New Gabby Petito Texts Reveal Brian’s Obsession & Final Moments Before Death
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Shop now at allmodern.com. 15 days before the murder. August 12th, 2021. Dispatch in Moab, Utah. They get a phone call. Hi, I'd like to report a domestic dispute. Okay, what are they doing? We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl. He was slapping her? Yeah, and then we stopped. They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to slap her, hit her, hopped in the car, and then they just drove off.

Okay, you said that the car was a white van. It's like one of those smaller Ford Transit white vans. You could probably fit a mattress in the back. Officers get notified, find the white van, stop the white van, figure out what's going on inside the white van. When they find this little car on the highway, it's going 20 over the speed limit. It's hitting the curbs. Clearly something is going on inside that car.

Moab police officers, they turn on their lights. The van pulls over without incident. And when the officer walks body cam on to the passenger side of this car, they see a very young couple, like 22 years old. They see a young blonde girl in the passenger seat, Gabby. She's very distraught, which makes sense. Someone just reported that her boyfriend was chasing her down the sidewalk, slapping her. Meanwhile, the driver, the guy's name is Brian. It's her boyfriend. He

He leans closer to the steering wheel so that he can look at the officer because they're on the passenger side. He's like the opposite of upset. He actually seems so calm. The officer says, "Turn off your engine and go ahead and set your keys on the dash for me. And what are your names?" "I'm Gabby. I'm Brian." "Okay, Gabby, Brian. So what's going on? How come you're crying, Gabby?" Gabby is very emotional. She's trying to explain, "I'm just sorry. We've just been fighting this morning and we've been having some personal issues."

Brian leans over. He doesn't look like he's having personal issues. It's a long day. We were camping yesterday and you know, camping got flies and stuff. Sorry I hit the curb earlier over there. Gabby's eyes are just red and she's trying to explain to her, I was distracting him from driving. I'm sorry.

Both Brian and Gabby are asked to leave the van so that the officers can talk to them separately to figure out what's going on. They're trying to get both sides of the story. And their stories are kind of adding up, kind of not. There's some inconsistencies here and there. But the officers don't even seem concerned about that. Because their body cam is left on. And when the officers... There's three of them. So there's two officers, a park ranger that shows up. And when the three of them, they start talking away from Gabby and Brian, their main debate is...

Do we file DV charges? Like, it feels like, is it worth the paperwork? That's the feeling. I mean, they're trying to push the decision off to each other. It's up to you. What do you think? It's up to you. The main debate here is, do we take someone to jail? Do we book them? I mean, one of them says, listen, she's got to be what?

105 pounds soaking wet, 22 years old, full of anxiety, having a really tough time. I'm not making excuses, but I mean, it's written in the code, right? We do have a domestic assault here. Why the domestic assault code is there for a reason? The reason they don't give us the officer's discretion on these things is because too many times women who are at risk, they're

They want to go back to their abuser. They just want him to stop. But they don't want to be separated. They don't want him to be charged. They don't want him to go to jail. And then they end up getting worse and worse treatment. And then they end up getting killed. What? Okay.

Ultimately, the officers do a whole back and forth, which we'll go over later. They're back and forth. Do we do it? Do we not do it? Ultimately, they decide that they are just going to split the couple up for the night. They're going to send one to a DV hotel shelter, and the other one is going to sleep in the van. And they're not going to file DV charges.

Officer Robbins writes in the initial incident report, she's struggling. You know, at no point in my investigation did Gabrielle stop crying, breathing heavily, or compose a sentence without needing to wipe away any of her tears, wipe her nose, or rub her knees with her hands. And then he proceeds to write, the same as all the other officers, that Gabby Petito is the primary aggressor.

She is the one that they are debating whether or not they should take to jail for DV. They got a phone call that her boyfriend is running after her, slapping her, but they are debating if she is the one that they should put in jail. - That's crazy. How did that happen? - Oh, it's like the dumbest thing ever. Two weeks later, after this incident, Gabby Petito will be killed. And the one person that knows where to find her is gonna go missing.

This is the case of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the official Gabby Petito Foundation. This nonprofit is dedicated to supporting missing persons, assisting survivors, and working toward a future free from domestic violence. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team. And we'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support.

As always, full show notes are available at rottenmingopodcast.com. Now, today's case involves heavy themes of DV. Additionally, this is going to be a two-part series. I briefly covered this before I was even posting videos on YouTube for this podcast. And with the new Netflix documentary, there have been new text messages, new pieces of the puzzle that I think...

weren't necessarily confirmed a few years ago when everybody was when the case was unfolding in real time and I think all of the new details in the documentary really make it more understandable because there are certain parts where it's like okay we still don't know exactly what happened and why but now it's it's pretty clear

So in part one, we're gonna go over all of that. In part two, we're gonna cover Brian going missing and all the newly dug up conspiracies that he might still be alive.

Now, legally, I do need to disclaim that no living person has been criminally charged and that any and all theories, conspiracies, comments, opinions, and the like that are mentioned are publicly available netizen opinions, not my own. So with that being said, well, you know what? I will say there are people involved in this case that I have very strong negative personal opinions about, which I think everybody is entitled to. But as always, you guys are so smart. I never really even need to say this. Do your own research. Come to your own conclusions. And with that being said, let's get started. Mer.

Miranda's mom is not having a good day. She just got a text message from her daughter that they just picked up a hitchhiker near one of the national parks and now Miranda's not responding to Miranda's mom's text messages.

Miranda's mom is texting her. "Are you out of your mind? Share your location right now! What are you doing?" I mean, doesn't she know the general rule for hitchhiking? It only takes one bad ride to end your life. That's the rule. That also applies for the people picking up the hitchhikers. You browse a few forums and all the stories are there. I used to hitchhike from my home in the mountains to my local high school. A long-haired man picked me up once and he starts talking about all the missing girls from the area.

He said that they were all probably killed. Their bodies were thrown into the mountains, never to be found. And I started freaking out thinking, this is it. I'm next. I'm the next one. But then he turned to me and really strangely, he calmly says, it could be me, you know, that's doing it. But you're lucky that I'm an undercover cop investigating this crime. What? He drops her off. But the creepy thing is, he did not seem like an undercover cop.

So she doesn't know how to feel about this whole situation at all. But thankfully, she's taken to her destination safely. Or another forum reads, I haven't picked up anyone personally, but years ago, my college professor told me a story about a man in Florida who picked up a hitchhiker. And the man described the hitchhiker as looking kind of

disheveled and ragged and weary. And the man managed to drop the hitchhiker off at his requested destination. But once he gets home the next morning on the news, he sees that they're looking for this man because he killed his parents. That's the guy that he picked up. So these are things that Miranda's mom is looking for. And finally, she gets that call back. I'm alive. Don't worry. He's very nice. The hitchhiker was very nice. So likely after probably an initial panicked lecture, Miranda says,

picking up the hitchhiker experience. I mean, okay, yeah. There were a few things that were a little bit weird about it. He did approach us asking us for a ride. He said he needed to go to Jackson, Wyoming. But before he got in the car, he was like, I'll give you $200 to get me there. It's like a 10-mile drive. Wow.

Miranda and her boyfriend was like, no, it's fine. They thought it was so strange. Like either this guy is so filthy rich that he just thinks $200 is a $2 tip or he's so desperate to get 10 miles. I don't know. Either way, a little weird. He gets in and he starts talking. He starts yapping. I was hiking alone for the past four days. So I'm just trying to get back to my fiance. She's in our van and she stayed back to work on her social media page. She's trying to be a YouTuber.

Cool. Now, as they keep driving, there's this moment of confusion about which way they're headed. The guy in the back, just out of nowhere, starts freaking out. The hitchhiker is freaking out. Miranda says, he's like, no, I need to get out of this car right now. Pull over right now. This is not the direction that I thought we were going in. He practically runs out of the car. Miranda and her boyfriend, they drive off, not knowing in that moment who they just picked up.

Wait, so he paid them $200 to drive 10 miles. I don't think they took it. Yeah. So he got on the car. He said, go this way for 10 miles. And then like a few miles in, he's like, stop the car. Yeah. He ran off. Yes. That happens August 29th, 2021.

That same day, there's a woman named Norma. She's headed out of the Grand Teton National Park. There's like a church service there. She goes to church there. And as she's leaving, she sees this young guy alone on the side of the road. It looks like his thumb is up. She starts slowing down the car. He looks like he's hitchhiking. He's like a backpacker. Her car rolls to a stop. Hey, do you need a ride? Yeah, could you take me to Jackson, Wyoming?

"'Oh, sorry, I'm not heading that way. "'I'm going north.' "'Well, could you at least take me "'to like the Spread Creek campsite? "'My fiance's there working in our van.' "'Norma checks her clock. "'Probably a 10-minute drive.' "'Yeah, sure, I'll take you there. "'Come on, hop in.' "'So the man gets into the passenger seat. "'Norma quickly gives him like a one-over. "'She's studying him because she probably should. "'He looks mid to late 20s, a bit smelly. "'Maybe he's been hiking for at least a day. "'Maybe he camped out last night. "'That's the way he smells.'

She starts driving and midway, about five minutes in, she makes this sharp turn into the campsite. She's got this book on her dashboard. It slides all the way off and lands directly on the hitchhiker's lap. She looks at him. He's looking at her. He smiles, picks it up from his lap, leans it and puts it back on the dashboard. It's her Bible. And this hitchhiker is Brian Laundrie.

who in the past 48 hours is suspected to have killed his fiancee, Gabby Petito. This is after the murder? Yes.

what? there's a phenomenon called missing 411. there's this idea that people are mysteriously disappearing near national parks and cave systems in the u.s. it's the idea that they're all somehow mysteriously related and connected through these extensive cave systems. underground tunnels that span miles underground underneath the surface of the u.s. and they exist. like that's not a conspiracy theory. those caves are there.

The Mammoth Cave National Park is the longest known cave system in the world. It's like a labyrinth. Some of them, you don't even know that there's hundreds of miles of mapped passages underground. You just have these weird steps leading into this tiny entrance that looks like a hobbit's entrance into the ground. And then when you walk in, you're underground.

and it just opens up into this like three-story auditorium of curved rocks. it's so eerily quiet in the caves. considering how big the space is, you just hear these bloop bloop like the water dripping, the gravel is crunching on your feet. people say that they're... the caves are weird. people say that you can hear the caves breathe. there's something about it. it feels like the walls are breathing.

It feels like they're moving. The sounds it's making, it sounds like a heartbeat and you start getting really freaked out and you don't know if it's in your ears. You don't know if it's the cave. And then all of a sudden you have to crunch down low, crawl into a tunnel so that you can get to the next part of the cave. And then there's these jagged rocks coming down from the ceiling looking like massive deadly chandeliers. And then it opens up to like a five story cathedral. I mean, these caves are massive.

And if you go inside one of them, people say there are multiple times where you have to stop yourself and go, okay, calm down because you start panicking. What if this whole thing comes down? What if we get lost? What if we don't come out the right side? Like what if we forgot which side we came in from? Welcome to the cave systems in the U.S.

I feel like most people have seen the viral picture of the map of the people that have gone missing in the map of the US cave systems. People are like, look at them. They look identical. They look eerily similar. And it has fueled a ton of conspiracy theories. Are they getting lost? Is there something luring them into the caves? Why can't they be found? Are there people living in the caves? That's a big one. Isolated human communities that have formed inside these remote caves that are kidnapping people.

Now to be fair, the map comparison is truly fascinating, but it is a bit overstated. So the map that shows people who have gone missing in the US, it's not exhaustive. That map only depicts people who have gone missing in remote areas near national parks. Most national parks have cave systems.

You know, it's not causation. It's more correlation. So you could argue one thing or another. You can make the data work for you. It's like tracking ice cream sales within the larger category of dairy-related product sales and then comparing it to a map of ice cream shops. There's going to be some relation. But still, the idea that thousands of people are reported missing in national parks every year makes people lose their minds because what the hell is going on inside these national parks?

One netizen writes, "It's very possible that there are yet to be identified serial killers operating in one or more of the national parks. There have been rumors even about a wolf-like creature that just stands on their back legs. It's weird. I mean they're larger than a human, way larger than a wolf, but they look like a wolf but they stand on their back legs. I heard they'll grab and tear through people."

