Found Deceased WY - Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, 22, Grand Teton National Park, 25 Aug 2021 #53

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With the changing timeline, this pricks my curiosity more than anything else, according to their own code enforcement a vehicle is only considered abandoned after 5 or more days. Why the ticket after 2, unless the mustang was there longer than what we have been led to believe.

I read that overnight parking is not permitted in the Reserve. jmo
 
I think he parked on the side of the reserve closest to their neighborhood. There aren't that many parking spaces or lots near the preserve. My question is why did they go look for the car/for him in the first place? They find the notice on the car (they probably know the rules for this preserve - no overnight parking, no longterm parking). They apparently are wondering where he is, but yes, any sane person would be concerned about him just going into the preserve and not coming back the same day, due to the rules of the preserve. They had to have thought, "Hmm, he's run away." Did they already know he'd left his phone at home? They must have tried to call him and it rang inside the house (that would send many parents out to look for their "kid").

They find the warning notice and don't want the car towed. I assume they figured that if he emerged from the swamp, he'd have to walk home. It's not that far. BL had walked about 16-18 miles from the Spread Creek area to Colter Bay. He is also capable of hitchhiking. Google maps says. it's about a 4 hour walk from the edge of the preserve to their general area.

They must have had a moment, there. A heart-sinking moment for any parent. They probably thought he had killed himself, but after reflection, they decide that there's some outside chance that he's still alive and is a missing person.

I keep thinking about what would have happened if they had not called in a missing person report. Seems to me that if they were actively aiding and abetting him to escape (knowing that the warrant was upcoming), they could have just been silent for a while. But instead, they seem to worry enough to call in a missing person's report. If that was done deceptively, then they really are an antisocial and sneaky pair of people.

I'm not sure why anyone thinks it strange that the parents wanted to avoid the car being towed or why they wouldn't expect Walker Brian to simply walk home. That's what he does (he walks a lot, IMO).
Idk, I actually do find it strange that parents would take their son’s car after a multi-day hike and assume he would walk 4 more hours home without freaking out that his car got stolen. And his cell phone was at home so they can’t notify him. But that’s just me. IMO.
 
OP made the comment about him flying home to “help his dad” with what we all originally thought was a storage locker. That little detail always flew all over me….the helping his dad part. Like I’m sure his dad could have found someone else to help him & it didn’t have to be BL. JMO.
What if mom or dad found “something” of theirs in his house that was, uh-idk, not welcome in their home and he demanded Brian take care of it? Right away. If they’d been living there for so long, I’m gonna bet it was a breather for the Laundries. Alone at last. Mom says, Well, now that they’re off having fun no outta their way- I’m gonna get this place straightened up a bit. She decides to clutter bust and starts going through boxes and finds something she didn’t want to find.
 
Good Morning WS Buds! Owing to the lack of any real movement forward in locating Brian, last night I decided to run the first body cam footage from the Moab PD - muted and at the slowest speed possible. Just the Brian parts. No Gabby.
What a revelation. At first, he's all attention, arms at his sides and looking like he's been called to the principle's office. He's not quite sure what its all about, but then, something interesting happens. He catches the gist of the reason for the stop and immediately moves his one hand and covers his other hand. He maintains covering that hand for quite a while. You know, the hand he slapped her with? All throughout the conversation, he keeps covering and uncovering that pesky hand, the culprit seen slapping Gabby. As the conversation moves along, he breaks away from covering up to make a pushing away gesture with both hands. Its a distancing gesture: away from the situation, away from responsibility, away from the cops.

As the video continues, he's made a male connection with the cops and begins to make more frequent eye contact with them. You know how women are, blah, blah, blah. He loses his surprised, caught look and begins smiling and gesturing wildly away from the hand covering to all thumbs pointing toward the road ahead. He's got them. They examine his little scratches and dents, which he willingly offers for their review. He gives himself a few pats over the heart. The officers nod. He's totally in, fully buddied up. They bought it. Problem is, discussion of the law arises and as its explained to him, Brian again drops his hands to his sides, listens intently - and again assumes the kid in the principle's office position. Its become more than buddying up, there's the DV law: who's responsible, who gets charged, who gets citations, who gets arrested, who pays the fines, who goes to jail and when. Brian soaks all of this in and returns to the pushing away gestures as he makes eye-contact with each officer. None of that for Brian.

That's as far as I got. Fascinating. Try it yourself. He's the link:
Moab Body Cam

Yes, that's exactly how it is and seemed very clear from the get-go (even with sound, but very interesting the story "told" even without it). Those seem like a normal and expected trajectory of gestures for someone pulled over, aware of their own acts/culpability, then unexpectedly quickly put at ease, but then reminded that it's not a backyard barbecue even if he's not in trouble.

