missing Gabby Petito from Wyoming, traveled in van with bf

The police just announced that he was home for 10 days before he reported her as missing! 

Details from Moab police department: ksltv.com/472652/moab-police-release-details-on-incident-between-missing-22-year-old-boyfriend/

Sounds like she’s the volatile one. Based on this, I sort of wonder if the same thing happened again later on in the trip: she was attacking him, and he left her. And he drove home (dick move) but didn’t actually harm her and didn’t even realize she was missing.

Clearly there's a lot we don't know but I'm getting the same vibe. I think we're all going to be surprised where this one goes. 

And I will say I would immediately hire a lawyer and not talk too. How many times have we heard police and lawyers tell us not to say anything?

From WSAU Radio Station…

“Laundrie has refused to speak to investigators, police said. North Port police are leading the investigation and working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”



From CNN 9-15-2021

CNN) Authorities searching for missing Florida woman Gabby Petito are hoping to talk with her boyfriend, who they believe was the last person to be around her before her family reported her missing, a police spokesperson said Wednesday.

"He needs to talk to us," Josh Taylor, a spokesperson for the North Port, Florida, police department, said in a news briefing. "We need to know exactly where he was, where she was, their last locations and that the fact that he was back here for 10 days. ... The family reported her missing 10 days later."


Unless it’s changed he is not talking to the police.

I understand that the Moab police officer wanted them to be separated for the night but I don't understand why the officer arranged a hotel room for Brian and sent Gabby off to camp alone in the van for the night. Also, Gabby was too upset to speak to the officer but Brian had an answer for everything ie. she's unstable, she's struggling with her mental health, she hit me, but all is well. Sounds like domestic violence 101 on his part to me.

Yeah, the article I read said he is “refusing to be interviewed,” which I took to mean he gave them a statement but won’t agree to be questioned. But maybe he’s not speaking with them at all?

If he did something to her… well, there’s a lot of miles of road between Wyoming and Florida. How would you even begin to search all of that? Is this going to end up as another as Susan Powell case where, because there’s no body, no crime can ever be determined?

I agree with so many things you said in your post, but wanted to play devil’s advocate for a minute.

Let’s say they *did* break up, and it was, presumably, emotional and sad and they can’t spend even the travel time home together. And for whatever reason they decide he’s driving the van home and she’s flying to her parents’ or something, but, you know, they’ve broken up. They part ways.

So he goes home. He tells his parents they’re not together anymore, but that’s it, because he’s one of those people who doesn’t share emotional stuff. And he gets a few random phone calls from her mom but doesn’t answer, because he figures she is going to tell him he’s an asshole or whatever, and before you know it ten days goes by and he finds out she’s missing.

It doesn’t actually seem out of the realm of possibility to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My 20yo daughter and her partner broke up two weeks ago. We packed up her stuff and moved her home on Sept 1, while her ex-boyfriend was at work.

On Saturday, the 11th, her ex reached out to my husband and I. He hadn’t seen her or spoken to her for 10 days at that point, or to us. So, had something happened to her in the meantime, instead of her being with us, who would have known?

And while there were times that I would see her daily, there were also times that we’d go a week or two without talking. Even living in the same small town, ten minutes away.

link to the 1 hour bodycam video from Moab Police.

One article said at some point the police were called when she slapped him, but neither wanted to file charges. The odds of her being alive are pretty much zero, but being wrong would be wonderful.

Here are some of my thoughts...

I don't think, given a break-up situation, it would be absurd for him to go home and not respond to calls and texts from her family. I can see him thinking "she's yours to deal with now" and checking out of the relationship.  

I also think this was not the first time her mental health was an issue for them. That compounds the above thought. 

When they had the altercation, she called her mother from the police car. I think the parents were well aware of her mental health struggles. 

Yes, the vehicle is titled to her. BUT...they were living together, planning to be married and references have been made to them fixing it up together. I think she worked at a juice bar. Perhaps they both viewed it more as shared property? Perhaps he helped make the payments and contributed to the cost of fixing it up? She stated she doesn't like to drive it so I can see her saying "take the van and go home" if they broke up, figuring they would work out the details later. 

I'm curious when/if her mom knew they had broken up. Mom stated they were no longer engaged but I haven't heard if she put a date on that. It's also been said mom was contacting him about where her stuff was. I think that's odd and leans more toward the breakup story than anything else. And going back to my first point, I can see him thinking, give me five minutes to process this breakup and I'll handle her property with her directly and not responding to mom. 

Yeah, if he laid his hands in me there would definitely be issues; but if I knew it was due to his mental health struggles, I’d still call his mom to make sure he was taken care of. I dunno, I’m sure my view is colored by the fact that I’ve lost the plot myself and afterwards he just hugged me and made sure I got the help I needed. There is no way either of us would abandon the other in the middle of a mental health crisis, no matter the circumstances. If it got to the point where one of us was in jail…we’d still make sure there was a parent to take over their care. But again, I know my experience doesn’t equal someone else’s…I just can’t fathom it (abandoning them alone across the country) myself.

And even if he did purposefully abandon her and not check on her it could just be that he’s an asshole, not a murderer. But it sure looks bad, and since history shows it’s the usually the lover, that’s where my mind takes me.

I’m not on top of the case just reading a little here and there, had no idea they were no longer engaged. I’d say that makes the Instagram comments really weird but we know how performative those can be…

Yeah, I can totally see it being as simple as a 22yo girl not wanting to drive it cross-country alone.

I mean, logically I know that it’s more than likely him. Statistics tell us that. But there’s a lot of weird things this time that make me not nearly as certain of that as when I first heard about the story.

I can’t like this post enough.

I have no idea if he did anything to her. What is clear he is a victim of Domestic Abuse. A victim. If the tables were turned abd she had marks all over her, there would be more of an outcry. But because he is a man, it’s not looked at the sane way.

I’m thinking, that when he refused to press charges he left. He might not have wanted to talk about it, and I can see why since the court of public opinion thinks he is a murderer. Now say he gets home finally talks with his family, they might preemptively got a lawyer as they know how it looks.

In the end, he is still a victim of domestic abuse. Maybe her mental state was so bad after she took off and got in trouble or took her own life. I hope both families get some answers.

I just don’t know what happened and hope it has a good outcome.