That's one conspiracy. I mean, the conspiracies are ever evolving. Cannibalistic feral people. The conspiracy that you go into the national parks, they live off grid, they have their own secret communities, and they're just waiting for the opportunity to kidnap people and use them as a food source.

The conspiracies get more unhinged the deeper you go down the rabbit hole. Yellowstone National Park is probably like one of the top national parks where people go missing. There are even articles titled, When People Disappear in Yellowstone National Park, Some Are Never Found. It's very ominous.

But even the ones that are found, they report having very strange experiences. I mean, for example, a father writes online about how his son went missing, went missing for five hours. He says the whole thing. Even to this day, he has no idea what happened.

His son was directly in front of him. They stopped to take pictures on this giant rock. He turned around for two seconds. Son is gone. When they find the son, he's on the highway 11 miles away. And the son is saying he doesn't remember how he even got lost, how he got to the highway. He has no recollection of walking for hours in the woods. He's eight.

There's no way an eight-year-old with absolutely no skills, no bearings, no supplies could walk 11 miles in mountain forest, dense terrain in five hours. The dad says, I still think about it to this day. I just don't get what happened.

So regardless of the conspiracy theories, I will say that the main reason that people go missing, it's not really conspiratorial. It's pretty simple. It is very difficult to search and rescue someone who has gone missing in a national park. That's the main problem. The national park is not really made for humans to look at. It's not made for us. There's not many guardrails because they're trying to preserve the nature. They're not trying to make it like a zoo.

that's the main problem. it ultimately comes down to terrain. one person states, "most missing people in national parks can easily be explained by them just being out of their element and sadly never being located. it's nothing nefarious, just very tragic accidents." if you go missing at yellowstone or the nearby grand teton national park, that's like a 20,000 square mile search area to cover.

Now, one of the biggest factors that make it even harder to find missing people is there's like this primal instinct in humans. When people get lost in the woods, they don't stop. They keep moving. And usually they'll move deeper into the woods without even knowing it or perhaps into the cave. I mean, are you supposed to stay there? A lot of people recommend staying there if you have not ventured off too far from your group.

Because they're saying the more you walk, you're probably going to walk deeper into the woods. Right, don't try to walk around and find your own way out. At least they know what vicinity you went missing in. So try to stay as close to the vicinity as possible. I see. Now, obviously, it differs if you were to slip off a cliff. Because that seems to happen a lot as well. Now, this is the last place Gabby Petito was seen. In the Grand Teton National Park near Yellowstone in Wyoming. 20,000 square miles to search. Gabby Petito is 22 years old.

And the whole reason that she ends in Grand Teton is she was on this van life trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie.

The plan is to convert the Ford white van, a small van, just big enough for a mattress. There's no kitchen. Like, you know, those vans that have the bathroom, they've got the little kitchenette. It's not that big. It's genuinely a bigger SUV. You put the back seats down. You have a mattress in there. And the two of them are going to take this thing and they're going to drive cross country vlogging the entire trip for YouTube. Gabby's Instagram reads along for the ride, traveling the world in our tiny van art, yoga and veggies.

Brian's Instagram profile reads, Brian Laundrie, take a hike every day. Bug bites are better than being brainwashed by the media. Okay, that was out of nowhere. Nature enthusiast taking on van life with Gab's Petito. But near the end of August in 2021, Gabby Petito goes off the radar. Gabby's mom, Nicole, she's texting Gabby. September 1st. Hey, how's it going? Going to bed. Wanted to say hi. No response.

September 2nd. Hi, are you going to Montana? No response. Nicole starts looking at Gabby's social media, just trying to see...

Her last post is August 25th. That was the last time Nicole FaceTimed Gabby. So from August 25th to now, what, September 2nd, nobody's heard from Gabby? She starts getting a little bit nervous. She's going into like panic mom mode. And Nicole said, but I thought I'm overthinking it. She's got no service. They're having fun. They're hiking. Just leave her alone. You can get back to me. She'll get back to me when she can't. She's an adult.

September 6th, she texts again. "Gabby, I just got home from camping. I haven't heard from you. Love you." No response. September 7th. "Hi, I know you might not have good signal, but I'm actually getting worried. I haven't heard from you in a while." No response. Two days later, Gabby's mom texts Gabby's father, Joe, so they're separated. "Hey, have you heard from Gabby?" "I haven't heard from her in, I think, at least a couple of days." "I haven't heard from her either."

This is when they start making calls. They're calling everyone that could possibly know where Gabby is. Gabby's friends are texting her. No response. Nothing. Nothing on social media. No like private close friends, Instagram stories. Nothing. Nicole starts freaking out. She says, I was concerned that both Gabby and Brian were missing. I mean, they're camping by themselves. They could have gotten lost in the mountains. There's no service. Also, there's like grizzly bears that have been known to attack humans in Grand Teton.

Even the bison are known to get very aggressive if you approach them too closely. Are they texting Brian too? Yes! No response! I mean, the possibilities of what could have happened are endless. Now, some of Brian's friends, they have like their own explanations at this point. They say, "I mean, we theorize that the two of them just chuck their phones into the ocean." "We thought they were saying, 'We're done with it. We're done with social media. We're done with everyone. We're gonna go off-grid. Just us two.'"

But that doesn't make any sense to Gabby's family because Gabby would never not tell her parents that. Friday night, September 10th. So she hasn't posted since August 25th. Nicole hasn't FaceTimed her since August 25th. And now it's September 10th. This is at least 11 days after the last contact Nicole has had with Gabby. Nicole tries reaching out to Brian's mom.

Roberta Laundrie. Now, I will say Brian and Gabby are engaged or not engaged. They're kind of on and off, but they were engaged at one point. So I mean, at the very most, they're fiancees. She's reaching out to Roberta Laundrie. She's like, hey, this is Nicole, Gabby's mom. I was just wondering if you've heard from the kids. I haven't heard from Gabby in about 10 days and I'm getting worried as she's been consistently in touch. I tried Brian as well and I haven't been able to get in touch.

She sends the message. It's blue. Message delivered. No response. So a few hours later, Nicole goes back in there and she sends another text. She's like, maybe, maybe this isn't even Roberta. Like maybe she changed her number. She texts, I hope I have the right number. The message goes green. Wait, that's so weird. It's like she's been blocked or like maybe her phone is off or suddenly Roberta Laundrie doesn't have signal because why would her iMessages suddenly turn green? Like what is happening?

Joe, Gabby's biological dad, tries texting them. This is Gabby's dad. He's texting Brian's parents. This is Gabby's dad. Have you heard from Brian or Gabby lately? We haven't heard from them in over two weeks. Both phones are going straight to voicemail. Please call me. The message goes through. No response. Was it blue, green? It was blue. Then he sends another one. We are calling the police. It goes in blue. No response.

Okay, this is so weird. This doesn't make any sense. I mean, they live in Florida. The parents live in Florida, North Port, Florida. It's not like they live in the middle of nowhere. It's not like they live in a national park where they have no service. Why are you... This doesn't make any sense. And they're not strangers. Roberta Laundrie was really excited that her son was getting engaged with Gabby. Gabby and Brian even lived with Roberta at one point. They lived with Brian's parents in Florida before their cross-country trip.

Roberta would knit these little sweaters for Gabby. I mean, there's obviously, you know, okay, there were little things that were maybe not amazing when all of them were living together. For example, Gabby had told her mom before,

There's this one time where Roberta, Brian's mom, was making this pie for dinner. I guess it was a mediocre pie. I don't know. Nobody, this is not what Gabby's saying. This is what I'm saying. You know, I don't know if it's a mediocre pie. I don't know what her pies taste like. But nobody was really like freaking out about it at the dinner. This is how Gabby is trying to explain it to her mom, but she's probably being much nicer about it. And maybe

a pie is a low ranking dessert. I don't know. Okay. Regardless, Roberta is so upset about it. She doesn't want to talk to anyone in the house after that dinner. Not even Gabby. She's so upset. They didn't, they didn't talk about her pie. They didn't compliment her pie. Her pie was nothing to these people. That's it. She was upset that nobody loved her pie. Yeah.

Later text messages between Brian and Gabby would show Brian asking Gabby what's for dinner and she responds, "Your mom's not in a good mood so I don't know what's for dinner." Brian starts ranting, "A lot of days were like this when I was growing up and it just always blows over." "Well, I was gonna go grocery shopping." "Well, just make sure you say goodbye to her." "I know. I'm just nervous to walk out of the room. I feel like I did something." He's shaking my head. "I'm ashamed. Just say goodbye."

But still, I mean, both of the kids are missing and you're just not responding. Someone is texting you. I'm going to call the police. Gabby's dad, Joe, says, then I reached out to Brian's parents. They just never responded. Then I reached out to Brian's sister, Cassie. No one replied. Gabby was going to be their daughter-in-law. This is a person that I thought that they loved. And I have text messages saying that we're going to call the police. That's what I'm telling them. And if someone texts me that, that they're going to call the police, I want to know what's

want to know what's up but we heard nothing every single voice every single call voicemail voicemail voicemail texts are getting blocked they go to message roberta on facebook they're blocked nicole is so confused she says why aren't you helping me find my daughter i mean i don't want to seem accusatory but it's confusing my mind is turning right now hmm

September 12th, the day after this. So Friday night, they're just trying to get in contact with the laundries. September 12th, the day after, Nicole starts calling everyone on the West Coast. She's calling the parks, the police, Grand Teton National Park Rangers, everybody reporting Gabby missing. Everybody is telling her, you're not even from Wyoming.

You got to call. I mean, we don't know who you got to call, but it's not our jurisdiction. You don't even know if this was the last place you were seen. Like everyone's just kind of putting it off to everybody. She's an adult on vacation. There's nothing we can do. We can't start like a nationwide search party because your 22 year old daughter hasn't talked to you and FaceTimed you in a week. That's when Nicole calls the North Port police in Florida. That is where Gabby and Brian lived with Gabby's or with Brian's parents before their cross country road trip.

She's explaining, I mean, I'm not sure if you guys can help just because my daughter lives there in Northport, but she's been on this, you know, road trip in her camper van with her boyfriend. She's been off the grid for like 11 days straight, which is not like her. And I don't know what to do.

The officers, they show up to the laundry house to figure out what's going on. I mean, maybe someone knows something. They knock on the door. The only thing that the police know, the only thing that Gabby's parents know is that Gabby is not picking up. Brian's not picking up. And for some reason, the laundries are not picking up. Maybe they're busy. Maybe they've been working. Maybe they're out of town. We don't know. Police go to knock on the door. Are these recorded? Yes, body cam. North Port Police Department, I apologize for bothering you. I have the detective on the phone. So both Chris, this is Brian's dad.

Chris and Roberta Laundrie open the door. And I don't know, maybe the Laundries are people who have police coming in and knocking on their doors every two seconds. I just thought it was very interesting, their initial reaction when they opened the door. It almost seems more agitated than surprised. Because if I had police knocking on my door at night, I would be like, what is happening? Like, are you, what's happening? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you're only agitated almost like the police are inconvenienced rather than like worried and confused. And if it's an inconvenience, it means you were to some degree expecting them. Maybe. Yeah. Or like, what do you like? You got to want to know what's going on first. Exactly. So they tell her they tell both of them. I apologize for bothering you. I have the detective on the phone. Chris, Chris Laundrie, the dad is responding. I'm not talking to anybody.

Wow. That's his first thing to say? Yes. You don't want to talk to us? No. Okay, well, my detectives on the phone, you don't want to talk to her now? No. Okay, when was the last time you saw Brian and Gabby? Chris Laundrie points inside his home. Well, Brian is here. And yeah, that's all I'm going to say. Brian is home in Florida, in his parents' home. That's like 2,300 miles away from where he was with Gabby.

Then where the hell is Gabby? Like, why are you home in Florida? The officer is so confused. Where do Gabby's parents live? They live in New Jersey. So that's all you're saying? Yeah, we have an attorney. They've been calling. I don't know. That's all I want to say. I don't know why so many, you know, my attorney is aware that they're calling. So I can give you his number. And just to let the detective know, is Gabrielle here or not? No. Okay, so that white van in the driveway, is that her vehicle? It's both of them.

