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Body 'consistent with description' of Gabby Petito found in Bridger-Teton National Forest

Stevicus

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Body 'consistent with description' of Gabby Petito found in Bridger-Teton National Forest - ABC News (go.com)

The boyfriend hasn't been seen since Tuesday.

A body "consistent with the description of" Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing while on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, was discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.

The FBI Denver, the National Park Service and law enforcement made the announcement during a news conference Sunday evening in Grand Teton National Park. Charles Jones, the FBI’s supervisory senior resident agent, said that a full forensic identification hasn’t yet been completed, but investigators did notify Petito’s parents.

A cause of death was also undetermined. Jones declined to comment further on the investigation.

They still have to complete a full forensic identification.

"We continue to seek information from anyone who utilized the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area between the dates of August 27 and August 30. Anyone that may have had contact with Gabby, or her boyfriend or who may have seen their vehicle in that area, please share any new information with the FBI," Jones said.

The development came as a search for Brian Laundrie, Petito's boyfriend, resumed in Florida.

Petito's parents reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not speaking with her for two weeks.

Laundrie had been named by police as a "person of interest" in Petito's disappearance. The 23-year-old Laundrie, who returned home more than two weeks ago without Petito and has refused to speak to police, has not been seen since Tuesday, according to law enforcement officials.

The Laundrie family attorney said in a statement Sunday evening, “The news about Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family prays for Gabby and her family.”

They're still searching for the boyfriend in Florida. I saw another article that said he could hide out in the swamps for months.
 

The Hammer

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Stevicus

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Get ready for this to dominate the True Crime -iverse for 20 years.

What is Missing White Women Syndrome? Gabby Petito case triggers racism controversy | MEAWW

Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito’s mysterious disappearance has captured the imagination of people across the US. Hundreds of thousands of tweets, a bunch of active Facebook grouds with more than hundreds of thousands of people in them, numerous TikTok and YouTube videos, and even a Subreddit with more than 70,000 members continue to discuss the case, speculate, make unfounded accusations, and even dabble in conspiracy theories. But what is it about this case that has so many people engaged?

Missing persons cases are far more common than one might think. In 2018, 612,846 missing person cases were entered into the National Crime Information Center records. Even on the FBI website, Petito’s name on the “Kidnappings & Missing Persons” page is followed by hundreds of others. There’s five-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez. There’s also Lori Boffman, who was last seen in 2006. There’s Akia Shawnta Eggleston, who went missing in 2017. And these are just three from an excruciatingly long list.

The reason why Petito’s case has attracted the public’s attention, some have suggested, is her race. Petito is a young blonde White woman. And that may be a reason why this case has been in the spotlight. One Twitter user wrote, “It’s so many black & brown little girls missing but when a white girl vanishes it’s a nationwide search and hits CNN,” under the #GabbyPetito hashtag.

The Twitter user also highlighted the abuse she had received following this tweet.

Despite the abuse she received, many seemed in agreement. One person wrote, “People mad in the comments: it’s NOT that anyone is against the nationwide search for Gabby. It’s that we want this same level of concern and action when it’s a black or brown girl that goes missing.” Another said, “When I first heard about this story I immediately thought about this. I feel bad that this girl is missing but you're right, it's the same type of person being highlighted. Pretty young blonde white girls. Black women aren't given a second thought, and if your a black man, good luck.” One tweet said, “We can care about Gabby and still admit this is true af and rage-inducing.”

Missing White Women Syndrome

A 2017 NPR story attributes the origin of this term to the late American journalist, television newscaster, and author Gwen Ifill, and cites research undertaken by Zach Sommers, a sociologist at Northwestern University, to check the veracity of the argument that missing White women are disproportionately highlighted in news stories as compared to missing people of color.

As per the report, Sommers undertook a study that looked at every missing person case covered by four online media outlets in 2013 and found that White women were much more likely to be the subject of news coverage relative to their proportions among missing persons, and women in general, were significantly more likely than men to be covered. Though White women make up about a third of the national population, "half of the articles in the data set are just about White females alone," Sommers said.

Sommers also noted that news outlets were more likely to repeatedly report on particular stories of missing White women, which then drove up the total number of articles about white women. "By choosing to disproportionately highlight the experiences of Whites and women, these four news websites (Star Tribune of Minneapolis, the Chicago Tribune, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and CNN.com) are implicitly — or perhaps explicitly — intimating that the cases of those individuals matter more," Sommers wrote.

Scott Bonn, a criminologist spoke to the Washington Post about the connection of race and the media and public frenzy around Petito's disappearance. Bonn said that if Petito were a woman of color, the national fixation on the case would not likely exist. “It’s about our culture and our society,” he said. “We place a priority on whiteness. We place a priority on youth and on our expectations of physical beauty.”
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Sad news. And it does not look good for the boyfriend. Returning home without the girlfriend, refusing to talk to the police and then disappearing, while not proof positive, it does point strongly at him.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
I hope that the police find him soon. I would not take any claims that he made to his parents too seriously. He may have been honest or it may have been a ruse to concentrate as much man power as possible away from wherever he went to.
 

