Gabby Petito

el Fenomeno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117914051#Comment_117914051

Looks like there was someone in the back of the van at the time who closed the doors just as that family were driving towards them.

https://twitter.com/brent_shavnore/status/1439744089524772866?s=20

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117916707#Comment_117916707

Indeed , As tragic and sad and all that this case may be, there is definitely an agenda within the media when you consider that over 700 mostly indigenous girls have gone missing in Wyoming alone over the last 10 years and none of them have generated a fraction of the media attention of this case. and when they do make the media the way they are reported is markedly different to how other similar cases are covered

You have to ask why that might be.

CreadanLady

Sounds like the family have begun circling the wagons. They've been helping him spoof his whereabouts so as to throw the police off the scent.

From what we are seeing now could we be in a position where it would be legit for the police to arrest the family and press charges, even if it is only for to cut off his support network but mainly to use as a strategy to draw him out of whatever bolt hole he is holed up in.

Could the police or FBI hack or request data from their their household smart devices or cloud accounts so as to see if there's any overheard voice recordings of their conversions over the past few weeks. There could be voice evidence there somewhere.. Or clues.

Given how publicised this story now is, I predict that he is holed up somewhere. His family support might be neutralised soon by police intervention. Knowing that he is a wanted suspect he will not be able to go out on public. Therefore he won't be able to renew his mental health medications, cos it'll blow his cover.

And so, I predict that his mental status will begin to deteriorate over the coming days to weeks as the medications are absent. Also life on the run will take it's mental tool.

There are two ways things can go from that point. He will either commit suicide if the abbey is internalised, or if the anger is externalised, we could be looking at him lashing out, with the possibility of him killing again.

The family hold the key to this. The feds near to lean on them heavily.

He'll be found. One way, or another.

BorneTobyWilde

Anyone educated on narcissistic abuse/victim of narcissistic abuse saw the situation clear as day based on how hysterical Gabby was when the Police pulled them over.

Instead Brian bonded with the officer over “toxic women ! ” got a fist bump from the Cop....and Gabby was dead 2 weeks later.

Good job Cop!

Mam of 4

What are the odds of him having left the state , possibly the country , aided by his parents/family, before the relevant authorities even knew he was "missing" ?

It honestly wouldn't surprise me .

SunnySundays

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117917476#Comment_117917476

I find it sickening that the police responded in the way they did given the 999 caller clearly stated that Brian had been seen hitting her multiple times.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117917454#Comment_117917454

57% girls. Mostly, yes, but not mostly

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117917526#Comment_117917526

Even at 57% that still almost 400 women going missing , one every 10/12 days or so in Wyoming over the last 10 years , but the one that gets International coverage is the photo-genic white girl from Florida while the hundreds of missing Native American girls get barely a mention.

Not questioning the value of the coverage for Gabby Petito , but definitely questioning the lack of coverage for all the others.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117917454#Comment_117917454

not an agenda as such, just practical and ultimately a pretty middle class white girl going missing is more "entertaining" to read about, all the true crime wine moms can get their thinking caps on so more clicks. The alternative would be to have a constant stream of stories out of places like chicago so would take on the appearance of a predominantly left wing media making minorities look bad.

Tabnabs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117917454#Comment_117917454

It is incredibly tragic the way indigenous women going missing generates close to zero news headlines and here we are, thousands of miles away talking about one random and isolated case.

Sadly for them, this Gabby lady fits the profile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome

Baybay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918255#Comment_117918255

Twitter is alive with speculation about the missing & the murdered in the same vicinity as Gabby Petito was found, including a young Irish man missing since June. Whether they’re true crime wine moms or not, I don’t know but they use #socialmediadetectives in their posts & are heavily invested in all aspects of these cases, as far as I can see. Not sure what the families must make of it all.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918343#Comment_117918343

are we not talking about it because there are several videos of the events leading up to her disappearance?