It's both of them? Yeah. The officers are so confused by this whole interaction. He goes back to the cop car and he's talking to the other officer on this case. I ran the tags. I mean, there's a little white van in their driveway that comes back, Gabrielle Petito. But they're not saying she's there? No.

The detective explains, "You know, in the meantime, I called his sister, Cassie, Brian's sister. She called me back saying, 'Oh, Brian's home.' He told me they got into a fight. He left her at a hotel in the West Coast, flew back. I don't know what's going on, but I know it's pretty shady. And they won't answer any of my phone calls. I'm starting to get a little, you know, what are they hiding?"

Brian's sister is saying Brian is shady. No. The detective is saying, yeah, like the whole family is getting a little shady. You know, I asked him just right now, like, who does that van belong to? And he says both of them. The other officer is confused, but it's registered to her and her family feels like it's hers. So I don't know if that van's a crime scene. Had it returned there if he supposedly flew home? I mean, there's definitely some issues going on.

Here's where I'm at, okay? I agree, everything is odd. Everything is suspicious. I don't think that we have probable cause. I mean, the best I can do, the best I can do, maybe go down and try to see if they'll talk again.

Another officer, the sergeant, goes back to the door of the Laundrie family home. This time he's knocking. Hey, look, I hate to bother you guys. I know you've already said you don't want to speak. You don't want to help us. I'm trying to figure out something for Gabby's parents. You guys as parents and, you know, they want their daughter. They just want to know that she's safe. I don't know what transpired. I don't know anything about that. I'm here to know if you guys know anything. It would let the parents at ease and go from there.

Well, we don't know anything. And that's all. They try to play good cop. Yeah. And the parents are like, nope, nope, nope. I mean, anything that you guys could be able to give us is any type of help. Last time your son saw her, anything like that? Am I able to talk to your son? The other officer, he's not going to talk to anybody right now. We're not going to talk to any more, any more people.

Okay, I mean, I'm going to lay it out for you if you want. The New York detectives are a little pissed and they want me to do a whole bunch of things that I'm trying to avoid doing. Christopher Laundrie just looks at him like, well, then you got to do what you got to do. And we're not going to talk. And that's that. Okay, I mean, as a parent, you wouldn't want to know what happened.

Brian's dad, Chris, just throws his hands up in the air like, "What the hell do you want me to do about it? I understand what you're saying, but no, we're not going to." Well, it makes it very odd, don't you think? Like from my point of view, Chris? Well, goodbye for now. You can call my attorney. I gave you guys a phone number. I don't have your attorney's phone number and an attorney's not gonna answer at what, 10, 11 o'clock at night? Like I said, I'm not speaking to anybody. We're not comfortable talking to anybody without an attorney, so that's that.

Well, the van is only registered to her. Okay, well, I'm not really sure. Well, I'm telling you. I'm telling you the title in the state of Florida is only hers. So it's not supposed to be here. Okay, so I'm going to take a tow truck and get it. Is there a car in the way? The laundries offer to move the car if need be, and it prompts the officer to ask. I mean, so you don't have any issue with us taking this van? If that's what you're saying you got to do, you got to do it. But right now, I'm not speaking to you anymore without an attorney.

You don't find that odd that you guys just really, they just start closing the doors on the officers. Good night. Don't knock on my door anymore. As the police are towing the van out of the driveway, the tow truck driver, who's not a cop, he just works with the police. He even says on body cam, kind of weirded out. I don't even know what's going on. Really? Yeah.

September 11th, Gabby's parents report Gabby missing. They find out the night of the 11th that Brian is home in Florida. And he has been there since September 1st. He has been there for nearly two weeks. He's been back home. Nobody has reached out to Gabby's family. In fact, they've blocked Gabby's parents. What could they possibly be doing for like 10 days or two weeks? They go camping.

Yeah. Nicole says when authorities told her what happened, the detective said, Brian's there with the van, not Gabby. And he's lawyered up. He has a lawyer already.

Nicole says I never felt anything like that in my life. My body would not stop shaking Jim is Gabby's stepdad. So she has she has a really beautiful blended family So she has Nicole her biological mother which they really don't even like the stepdad names because they've all been in Gabby's life since she was like a toddler So we've got Nicole and Jim her stepdad then you have Joe her dad and Tara her stepmom now both of the step parents are

They were also so distraught. They're collapsing on the ground. Like, what do you mean he's home? What do you mean he has an attorney? Why would he need an attorney? And instantly they start organizing a press conference. The four of them all help standing there raising, you know, pictures of Gabby and they're

pleading people to just help bring her home. Gabby's dad at the press conference says, what I need everybody here to do is help. The goal is not met. The goal is to bring Gabby home safe. All that I'm asking for right now is that. I'm asking help from everyone. I'm asking out for help for the parents of Brian. I'm asking for help of the family members and the friends of the Laundrie family as well. Just help us.

Within a day or two, the Gabby Petito case blows up all of our social media. I remember the floodgates opening, pretty much all my comments, emails, everybody was requesting coverage on this case. Meanwhile, Brian and his family are just releasing these weird statements through their attorney that read...

Reporters think this whole thing is so bizarre. They're commenting, I mean, we don't know what he told his parents, right? But the fact that his parents have been uncooperative, have not answered questions by the Petito family, I mean, imagine if this was their son that was missing.

It gets so enraging that there are protesters now stationed outside the Laundrie family home screaming, "Where is Gabby? Tell us where she is!" Also, the investigation is now what? All the way from Wyoming, where Gabby was last seen, all the way to Florida. Because it's proven that Brian drove the van back all the way back to Florida. He drove over 2,500 miles. Gabby could be anywhere in the country at this point.

So people start digging. Netizens start going through everything that they can find online. They find Gabby's blog that was just posted days before she goes missing. The vlog shows it's her very first YouTube vlog. It shows her and Brian camping in their van. And it's a really aesthetic vlog. I mean, there's nothing abnormal. It looks like the ideal van life trip. You're saying this is like she just started this whole journey. Yes. The first video. Yes. Yes.

and people are trying to figure out how long have they been together? i mean what do we even know about this couple? gabby and brian met in high school but it wasn't until after high school that they start dating. probably because in high school it seems like gabby was able to make friends very easily. brian is um he's the guy that likes to sit alone at the cafeteria and he says weird stuff. like he likes things like "eat the spaghetti to forget your regretty"

It's like not, I mean, it's not bad or nefarious. It's just kind of random and weird. A lot of people remember Brian in school as having quote zero friends. He liked movie quotes more than friends. He liked quotes that were deep and philosophical in his eyes, such as through my indifference for people, I've been placed outside of their society. Now I live in a ghost world enclosed in my dreams and imaginings.

Also, he just looked 10 years older than he actually was. One friend of Brian's said, What?

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One friend from high school said they were both very different. So Gabby was very different from everyone, but in like the old soul way. She had a very peaceful, serene calmness to her. And she was very artistic. So she didn't fit in necessarily with like the very...

generic trends that we all love, right? She was just kind of doing her own thing. Brian didn't fit in for like his own different reasons, but it's not because he was necessarily this artistic soul. If you look through his Pinterest account, which I spent way too many hours doing, it seems like his focus on is more so wanting to appear like an artistic soul. He doesn't seem like a genuinely artistic person.

So they're very different in their own ways. But I think the only commonality that they have is that they're both different from the regular crowd. A little boy that Gabby would babysit would say, Gabby was just someone that was living with rainbows. I don't know. That's the best way they can describe it.

Whereas Brian is a loner because it seems like he just wanted to be a loner. And the very few friends that he spoke with, some of them said it felt like he hated the human species sometimes. I mean, who knows if this was planned by Brian or not. But the only things that initially bonded them together are they both like the beach. They both like Star Wars. They both like nature. And also Forensic Files, the TV show. Some people think that Brian...

specifically wanted to reconnect with Gabby after high school and made a chance happening occur but that's just a theory just putting it out there

In one journal entry, Brian writes, Where was this from? A journal that the FBI released in a vault. Document dump.

Hmm.

Now as for Gabby, a close friend of hers states that after she started dating Brian, she was actually getting bullied by all of her other friends. Which yeah, I don't think they're good friends, but she says it was something about Brian that they didn't like her being with. Gabby was upset with it. I went through it with her and I was just like screw them. They don't know you. Gabby's family also didn't really think that the relationship between Gabby and Brian was that serious. It wasn't until they see an Instagram post from Brian that they realize that the two of them are engaged.

They think it was weird, but it wasn't like a raging red flag. So Brian never asked Gabby's dad for his blessing, which they were a little bit offended by. They were upset by it. And also the fact that they found out on Instagram. But when they called Gabby to be supportive, it seemed like she just didn't want people to know about it. And they thought it was weird. And she just kept reassuring them. No, it's because I'm young, you know? We're just like going with the flow. Like I'm not...

We're still young. Yeah. I do think finding out about the engagement news on Instagram was probably startling for Gabby's parents. But I think the one thing is there was no engagement ring.

So perhaps it didn't feel necessarily that set in stone. And I think that it's a very tricky balance of not trying to over parent a 22 year old child and being overprotective and like freaking out. Like, what do you mean you're engaged versus just trying to be understanding? And I don't I think that Gabby was very chill about it is kind of how everyone describes it.

So afterwards, Gabby and Brian decide that they're going to buy the 2012 Ford Transit Connect white van. They're going to design it, build it. They're going to make this so beautiful. This is going to be their van life. And it does appear that Gabby was willing to invest a lot more money on this entire trip than Brian was. She's working 50 hours a week at Taco Bell to save up money for this trip.

One of Gabby's closest friends said she started working like 50 hours a week. She's like, I have to tell all the customers to have a taco-tastic day and I love it. I'm like, you're so weird, but okay. Meanwhile, Brian, who is not working nearly as hard as her, he's kind of upset that she's working at Taco Bell. Gabby's parents didn't even know about this at the time, but Gabby's friend said, I mean, she would work and then she would hang out with me. So this is a friend from Florida that she made. She like met this friend on Bumble Friends. Her name is Rose.

And that is when Brian started feeling neglected and having this possessiveness over Gabby. That's what Rose says.

In fact, he made her feel like shit that she was spending all of her time working at Taco Bell. He wanted her to spend all her time with him. He would text her. So it wasn't because of Taco Bell. It's just he doesn't want her to be working? So previously, they both worked at Publix together where it appears the speculation is that at Publix, he could control her or keep an eye on her. Whereas at Taco Bell, he doesn't really know who she's talking to, who she's hanging out with. And then afterwards, she's like, yeah, maybe I do want to go hang out with my girlfriend because...

I'd want to let off steam. I'm working 50 hours a week. He would text her. This is in the Netflix documentary. I'll be happy when I see you, but I'm so pissed right now. I fucking hate that you ever worked at Taco Bell with all those low lives. She responds, okay, dot, dot, dot. Well, I know. Sorry. I don't know why you had to turn into one of them. Fucking disgusting.

What does that even mean? I don't know. It seems like he feels like all the people working at Taco Bell are lowlifes and he doesn't like Gabby hanging out with him. There's really no, not even anecdotal evidence that the people that she was hanging out with, the people that she was working out with or working with were strange by any regard. It just seems like he looked down on Taco Bell. He would even reach out to Gabby's mom, Nicole, telling her things like, Gabby's working really late every night and she's hanging around these people and they're bad people.

Nicole said, I kind of believed it at the time because it just seemed like he was trying to take care of her. And it just seems that while she's at work, he would have these very frantic text messages that he would bombard her with. Sometimes it's the, I freaking hate the low lives. The next time it would be, please, please forgive me for calling your mom, but I'm fucked in every aspect of my life right now. I just wanted this week to go smoothly. I'm crying so fucking hard in the dumb bathroom typing this. Gabby doesn't respond.

