Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #46

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IMO and IME, POSSIBLY. I won't claim to be an 'expert' but I do work in the field.
Sorry this is long but I've been wanting to get it out and this question has been asked 100x and I have minute so here you go -

The officer was seriously mistaken in the legal definition of
"Primary aggressor" - The individual who poses the most serious, ongoing threat who might not be the initial aggressor in a specific incident.
This is on every DV training I've ever seen for LE though the wording may vary slightly.

The job of LE in a DV call isn't simply to evaluate what happened in that specific incident but to ALSO evaluate what is going before and after such incidents and in the relationship as a whole. Who and what is causing the escalation of violence. Protocol for LE on DV calls includes lengthy instruction on how to evaluate for co-occurring crime.

Did they even ASK if they had any weapons in the van? Did they ask if BL scares her? Did they ask if she feels safe with him in the van? Did they ask about escalation? Verbal harassment (ie; does he call you names?) Sexual abuse? Why was locking her out of the van not considered a serious threat in itself? Him attempting to lock her out should be considered primary aggression. If he's threatening to lock her out and leave her - he clearly is the one that is posing the most serious and ongoing threat. Through that lens GP's actions in scratching at him become reactive abuse. Her emotional state becomes abuse victim rather than a mental health episode.

In addition - ignoring GP's claims of how he grabbed her face is against every single bit of DV training that exists. She should have been GRILLED on that. Does he grab her face often? Has he ever (not just that day) grabbed her throat or even put his hand around it? Has he ever choked her or held her down by her neck? Victims who have been choked once are 750 percent more likely to be killed by their abusers.

So aside from correctly evaluating what should they have done?
Had a victim advocate respond. It's imperative in DV situations that there is victim centered and trauma informed support. I do believe that if GP had been given access to a good advocate it's quite possible that she would have revealed more and that advocate could have given her resources and/or connected her with family in order to get her out of the situation. An advocate along with LE can give a victim assurance that if they WANT to get away from the person that they will work in conjunction to make sure that happens (including helping to obtain financial assistance where needed) in a safe manner and that the abuser will not be able to get to them.

As it was GP was left with the knowledge that he was going to be right back with her the next day and it was further framed as "she was in trouble". NO WAY was she going to report anything at that stage. That's about the most terrifying thing a victim of DV can be told. "We're going to separate you ... (heart soars) ... for the night (utter terror)."

And OF COURSE it's possible that GP would have gone right back to BL even with a victim advocate and all the empowerment in the world involved. But it's ALSO possible that with victim centered support she would have been empowered to leave the situation and it would have turned out quite differently.

And if you want to dive into how well victim advocacy /outreach works (https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/238480.pdf ) See the link.

I also attached an image from said link. When women who live with their abuser are assigned to outreach programs a guilty verdict is entered in court 100% of the time. That falls to 33-59% with referral advocacy or no outreach programs.

This is extremely helpful and I’m so glad an expert has weighed in. This should be standard procedure for all domestic incidents, nationwide.
 
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That's a WOW. The sister clearly said in her interview that she had not seen BL. Is this attorney throwing everyone under the bus?

I don’t think so. Likely this news was going to break anyways. Better he show that he also let it out. She might already be in trouble with LE if they discovered she lied. Footage or sighting of her likely found and will make the news soon. Or, she didn’t see him when she was there.
 
I think one of the campground pics showed what was likely their camper and it was off the truck. So if they disconnected it, it's possible BL was driving around in it while she visited her parents there. But the question if that's true is why was BL away from the campground all day...why go camping at all if you're going to be driving around the area you already live in the entire time?
I don’t know the area, but maybe he drove it to a nearby trailhead and went on a long hike? I have definitely done that on family camping trips when nobody else wanted to do 7 or 8 mile day hike.
 
Here's the thing. I have clients who truly do not seem to know the difference between the truth and a lie. I largely ignore what they tell me and look at the data, written communications, and anything else objective we can find to piece together the story and then try to get that client's "side" of it to see what really happened.

I make it my duty to make sure those clients never speak to the press. Never release "just one statement to get MY SIDE of the story out." Because I, as their trusted advisor, know that story is likely full of exaggerations or lies that would not take that long to pull apart. If my client released some statement against the advice of counsel, the last thing I would do is release my own statement to "correct" it because then you are TELLING the world that your client is a liar.

So constantly texting the media with bits of information that objectively contradict with other public information (like when the Mustang was picked up, if Cassie saw BL) is really bordering on malpractice. I have never seen anything like it either in my own practice or in following other cases.

Such random answers and explanations. I think he's trying to get ahead of things that we don't even know there are issues with. Amazing really.
 
