Episode 21 - Gabby Petito

0:15 Welcome back to Crime Besties to Episode 21.

0:19 It's a bit exciting. What I know it's crazy.

0:22 It's exciting. I'm I, I love it that each week

0:25 like I feel like it's a milestone to reach the next

0:27 episode. Totally, especially weeks have

0:30 been a tough like this one. Yeah, we've had, we've had a

0:32 week. Yeah, my son injured himself at

0:36 the start of this week, stitches in his knee and he's been

0:39 feeling a bit sore and sorry for himself.

0:41 But you know, onwards and upwards.

0:43 Today's a new day and he's at school and he'll be there the

0:46 whole day. He's hilarious, I love it.

0:49 It won't be it's not the first and won't be the last injury of

0:52 Ollie. No way.

0:53 No way. Yeah.

0:54 I love, you know, he's so active with getting out there and that

0:58 you know, these things happen when you're when you're such an

1:01 active child. You know, the the worst part for

1:03 him is that he can't play sport for a few weeks.

1:06 So killing. Him, Yeah, yeah, I know the on

1:09 Monday morning, the drive to school and I wasn't sure if

1:10 Ollie would be at school or not. And I said to my two boys, now

1:13 if you see Ollie out in the yard, obviously he won't be

1:15 running around. So go and make it.

1:16 Sit with him for a few minutes, chat with him, keep him

1:19 entertained or something. Don't just run off like like

1:21 thought of. The poor kid will be absolutely

1:23 devastated that he can't be in there with everyone else.

1:25 Yeah, his teacher told me on the So he went back to school on the

1:28 Tuesday and she put it chair outside for him so that he could

1:32 sort of sit down and he's like mum, there were just like 4

1:34 girls that and they were just talking at me all recess talking

1:37 at me. I'm like well that was really

1:40 nice that they hung around you and kept you company because the

1:44 rest of his mates had obviously gone off and kept playing

1:47 sports. Yeah, the girls.

1:47 Have been lovely and so I could have brought home all the Goss.

1:51 I mean, geez. I actually need to hit him up

1:54 for the Goss. I'm sure they would have been

1:55 some. Definitely.

1:56 They would have been spilling Primo, Yeah.

1:59 Although knowing Ollie, he would have told you already if there

2:00 was some Good. Stuff that's true, he is good

2:02 with stuff like that. He's great with info.

2:04 I told my boys after your youngest bought home goth the

2:07 other day, like, which was like I said to my you 2, you're not

2:09 just not living up to it. Come on, like bring bring that

2:12 home. You got to start listening a

2:13 little bit more because both of them Brody, who was in the same

2:15 class as Lucas, did not get that bit of bit of information at

2:19 all. That Lucas.

2:20 Brought well, I love that Lucas had deduced it for himself, and

2:22 he was so proud of himself that he'd worked it.

2:24 Out. Yeah, Brody was like, but she

2:26 didn't say that. I said no, she didn't say that.

2:29 The actions called that. Brody, I love it.

2:34 Oh, it's great. Yeah.

2:36 Very exciting. Love it.

2:38 The other thing I wanted to have a quick chat with you guys

2:41 about, Yeah, is on Sunday, Peter and I went out for lunch with my

2:46 brother and sister-in-law. We try and go out once a year.

2:49 This is instead of giving each other gifts throughout the year,

2:51 we just go out for a really nice meal and and that's sort of our

2:54 our gift to one another. And we get my brother and

2:58 sister-in-law get there and my brother pulls out of his pocket

3:01 a gift for me and he's, you know, hands it over and I open

3:05 it up and it's a low poke. So for those of you who haven't

3:11 yet listened to our Staircase episodes, has.

3:14 To show us it, I'm gonna have to say this thing.

3:16 Yeah, it's so funny. He got it from TAMU for like

3:19 $2.37. So it's, it's the quality, it's

3:22 the quality of a temo $2.30 did. You give it a bit of a whack on

3:25 the head of his just to check if it could cause the injury.

3:28 I actually didn't, but why I didn't, I don't know.

3:32 It's odd anyway, for those of you.

3:34 To the staircase. Yeah, the staircase episode.

3:38 And in it, apparently, I actually don't even remember

3:40 saying this, but he said that I said something along the lines

3:45 of if my brother ever gave me a blow poke for Christmas, I would

3:50 kill him. So yeah.

