killers have been known to keep souvenirs. Do I think that a water bottle found by someone on tik tok is a killer's souvenir to remember his victim? Not likely. IMO.

 

[CharlestonGal]

When were they offered immunity? And for what crime?

I am monumentally confused at the moment. I see pages and pages discussing some proffer and some immunity deal for BL's parents but I can't find a single source for any of this.

Where is it coming from? Does anyone have a link? tia

 

[10ofRods]

I think what is important is the fact that they would not know if it had forensic value without examining it. And this would go for anything else at all they might find.

As far as the water bottle might go, I would imaging they would want to examine contents and create a flow chart from there. What if it contained poison? Or a high concentration of medication? If yes, who put it in the bottle? Who injested it? And so on.

Or, as someone suggested already, if this was GPs , does it indicate GP was left with no water, if a later claim was made about her status when BL left her. I think it needs to be remembered, that the skull remains had not been identified as BL when the area was canvased.

Just that alone makes me think they would have bagged and tagged everything. This could have been a completely different investigation.

Well, then, truly, they should have excavated the entire pond area and taken out bags and bags of sludge. All of that is far more likely to indicate cause of death than the water bottle. But they didn't - I believe it's because CoD might have been fairly obvious.

No one I know who does forensic investigation would have operated off the assumption that a body found in that place, with several items of Brian's nearby, was anyone but Brian - all the dental evidence did was confirm it legally. LE are not ignorant nor willfully negligent, they knew who it was, with near certainty.

And again, all of the organic matter under where the bones were found (down to a depth of say 3 feet) would be good evidence - but they didn't take that either. I think it's because they had a pretty good idea about CoD. They just aren't sharing that until they get the forensic anthropologist to weigh in on things like how much force it took to blow the skull apart (without the anthropologist knowing what weapon was found - because that's not how things go in a forensic investigation; anthropologist must work separately). If the anthropologist says, "Sure looks like a single gunshot wound, at point blank or near point blank firing, with X lbs of pressure exerted at the top of the skull and the entry point being at the back of the lower jaw" (I'm just making this up - but that's the kind of thing we anthropologists weigh in on), and then LE has a gun that is capable of that injury - they're going to say CoD is a gunshot wound, even if they didn't find the bullet.

Sure, they can go back and excavate an area of several acres looking for the bullet, or they can take a bunch of sludge out of the pond looking for a casing, but...do they need to in this circumstance? If so, why isn't every single crime investigated in this manner - each one costing upwards of $6M, which is about where the bill is for this one, right now.

Meanwhile, crimes all over the US get little attention and far less expenditure. Gabby and Brian are both dead. Tips will be followed up, but there are no other suspects or POI's. If someone hated both of them enough to follow them all around the US, killing them at separate times and staging a suicide, well, that's a first in the legal and forensic annals, and...we will probably never know the "true killer."

Me. personally, I'm going to go with what the coroners say. Always room for error, people can continue to believe many things about this case, but I do hope both families are left in peace, because their grieving process has only just begun. I also pray that no further harm comes to any of the family members or LE or attorneys involved in this case.

 

[simon magus]

I am monumentally confused at the moment. I see pages and pages discussing some proffer and some immunity deal for BL's parents but I can't find a single source for any of this.

Where is it coming from? Does anyone have a link? tia

afaik, it's complete speculation upthread...

 

[NCWatcher]

click on the arrow next to the user jurisprudence's name in my post and read the complete post i replied to...it contains a longer quoted post of his/hers regarding possible immunity...

Yes. I read that post. I don't necessarily believe immunity was given nor do I believe the parents committed any crime based on what we now know. But I'm still not understanding why a party offering the parents immunity from prosecution for X, Y, or Z (IF it was offered) would put in a clause that essentially said "the deal's off if he's dead" unless there was a concern the parents would kill him to maintain immunity. Obviously if BL was dead though and wasn't going to be prosecuted, that let's the parents off the hook on many things anyway. And so it makes no sense to me to have a "he can't be dead" clause.
JMO

 

[squareandrabbet]

And even her parents attorney put out a statement!

The only "evidence" is that there is a similar bottle in the van (not identical, so far as I can tell - but that's because we don't have 360 photos of the bottle in the van; perhaps it is from the Seattle REI store too). But why are people saying it's Gabby's? It's in the van to provide water - surely they shared that kitchen bottle? How does anyone know whether Brian bought the bottle or Gabby did - and why does it matter?

I think you are right to question the certainty that it's "Gabby's bottle." I would like to know where the bottle is, right now, though.

as linked above, it’s per the Petito attorney, who has pegged it as ‘Gabby’s bottle’.

also, imo clearly we can assume either Joe or Nicole told him it’s Gabby’s.

 

[cady]

I am monumentally confused at the moment. I see pages and pages discussing some proffer and some immunity deal for BL's parents but I can't find a single source for any of this.

Where is it coming from? Does anyone have a link? tia

It is speculation of course there are no links. It is reasonable speculation, though and we can take it for what it's worth to us, in our individual understanding of the case. If not, we can reject it. jmo