Gabby Petito

silliussoddius

This case is strange due to the actions of her boy friend and the lack of actions from his parents. It's not as if she's the only white woman missing in America right now. An Irish man has been missing in the same area since summer time.

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/wy-cian-mclaughlin-27-hiker-grand-teton-national-park-jackson-8-jun-2021.573572/

Tabnabs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919135#Comment_117919135

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919135#Comment_117919135

"Only 30% of Indigenous homicide victims had newspaper media coverage, as compared to 51% of White homicide victims. Indigenous female homicide victims had the least amount of newspaper media coverage (18%)."

The discussion on media coverage of missing and murdered indigenous people is pretty stark in comparison to women like Gabby Petito.

Some random Irish guy on the internet was able to find the full facts and figures, in a matter of minutes. It doesn't make for nice reading...

https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/tribal-news/2021-01-08/taskforce-releases-data-on-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people-in-wyoming

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920081#Comment_117920081

Ah give us a break.

Good looking young white woman.

Thats all.

[Deleted User]

I presume the narrative that people are so terrible for not knowing about stuff is only aimed at white people, and not people of colour who also don't know?

BorneTobyWilde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920232#Comment_117920232

Missing since August, police did nothing, treated it like every other case, as more info came in they investigated, as they'd do with any case. No one dropped everything to go look for the '' missing white girl''.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920244#Comment_117920244

As with everything these days, it's an either or and join one of two teams.

seamus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920244#Comment_117920244

The narrative is that this is a social blindspot that we should all try to make an effort to recognise and counteract. Why would you take it a personal attack?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117919071#Comment_117919071

Way to miss the point. You might as well ask, "I wonder is there a National Council for the Sighted of Ireland". The purpose of these groups is to give a voice and give focus to groups and causes that are traditionally marginalised and not heard.

If you feel like America needs a "White and Missing Foundation", feel free to go start one.

Aside from this, and bearing in mind I haven't paid much attention to this story, the immediate actions of the boyfriend weren't that odd.

It's common enough for couples/people to fall out during trips like this and just storm off home without saying another word. Not talking to the cops is also not necessarily as nefarious as it seems. The general advice in the US is to avoid talking to the cops at all if there is any chance you're a suspect, because the nature of their justice system means they want to pin a crime on you and go home. The standing advice in the US is to never talk to cops unless you're formally arrested, and only then with a lawyer present.

'Tis a silly place.

Shao Kahn

It's gotta be bigfoot, surely?

If I was a big hairy man-ape living in the woods, I'd be all over the pretty little blonde girls too! Just sayin like. 😜

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920232#Comment_117920232

What about all of the other good looking white women who disappear and we don't know about? There are many many of them.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920232#Comment_117920232

Wow.

That's a good example of race-baiting right there.

A little disturbing that that's what you took from this horrible incident.

Jequ0n

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

Anyone with any decent level of education would be very careful to make such a statement. But then it’s the fashionable thing to do these days I guess.

Repo101

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

Only the SJW brigade could turn a thread about a missing person into a debate about racism...

Why are people continually allowed to derail threads so they can score some cheap points? This is the about the disappearance and likely murder of Gabby Petito.

There are some very obvious reasons why this case has become huge in the media and none of it has to do with racism.

Some people really love scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for any reason to be offended by everything. Was it her blogging? Social media presence? The fact that her boyfriend returned home in her van and refused to talk to police? Her boyfriends subsequent disappearance? The rising popularity of true crime? No, it must be racism... Give me a break. 🙄

Shao Kahn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920332#Comment_117920332

"The narrative is that this is a social blind-spot that we should all try to make an effort to recognize and counteract. Why would you take it a personal attack?"

All depends on one's perception. For those on a seemingly non-stop personal crusade with their "evil white man syndrome", their perception is permanently skewed to see bias or even prejudice from white people. Presumably from a lack of self esteem and hatred of oneself and one's history/culture.

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920139#Comment_117920139

Some startling figures in that infographic and the one that really jumps out at me is accounting for 21% of Homicide Victims whilst making up only 3% of the State population. 😮

Of course, it also looks like there's the usual "female lives are more important than male lives" bias in how the data is presented if they're pointing out that homicide rates are 8 times higher for Indigenous people and 6 times higher for Indigenous women (in order for those numbers to work, the rate must be even higher than 8 times the "norm" for Indigenous men).