3:54 So thanks for that, Matt. Early Christmas present

3:56 received. Oh.

3:57 So good. Well done, Matt.

3:58 I appreciate. I appreciate that.

4:00 Yeah, Gold. Yeah, it's great.

4:02 It was it was a long, it was a long play too, because you know

4:05 nothing from team. Whoever comes quickly does it

4:07 somebody. Bought it when the.

4:09 Episode Yeah, he did. He reckons he bought it when he

4:11 was listening to it and it was like months, you know, a couple

4:14 of months have gone past. Oh, that's so episode 7 and 8.

4:17 For those of you who haven't listened to The staircase, go

4:19 back and have a go. Double episode that one because

4:21 it's very Oh my God, that's that was huge.

4:23 That nearly killed me, that one. Yeah, every search of that was

4:26 it so. That it was that was a long

4:29 slog. We've got a few coming up so we

4:31 this week we sat down and sort of did our episode schedule

4:34 through to next year yeah, into the early part of next year and

4:38 there are a couple coming up that are huge like that are

4:40 going to be big research we've. Done some, yeah.

4:43 I think we've spaced them out well enough though.

4:46 Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, can always be changed.

4:50 Yeah, we might. We'll Yeah, we'll be all right.

4:52 We'll be all right. So let's get into today's

4:55 episode. It's this is sort of of more

4:58 recent living memory for most people.

5:00 And I think most people will hear the name Gabby Petito and

5:03 know exactly who we're talking about.

5:05 However, when I was telling my husband about this, yeah, he

5:09 didn't recognise her name. But when I told him, like the

5:12 the overview of the story, he was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I

5:15 remember her. Yeah.

5:16 Yeah, yeah, He might not have been taking notice of the name.

5:19 Yeah, he could have shown her face and he wouldn't have known.

5:22 Who? Yeah.

5:22 Yeah. Well, that's it.

5:24 This is what happens when you don't remember faces.

5:26 Yeah. But yeah, she to me, that name

5:30 is so recognizable. But then I guess we're obsessed

5:33 with true crime. So.

5:34 Yeah. But yeah, but it was everywhere

5:36 at the time. I mean, I mean, that's the, I

5:38 think the whole thing of this case really is that how much it

5:41 got picked up in social media. I mean, a lot of, you know, arm

5:44 chest detectives took this case on and really helped solve what,

5:48 you know, where her body was. Absolutely.

5:50 Yeah. It was huge at the time.

5:52 And I think it was one of, like, the first, I think TikTok kind

5:55 of like really heavily got into, you know, this case.

5:58 So yeah. We'll get into some really like

6:01 some more specifics, I'm guessing as as we go on.

6:03 But you know, the one of the things that I found interesting

6:06 when I was looking at TikTok, I'm not a big TikTok person.

6:09 I don't have a personal TikTok account.

6:11 I just use our two crime besties account.

6:13 But I was looking into some of the Tik Toks around this, and

6:16 people got down to such detail, like about how much hair growth

6:19 regrowth she had and forget what's the same and get

6:22 timelines. And yeah, it was incredible.

6:25 Yeah. People are, like, obsessed with

6:27 this case. Yeah.

6:28 You sent me a video, a Tiktok video of a girl.

6:31 And we can actually link that that Tiktok in our show notes

6:34 because she made something like 400 Tiktoks or more.

6:37 It was actually more than 400 Tiktoks just about Gabby potato.

6:41 Yeah, yeah, she does other crimes as well, like looks into

6:44 other crimes as well, but over 400 just on Gabby potato.

6:47 Crazy. Yeah, it's it's mental.

6:50 And she has some really great information.

6:51 Yes, and I mean where people go and find this stuff, it's

6:54 amazing how they get onto all. These things, but a few things I

6:57 looked at, I was like, oh, I just want to validate that.

6:59 Yeah, elsewhere and wasn't able to find things to back up what

7:03 some people were saying. Like some things that are out

7:04 there are really far fetched. And I guess that's what happens

7:06 on social media. You can say whatever you want to

7:08 say. Absolutely, but that's this

7:10 case. Like there's so much like body

7:11 Cam footage and stuff like that when that's real life.

7:13 That's what happened. You can interpret things are

7:15 still, you know, of like, you know, people, people's

7:18 intentions were sure you know what how they're in, you know,

7:20 trying to understand how someone was thinking to say that.

7:22 Yeah, at least you can. It's very factual.