Brian texts back and I know you love me and I'm sorry I worry that you'll just leave and it's just that I couldn't have my life without you finally Gabby responds no no honey I didn't want you to be sad today I love you so much I'm sorry I'll never leave Brian responds I'm crying right now but it's okay I was just saying how it was so crazy I was alone for so long and I was so happy for now that I love you so much every second alone I'm just stuck with the person that I hate no hate all love here that's a Gabby response

So a lot of close friends just started having this sneaking suspicion that he didn't want her to work and that she did and he was mad about it. He always tried to get her to do what he wanted and he wanted the van life and he rushed it so that she wasn't able to work anymore. It seems like the van life is to get her alone.

Meanwhile, Brian is not even trying to work towards his fan life. He's out here selling his copycat art bookmarks for $4. He hasn't had a real job in months. And I say copycat art because he does a lot of tracing art. That's why I said that he seems like the type that wants to be perceived as artistic, but is perhaps not the most creative genius soul that ever existed this earth or like very far from it. Hmm.

Now, one of Gabby's closest friends, Rose, she said, you know, when we first started hanging out, neither of us had friends. She texted me saying, you seem cool. I really want to be your friend. Can we be friends? And I was like, yeah, I would be happy to be your friend. And we just went everywhere together. We would tell people that she was my emotional service human. I worked at Domino's as a delivery driver and Gabby would sit in the car with me and ride around. So when I met Gabby, I was in one of the lowest points of my life.

This is what Rose is saying. I just saw the bad in everything, but she made me realize that I should be seeing the good. I never had somebody make me feel so important that like my life mattered. Gabby probably made Brian feel the same way that she made Rose feel, which is very safe, very cared for. But Brian doesn't try to appreciate it and give her reciprocate those feelings. It seems like he's so panicked that something is going to happen.

He keeps bombarding her with messages all the time. Hey, honey, I don't want to keep bothering you with my texting about how much I love you, but I really miss you. I'm sorry I've been so anxious. I'm really trying to focus on getting our life together so that we can hit the road. I'm definitely getting a lot done. Working on the van right now. If she doesn't respond right away, he'll text back. Oh, man, you took over the Spotify, but you can't text me back. So I guess they were sharing a Spotify where only one person can listen at a time.

So he's like, oh man, you took over the Spotify, but you can't text me back. I miss you so much. You hurt my feelings. Gabby responds, sorry, I just got service back. I tried to text you. Please relax. The first strange thing that Rose realized though, is that Rose and Gabby had the find my friend app with each other because they're like, this makes me feel safer. When Brian finds out about it, he makes Gabby delete it.

And Rose thought it was weird, but she says, I didn't push the issue because I didn't want it to cause an argument with him. He was always worried that she was going to leave him. It was like a constant thing to try to get us to stop hanging out. He would demand that she be home for dinner. And then often he would cut our hanging out time short. He would demand to pick her up from my house, even when I had a car and I offered to drive her home. And then finally, one day, Gabby tells Rose, Brian wants to meet you.

And I was like, oh, okay. You know, we were all going to go to the beach together. And he kind of just like sat back there and read his book while Gabby and I hung out. It felt weird. It felt like a parent was watching us on a play date. It was very weird. Apparently he had set up a hammock just like behind them.

like a supervisor not next to them not near them because I understand if you're like we don't really have much to talk about we're at the beach I'm gonna read my book but it's like there's a video clip of it he's just I want to say like a hundred feet away in his hammock just watching them and reading his book

I mean, Rose says, yeah, it was like a play date. It was weird, but he was very nice. I do remember coming home and saying to my mom, she was like, how was it? How was her boyfriend? And I was like, he's a really nice guy. I don't know. There's just something off about him. And that just started becoming more and more clear as our friendship progressed.

But the most alarming sign, Rose says, is one night, Rose and Gabby, they make this whole plan that they're going to go line dancing. Girls night, they're going to go to the bar, line dancing. What's line dancing? I think it's like country dancing almost. Oh, okay. It's not like, and even if it were, it doesn't matter. But it's not like, I wouldn't say it's very sexy dancing. It's like fun, you know? So Rose is waiting for Gabby. Gabby's 30 minutes late.

And then she's an hour late and now she's an hour and a half late. What is taking her so long? Rose is texting Gabby and she gets this long winded response that just doesn't even make sense. She said that she was driving towards Rose's house, got near Rose's house and then realized she didn't have her ID. She needs her ID to get into the bar to go line dancing. So then she went back home to get it. But then...

Again, that wouldn't have taken that long. But Gabby is explaining. But oh my gosh, sorry. I was fighting with Brian. Like I'm hurrying though. I'm on my way. He stole my wallet. I'm literally crying. I don't know why I'm crying. I'm crying. I'm sorry. I really am on my way though now.

And Rose said, Brian just took her ID so that she wouldn't be able to come out with me. Brian did not want her to go out. So he took her ID and she was hysterical. She was upset. And she just kept saying like we were fighting. And I'm like, but why? And she just would start sobbing again. No explanation. And I'm like, this doesn't make any sense. So Rose is saying it felt like Gabby was holding back.

And she kept saying, you need to tell me what happened because this is a very big response. Like, it doesn't seem like you guys were just fighting. Like, is there something more? Like, did you guys fight about something else? Like, did something happen? But Gabby would not open up.

Now, obviously, okay, side note, here's a crazy thing. A lot of people were dogging on Rose for the longest time. When this first initially, this case was breaking out and this was progressing and everything was unfolding in the public eye, a lot of people were accusing Rose of not doing enough to help Gabby or people were even coming up with these insane conspiracy theories that Rose was having an affair with Brian.

that's crazy but also i mean just think about it like nobody in gabby's life really knew what was happening and that's the scary thing about domestic violence like that's not a one-off thing that's typically how it is that's why it's so nefarious and even with something like this i'm sure if gabby had marks on her face after this rose would not be like no you need to tell me what happened but i'm just trying to put myself in rose's situation if that was my girlfriend i would think

Maybe the fight was deeper than that. Like maybe there was something sensitive that they talked about that she doesn't want to open up to me about yet. Like I don't want to push her too much because then she's going to close up. Yeah. If I don't see marks, I don't know if I would ask her like, did he hit you? Did he touch you? Like I don't think that I would, you know? Yeah.

Now later, especially if Brian was not showing any of that to Rose prior, which he wasn't, he wasn't showing that to anyone. Now later text between Gabby and Brian will show her feeling extremely frustrated with him about this. She texts him, don't try to control me because it makes me so mad. I love you so much, but it's the way you speak to me that hurts me the most. Rose says, I mean, obviously hindsight is great. Hindsight is 20-20.

So probably in hindsight, it seemed like he was just very jealous. Honestly, like a jealousy problem, which I understand because you look at Brian and then you look at Gabby and you're like, Gabby could have anyone in the entire world. That's what Rose said. Now, speaking of jealousy, this is the same guy that sends messages to friends that are girls on their birthdays.

And the way he's like flirting with these people is crazy. So she was actually in the Netflix documentary and a lot of people are also coming up with conspiracy theories about her. No, I think that it could be the editing of the Netflix documentary. I think that it could be the fact that she is there to be...

the perspective of Brian's friend. It seems like she was friends with both Brian and Gabby, but she was probably closer to Brian. And I think the stories that she shares, some people were trying to make it seem like, oh, she's obsessed with Brian. Like she wants to date Brian. She was jealous of Gabby. Perhaps she's just trying to show the side of him that seems very loving to make people realize this is what he does.

Like for her birthday, he would send text messages like, It's National Bluebird Day. The bluebird is known for its beauty and the joy it brings through its song. Like how Doris Day sings in her classic Bluebird on your windowsill. There's a bluebird. There's a rainbow. The rainy days may come and go, but the clouds will roll away. Don't sweat the small stuff, bluebird. Happy birthday. This is not while they're dating, right? With Gabby's date. This is a little bit prior to when they're dating. Mm.

Now, it sounds very intimate, especially because this is the same friend that he once built a desk for. So he was staying over at her place and she had a desk that came in. So they're building this desk together. She doesn't think much of it. Later, she opens a drawer in the desk and she sees this little note. It reads, you are either my best friend or the love of my life. And I'm too dumb to tell the difference. Okay, I thought this was insane in the documentary.

I know some people took it and ran with it. And I saw TikToks that were like, you could never get me to admit something like this on national television. I don't think that she's sharing this story in like a, look at us, we had a thing kind of way. This is the way he writes is very poetic. Mm-hmm.

I think that he's very easily the type to write these very elaborate prose, poems, letters to really romanticize a relationship. And I have done some research of abusers that will try to romanticize the relationship. So it almost seems like, no, the abuse is like so difficult because love is hard. But we have to, our love is like one of a kind. That's why it's harder than everybody else's love and nobody understands it. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And like just the way that he writes this letter, leaves it in the desk. Yeah. It seems that, no? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. But he's very possessive, compulsively jealous of Gabby. And while there's these red flags, it doesn't seem like the red flags are glaring enough for everyone to do anything. Everyone just tries to tell Gabby, just take it slow. You're young. He does seem a little jealous, maybe a little controlling. You're 22. What?

Like do what makes you happy and we're going to support you. That is what Rose tells Gabby. Rose says in hindsight, I think the way that, you know, she's trying to describe the way that Brian treats people. She says it can make you blind to see, you know, oh, he was just making you feel unworthy of his love just for him to turn around and be like, look what I did for you.

Because she's saying like there's so many moments where he's cooking breakfast for her. He's doing all these things for her. Even during the new Netflix documentary, there's vlog footage that's been released that never seen before. Gabby is constantly apologizing to Brian for things. She's crying. She's blaming herself. She's putting herself down saying that she sucks at this. She sucks at vlogging. And Brian does nothing. Who's vlogging this?

Gabby so this is I'm assuming that the parents released this footage for the documentary So these are like behind the scene clips of her vlog the one vlog that was posted on YouTube and there are moments where she stops and she you can clearly tell she feels so uncomfortable in front of the camera and she just says things like I Suck in front of the camera like I feel so awkward in front of the camera. He doesn't even say no, honey. You're fine He just stares at her Just lets her spiral

Now, obviously, none of this was shown to Gabby's family at the time. Nicole, Gabby's mom, she says, you know, when I met Byun, I thought he was a little socially awkward, but very polite. Gabby's stepdad, Jim, says he was quiet. He was kind of quiet. Shook your hand, though, looked you in the eye. We liked him.

July 2nd, 2021, they fix up that Ford van and they decide cross-country road trip. This is where it starts. This is where it all begins. And I mean, they're thinking that in a positive way, but it is a lot harder than they expected, I think. I mean, you see van life online. It seems nice. A lot of them have bathrooms and kitchens inside the van. It's this van is quite literally a big SUV. It fits a single mattress. That's pretty much the entirety of the car. You can't even stand up or lay down comfortably.

But Brian also has a thing for feet. He likes being barefoot everywhere he goes. He would tell Gabby, get rid of your hiking shoes. When we hike through the national parks, we got to go barefoot. We got to be grounded, which sounds great. Feel the soil, feel grounded. But then you also realize that the ground is blistering hot and there's a bunch of black widow spiders trying to crawl between your toes.

I will say that this is a huge point of contention. Not the dirty feet, but the fact that Brian will go barefoot, hike around all day, like sweat caked in between his toenails. And then this tiny little van where they sleep, make their food, where they work, he doesn't wash his feet. He just like brings all the dirt, dust, everything into the bed.

how do we know all of this because gabby was like explaining it even in the um moab footage where the police pull them over it's like a kind of a point of contention that they have okay now i have heard people who like being barefoot but

Brian does it in a very annoying way. It just kind of makes you want to shove his foot in his mouth. It's great, but you can't act like everyone else is less enlightened because they prefer to wear shoes. During one hike, according to an Instagram post by Gabby, they're all hiking and near the pinnacle of this hike is this giant rock. Everybody's climbing up to take pictures. Gabby climbs up.

These strangers take pictures for her for her Instagram. And when she hops off, this man approaches her in front of everybody and comments on her shoes. Now, Gabby writes in the Instagram post, she's not for certain, but she's pretty sure that that guy works for REI, which is the shoe brand, like the outdoors brand. Because the way that he's asking about the shoes, it felt very like,

You're getting intel on the customers. She starts giving this small presentation to everyone that's waiting in line to take pictures on this rock. And everybody's staring at her shoes. Some of them are asking about her shoes like, oh, those are comfortable. Wait, where did you get those? Like, do you need to size up? Do you need to size down? How long have you been wearing them? Meanwhile, Brian is likely off to the side barefoot and probably annoyed.

