Gabby Petito

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Restaurants are budget busters, too. Maybe that’s why Brian was arguing/stressed about the bill.

I don't know if it was described what this restaurant was like but people's tempers with all the staffing shortages and possible customer service issues due to that or out of items, etc are quite short. Even as much as the restaurant industry is pleading with patience people seem to lack that these days (seemingly an everyday complaint on Nextdoor these days it would seem). I don't know if the "all women" comment I saw has anything to do with it or not could be he's a jerk towards women or just a coincidence too.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Oh, I’m fully down the rabbit hole now!

Here’s a map that shows where their van was parked in the Spread Creek camping area and where her body was found.



A still image from the dash cam video appears to show her flip flop lying on the ground behind the van.

 

[mom2rtk]

I don’t see it as how much your taught about right or wrong as much as your devotion/connection (for lack of a better word) to your children (not necessarily better or healthier either).

And I absolutely don't see it as devotion to your child to help them cover up a serious crime.

 

[Kms943]

Challenge accepted!

Ford Transit van tank capacity: 25 gallons.
MPG: 24/city, 28/hwy
Distance from Jackson, Wy to North Port, Fl: 2395.7 miles
Fuel type: Premium Unleaded recommended

That’s about four fill ups. Premium gas is running roughly $3.40 to $4.00 per gallon right now throughout the states on his route according to AAA. At the high end, that’s $100 per tank, total $400.

(This proves nothing, I was just curious how the math worked out.)

Something to keep in mind. Those Mile per Gallon numbers are based on a stock 2012 Ford Transit van. With all of the additional “Camper Conversion” components, the van would be much heavier and I’m guessing the MPG numbers would be much lower than a stock van. Just something to consider.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

And I absolutely don't see it as devotion to your child to help them cover up a serious crime.

Yeah, there is a 0.0% chance I would help my kids get away with a crime of this severity. First of all, you’re not taking down the rest of the family in your mess. Secondly, you’ll never get away with it! They’ll find you and the consequences will only be worse than if you turned yourself in and/or tried to beat the charges the legal way.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Something to keep in mind. Those Mile per Gallon numbers are based on a stock 2012 Ford Transit van. With all of the additional “Camper Conversion” components, the van would be much heavier and I’m guessing the MPG numbers would be much lower than a stock van. Just something to consider.

I think my numbers were based on the 2019 model, actually. I don’t know what year theirs was. But yes, point taken.

 

[MillauFr]

Glad the news media is questioning the overwhelming interest in this case while blowing off other similar cases....

Gabby Petito case gets more attention than missing people of color - The Washington Post

 

[Marrila]

Glad the news media is questioning the overwhelming interest in this case while blowing off other similar cases....

Gabby Petito case gets more attention than missing people of color - The Washington Post

That would be a good thread for you to start.

 

[Dentam]

Glad the news media is questioning the overwhelming interest in this case while blowing off other similar cases....

Gabby Petito case gets more attention than missing people of color - The Washington Post

I've been reading a lot about this as well. Definitely so upsetting and frustrating to the families of those still missing whose cases have never gotten this kind of attention.

 

[tzolkin]

… it always stuck in my mind the lack of communication Gabby had with her parents. I don't think the police could have done much but I would have been going down to the police station if I had these concerns about it just to say "hey I haven't heard from my daughter for a few days (based on when she last heard from her) she said no signal but I'm still concerned" you know something like that. It would have at least had an awareness of the parents feeling off. I also have been wondering lately did the mom actively try to call her phone? Or was it just texting?

Do most people talk to their adult children regularly? Not being snarky, genuinely wondering.

My husband and I certainly go more than two weeks without talking to our parents. I will admit that I usually check in with my 22 year old after a week or so if I haven’t heard or seen anything from her. But I could definitely see if she was in on a trip in remote areas with limited cell signal and busy with her own life not hearing from her in a week or two. I have traveled internationally to places like Africa where I did not check in with my kids for quite a while so I would assume I would be okay with them doing the same.

That said, I have had friends who in their 30s and living alone would call their parents any time they drove somewhere to let them know what time they left and then call again when they got home. I understood the safety aspect of it, but definitely not something that I felt the need to do.

I read something about that, too. He said he had never liked any of Gabby’s boyfriends and always called them girls names “to intimidate them.” So, yeah. Sounds like Gabby may not have had the best male role models in her life. Wouldn’t be surprising at all if she ended up with a loser for a partner.

Ugh. I will never understand the “intimidating dad” mentality. Threatening someone does not make them respect you. Being a jerk to your daughter’s boyfriend is going to make him less likely to want to do anything to please you, not more.

 

[MillauFr]

That would be a good thread for you to start.

Um no. Separate but not equal was never my forte...

 

[Marrila]

Um no. Separate but not equal was never my forte...

It's a different, but still important topic.

 

[LSUmiss]

So what would that entail? Never seeing your child again because he is on the run from the law, maybe living anonymously in a foreign country, always on the move, changing his looks, his name, his location?