Stevicus

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I hope that the police find him soon. I would not take any claims that he made to his parents too seriously. He may have been honest or it may have been a ruse to concentrate as much man power as possible away from wherever he went to.

There's another article which has more details about the search: Brian Laundrie search: Why it's been so hard to find him - CNN

The parents say he left with his backpack on the 14th.

Meanwhile, Laundrie's family told police on Friday night they had not seen him since September 14. His family told police he left home with his backpack and told them he was going to the nearby Carlton Reserve.

Laundrie had a multiple-day head start

Police in North Port, Florida, have focused the search on the wilderness of the Carlton Reserve, relying on drones for video and bloodhounds who used Laundrie's clothing to get his scent, police spokesperson Josh Taylor said.

North Port police said Monday they shifted the focus of their search and are no longer looking for Laundrie in the nature reserve. "At this time, we currently believe we have exhausted all avenues in searching of the grounds there," Taylor said.

However, police said Tuesday morning they were again searching for him at the reserve. Authorities have been on site since 8 a.m. Tuesday, the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

The search "has yet to yield any answers, but we must press on," police said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

But as you say, he may not even be in the Carlton Reserve at all. It would be difficult for him to get anywhere, though. If he tries to take a bus or check into a hotel, he'd be spotted by someone.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.

Stevicus

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I haven't seen such exposure and attention since
Jon Benét Ramsey.

I think there's been a few since then, like Laci Peterson and Casey Anthony. Those cases got pretty extensive coverage.

There were a few cases here locally which got a lot of local attention, but not much nationally. I don't know what formula they go by to determine what should be made national news, but all the major outlets seem to follow suit.
 

Stevicus

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Premium Member
I hope they find that SOB soon.

Yeah, he's looking guiltier and guiltier all the time.

I read that some think he might be dead. Maybe he killed himself out of guilt. Perhaps they're looking for his body in the swamp.

Or maybe he's in Mexico.
 

Sand Dancer

Crazy Cat Lady
Yeah, he's looking guiltier and guiltier all the time.

I read that some think he might be dead. Maybe he killed himself out of guilt. Perhaps they're looking for his body in the swamp.

Or maybe he's in Mexico.

Dude could be anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if the coward committed suicide.
 

Stevicus

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The coroner who did the autopsy on Gabby Petito indicated the cause of death as strangulation.

Gabby Petito's cause of death was strangulation, coroner determines (msn.com)

Gabby Petito's cause of death was strangulation, a Wyoming coroner said Tuesday, as the nationwide manhunt persisted for the Long Island woman's missing fiancé.

Petito's remains were found on Sept. 19 at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area campground in Bridger-Teton National Forest. Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue had previously ruled it a homicide.

But the 22-year-old's official cause of death wasn't disclosed until Tuesday, though Blue cited state law in limiting the amount of information he could share.

"Our initial determination is the body was in the wilderness for three to four weeks" before she was found, Blue told reporters, which would place her time of death in mid to late August.

Throughout his meeting with reporters, Blue sidestepped questions about who could have been responsible for the woman’s death. But the coroner did appear to imply that Petito was a victim of domestic violence.

“This is only one of many deaths around the country of people who are involved in domestic violence and it’s unfortunate that these other deaths do not get as much coverage as this one," Blue said.

Steven Bertolino, an attorney or Laundrie's family, reiterated that Brian Laundrie is not a suspect in Petito's disappearance or death.

“Gabby Petito’s death at such a young age is a tragedy," Bertolino, said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.

"While Brian Laundrie is currently charged with the unauthorized use of a debit card belonging to Gabby, Brian is only considered a person of interest in relation to Gabby Petito’s demise. At this time Brian is still missing and when he is located we will address the pending fraud charge against him."

Petito and Laundrie were on a cross-country road trip, chronicling their travels on social media, before he returned to his parents' home in North Port, Florida, arriving there on Sept. 1 without his fiancée, police said.

The woman's family reported her missing on Sept. 11 and Laundrie himself soon vanished as well.

Laundrie’s family told investigators he had gone hiking on Sept. 14 in the Carlton Reserve in Florida and never returned. Law enforcement searched the 25,000-acre wildlife refuge multiple times looking for him.

There have been numerous reported sightings of Laundrie up and down the East Coast since.

Police have thus far only called Laundrie a "person of interest" in their investigation into Petito's disappearance, but there is an arrest warrant out for him after authorities said he used her debit card without permission.

Also last month, the Grand County Sheriff's Office in Utah released 911 audio from a witness who said he saw a man slap a woman and then saw a white Ford Transit van bearing a Florida license plate drive away.

The 911 call led Moab police to stop the van — driven by Laundrie, with Petito as a passenger — on Aug. 12.

The incident appeared to be a mental and emotional "break," police said, writing that Petito had slapped Laundrie. They forced the couple to separate for the night to avoid a case of domestic assault against Petito.

The intense focus on Petito's disappearance raised questions about the lack of comparable news coverage of missing people who are not white.

The disparity in national attention has been particularly infuriating to nearby Indigenous communities, where scores of Native American women have gone missing with little or no news coverage.
 
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