I'm still curious on the 710 reported missing as the same dataset seemingly only shows 10 as currently listed as missing (again, with males making up 70% of this number, the fact females were a slightly higher proportion of those reported as missing was the headline in the previously linked article). As those 10 individuals would make up only 1.4% of those reported as missing, their numbers still say nothing about the 19.5% not included in the other metrics (found in more than 30 days would seem the obvious categorisation) but again, there's nothing indicating the results of those found: were they alive and well or did they end up included in the homicide statistics. Is the fact women make up the higher number of cases reported as missing when more men stay missing an indication that the population are quicker to report a woman missing than a man?

The media portrayal stats are interesting. News tends to report on major events or novel ones. If murder levels are high, they're not particularly novel and if homicides are more prevalent in Indigenous communities, even less so. Which could account for some of the lack of reporting i.e. homicides with white victims being "rarer" could be considered to be more "novel" and therefore more "newsworthy" perhaps? It doesn't sit right but it may be less to do with racism that one might imagine....

I keep getting drawn back to that massive statistic on Indigenous representation in the homicide statistics. I can only plead ignorance if my next question is utterly stupid as I don't know much about the sub-culture (my initial interest to the article was piqued by how the numbers didn't add up to how they were presented - I'm a data guy): would Indigenous peoples in the US have similar cultural issues to Travellers in Ireland? Or, in other words, are they over-represented in these statistics because they're a particularly violent sub-culture? Or would the majority of these victims have been murdered by someone outside of their own sociological grouping indicating they're victimised for their membership of that group?

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920312#Comment_117920312

Well, I mean, some people do like to make out they are on the fence by talking a lot about all the “nuance” involved.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920332#Comment_117920332

It's not about taking something personally - it's about questioning the claim that missing white women with pretty faces get lots of attention whereas those who don't tick those boxes get none or close to none because we're horrible people who don't care about those who aren't pretty and white.

The above is an extremely uncritical way of looking at things, it skims the surface - it doesn't examine: background, resources, language, whether the individual is in any way recognisable (this woman was, through social media), how much people they knew, how isolated or not their community is. Pretty white women go missing all the time - why aren't people chastised for not knowing about them? Because it doesn't fit with "we're awful people who don't care if the disappeared is black or brown (except me - I care more, even though I'm just as unaware as anyone else)".

When Roma girl Marioara Rostas's remains were recovered years after she disappeared in Dublin, the detectives lashed out at an uncaring society while she was missing - I can understand because they were so traumatised by what forensics discovered was done to her.

But realistically, her family had only arrived in Ireland a few weeks before she was lured away. They didn't know anyone, they didn't speak English, they didn't have resources to create awareness. How can people be chastised for not being aware of something?

And people couldn't have known what was done to Marioara. When people found out, they were horrified. Of course people cared. No normal person would be indifferent to what was done to that poor girl. ☹

Kermit.de.frog

I don't see what skin colour has to do with anything yet some bring up skin colour about everything nowadays.

Why is the word "white" in any post? Who cares other than crazy race baiters.

Diemos

Why is the media coverage so different from the footage from the stop?

The media has a call saying he was slapping her. But another caller said he was pushing her away from him while she was trying to hit him, that call is never aired.

He is cut and scratched up but it's never mentioned. She was hitting him because he wore shoes in the van, according to both parties. But the police report saying he is a victim of domestic violence is not shown.

RIP to the girl, if she was murdered by him, there is no excuse for that.

But this one-sided trial by media is terrifying.

For Forks Sake

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucYjsKCE1lA

,,

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921559#Comment_117921559

When the footage first became available, her behaviour and his wounds were widely mentioned. It went one sided due to him and his parents behaviour, they didn't even return her parents calls. Innocent until proven guilty and all, but at least don't act dodgy.

BorneTobyWilde

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58646087

A coroner made an initial finding that her death was homicide

BorneTobyWilde

Run you murdering bastard, but you won't hide forever.

Itssoeasy

So this is the 2021 version of OJ where the police dept in Florida used the LAPD playbook on how to lose a suspect in a murder. How did the police just let him wander around and not keep tabs on him ?

BorneTobyWilde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921920#Comment_117921920

No idea, people like to say she was given special treatment as a ''white girl'' but facts are she was missing a month, parents hounded policed to take it seriously, but instead they took Brian's side, put it out there '' no crime here'' , no need to talk to Brian'' instead gave him fist pumps and high fives, it's MAD.