I'd really like to know what his sister could say about him and the family dynamics. I hope that she is cooperating with FBI.......jmo
Does the sister live at the parent's house? I read somewhere that she lives in the family home, but wasn't sure if I could post it. If she does, wouldn't she know more than she is letting on? And if she does, where is she now and her little sons?
 
Even the linked article says he stated that at an unrelated press conference.

As others have pointed out, he can say that but he probably couldn't have done it legally anyway.

His statement feels like he is 100% marketing himself at Gabby's expense. It's distasteful, imo.
Agreed.
Plus: Without evidence or formal charges they wouldn’t have been able to hold BL anyway.
 
A video I have seen states that Gabby had a conversation with her Mom on August 25, and her Mom said they had discussed Gabby and Brian's deteriorating relationship. So, it looks like Gabby was on the phone with her on the 12th during the cop stop, and then on the 25th, had a conversation with her Mom about the bad situation she was finding herself in. It seems odd that Gabby's Dad spoke with her on several occasions while she was in a hotel room and Brian was supposedly in Florida, and nothing was mentioneded to him about their problems. Maybe they weren't that close.

I hadn't heard of GP talking to her mom on the 25th? and about that? Hell if BL was in the wrong state of mind if he found out that alone could have just added to him being ramped up.
 
I'm not sure why so many seem to be hung up on the DV issue. GP in her own words told LE, that BL usually walks away and they take a break from each other. Again, I'm not taking sides, I just do not see anything that screams that there was ongoing DV in this situation. One of the witness statements was that she was the aggressor, her statement was that she was the aggressor, BL's statement was that she was the aggressor. who's to say that this was an ongoing issue. It sounds to me like they would generally take a break when frustrated with each other. To my point, I think reading entirely too much into the situation my be taking focus off of other factors in the following weeks. Could have been a lot of things. I personally have no idea, but I'm not sure anyone including her thought she was in a bad situation.
I will just say that the calm person is generally the one adept at pushing buttons to elicit an emotional reaction. They will say something vile or hurtful followed by a request for the victim to calm down. When they say they want space it’s not to calm emotions it’s to create more anxiety and fear. They say something like I’m not sure I want to do this anymore etc…. Before walking away. It’s just more seemingly reasonable emotional manipulation.
 
I'm honestly beginning to think the attorney is purposefully providing misinformation to the press. He went from basically making no statements to almost openly communicating, at least on a limited number of subjects, and you can look at the screenshots posted through various reporters' Twitter accounts and see that the responses aren't always copy-and-paste responses. Maybe he realizes that providing contradictory statements is a better way to keep the media off the real story.
 
I'm not sure why so many seem to be hung up on the DV issue. GP in her own words told LE, that BL usually walks away and they take a break from each other. Again, I'm not taking sides, I just do not see anything that screams that there was ongoing DV in this situation. One of the witness statements was that she was the aggressor, her statement was that she was the aggressor, BL's statement was that she was the aggressor. who's to say that this was an ongoing issue. It sounds to me like they would generally take a break when frustrated with each other. To my point, I think reading entirely too much into the situation my be taking focus off of other factors in the following weeks. Could have been a lot of things. I personally have no idea, but I'm not sure anyone including her thought she was in a bad situation.

I believe many people are "hung up" on it because they recognize it and know how debilitating it is to be in an abusive relationship.

But if the concern is that it doesn't seem like the physical abuse was "that" bad (from an outsiders point of view), it is clear that this was a volatile, unbalanced, unhealthy relationship, and that it was not GP who had the upper hand. People with the upper hand are not hysterically crying, full-body shaking in the back of a cop car. They're not having to run back into restaurants apologizing for their embarrassing, angry partner. They're not humiliated by having their hopes/aspirations belittled by their mate in front of others. They're not having their keys and ID taken away by their partner in order for the partner to exercise control over them. And they usually don't end up in pieces in the middle of wilderness scrub while their partner takes off in their car and spends their money after their death.

So if one thinks the DV is a distraction and irrelevant, by all means, eliminate it. The picture looks the same.

PS - please note that physical violence is only one aspect of abuse. You can be abused and mistreated in many ways that don't mean a literal sock in the jaw. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a physically violent relationship that wasn't unhealthy, though.

PSS - Also please note that though physical violence is always dysfunctional and unhealthy, there is a difference, as far as abuser /abused dynamics and culpability, between aggressive violence and reactive violence.