If I could stand it, I might look at the GP footage without sound, for contrast, but I don't like to see it. However,my recalled impression is correct, though, there's far less of an actual arc to her visual "story" - just deflation and misery.
 
Floridian here. No they absolutely would not digest bones, shows, backpack etc. there was
A case here a few years back after a dog was eaten by an alligator and when opened him up they found collars older than 10 years of other animals.

Gators do digest bones, but not anything metal or plastic, of course. "An alligator can digest anything it swallows -- muscle, bone, cartilage, etc. are all digested completely. Alligators, being cold-blooded, do not have to eat very often."
 
For those of you who think Brian's dead...
He would have had to blow his brains out.
He would have to have had a gun.
He would have to have obtained a license for that gun.
He would have to have obtained ammunition.
Any of that verifiable?
Is the glass half full or half empty?
Or has Brian the survivalist run off with the glass and the water?

A gun is not required to commit suicide.
 
This is interesting - it's not that there was a ton of "bad" content - there was really a dearth of any content. I know a couple that has finally started to monetize their YouTube channel, in a similar space, and it is an insane amount of work. They were laughing about getting their first "big check" for like 12 bucks.

To be fair, most of the insane amount of work for $12 is startup costs; and if you can get past that hurdle, you might start making more.

We don't really have any idea if Gabby was unrealistic in her expectations. We have barely heard her talk about them.

It really isn't easy. Its not just about creating content either. It's about creating a following more than anything - if you have the following to start, then it becomes easier to make money, but it certainly isn't big bucks.

It's at least as much about what I characterize as "the cult of personality".

I mean, maybe Gabby's idea when she said "travel writer", was to get to write for an airline magazine on the way to something like (hopefully) National Geographic; in which case her personality (which was charming, don't get me wrong) doesn't matter so much as being able to push herself to some resume fodder.
 
Oh I agree. I just don't believe the storage unit thing. Trying to think of something else.
The storage thing sounds off to me also. BL's sister said it wasn't a storage unit, but a storage locker. I don't really know the difference, but thought a locker would be smaller. Why would the expense of a flight back and forth, be worth saving a few months rent on the locker? And what was so important in it, that he needed to take it back on a plane? Couldn't the parents have just mailed the items to BL? Honestly, you can't carry much on the plane.
 
I've discussed this several times in previous threads. I'd read some posts that made it sound as if people were impressed by what she was doing, I didn't see that.

To me they looked like typical vacation pictures, nothing amazing stood out to me. All the work involved wasn't being done, probably a bone of contention between BL & Gabby. Probably lead to a lot of fights.

But because of her inexperience she shouldn't have had been focusing on making money, but she should have been taking a lot pictures of their journey. She should have waited until she was home and had the time to put up content. Even then it's got to be good content and it needs constant updates.

It's called creating a brand and it's consuming. I don't follow 'influencers' or 'vanlife', but I do know it takes commitment, it's a business.

I've found that most successful influencer's are more provocative, have a product of interest, and have branded themselves with a lot of interest.

Until this case I had never heard of vanlife and there doesn't seem to be a something that would interest a lot of people, except like minded people. A small minority of people. Not a sellable product anywhere.

She was probably doing it or wanting to do it for love, but it's a hard career if at all.
The “Travel & Lifestyle” community is a big thing on social media. You’re right that she was creating a brand, etc. & the kind of editing she was doing in that first video did take a whole lot of effort. People that try to make a living on social media spend hours editing pictures to post, etc.
Unless you just happen to have something go viral & get a lot of eyes on you that way, it is very difficult to become an influencer & build your audience. It takes years. & with the social media algorithms the way they are, you have to create content to post almost every single day to get the engagement & have the algorithms pick up your content & push it out to other people. That is the hard work on the front end that has to be put in if you want to become an influencer & that be how you make a living. Once you do that & build a big audience, it is extremely good money. However, getting there & getting those algorithms to push your content so you can build your audience…that part is extremely difficult & takes a lot of work to create mass amounts of content in order to post almost every day.

I just saw this being discussed so I thought I’d weigh in just knowing how social media works & knowing the influencer world
 
The storage thing sounds off to me also. BL's sister said it wasn't a storage unit, but a storage locker. I don't really know the difference, but thought a locker would be smaller. Why would the expense of a flight back and forth, be worth saving a few months rent on the locker? And what was so important in it, that he needed to take it back on a plane? Couldn't the parents have just mailed the items to BL? Honestly, you can't carry much on the plane.

This is just an example of the different sizes of storage that's in a storage facility:
Self-Storage Unit Size Guide | Public Storage

I think that if it had to be mailed, they'd have to find a place to mail it to - like a hotel, or to a UPS/FedEx pickup center.
 
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