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918366#Comment_117918366

in this case it was a Youtube channel that found the vehicle, so in a particular case more attention is good

The families of the indigenous women don't have the same means to publicise their disappearances. People like to say that they're not cared about but I don't think it's as simple as that.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918343#Comment_117918343

America, American culture and American media is and has always been White, anyone else gets lip service if that. Not just indigenous folks either, Black, Hispanic the same. Unless they or their parents are rich and famous they're rarely reported on too. Photogenic young blonde woman is near the top of this tree(photogenic White children just ahead), so a case like this sadly very much illustrates this missing White woman syndrome.

It's not just America either. Humanity in general has a hierarchy of tragedy. It generally goes children, women, famous people, men. Boko Haram had been killing and kidnapping boys and men for ages, but when they kidnapped schoolgirls the World went nuts about it.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918377#Comment_117918377

That's a huge part of it too. The media have material to feed the beast of 24 hour rolling news.

Real Life

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918377#Comment_117918377

I think the whole middle class white girl thing plays a big part as has been said numerous times but I do think another thing that has given this more traction than most other cases is that she was a blogger who had a following and they were keeping up to date with her travels and suddenly it stops and then there's all this footage from police and other people with video footage from their cars etc and everyone loves to play detective and have their own theories as to what happened. In most cases when people disappear you won't have all of that.

If an attractive blonde woman was living in a trailer park in Arkansas or on the streets of Baltimore, she wouldn't get this kind of press either. A middle-class black woman would get more. I think it's more about income and circumstance than race.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918964#Comment_117918964

all very true. There is actually something to discuss unlike a lot of missing persons cases.

mikethecop

‘Missing white woman syndrome’ – US television host dismisses interest in death of Gabby Petito - Independent.ie

classy move

Panelist Derrica Wilson of Black and Missing Foundation agreed and said: “It is definitely the issue.” Cases where people of colour, men, women and children go missing are not taken seriously, Ms Wilson said.

I wonder if theres a white and missing foundation ?

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918891#Comment_117918891

Sure it's evident in this thread alone, aside from LorenzoB's post the 305 indigenous boys and men mentioned in that Yahoo! article are completely ignored...

Though if you read beyond the headline and first paragraph, it becomes evident that half of the 710 are found within a week, 29% within 30 days and 21% are missing for 30 days or longer... there's no mention whatsoever as to how many of the 149 that 21% represents are male or female, nor of how many are still missing (or indeed if all of those found are found alive and well).

I've no doubt that there's less media attention when someone from lower socio-economic backgrounds is killed or goes missing. To start with, there'd be a frequency bias at play here: murders and disappearances are going to be rarer occurrences the more privileged a socio-economic group is. There's less to run from, more to lose or stick around for, better home / neighbourhood security, higher likelihood of curtain twitching neighbours and/or a high social and or media profile making it easier to trace an individual's movements etc.

Most of the disappearances in lower socio-economic groups are even likely to be entirely innocuous imo: people simply packing up and heading off in pursuit of the "American Dream" (think of the stream of migration to LA/New York etc from rural America every year) and again, obviously those groups where "disappearances" are more common, and where people have less resources to mount searches/media campaigns are going to make easier targets for the (fortunately extremely rare) sickos who prey on the vulnerable.

There's no doubt an element of bias / prejudice involved too but it harms that argument when those looking to make it reach for click-bait friendly headlines and leave their numbers so obviously exaggerated that a random Irish guy who's never even visited the US can pick them apart in minutes.

stoneill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117918343#Comment_117918343

I note in the Wikipedia article on missing white woman syndrome that the example from South Africa compares how media outlets reported on the murders of Reeva Steenkamp and Zanele Khumalo; two South African models, respectively white and black, who had been murdered by their boyfriends under nearly identical circumstances.

There is an extensive Wikipedia article on Reeva Steenkamp, nothing to show for Zanele Khumalo. So it's not just news media who do this.

BorneTobyWilde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117917757#Comment_117917757

In all fairness she was missing a month, and the police did nothing, fobbed off her parents, told them no crime here, didn't question Brian and ignored the whole situation. It only changed when they got more info, and got that footage of the van, did a search found her, then they pulled their finger out.