PSSS - minor note that you omitted: BL was witnessed hitting and slapping GP on the street in broad daylight. He wasn't doing that to get back what belonged to him or yo stop her from endangering themselves or others. He was doing that one can reasonably infer, based on witness statement and later statements at the stop by both of them describing the tensions and dynamic that day
 
dang, does anyone in that family tell the truth?
That is a huge assumption to make. There was no reason it couldn’t be registered to both of them. What evidence do you have regarding who paid for what?
Gabbys father sad its her van LE has said its her van, its registered to her, its her van!
 
IMO and IME, POSSIBLY. I won't claim to be an 'expert' but I do work in the field.
Sorry this is long but I've been wanting to get it out and this question has been asked 100x and I have minute so here you go -

The officer was seriously mistaken in the legal definition of
"Primary aggressor" - The individual who poses the most serious, ongoing threat who might not be the initial aggressor in a specific incident.
This is on every DV training I've ever seen for LE though the wording may vary slightly.

The job of LE in a DV call isn't simply to evaluate what happened in that specific incident but to ALSO evaluate what is going before and after such incidents and in the relationship as a whole. Who and what is causing the escalation of violence. Protocol for LE on DV calls includes lengthy instruction on how to evaluate for co-occurring crime.

Did they even ASK if they had any weapons in the van? Did they ask if BL scares her? Did they ask if she feels safe with him in the van? Did they ask about escalation? Verbal harassment (ie; does he call you names?) Sexual abuse? Why was locking her out of the van in the desert 1000s of miles away from her support network not considered a serious threat in itself? Him attempting to lock her out should be considered primary aggression. If he's threatening to lock her out and leave her - he clearly is the one that is posing the most serious and ongoing threat. Through that lens GP's actions in scratching at him become reactive abuse. Her emotional state becomes abuse victim rather than a mental health episode.

In addition - ignoring GP's claims of how he grabbed her face is against every single bit of DV training that exists. She should have been GRILLED on that. Does he grab her face often? Has he ever (not just that day) grabbed her throat or even put his hand around it? Has he ever choked her or held her down by her neck? Victims who have been choked once are 750 percent more likely to be killed by their abusers.

So aside from correctly evaluating what should they have done?
Had a victim advocate respond. It's imperative in DV situations that there is victim centered and trauma informed support. I do believe that if GP had been given access to a good advocate it's quite possible that she would have revealed more and that advocate could have given her resources and/or connected her with family in order to get her out of the situation. An advocate along with LE can give a victim assurance that if they WANT to get away from the person that they will work in conjunction to make sure that happens (including helping to obtain financial assistance where needed) in a safe manner and that the abuser will not be able to get to them.

As it was GP was left with the knowledge that he was going to be right back with her the next day and it was further framed as "she was in trouble". NO WAY was she going to report anything at that stage. That's about the most terrifying thing a victim of DV can be told. "We're going to separate you ... (heart soars) ... for the night (utter terror)."

And OF COURSE it's possible that GP would have gone right back to BL even with a victim advocate and all the empowerment in the world involved. But it's ALSO possible that with victim centered support she would have been empowered to leave the situation and it would have turned out quite differently.

And if you want to dive into how well victim advocacy /outreach works (https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/238480.pdf ) See the link.

I also attached an image from said link. When women who live with their abuser are assigned to outreach programs a guilty verdict is entered in court 100% of the time. That falls to 33-59% with referral advocacy or no outreach programs.
Thank you! I really appreciate you taking the time to say all that. I was asking those questions while watching but wasn't sure if I was doing that under my own hindsight and experience lens. Not to mention, I can't hear half of it so didn't know if they asked questions that I missed.
 
https://twitter.com/brianentin/status/1443915026457370645?s=21
National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-SAFE
Or text "START" to 88788

Thank you! I do wish it was easy....similar to 911. Maybe 711 or something of the sort. I would have to Google this info, I couldn't do it on the fly, easily and discretely, especially if I was beside myself with worry over escalating public humiliation and whatever happened in the moments preceding her death.
 
I have read all the info, and repeatedly watched the videos. I know what the 1st witness said. I also know that GP, BL, and the second witness all said the opposite. I'm just saying that there seems to be a running theme that BL abused her, and I just do not see the evidence of that. I'm not saying its not the case, I just don't see it. I would also venture a guess that if not for the eventual outcome, most others wouldn't either. It's a lot of speculation.

Wow. Sorry I disagree. This doesn't just happen once and then escalates next to murder (yes, I believe he murdered Gabby). The video footage of Gabby clearly shows she is a victim of ongoing DV, IMO. People said she was being abused when the first bodycam came out and were dismissed as projecting their emotions onto this case. They ended up being totally right and now we know a lot more about the incident. I don't understand why BL continually gets the benefit of the doubt when all he has done is lie and refused to help locate Gabby. Then he takes off. Nothing he said in that video with LE is credible because of his lack of character.
 
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