Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #13

[vanlifelady]

They did a similar cross country trip in a Nissan Sentra last year, I believe—so this was a big upgrade for them.

As people who had experience traveling already though, the van still seems like a weird decision. Like…a big upgrade would have been a large panel van. It’s just an odd choice.

 

[PommyMommy]

Can anyone fill me in on what happened, if anything, from midnight EST til now?

FOX 35 Orlando on Twitter
UPDATE: The family of Gabby Petito said Sunday the FBI is aware of a video that shows a white van in Grand Teton National Park on Aug. 27. The last known place Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, were publicly known to be was leaving Utah on Aug. 24.
9:40 AM · Sep 19, 2021·True Anthem

SEP 19, 2021
Gabby Petito’s van spotted in stranger’s footage at Grand Teton National Park, family believes (fox35orlando.com)
[...]

On Sept. 18, the FBI field office in Denver said that agents were conducting ground surveys at Grand Teton National Park with help from the National Park Service and local law enforcement agencies.

[...]

Later that day, a video was posted to social media that appears to show Petito and Laundrie’s van in the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area on Aug. 27. A family combing through their recorded footage spotted the white van.

"We were editing our sunday video, tonight and we were looking at footage from on August 27th, 2021 around 6:00pm to 6:30pm in Spread Creek Dispersed Camping," the caption reads on YouTube.

"We had passed by a white van with Florida Plates. We noticed it because we are originally from Florida and wanted to stop and say hi.

"When we passed the van, all the lights were off and it didn't look like anyone was there. We ended up leaving because we couldn't find a spot," the caption continued.

[...]

SS from the video:

Stickers added to the van after Aug 27:

Items outside the van:

?????

(Thank you to everyone who posted the still shots!)

 

[Herat]

They are parked right next to the creek where they are. It looks like a nice spot to me. Shaded, maybe can hear the creek babbling. Open teh back doors and you can probably get nice sunset pics without leaving the van.

They aren't really right next to the creek. The main channel is about 100 yards away.

Here's a SS of the interior of the van from their traffic stop

View attachment 313308

Ah, so the bed is really in the front half of the van, not in the back?

So they would most likely enter the van using the back doors, not the side doors at all? ( I had the van interior turned around)

 

[bammab]

Live on youtube.

JB sounds exhausted! His voice is rough today.

 

[soylattesandsleuthing]

As people who had experience traveling already though, the van still seems like a weird decision. Like…a big upgrade would have been a large panel van. It’s just an odd choice.

Price differences maybe?

 

[lizzied]

Finding GP was delayed by BL/parents. . . time is such a factor and it's been a while.

May be a rehash. delete if needed.

IMHO. I don't think BL is in that area at all, I think the parents threw LE a scrap and they HAD to follow it up. Dogs/cops/FBI/helicopters...either he's not there or he must have been excellent at hide and seek as a kid. I agree with those who have said the plan to protect him probably happened prior to the LE getting involved. And if you know your son has a history of issues and current stressors. . . why in the world would you think him going off for a hike and then not returning for 2 days was normal, and taking his car from the parking lot even considered good judgement.

Rewatching MOAB video, I find it odd that she comes out saying she has ADHD, (i understand some people do say that without a true clinical diagnosis), yet he said he 'didn't think she took any medications', nor did he when queried by LE about any medication use. If you have been with someone for a few years and are traveling with them you 'likely' would know something like that. And yet he knew something obscure, that GP's grandmothers BFF lived in Oregon (i think that was the state he said). His behavior at the traffic stop was so antsy (IMHO).

 

[Hyway]

I would have anxiety over that mess too. It was so fixed up and pretty in their YouTube video.

Yeah, real life isn't life social media life. At some point in the Moab video I thought she said she was in the back straightening up. But straightening might not be an accurate description. The van could be such a mess because she was pissed at him and was throwing his stuff around while pointing out where it should be instead of where he left it. tempers had been flying.

 

[penguinface]

Why would it be a problem for BL to somehow get word out to police last place he knows GP was?

One plausible reason would be because he knows that her body can be found exactly where he last saw her. Lying about where he saw her would definitely be a crime if he was found out, and he doesn’t know at which point, both timewise and geographically, that CCTV/dashcams and other evidence would start proving it was a lie.

 

[Veronica Sawyer]

Usually, the person surfaces. Couple breaks up, and they both go to their friends/family. But she disappeared. Did she disappear on him? Or did he make her disappear? This wouldn’t have been a problem if she had shown up alive after BL left her. Called crying to mom or BF. But she didn’t.