Hardly special treatment

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919323#Comment_117919323

Again, that's a pretty false comparison. Most of Reeva Steenkamp's profile came through her association with the boyfriend that killed her. Pistorius may not have been a "household name" until going on trial for killing her but he certainly had a global profile within the athletics and wider sporting world before that. Even excluding that, Steenkamp who had been a cover girl for FHM and "the face" of Avon etc. would have had a far higher media profile than Zanele Khumalo in her own right.

It's ridiculous to try and compare the cases and claim the difference in media and public attention was down to race. One was a celebrity killed by her far more famous celebrity boyfriend, the other a young model with next to no profile killed by a "nobody".

Dick Turnip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919323#Comment_117919323

Surely in that case, the main difference was the high profile of the Reeva's murderer though

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919457#Comment_117919457

Look it - we can all form our own opinions on this.

You've formed your view.

I see it differently - in fact I'd go as far as to say that the fact that there is a boards discussion on it is a great illustration of how media can dictate what people think and talk about.

If this happened to a Pakistani or Thai woman, no one would pay a blind bit of notice.

Tombo2001

Can anyone tell me the name of the Mongolian woman mugged and stabbed to death in the IFSC earlier this year? In the heart of our own capital city.

But you all know Gabby Pettitos name.

FFS.

hold my beer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919595#Comment_117919595

Such a silly post. Also, you know what would be great in a thread about Gabby Petito - discussion of Gabby Petito.

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919575#Comment_117919575

I don't necessarily disagree with you. The media certainly influence what people talk about, however the modern media is also extremely influenced by what people are interested in reading about and can determine this quite easily by monitoring traffic to their websites. Modern society is, for better or worse (I'd argue much worse) obsessed with celebrities. So any news story with a celebrity angle is going to be reported on much more widely than an identical case involving people who aren't famous.

Hence why I posted that stoneill's comment about difference between the media coverage of the murders of Zanele Khumalo and Reeva Steenkamp wasn't an equivalent comparison. One was a celebrity, one was not. It wasn't as simple as one being black and the other being white. Had their races been reversed, the difference in media coverage would still have been the same: whoever was murdered by Oscar Pistorius was always going to be the bigger news story.

I'm only familiar with the Gabby Pettito case because I use Reddit and that site has a huge bias towards American news. Her status as a wannabe #vanlife influencer (apparently the couple had less than 1000 combined followers on Instagram before her disappearance which rather rubbishes the "influencer" angle some of the press are running with) meant that there was a lot of material in the public arena when she was reported missing leading to the usual armchair detectives on Reddit trying to help with the search.

The whole Vanlife thing is quite trendy right now (I know I've seen 3 different documentaries on Amazon Prime on the topic lately) so I can understand the media jumping on the story. Would the reaction have been as big if Pettito hadn't been a "photogenic white blond girl"? Undoubtedly not imo but personally I'd argue the most influential words out of that phrase are "photogenic" and "girl". Call me cynical but I think had she been a pretty black/latina/asian girl we'd have seen similar levels of interest (though admittedly I'd agree probably somewhat less) while if she'd been an overweight and unfortunate looking white girl (or even an attractive or average looking guy) we'd have seen considerably less.

My point was that trying to compare wildly different cases while claiming that the difference in media attention is solely down to one aspect of those cases (i.e. the colour of someone's skin) detracts from the argument you're trying to make rather than advancing it. If there's a 15% difference in media coverage because of the race of the victim, call out that 15% and fight that battle. Don't try and claim it's 50% because you make it too easy for those who see no problem with the 15% to ridicule your argument and move onto the next issue in the news cycle.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919595#Comment_117919595

Being frustrated at people for knowing more about something that there is more coverage of isn't that fair though imo.

If that Mongolian lady had access to the same kind of publicity machine and had no language barrier, we'd know just as much here.

Similarly with a black or brown person - it's about resources. There's this narrative that people just don't care about someone who isn't white - to make us out as awful. Most people aren't though, and would care no matter what background.