Most missing person cases involve no one else, people go missing, AND NO ONE KNOWS WHERE THEY ARE. But in this case the one person who had THE answers was not even questioned, he was at home in his moms basement playing video games while Gabby laid dead left to the scavengers.

osarusan

I would say that the amount of footage available to replay endlessly on 24-hour news channels is the main factor in this story blowing up.

Still pictures just don't have the same effect any more.

BorneTobyWilde

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921981#Comment_117921981

Two walk into the woods, one comes back, cops say nothing to see here, high fives Brian, lets him live free for a month. I think that could be the reason the thing has blown up.

In a missing persons cases, it's seen as a huge break through to find a person who has seen the missing person, and here we have a guy dictate to the police, '' not talking'' , and police '' okay'' They had the man with the answers in front of them, for a whole month, it's shameful.

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117922001#Comment_117922001

Has it ever occurred to you that information might be held back? There is absolutely no reason to shower the public with information that might compromise your the investigation and prosecution.

There is nothing worse than a mob that has created its own theories.

sekiro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117921559#Comment_117921559

You don't know why? The media always likes to put their spin on things and let's be honest in this case you'd be risking your career if you implied that on the 12th of August he appeared to be the victim.

I saw a lady on TikTok giving a really good description of the time line but she also skipped a few bits of information regarding the 12th of August incident.

It doesn't matter now as I think it's almost 100% certain that he has killed her and in hindsight the 12th of August domestic incident was a massive red flag and a turning point where maybe she could have been saved. Not maybe. Definitely. It's a tragedy that the trip wasn't stopped on that day but I don't think there was much the police could do. They let her go off in the van and they took him to a hotel. I think they even considered arresting her?

The facts are very odd though. Police show up following a call. She tells one officer that he was trying to lock her out of the van until she calmed down. He tells them that he was trying to get her to calm down. He says he got the scratches on his face from her hitting him, possibly with her phone. She admits that maybe she did hit him. In the end what happens is the Police escort him to a hotel and she goes off with the van. They seem to then have a few days break from their trip. There is at least a 6 day window here where they are apart.

So we know he was taken to a hotel in the 12th and the police had considered him to be the victim. He then flies back home to his parents from the 17th to the 24th. I think helping his dad move some of their stuff. During this period (on the 19th) the first video about their journey is uploaded to their YouTube channel.

He meets up with her again on the 24th and on the 26th she makes her last post to Instagram. On the 27th the van is captured on dashcam and this location is very close to where her body was found almost 4 weeks later.

He is back in Florida on September 1st and refusing to talk to anyone. She is reported missing on September 11th and sadly her body is found on the 19th.

To be honest I don't really care that the media put their "spin" on things but whatever caused that dispute and whatever happened between the 12th and 24th of August is probably going to be vital in explaining the case. Why did the police think he was the victim, what hotel did they take him to and how long was he there?

If he has been taken to a hotel and then gone all the way back to Florida from the 17th to the 24th and then all the way back to Utah to meet up with her on the 24th to then end up murdering her on the 27th. That suggests pre-meditation. Like he has run away from her and then sat stewing for a week before going back. If he is ever arrested this time period will probably be the basis of a self-defense claim. No way the media is going to touch that possibility.

That window between the 12th and the 24th is very very odd. I wonder exactly what was going on in that time.

sekiro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117920081#Comment_117920081

The coldness from that family is deeply disturbing. He breaks off from his trip to see them then flies back on the 24th of August. On the 1st of September he rolls back into town on his own. I wonder what he told them.

This girl had been living with them, their future daughter in law, possibly the mother of their future grandchildren. He shows up with her van and he's managed to explain it to them?

Jeez, if I came back from a trip without my wife I'd have some real explaining to do before being frogmarched to the Garda station. At least I would hope so. How could anyone be so cold about this?

They allowed her family to sit with that anxiety and uncertainty for almost three whole weeks. It's disgusting and disgraceful behaviour. Then they let their son just go off somewhere and report him missing too? So cold and uncaring. She was more or less part of their family and they respond to her going missing by retreating into complete silence.

sekiro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117922001#Comment_117922001

It is shameful but its also not really clear how they would be able to proceed in this case.

Possible that they think by leaving the family alone they will slip up or get caught doing something if they are complacent. They seem to have just let him run away though.

I think they would assume that if he has returned with the van on his own and is not cooperating that she is no longer alive. I don't know what the rules would be for arresting him etc.

They got lucky with those YouTubers finding the van on their dashcam. Otherwise she may have never been found.