I truly don't know anyone in my life who would cover up a child's murder and then assist that child in living a life on the lam for 50 years. Truly. Not a single person, even though many of them, like me, are utterly devoted to their kid.

But the DIS board is composed of a much wider array of people with varied backgrounds, so the fact that I don't know anyone who would do that doesn't mean that they don't exist.

I’m not saying it was good plan. It’s just a knee-jerk reaction to trying to protect your child. The discussion has come up b/c of some many ppl’s judgment of Brian’s parents. I think some of us are just saying, we get it.

 

[Marrila]

Interesting article that outlines some possible ways parents might be held accountable.
www.wfla.com/8-on-your-side/law-protects-parents-from-accessory-charges-but-not-from-other-allegations/amp/

 

[VandVsmama]

The FBI has probably already looked at the bank records for the account and are setting up searched in whichever areas they think he’s been in. His days are numbered. Someone will see him and he will be found.

 

[prairie_girl]

I got around to watching the officer’s body cam footage from the domestic dispute incident. Did anyone else catch the two times he lied to the cops? (There may have been more but two was what I caught.)

One, he told them they’d been on their van trip for 4-5 months. At that point, August 12th, they’d been on the road not quite 6 weeks. Two, he told them he didn’t have a phone. In fact, he offered that as a primary reason for why their argument escalated to physical violence. He claimed she was trying to get the keys from him and he didn’t want to give them up because he didn’t have a phone, so if she decided to drive off without him he’d be on his own with no means of communication. Later in the video he whips out his cell phone and gives his number to the police. I’m surprised the cops didn’t catch that one. It sticks in your mind when someone says they don’t own a cell phone in this day and age.

What an odd choice of things to lie about.

I watched it too, and something unrelated really caught my attention. The cop, just before putting her into the backseat, says ‘I’ll assume you don’t have any weapons’. That just seems like bad policing at a very basic level.

 

[LSUmiss]

And I absolutely don't see it as devotion to your child to help them cover up a serious crime.

They might not think they’re covering up a serious crime that their child committed. All I can say is there are some of us who obviously get what his parents might have done & some who can’t fathom it. It has less to do with morality & more to do with your connection to your child.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Do most people talk to their adult children regularly? Not being snarky, genuinely wondering.

In this situation the mother and father are portraying themselves as very worried for Gabby (and I'm not doubting that part at all).

In one of the articles her stepfather said "communicated regularly with her mom and family." He also said "She would go off the grid...doing her van life stuff, exploring these different areas. So it wasn't uncommon for her to go off for few days at a time, but she'd always make her way back to someplace where she could get on to a Wi-Fi connection, upload to her Instagram, make phone calls, FaceTime," he said." Even the North Port police said "Someone who's been traveling and contacting family and then all of a sudden goes dark -- that's obviously odd,"

I guess I was coming at it that getting a text saying no service and then going that long it's like what's with the gap even though they reported her missing the day after Brian got back. I don't know what happened in between there but it doesn't seem to have been mentioned by them or through their lawyer. That's one of the reasons I asked about calling. If you called and called and called and either didn't get an answer (could be the phone dead, could be complete avoidance) or you only got Brian well hackles would be raised. There's a big difference between a few days and 13,14+ days I guess. At some point something would have felt off to me and it wouldn't have needed Brian to show up alone. I'm glad they reported her missing the next day. I'm just wondering with all they've said where this gap in time is. Could be nothing amiss and they just haven't said more under the advice of a lawyer or whatever. But it did make me wonder.

To your question about adult children I often go time without talking to my mom regularly. Sometimes it's a week sometimes it's a week and half, two weeks, etc. Could be a quick text and then not really talking. But when we are on vacation (and for Gabby and Brian they were away from home on the road we would have personally treated it the same as vacation) and checked in every so often. My mom wouldn't think twice about me saying no signal especially as we've travelled to places that had no or poor signal (St. Lucia, Jamaica, etc) but it was mentioned that they felt that was not an expected way she would talk. I can also say my mom wouldn't wait that long to raise some sort of questions despite her not thinking twice about me saying no signal. And if it was my husband's mom lordy that woman would have pounced even quicker. They would have tried to ask around "hey have you heard from them?" It's not that I think the police would have necessarily been able to do anything but I did wonder later on after making me comment if it's possible a lookup would have shown records of that fight on August 12, if it would have at least raised some thoughts even just a few days prior to her being reported missing.

 

[neverlandsky]

A still image from the dash cam video appears to show her flip flop lying on the ground behind the van.

View attachment 606974

This has been going around too.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I watched it too, and something unrelated really caught my attention. The cop, just before putting her into the backseat, says ‘I’ll assume you don’t have any weapons’. That just seems like bad policing at a very basic level.

I remember that. I think he meant that her outfit left few options for concealing a weapon. She was wearing loose linen shorts without pockets and a spandex tank that exposed her midriff.