We don't know for sure if he's annoyed, but it does seem like he likely would be. He seems very holier-than-thou, everyone needs to be barefoot. He already doesn't like the fact that Gabi's trying to do van life YouTube. And the fact that she's getting attention from anybody is probably not making him happy. So he wanted to do van life, but he didn't like the YouTube aspect. No, he just wants van life. Yeah.

Rose says, when Brian wants something, he's going to get it. And I don't mean it in like a physical way. He's going to force it. He's just going to. I mean, I don't want people to say I'm calling him a full manipulator, but he'll manipulate the situation to get what he wants out of it. And he didn't want her to go out one night with me. He stole the ID. And it's just...

they're engaged. their relationship is not supposed to be like that. i think it was all clicking for her. the more it went on, like the more her and i were talking and hanging out and having a good time, she actually felt more independent. and that's when he's like, "okay, i gotta do something to change this. let me isolate her. if i get her away from her job, if i get her away from her friend, she only has me." and the next thing you know, they're gone on their van trip. many people would argue the most important part that makes or breaks a road trip is the playlist.

A new Spotify playlist called Self Consumption pops up. The songs seem like they're created for like a long distance road trip spanning about probably 2,500 miles, which is going to take about 30 hours to drive. And a playlist is going to tell you everything about how that person is feeling about this drive. A lot of songs on this playlist have this airy, psychedelic rock vibe. It's not too loud. It's very dreamy, almost nostalgic. It sounds like a song from the 70s.

One of them is called Take My Hand by Matt Berry. The lyrics read, I can see the light, it looks like you. So say you'll come, please don't go, so take my hand.

There's another song called Woman by Matt Berry. It's a bit slower, a bit darker. The lyrics read, But then the songs get darker.

There's one called Super Organism. The lyrics, I think in any other situation would be fun. They read, when I grow up, I want to be a super organism. Come on, give it to me. Put your mind in my brain and you'll see everything is better when you're everything. I mean, the song's pretty upbeat. I mean, another lyric goes, oh, just relax. Just relax. Our ride must still be wet. I bet too much honey will put you in debt. Stop giving yourself a cold sweat. So just relax.

But then the song choices get increasingly alarming with the playlist. There's one called, okay, so the song itself is good. It's called Show Me, but the lyrics are quite eerie. It sings, way to go, just keep nodding until your head comes off. Then kiss her head goodnight. Tomorrow's filled with sounds and thrills and flashing lights. These songs are added in like one by one? Yes, added to the playlist, curated for a road trip.

So it's not like an auto-suggestion shuffle. It's like the at plus, plus, plus. It's not like a Spotify-generated, here's what we think you'll like. Yeah. No. Wow. Another one is titled Badger's Wake.

And the lyrics do have netizens kind of questioning why someone would want to specifically listen to this specific song in this specific context. The lyrics read, This is the playlist Brian Laundrie allegedly created for

for his road trip back home from Wyoming to Florida alone without Gabby in Gabby's white van after he strangled and killed her. Which leads a lot of netizens to question, is Gabby the only one Brian could have killed? When this case was unfolding, this was a huge question. Everybody, like there were so many theories. Nearby in Moab, Utah, which is where they were stopped by the police,

So the stop by police incident, like what part of this journey was it? Were they in the road trip, midst of the road trip? So they, it's like a month into the road trip. They left early July. This was August 12th. And then she will, she will be missing like technically August 27th. So in like two weeks. Yeah. Okay.

Now, in nearby Moab, Utah, two women were found dead at another campsite. They were partially unclothed and shot in a campground. Kylan Schulte and Crystal Beck, the

The two were married and they both worked at the same place. They were actually both found in a campsite in the mountains that Brian and Gabby were believed to have visited. So according to friends, Kylan had told them that if they were going to die, if something were ever going to happen to them at this campsite, it was murder. That there was like this creepy guy lurking around their campsite. So

So a lot of netizens, of course, they start theorizing, wait, Brian and Gabby were in Moab, Utah around the same time, which means Brian could be responsible because there is a connection here, right? Also, the connection gets deeper. Kylan worked at Moonflower Co-op. Kylan and Crystal actually observed they saw Gabby and Brian getting into an argument outside the Moonflower Co-op. It's like a restaurant. Hmm.

And she actually told her father about it, describing Brian as being creepy. And then later she tells her friends that there's a creepy guy hanging around their campsite. Some people on the internet start speculating. Their theories start just kind of rabbit holing. I mean, maybe they all ran across each other on the trail. Maybe Gabby starts getting close to the couple, perhaps even forming a bond of friendship. Brian sees it as a threat. Maybe this is her way out. Gabby thinks, I'm just going to leave with this couple so that I can maybe go back home. He's got to eliminate the potential threat.

Others write, I personally think Brian was hitting Gabby and the couple saw and wanted to do something. And then Brian killed them out of anger. They were killed in Moab, Utah, August 14th. So that's two days after Gabby and Brian were pulled over in the same city. And they saw Gabby and Brian fight at the Moonflower Co-op. Mm-hmm.

A statement is released by the FBI stating that Brian was not involved in the two deaths. Ultimately, a man named Adam, a former co-worker of Crystal, confessed to the killing of the couple after he, well before he self-exited. He used to work at the same McDonald's as Crystal. So if Adam killed Crystal and Kylan, then now people are still wondering, then what still happened to Gabby? Like nobody knows still.

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If Brian and his parents are not willing to talk, all people can do is trace the couple's steps.

And the first thing that they come across is August 12th, 2021. A family reports seeing Brian acting very alarmingly. They would later tell the FBI that Brian was acting like a quote unquote lunatic. What does that even mean? They explain, I don't know, sporadically opening and slamming doors, pacing around the van. He seemed to be pleading with the female. And at one point he had tried to hug the female, but he was pushed back by her.

Brian eventually pushes Gabby's legs into the van, closes the door, gets in the driver's side, and they say that they saw Brian start crying. This is minutes before they're pulled over.

is this the reporting group? There's two 911 calls made that day. One of them was saying, I don't really know what's going on. It seems like Brian is in the driver's side. Well, they don't know Brian's name. They're like, it seems like the guy is in the driver's side and it seems like he doesn't want the girl to get into the van. The girl is like trying to climb through the window to get into the van, but he's not letting her in the van. And

And so he that caller is kind of confused. Like, I don't know who started it. It just seems like a mess. And then the second caller is like, hey, so I saw him chase her down the sidewalk and slap her across the face. And then now these people, this family that saw them, they actually don't report this to the FBI until way later. They're like, I actually saw them that day, too.

It was just kind of weird. And we didn't really know if it was worth reporting because, you know, he gets into the car. They're both kind of crying in the car. It seems like a really unfortunate couple's fight. So August 12th, 2021, 15 days from the last contact with Gabby, dispatch receives those calls. And again, main one, gentlemen slapping the girl, stating that they stopped the car and the couple are like running up and down the sidewalk. He's proceeding to hit her.

Police pull the van over and now let the investigation begin. Do the due diligence because maybe the witness saw wrong. Maybe there's more to the story because there's three different witnesses now. But it's very bizarre where this traffic pullover actually ends up.

Officers pull the couple over. Like I said, Gabby is in the passenger seat. She's crying. She's upset. Brian is driving. He's so calm. He's explaining, it's just been a long day. Gabby's trying to apologize on behalf of Brian. I was distracting him from driving. I'm sorry. Like she's trying to say, I'm the reason that he hit that curb. The officer takes Gabby to the side to talk and she says...

Yeah, I don't know. It's just some days I have really bad OCD and I was just cleaning and scraping up the back of the van before and I was just apologizing to him. I'm saying like, I'm so sorry. Like I'm so mean because sometimes I have OCD and sometimes I just get really frustrated. Not like mean towards him. I guess my vibe is like I'm in a bad mood and I was just saying I'm sorry if I'm in a bad mood. I just get really stressed and I had so much work I was doing on my computer this morning. Okay, what do you do for a living?

Well, I just quit my job to travel across the country and I'm trying to start a blog and a lot of stuff. So I've been building my website and I've been really stressed. And then she starts kind of like a lot of body language experts have overanalyzed the footage and I tried not to fall too deep into it. I think body language is kind of hard to decipher, but she does start self-soothing a bit. And she says, and he doesn't believe that I can do any of it. And she sounds really upset. Yeah.

She says, that's been kind of like, I don't know. He's down. I don't know. We've just been fighting all morning and he wouldn't let me in the car. Now, mind you, this is Gabby's car. Why wouldn't he let you in the car? Because of your OCD? Which like, what kind of question is that, officer? But she says, he told me I needed to calm down, but I'm perfectly calm. Calm. I'm like calm all the time. He just really stresses me out. And this was like a really rough morning.

So you're kind of having a rough day, it sounds like. Yeah, I mean, it happens to be a beautiful day here in the park. We camped in the Devil's Garden. Oh, that's fun. That's a beautiful campground, isn't it? Yeah. So the officer puts her in the back of his car with a clear mention. She's not in trouble. It's just hot outside. Like, we just want you to get some AC. You're not in trouble. Just relax. Catch your breath. The officers then go talk to Brian. The officers then go talk to Brian, who explains...

That's my girlfriend. That's my fiance. She gets worked up. I was trying to distance myself from her. So I locked her car and I walked away from her, which I think that statement alone is so strange. Why are you locking someone else's car? That's not your car. He says that they were having a nice morning, but Gabby got worked up because they're at this cafe. There were a lot of flies at the cafe and she just, they need to get the day going. They need to go get some water, but she didn't want to go because she's working on her blog.

The officers notice scratches on Brian's face, which they ask about them. And he says she had the cell phone in her hand. That's why I was pushing her away because she wanted, you know, I locked the keys so I could walk away. I said, let's take a breather and let's not go anywhere. Let's just calm down for a minute because she got worked up. And then she had her phone. She was trying to get her keys away. I was trying, you know, I know I, I know I push, you know, I was trying to push her away. Like, let's just take a minute, step back and breathe. But she got me.

The officer says, can I see your hand? Because you got a mark on your hand too. Oh yeah, that's from a wire. From a wire? Yeah. So you want to tell me about you hitting that curb? Oh, hitting that curb was her grabbing the wheel. What kind of mark does he have on his hand? Scratches. This is also very important. Scratches are very important. And so she grabbed the wheel. That's why you hit the curb. Yeah, she said, I can't believe you're getting pulled over and grabbed the wheel.

And what about the speed? Because you guys were speeding. Oh, no, I was just going fast. I'm sorry. I know it's probably just, you know, the moment. I'm still shaking right now. The adrenaline, seeing the lights flashing and then her gripping the wheel. So if I sped up, I'm sorry about that. Or if I was speeding beforehand, I'm sorry about that. Is he emotional or not really? No. So Gabby is like fully...

She's very, you know. She seems like very sad and distraught and scared. But he seems very collected in the moment. Yeah, overly collected. I just, okay, one thing to note is being collected in the presence of police is probably smart, regardless of who you are. However, I just can't imagine if your loved one is so distraught

And they separated you. I feel like I would be a little distraught of like, are they okay? Are they okay? Like, you know, is she okay? Is she doing okay? Yeah. I don't think I would just be like, yeah, sorry about that. Sorry about the speeding. Yeah. It took quite a bit to catch up with you. I'm sorry about that. I don't want to try and defend myself, but I pushed her away. She gets really worked up. And when she does, she swings. She had her phone. I was trying to push her away.

Brian's side of the events is that they had been at the coffee shop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Clearly, a very long time. There's lots of flies. Gabby is getting quote-unquote worked up. He states when they get back to the van, he and Gabby are both already in this very agitated state. And once he states that some sort of argument bursts out of small relationship things about like who moved the food or him having dirty feet...

He says he locked up the van and walked away because he felt that both he and Gabby needed a breather. But when Gabby tries to get the keys from him, he says that he just pushed her away. Just like, stop, take a break. You need a breather. And he says, I know I shouldn't have, but I just wanted to take a minute and take a breath. But he didn't want Gabby to have the keys because he didn't have his phone. He says he doesn't have a phone and he doesn't want Gabby to go anywhere because then he would be stranded without a phone.