Those are all very valid questions. But technically she didn't have to turn up alive for the scenario I presented to have been plausible. Something could’ve happened to her upon their parting of ways. Which if anything could further explain why he’s hiding: I imagine he’d feel responsible even if he physically wasn’t. Maybe now he’s regretting his earlier silence. Maybe he was silent to protect her of something. There’s still so much we don’t know. What is known to be true right now is that she’s disappeared. Completely. Without a trace. Which is why the scenario I presented is still plausible to me. As of now I haven’t seen any signs pointing to her not being with us anymore and IMO such traces are just as important as a sign of life. Maybe that’s naive of me but it’s just how I feel about things at this moment given what I’ve seen and haven’t seen thus far. But honestly anything could be true for all I know.

 

[Rocky1]

heh. I think the intense search for Laundrie is more personal and CYA than a true interest in finding him for information.

I couldn't agree more. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars being spent looking for him why? Because he slipped out the back door and LE can't find him, knowing he holds the cards. I think there's going to be a few livid individuals to say the least, and I wouldn't blame them. IMO, they dropped the ball. As if Gabby's parents didn't have enough to worry about.

 

[Mom24]

Just waking up after working a late shift...so if this has been asked, sorry. How does this timeline/area match up with the alleged tik tok hitchhiker? This Northeastern gal knows nothing about the western US (sadly).

So this was on Aug 27th. Now it makes more sense that there are searches in that area. We know she spoke with her mom on the 25th and then they headed to Spread Lake and were there on the 27th. I'm guessing whatever happened, happened there. That is a really remote area and given a couple of days, he could have found a place around there to leave her.

 

[afwife8405]

Why would it be a problem for BL to somehow get word out to police last place he knows GP was?

It would be a problem for his lawyer because it would give them less options to alter the timeline during a trial.

BL had quite the head start. He had a lawyer telling him to keep quite before anyone knew to ask questions.

 

[MysteryMama]

Here's a SS of the interior of the van from their traffic stop

View attachment 313308

Wow this is far different than it looks at the very end of their youtube video!

 

[Mike in WNY]

As people who had experience traveling already though, the van still seems like a weird decision. Like…a big upgrade would have been a large panel van. It’s just an odd choice.

Meh. I dunno. Plenty of true vanlifers and certainly car campers use Transits or similarly sized vehicles. To me the poor choice piece of their Transit is the 2.0 engine and low clearance... considering their destination.

 

[vanlifelady]

One plausible reason would be because he knows that her body can be found exactly where he last saw her. Lying about where he saw her would definitely be a crime if he was found out, and he doesn’t know at which point, both timewise and geographically, that CCTV/dashcams and other evidence would start proving it was a lie.

This.

Initially I said Brian was acting like he expected her body not to be found.

When he ran, I realized it might be the opposite.

 

[sleepysleuth]

So according to the coordinates and the TikTok hitchhiking account - the attached map would show the areas of interest.

Hitchhiking starting point: Colter Bay Village
Drop off: red pin, Jackson Lake Dam
Dotted path: Google suggested walking path to the dot where the van was spotted.

3Hr, 51Mn walk
12 miles

 

[MysteryMama]

Here's a SS of the interior of the van from their traffic stop

View attachment 313308

Also from this, the thing on top of the van, is that a "Fantastic Fan"? I've seen those a lot in other vanlifers videos.

 

[distracted]

As people who had experience traveling already though, the van still seems like a weird decision. Like…a big upgrade would have been a large panel van. It’s just an odd choice.

I'm sure it seemed like a good idea in the beginning but in reality, not so much.

 

[Hyway]

There’s not enough room to sleep in the back of the van they way they have it set up, IMO, and their one Youtube video shows that they sleep in the tent at least some, if not all, of the time.

I have a tiny CRV that I have rigged a platform in the back when my son and I do road trips. It has a fold down section that requires me fold the fron seats down and slide them all the way forward. Then we can sleep in it side by side. Their van is plenty big enough to sleep in. I think in the pic that shows their prettied up interior she has it in the Day Mode where its looks like a sitting room.

 

[Doghairrules]

I’m so confused. Can someone please explain two things to me…
1.) The video floating around of the couple driving by their van would have been taken before anyone knew she was even missing. It wasn’t discovered she was missing until the van was already home in Florida. But in the video, the couple know she’s missing.
2.) I don’t understand the timeline of the cars in the driveway. Where did the silver mustang come from and when.

The couple was just taking video of the campsite and happened to get the van. What you hear is their narration of the video once they discovered they had a van that matched Gabby’s van.