This part is very interesting because like an hour later, he gives the officer his phone number and confirms the number by looking at his own phone, which is interesting considering didn't he just say he doesn't really have a phone? So he doesn't definitively say, I don't have a phone. He's just like, I don't really have like a phone. But then he pulls out a phone that's really a phone. That is a crazy bold face lie. Yeah. That he just...

pull out on the spot. And the officers just don't care.

Wow. The Moab investigative report says, again, this is coming from Brian, that when Gabby tries to get the keys from him, he says he was yelling back up, get away. Brian said he was trying to calm her down and pointed out to Gabby that everyone's watching this. Even this thing was so insane to me that the police were like, oh, that makes total sense because I too get more calm when everyone says, hey, calm down. Everyone's looking at you. Hmm.

The report further states that Gabby tells the police that she hit Brian first. Now, the way that...

And okay, being very careful with my wording here, I think that DV goes both ways. I think that there's lots of situations where someone who is physically weaker can be much more physically abusive or can be much more emotionally, psychologically abusive. I don't think that there really is that discrepancy here. I think the problem with it is the police are just running with everything that she's saying. Even the way that she's describing that she hit him first,

It doesn't sound like she's decking him. It's okay. Even when she says that when they were getting pulled over, she slapped his arm and she said, you're such an idiot. Like now we're getting pulled over. I imagine it's probably like, like, look at what you did. You're such an idiot. I don't think she's like, they're slapping him, but she does admit because she's trying to be very honest. I guess I hit him first, but then she later states, well, he grabbed my face and

That's how it started. So the way she shows Brian grabbing her face is an aggressive palm grabbing her cheeks. I don't know any situation where I think that this type of aggressive face holding is any appropriate.

I think even lovingly, it could be a little aggressive. I mean, I guess if it's lovingly and everyone loves it, but it's just, it's a very aggressive motion. And he does it so hard that she has bleeding on her cheek. So it's not like he's just grabbing her face, which is already alarming, but it's bleeding.

but I guess grabbing her face roughly does not constitute as a physical action against her to the officers because they just completely bypass it. They completely ignore it and they're like, oh, so you hit him first. And she's kind of agreeing because they're asking all the right questions and she says, I mean, yeah, like he didn't punch me in the face. Even just the way that the officers ask questions is kind of, for lack of a better word, dumb. They're just asking, did he hit you though?

She just explained that he grabbed her face so much that she's bleeding. But did he hit you, though? I mean, it's okay if you're saying that you hit him. I understand if he hit you. But we want to know the truth, if he actually hit you. That's when Gabby's like, I guess I hit him first. Because, you know, where did he hit you? I mean, don't worry, be honest. He, like, grabbed my face.

But the investigation report continues. Gabby said Brian grabbed her face and said she could feel a cut on her left cheek. Gabby stated that when she touches it, it burns. That's it. That's literally it.

I mean, the first giant red flag of this entire situation is that the officers could have easily noted that his story does not match up with at least one of the witnesses. The witness stated, "I observed a man and a woman appear to have some sort of dispute. They're talking aggressively." And then he slapped her. The other witness that didn't see him slapping her, they even stated, "From my point of view, something definitely didn't seem right. It was as if the guy was trying to leave her and maybe take her phone in the van."

That's not what Brian is telling the police he did. He's saying no one's going to be in the van. Let's just cool off. So nothing he's saying is matching up with any of the witnesses. But on top of that, officers ask if Gabby takes any medications, but they ask Brian, to which Brian responds with a stupid chuckle smirk on his face. She's just crazy. Kidding. What? No, I don't think so. None that I know of. So he's like, she's just crazy. I'm just kidding. No, none that I know of.

Is this like a boys club? Brian's explaining that the fight that day was just over little relationship things and the officers and the officer says, yeah, I mean, I've been married for over five years. I get it. Later, when another officer, a park ranger arrives on the scene, she's getting filled in on the situation. One of the officers there, Officer Pratt says about Gabby, she's got a lot of anxiety. And from what she's claiming, she's the full on aggressor here.

So the officers start talking amongst themselves about whether or not Gabby should be charged. Ultimately, she's not. And people actually, a lot of netizens and even Gabby's family wish that she had been perhaps. Right. Yeah. Right. Like at least...

Follow the letter of the law. Like if the cops can't point out more deep nuances that they should genuinely be trained to point out, if they can't even do that, at least follow the letter of the law because that could have saved Gabby's life is what a lot of netizens feel.

But they're just arguing, you know? I mean, the reason they don't give us discretion is like, we don't know what's going to happen. Usually the women don't want them to go to jail and then they end up getting worse and worse treatment until they end up getting killed. The officers talk to Gabby telling her, you're dealing with some emotional struggles and mentally at your age and hopefully it works itself out. But the stuff you did today that contributed to this, because you both contributed to this, is a result of your inability to cope with the anxiety and stress you're having.

So in a way, you're kind of a victim in this. I think you would have done better if you had the skills to do better. But you don't learn skills until you learn skills.

If the tables were turned and he was beating on you and you were shoving him, of course, we're going to look at it like, oh, of course, she's defending herself to get away from this guy. We have to treat you guys both fair. Even if he's a bigger male and you're a smaller female, the law doesn't say, hey, Officer Pratt and Officer Robbins, you can treat people different based on gender. We can't, even if it makes no sense, because you probably could not physically destroy this man the way that he could if he attacked you. But we can't treat you different.

At one point in the interaction, the officer tells Brian straight up, you're the victim of domestic assault. And you just see this guy break out into this big old smile on his face. It's very bizarre. He seems, in the moment, I think the officers perceive it as, oh, I'm a man. I can't be a victim of DV. So they're like, no, no, but you are. You are. But in hindsight, it looks like he's relieved to some extent and kind of excited that the police are going with his version of events. Right.

And so with that, the police are going to take Brian to a hotel to decompress for the night while Gabby stays alone in the van. The two of them are told not to speak to each other the rest of the night. And the report reads, shelter was arranged for Brian utilizing a local community resource for victims of DV at no charge to him. So a DV nonprofit is paying for this. While Gabby was allowed to stay in the van that they had been traveling and living in. And the reason that they go with this, it...

From my opinion, it just seems like the officers don't want to do paperwork. One of the officers looks at the other one and says, look, another option is not charge them, but we separate them for the night. If they find themselves together again, what's it to you? You separated them. You provided for their safety. If he doesn't have enough sense to stay away and you got them separated, I mean, it's on them, right? So go full or nothing or in between and separate them and kind of give them the nod and the wink like, hey, it's up to you.

That night they are separated, but they end up calling each other and reuniting that night. Now, side note,

Gabby's parents were called, Gabby called her parents, and it probably appears that she didn't tell them the full extent of what was happening. And I think that she didn't even know the full extent of what was happening. It's, I think that a lot of reasons that this has become such a big case for DV is when you watch the footage, the way that she takes on all the guilt is very common in DV situations, but people just don't realize it. Yeah.

So I'm sure she's relaying similar information to her parents. Her parents still told her, we're going to buy you a plane ticket right home, like home right now. Leave the van. We'll ship the van back home. But she declined.

And later there will be an investigation into the way that the Moab police handle this. One investigation into this states that the officers seem to be working in complete confirmation bias. They're just so focused on Brian being the victim. They take so many pictures of Brian. They're like, lift up your shirt. Let's make sure you don't have injuries under your shirt. What about your hands? What about your face? They do everything. There's not one single picture of Gabby's face injuries of where he's just grabbing her face.

But somebody saw he's slapping Gabby. The police do not go and find that witness. So they're supposed to talk to all the witnesses. They don't go and interview that witness until much later, until the case blows up.

And just to show you how nuanced and biased this entire, in my opinion, this entire incident was, another officer writes in his report about it that there were aspects in the statement that were inconsistent with Gabby's story. The report reads, not consistent with Gabrielle's statement, further suggesting her confused and emotional state.

The part that they're referring to is that Brian claims they swerved on the road because Gabby pulled the steering wheel. Gabby states she never touched the steering wheel. She's like, I would never touch the steering wheel. When the flashing lights came on, yeah, I did kind of slap his arm and I was like, you're such an idiot. Like it was more of like, you're an idiot. Like now we're getting pulled over. She's like, I did not touch the steering wheel. They write that because she does not admit to touching the steering wheel, she's like a confused and emotional state.

She's not a credible witness. So they're just taking Brian's side of the story truly as the truth. They're basing her story off of his. They're like comparing them two with Brian as the truth. And let's see if Gabby matches up. That's not how an investigation works. Later in the body cam, the two officers are even talking about the inconsistency. So they're like, so did he tell you why he said that he grabbed the wheel and turned it really hard? She said she was hitting him in the arm.

They're like, oh, okay. The officer's like, wait, maybe that makes sense. Maybe she didn't grab the wheel. Sounds legit. I mean, I'm sure if I'm driving and my arm is on the wheel and I'm getting hit on the arm, I'm probably pulling on the wheel. He's probably trying not to say that he hit her because he doesn't want her to get charged with assault. I listened to that like 30 times. He does say he's probably trying not to say that he hit her. But I think he means to say he's trying not to say that she hit him.

Because he doesn't want her to get charged with assault. Okay, so they miss said. Yes. So they're like, oh, Brian is saying she grabbed the steering wheel because he doesn't want to say that she physically assaulted him so that she doesn't get charged. So he made up this cover story.

Again, why are we creating these complex narratives for like what is happening? And they keep patronizing Gabby. Gabby's clearly emotional and upset. And one of the officers even makes comments that Brian seems pretty patient with her. Yeah, even though Gabby is telling them that she's just trying to get Brian to stop telling her to shut up and stop being mean to her.

And that he gets really frustrated with her with very small things. And the officer is like, he seems very patient with you. It's crazy because, you know, like they got these reports saying that, hey, a man was assaulting a woman, right? They shows up at the scene. They see a woman that's frantic and man that appears calm.

And they instantly believe a story that this woman is frantic and crazy and hitting him. And he's like, yeah, I get it. Like, you know, she's crazy, but you know,

I feel, I'm sorry, bro. You're a victim. Yeah. Like, it sounds like they're dumb. They're under trained and they have their bias towards DVs. So one of them was actually accused of DV. One of the officers. Yeah, that makes sense. Which we're going to cover more in depth in part two with a $50 million lawsuit.

But yeah. That's crazy, dad. Yeah. I mean, just the line of questioning that they have with Gabby. They're asking her things like, but you tend to have a lot of anxiety and stress. And she's like, a lot of anxiety. And he's usually pretty patient with you. Yeah, but I know that he definitely gets frustrated with me a lot. And she's just trying to explain. It was just a silly argument. We were just going to go get water.

And the officer's like, a silly argument where it came to putting hands on each other and he's got marks? Silly arguments don't involve hurting each other. I know you didn't, you know, that wasn't the intention, but silly arguments shouldn't go that far. Meanwhile, they apologize to Brian and they tell him, you know, but at the end of the day, I'm sorry that this has happened. I'm sorry that it went to this. And he's like, no, no, no, I'm sorry.

And Brian tries to reassure the officers. She was, I don't even want to say, I mean, she's already swinging on me. Multiple hands swinging, lots of hands, lots of nails, lots of rings. She has a lot of nails on her rings. And then he says, I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. They're like, you got three scratches on your neck. You got one on the left side of your face.

And again, I am not trying to demean any physical marks on a man just because I think DV only goes from one way to the other. But it's just very interesting that that type of energy is not carried out with Gabby Petito. It's fine if they were that serious about every injury and mark for both parties. But it's the fact that they're not. And they keep asking like, is it bruised or tender or anything like that? No, no, no. I'm fine. I love Gabby. I hope she doesn't have too many complaints about me.

I'm just, you know, I feel bad for acting out in public. I was just trying to be loud, trying to make her calm down and be like, look, everybody's watching, you know, just back up, get away, just give me some space, right?

Nevertheless, they take Brian to the DV hotel for survivors that it costs the nonprofit at least $150 for the night, telling him, just have a meal by yourself. Take a breath. You're going to be in a hotel room watching TV. Probably been a few months since you actually got to sit down and relax. There's AC, watch TV, take a shower. You're going to have everything you need, conditioner, all that good stuff.

Even in the car, Brian is asking the cop, "Do you listen to Rob Zombie? Like, do you get to play your own music in here?" "Heck yeah, dude! I got my own phone hooked up to this thing." "Oh, so you're just jamming all day?" "Yeah, man. It's not too hard. You get a few hours without having anything interesting happen or anything to get the old blood pumping real good, you know what I mean?" Unprompted, Brian just says, "I stuck my hands up because I didn't want to scare you when you guys pulled us over." "Oh, no, no, no. That wasn't even like a traditional stop, to say the least, so don't feel bad."

The officer says, like I said, you know, she seems a lot like my wife. My wife has really, really bad anxiety and she takes medications for it daily. Sometimes it's just not enough. Sometimes it just builds and it happens. Then he says something that even if this is true, just like as a wife with anxiety, I would feel really gross if my husband ever talked to someone like this about me, even if the intention is helpful.

Well, I will say this. When my wife got put on medication, within a week, I saw a complete turnaround in her attitude, her demeanor. I mean, she wasn't nearly as aggressive or angry or anything like that. It was a considerable difference in her day-to-day life. It made her quality of life better even. You know what I mean? It made my quality of life a lot better too because I don't have her being as stressed. Is this the cop that's accused of DV or no? Yes. Yes.

I believe this is Officer Pratt. It's Officer Pratt. So Officer Robbins was training under Officer Pratt. Yeah. Now, Rose, Gabby's friend who later sees the body cam footage says, it takes a lot for her to get that hysterical. So when I saw that body cam footage, I knew it was more than just a little argument. She's not going to slap him for no reason.

Side note, another thing is strangulation, which him grabbing her face is pretty much strangulation. I'm not saying that she was...

deprived of airflow, but it's like the first step to strangulation. Any hands around the face, grabbing of the face and the neck are some of the biggest indicators of domestic violence. Tara says, if a man ever puts their hands, Tara is Gabby's stepmom. If a man ever puts their hands around your neck, the chances of them killing you increases by 750%.

And a lot of the times with cases of strangulation, the defensive wounds are on the perpetrator. There's more markings on the perpetrator, not the victim, because the victim is trying to claw their way out. But the officers, they seem to have a natural inclination to believe that women are hysterical. So they side with Brian. And the same day of the Moab incident, that same day, wearing the exact same outfit, Gabby takes a picture of her face wearing

On her phone. And there is blood smeared on her eye. This picture is taken before the Moab police stop. So in the body cam footage, it is difficult to see everybody's exact injuries because it's grainy footage. But the fact that she has a picture like that, that is taken the same day, it's very hard to believe that the police didn't look at her injuries and go, wait, this seems a little bit serious. That takes place on August 12th.

August 27th, I mean, there's obviously things that happen between she's posting on Instagram, she posts on YouTube, but August 27th is the important day. Brian and Gabby decide that they're going to eat lunch at this Tex-Mex restaurant called Mary Piglet's. And Rose is actually going to be flying out to meet with Gabby soon. So this is supposed to be like a very upbeat time. But inside this little restaurant, there are other influencers.

there's a girl named Nina and Matt they're eating and they see this couple and Nina says I don't know just the girlfriend seemed very clearly emotional she was crying the guy was evidently very angry I would say he had a temper and that's when I started to take notice and I was like wow this guy is uh really and when I told Matt my exact words were he's creeping me out

The restaurant staff were also getting involved. Nina says, I just remember she was crying and was talking with the hostess and appeared she was apologizing for his behavior, his demeanor. He was angry and he was temperamental and it was so rude and it was enough to make me feel uncomfortable. I think the best way to describe Gabby in that moment is she seemed extremely emotionally overwhelmed. She seemed like she was at her breaking point. Hmm.

At one point, Brian storms out of the restaurant and Gabby tries running after him crying. Then Brian comes back in. He's like pissed off at the entire wait staff. The two of them leave the restaurant again. The server follows them out. It seems like there's some arguments about paying or not paying and Brian is going in and out of the restaurant for God knows how many times. Nina says he was just going in on all

all the hostesses and the waitresses. At one moment, we thought that he had walked out for good and he actually like left for 10 minutes. And then he came back just to start fighting all over again. It was like a dog with a bone and he was just very visibly angry. He was pissed off and he would not let it go. Whatever it was, he just kept getting angrier. And I just remember telling my boyfriend at the time, this guy's freaking me out. Just how persistent he is, the way he's acting, his demeanor, he's freaking me out.

When you say influencer, like, are they also like YouTubers or? I think they're predominantly on Instagram. Yeah, but I mean, the odds of that are interesting. Now, Gabby does follow Brian back into the restaurant at one point, and it appears that Brian is demanding a refund. When the manager refuses, she apologizes on his behalf and begs him, please, let's just go home.

That same day, the two of them are also spotted on Whole Foods security footage walking in and shopping for about 15 minutes. That is the last seen footage of Gabby in Jackson, Wyoming. If people can't ask Brian what happened,

They're just gonna start digging into his journals. They're just gonna try to dig into his Pinterest accounts everything now These journal entries were released later by the FBI But one journal entry which appears some of these are even before Gabby and Brian started dating I think a lot of people just want to know why they just want to know like what led to this what happened? Why what are your thoughts? Wait, so FBI release? Yes, a lot of these evidence. Yes later later. Oh

Now, one journal entry, it's possible that Gabby has never even seen or heard this side of him. But Brian writes, from a young age, children are programmed. TV shows make them one thing for a period of time. Adults who are tortured by the passage of time. TV creates godless children who don't feel the passage of time. They're empty shells, just standing compost. You can't learn. No matter what you see or read, your brain will interpret what it wants.

see what it wants to see. In one he writes, "Crying, I don't have emotions, I'm deprogrammed." Under that he writes, "Cheer up buddy, I want a beer."

Also in another seemingly fruitless attempt at being philosophical, he writes: "Every generation was filled with underdogs and heroes. Immigrants in the 40s were so brave. Underdogs were being oppressed. Indigenous underdogs being oppressed. By underdogs, I don't mean some sports movie for mouth breathers. I mean they were the minority." But when does the minority become evil? When does it become wrong? Is it a moral compass or merely just numbers?

He goes on to argue that because Hitler was one of the minority at the time, he writes, "...the ultimate underdog story. Not me justifying anything, just interesting how the world interprets things, because people are mathematic machines without programming."

In another, he just has drawings of skulls with the word "kill kill kill" written all over it along with the words "trust no one." In one piece of art that he created from stamps, he has grim reapers on the sides of the page and in the center he has seven sheep. The caption reads "grim reaper leading sheep to the slaughter and a mouse trap." He has another drawing that shows two people wrestling, fighting with weapons and the caption reads "how man treats one another."

Now I will say the art is on the darker end, but it's not particularly alarming. I know a lot of people try to make a big deal about his art. I think art to some degree can show maybe some insight onto the human psyche, but like a lot of people like really depressing art. A lot of people like really depressing books and movies and shows. It doesn't really mean much in my opinion, but there is one drawing where he uses watercolor to show a woman on fire and she's got a wound on her chest.

Which just has a lot of netizens speculating. In another journal entry, this is before he even starts dating Gabby. He writes, about a year ago, I went into a type of mania.

where I was smashing holes in the walls with my head, kicking through paintings, tearing whatever I was working on, pouring gasoline on myself to burn alive, but getting the lighter wet, parking out in murderland and listening to music with a gun to my head, wrestling alligators. I wanted to die, and the weird thing is, nothing has changed, but the timer's running out. Under the mattress is a loaded .357 Magnum revolver, a pull of the trigger, and all the problems would be over.

But once he and Gabbie start dating, it seems like his journal entries start

devolving into all about her about dreams that he has of her where he writes the ocean pours out of her blue eyes and the fire is out with one word the pain is gone brian oh how sweet she is to say we should get together but you know when you walk out that door she'll be gone forever again you're back in the car haunted by the eyes that you'll never look into again the pain burns fresh because you know it's just tonight you wake up and you're both free

Wow.

There's one more alarming piece of artwork that shows a wolf wearing a jacket. The jacket has the letter B on it. So a lot of netizens are speculating it means B for Brian. And then the next shows instead of B, it says sheep. It seems like a wolf in sheep's clothing. But also, is it Brian? Additionally, his Instagram is fascinating. He likes to write these very...

bizarre instagram captions humans are primates great apes in fact but i don't know how great we are as a species i think our culture our society has put itself above all living creatures creating needs purely to support destructive economic practices this tree doesn't require an apple watch he like posted a picture of a tree now side note gabby wears an apple watch

This tree doesn't require an Apple Watch. It doesn't stream its favorite shows or have a microwave oven or pay health insurance or drink grande iced caramel macchiatos. It's just a tree. We all need to learn to live with less. He posts this on Instagram a day after the Moab incident. So some people think it's like a jab at Gabby. It just like, why would a tree drink a grande iced caramel macchiato? And like, I think it's the very nuance of some people were saying that

When certain personalities make fun of usually a group of girls that like to drink grande iced caramel macchiatos. Like it's just like so filled with hate. It's just a drink. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not that serious. It's a beverage.

Of course, a tree is not going to drink that beverage. So some of the Instagram posts are getting analyzed in real time. I mean, some of the journal entries are released later by the FBI, but this Instagram, it's getting just everything on his Pinterest. Everything is just getting studied. Meanwhile, people start coming out to talk about the couple. One former coworker of Brian comes out to state. And again, take this with a grain of salt. But he says, Brian was a big yoga nut. He was always telling me I got to worry about my Zen.

He was like, don't drink plastic water bottles and stuff. I don't know. I thought he was a weirdo. He was like a volatile chameleon. That's the best way to describe him. He's the type to get pissed off pretty quickly. And he always had clean hands, despite the fact that we worked with plants and soil at a garden center. What does that mean? Just never gets his hands dirty. Is he even working? But his feet are dirty. Yeah.

And he just gives them the way he describes it is like a sleazy car salesman.

is the feeling which, but less sleazy, just more manipulative. He would say he knew how to talk to people. He knew how to make people like him. I mean, he knew how to make people happy and he knew how to make people buy the product that we had. He remembers seeing Gabby visiting Brian once at work. He says, Gabby was always a sweetheart. I mean, she was always very peaceful and very nice to me and was really outgoing. I think the only reason that she settled for him was that he wanted to travel because a lot of their peers are in college at that stage. Yeah.

Now another mutual friend commenting said, "I just felt like their relationship was always unstable. One minute they'd be like all over each other, the next minute he'd be like 'we're fighting' and then they always just had some drama. There was always something below the surface that things were not 100% wonderful."

and it's always the toxic jealousy. if gabby was talking to anybody that is a male, brian would walk up, walk over, very obviously drape his arm around her and pull her in for a kiss like mid conversation that just makes everybody feel awkward except for brian. that's how people describe it. it feels overly possessive like we know what you're doing and this is so bizarre because it's not even like like this is very strange. it felt like brian wanted everyone to know that gabby is quote his. now

For someone who is quite vocal online about all of his opinions about trees and Starbucks beverages and Apple watches, suddenly he's saying nothing. He and his parents are radio silent about where Gabby is. Gabby's parents are still looking for her. They send a public letter to the Laundrie parents. "We are writing this letter to ask you to help find our beautiful daughter. We understand that you are going through a difficult time and your instinct is to protect your son, and that's strong.

We ask that you put yourself in our shoes. We haven't been able to sleep or eat and our lives are falling apart. We believe that you know the location of where Brian left Gabby. We beg you to tell us. As a parent, how could you let us go through this pain and not help us? Gabby lived with you for over a year. She was going to be your daughter-in-law. How can you keep her location hidden? Please, if you or your family have any decency left, please tell us where Gabby is located. Tell us if we're even looking in the right place.

All we want is Gabby to come home. Please help us make that happen. And all Brian's attorney is doing is releasing statements like this. In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focuses their attention on in cases like this. And the warning that any statement made will be used against you is true. Regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms. Petito's disappearance, as such, on the advice of counsel, Mr. Laundrie is not speaking on the matter.

Rose, Gabby's friend, said, The FBI initially releases to the public that sometime during the 21st and the 24th, Gabby and Brian were at Grand Teton National Park.

If anybody has seen anything, please come forward. Now, there are a few people who have been in the area, like Jen and Kyle Bethune. They're also YouTubers. They're huge van life YouTubers. And the situation was, they were pretty impacted by the situation. I think it's probably closer to home.

They're in the same areas. They're living a similar lifestyle. A van life YouTuber goes missing. They're also a van life YouTuber. I think it was just something that was consuming a lot of their thought and minds at the time. And everybody in their friend groups were talking about Gabby's disappearance. But the dates just weren't adding up. They were not in Grand Teton on the 27th. So there's no way that Jen and Kyle would have seen anything.

Also, this is around the time of Jen's son's birthday. He would have turned 17, but he passed away in a car accident when he was seven. So this is all around kind of like a bit of a difficult time. And suddenly she gets a text message on the day of her son's birthday. Red White Bethune, that's her YouTube channel. Check any footage you have. The timeline has changed.

Who's texting? Friends. They're like, you got to check your footage. The authorities released, actually, Gabby and Brian were likely in Spread Creek August 27th or the 28th.

Which first to the 24th, which are the exact days that Jen was there. 27th and 28th. Jen says all the color and blood and life drained from my body. I was like, I have that. I have footage. Red, white and Bethune. They're searching for the footage. Okay. There's this one night that they keep thinking about it. And they were like, no, we're crazy because the timelines weren't matching up. They saw this white van parked. It was a Ford. And they remember seeing it parked because it had Florida license plates.

Jen and Kyle are from Florida. So they're like, oh my God, Floridians all the way in Wyoming. And like, when you go to these campgrounds, it's all about making friends. Like that's what the van life is about. Half of it is making friends with strangers. So they're like, we should talk to them. But nobody was in the van. So they just drove past it. That's what they remember. But then the timeline, because the FBI was like 21st to the 24th, they're like,

I mean, there's got to be lots of vans from Florida. But now the timeline has changed to the exact days that they're there. So they start scrolling through all their footage. And the fact that they have this is crazy. So they have this dual GoPro setup. One GoPro is facing outside their car as they're driving. So you almost see like you're the driver of the car. One is facing inside. So if one of them is driving and vlogging, you're going to get dual POV. Like that's the road that we're on. And here's my face. Uh-huh.

And sometimes they just leave it on for B-roll or sometimes they just forget to turn it off. So they start scrolling through all the footage and on their left, they spot the white van. And this does help the FBI narrow down the search area to a much more isolated location, a much more accurate location. What's going on there? It is believed that

by the time that they are driving past the van Gabby is already deceased and Shu is probably already placed in her final resting place but so they were able to use this footage find the exact campsite and then narrow down the search area and with that they have horseback teams they have lots of search and rescue out there they have teams on foot

One park ranger that was out there that day looking for Gabby, he says, all of a sudden, because they took this tip, all of a sudden, one of the team members saw what they believed was the body of an individual. She was laying on her side. She was wrapped up in a sweater. It was Gabby.

She was laying in a fetal position, wrapped up in a sweater. It was one of her favorite sweaters. Her hiking boots were laid next to her. There was evidence that someone tried to start a fire nearby, but there were no fire starting materials. The whole thing looked weird. Staged almost as if someone thought park rangers would believe maybe she got lost and tried to start a fire but died from the elements. Near her body is a revolver speed loader with ammunition.

and two arrows which they find similar weapons in Brian's home, family home and van later. The cause of death for Gabby is manual strangulation as well as blunt force trauma.

Gabby's stepdad Jim was in Wyoming. So the whole family they were trying to be very strategic about how to find Gabby So Jim was in Wyoming. I believe Nicole was in her mom was in New York I think her dad was in Florida like they're just trying to get all hands on the ground like boots on the ground Everyone's looking when was this now by this point like when September how long has it been? It's been like two three weeks

Jim had to call his wife, Nicole, Gabby's mother, and he had to call Joe, Gabby's father, and Gabby's stepmom, Tara. Jim says she was laying on the ground for weeks in the wild. I mean, he's not telling them this later in interviews, he says. She was just left there like a piece of trash by someone who was supposed to love her.

and I had to pick up that phone and compose myself. I had to call Nicole, get Joe on the phone, and Tara in a conference call and tell them from 2,000 miles away that our daughter was dead. It was the worst phone call I've ever made in my life. Joe Petito posts a picture of Gabby with the words, "She touched the world." Nicole says, "I watched those shows. I watched 60 Minutes and Dateline and 48 Hours and I always found it interesting.

It's always somebody else's family. You just never ever think it's going to be yours. Nicole and Gabby's stepdad say at that moment all we could pray for was she found peace and she was looking at the mountains behind her. Maybe at that moment she would just put herself in a better place. That's all we could hope for. Less than 24 hours after Gabby's autopsy is released, Christopher Laundrie, Brian's dad, is outside the family home mowing his lawn.

There's protesters, news reporters outside. He's mowing his lawn. I mean, it's pretty clear Brian probably killed Gabby, but why are you mowing your lawn and why would he kill her? August 22nd, 10 days after the Moab incident. So this is, we didn't really know this at the time three years ago when the case was unfolding. This was more so confirmed through the Netflix documentary. August 22nd, 10 days after the Moab incident. So this is five days prior to her death.

estimated date. Gabby sends a text message. Hi, I'm sure I'm the last person on the planet you want to hear from. I would really love to talk to you. I'm only alone until tomorrow. She sends it to a guy named Jackson. This is her ex-boyfriend.

So Jackson calls her and he says, Gabby was most certainly my first love, but just the time that we were together, it just wasn't right for the two of us. We dated for a year before she dated Brian. And when I noticed through social media that they were dating, you know, they were a little bit of ways into their trip. It was definitely a very eye-opening experience for me because that was something that we spoke about wanting to do together. Buying a van and traveling the country, seeing her being all happy and smiley and laughing on videos and stuff like that. I definitely was like, dang, that was supposed to be us.

But I was still super happy for her because I knew that's what she wanted. On August 22nd, I got a text from Gabby. My mind started racing. I was like, hey, I'd love to be able to talk to you. It's been a while. It'd be nice to catch up. And I called her. A lot of what we talked about was just catching up, how life was going for her, for me. It was real late in the evening whenever we got to the end of the phone call. I just got the vibe that she may have still needed somebody to talk to after we hung up. So I was like, hey, if you need to talk again, let me know.

I was like, you know, I'm okay with that. And during this time is when she was like kind of hinted at the fact that she had gotten in a bit of an argument. She was like, I have a plan. I think I'm going to leave him.

I'm going to do it. I have to figure out when to do it. And that's when I was like, what are you talking about? What do you mean you have a plan? From the sound of her voice and the way she was saying it, it was like she wasn't sure of what he would do or what he could do. I think she was wanting to get away, but she just didn't know how to do it. The fact that she reached out to me kind of told me that like, hey, maybe she feels safe talking to you. Or maybe she felt like you were the, that was the only person that would understand or I was the only person that might want to even listen at all. And I just...

Kind of was making sure that she knew, like be very careful. I feel like the phone call was a cry for help. I think she was wanting to get away, but just didn't know how to do it. They were able to talk in depth because Brian had left to go to Florida to clear out a storage unit. Very bizarre and random. He just like flies to Florida and his parents are like, why are you paying for a storage unit when we have this extra room that you can just use as a storage unit? So they're like, save money.

by flying all the way here to clear out the storage unit. It's very bizarre. So he flies out. Gabby is in Utah. She stays at a hotel. And that's probably how she was able to even reach out to somebody. And it seems like while she's alone, she's starting to see how toxic her relationship with Brian is. And maybe she does want to leave.

Also, I do want to say, experts say it seems that Brian has rooted his entire self-worth on his relationship with Gabby. Now, a few days later, August 27th, 2021, Brian is back in Wyoming with Gabby and Gabby messages Jackson saying, Hey, I'm in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And it reminded me of you because his name is Jackson.

Now, side note, I don't think I saw many people, but I do see some people that were like, well, why did she reach out to her ex-boyfriend? It's very common for victims of DV to reach out to ex-partners, even if they're not trying to like rekindle a relationship. Because I know in a lot of situations, it's like reaching out to an ex while you're in a relationship sounds crazy, right? But with DV situations, it's not like they're trying to rekindle a relationship or trying to quote cheat, which is what they're often accused of. It actually makes a lot of psychological sense, right?

So they're trying to find some sort of evidence that their current situation is abusive. Like they're trying to get confirmation. And sometimes reaching out to an ex-partner that was not abusive is trying to root yourself in reality of like, no, no, no. That is what a relationship is. This is not what a relationship is. But you can't. It's harder to do that when you reach out to your parents or when you reach out to your sister, you know?

It is believed that Gabby was killed the night of August 27th and August 28th. Brian goes on multiple hikes and takes multiple pictures, scenic pictures. Some of them are scenic hiking pictures. Some of them are decaying animal bones. And then on the 29th, Brian is hitchhiking.

He's also calling his mom Roberta Laundrie. They have back and forth phone calls that seem out of the norm. Like he's not one to call his mom and talk for an hour. One of them lasts nearly an hour, 55 minutes. That same day, Brian is hiking, sending messages to Gabby's phone. The text from Brian to Gabby reads, Hey honey, I'm just calling to let you know I made it to Coulter Bay. I think the campground is still a little ways up the road. I'm gonna go check it out. Let me know when you're on your way. No rush.

Later, another one is sent to Gabby's phone. "Still no rush, just wanted to say that I'm sitting in front of the visitor center now. Can't wait to see you for the mountains across the water. Wish you could fly the drone here." Another one. "I'm surprised you're even getting my texts. And do you think you could pick me up tomorrow instead of Monday? I don't think I can do two more nights." Call records show that none of the messages sent to Gabby's phone are read or even opened until Brian gets back to the van from his little hiking trip.

aka alibi creating trip and then all of a sudden Gabby's phone texts Brian yeah sure baby we'll you we'll do one more night of disperse and then we've got our site at culture bay for two nights Brian responds I love you honey see you tomorrow but cell data shows him at the van at the time it's very clear he's talking to himself it's very it's likely that the hitchhiking was done to create a stronger alibi see these people saw me hitchhiking away from Gabby I wasn't even there I don't know what happened to her

Okay, so to get the timeline straight, right?

He committed murder on 27th. Likely, yes. And then he spent multiple days creating a trail of like photos, text messages, even hitchhiking on multiple cars, just like leaving random...

things that's easily debunkable yes to create like some sort of a you know yes okay and it seems like gabby's grandpa was even reaching out to her because at one point gabby's phone texts her mom saying can you help stan he i keep getting his voicemails and missed calls but my phone doesn't even ring there's no service nicole that's when her radars are going off because stan is gabby's grandpa who just who's who calls him stan she calls him grandpa

And it's just very strange. At that point, Brian starts driving the van back to Florida. He uses Gabby's debit card to fill up on gas. He also Venmo's $700 from Gabby's Venmo account to his account with the note, goodbye, Brian. I will never ask you for anything again. Gabby is deceased. Brian is sending and stealing from his fiance that he killed. I don't even want to say allegedly because he does confess.

By September 1st, Brian is back in North Port, Florida with Gabby's van without Gabby. And then September 17th, the FBI get a call. The Laundries want to talk, but they don't want to talk about Gabby. They want to talk about Brian because he's missing. The chief of the North Port Police Department say, "Two people went on a trip, one person returned, and that person isn't cooperating, and now they're missing."

And now the search begins. With one neighbor of Brian's stating to news outlets, turn yourself in, Brian. They're hunting you. And that is the end of part one. Part two is coming. We're going to go over Brian going missing, Brian being found, more journals, his mom's alleged involvement, and some crazy letters that she's writing, as well as multiple lawsuits and conspiracies that Brian Laundrie is hidden under the house.

So with that being said, let me know your thoughts in the comments. Make sure to check out the Gabby Petito Foundation and I will see you in the next one. Be safe.

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