7:25 A lot of that evidence that's been there.

7:26 It's body Cam footage etcetera of like things.

7:28 So yeah, that I do like watching those me too for that reason.

7:32 You're getting real genuine like footage of what happened.

7:36 Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it's insane.

7:38 There's a lot out there on this case, especially once you get

7:40 into it, there's and there's a lot of the, the different parts,

7:43 the moving parts of this. Yeah.

7:45 So yeah, yeah. Yeah, when like I was sort of

7:48 thinking about how we can talk about it today, but I've, I've

7:51 actually written a bit of a timeline.

7:52 Sure. And then I thought we could go

7:54 through the timeline piece by piece and then discuss the

7:57 points as we go. Cool.

7:58 Because I don't really want to miss anything.

8:01 And like, I thought I knew this story.

8:05 And I mean, I guess I did know the big points along the way.

8:07 But it's funny, the things that I've now found out about which

8:11 actually changed my, not my overall feeling of the case

8:15 hasn't changed, but it definitely changed the way like

8:20 my perception of like law enforcement and that kind of

8:22 thing in relation to this case. Yep, Yep, definitely.

8:25 I completely agree with you. Cool.

8:26 Yep. All right, so perfect.

8:29 Gabrielle Venora Petito was born on the 19th of March in

8:32 199919991999 I mean, she was nearly born in 2000 and she was

8:40 an adult. Like what?

8:41 Sorry, not right. No, she can drive a car.

8:44 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know like someone was saying

8:46 to the other day, like, you know, so you know, like, you

8:47 know, like the late 1900s. And I was like, what are you

8:51 talking about? And I'm like, oh God, I was born

8:53 in the late 1900s. Like that's not what we don't

8:55 call it the late 1900s. It's just born in the 80s, mate.

8:59 It was born in the 80s. Thank you.

9:02 Anyway, she was born in Blue Point, NY.

9:05 She came from a really sort of lovely blended family.

9:09 She has 6 younger siblings and half siblings.

9:13 And so she was born to her mother, now named Nicole

9:17 Schmidt. And Joseph Potato, or Joe

9:20 Potato, is her father. They've since remarried.

9:23 So Nicole is married to Jim and Joe is married to Tara Potato.

9:30 And they are what you would want a blended family to be.

9:34 They're close, they communicate, They're not all up in each

9:37 other's business, but they are completely amicable and all they

9:41 care about are their kids. The kids and I mean hats off to

9:45 them entirely. Like they were only young Nicole

9:47 and Joe when they had Gabby, they were 2021 ish.

9:51 And so to be able to go from that and split up remit and meet

9:55 other people and have their own families sort of from that.

9:58 But then Gabby feels like she legit has four parents.

10:02 There's no steps in that family. I love that that they were all

10:05 they're very much on the same page of that.

10:08 And that is so evident when you look at at the, there are

10:12 interviews with all of the family together.

10:15 Yeah. And even this, the stepdad and

10:18 the stepmom, even their relationship's really nice, like

10:21 so they're just. When they would stand, the two

10:22 of them were standing next to each other and like and I kind.

10:25 Of fitting each other because. I one thing is I kind of go.

10:27 Well, they do have a type. Yeah.

10:29 Like Tara looks a little bit like Nicole and Joe looks a

10:32 little bit like her, Like the other husband, I.

10:34 Can't remember. He just said it.

10:35 Jim got Jim got Joe and Jim. Joe and Jim, we go, yeah, that's

10:37 why I'm getting mixed. Up like, yeah, I kind of like,

10:40 well, you've both got to type, but you know, you can see the

10:42 all of them literally probably hang out and go out for dinner

10:44 potentially. Like totally, I mean, And I

10:46 think this, unfortunately, what happened has definitely brought

10:50 them closer together. So this is it.

10:52 Yeah. Which I mean, they've had to.

10:53 They've gone through so much with this.

10:55 And thankfully, they did have already a good base of a

10:58 relationship. But I think you're right.

11:00 I think this has really brought them even closer because, you

11:03 know, their link was Gabby and I guess without her around, you

11:07 know, that link could separate more.

11:09 But they've had to come together for so much.

11:10 And they I can see they continue.

11:12 They will continue that through other foundations and things

11:15 they've set up. Yeah.

11:16 Absolutely. Yeah.

11:18 Gabby, in her younger life, she loved school.

11:22 She was a really bright student. Apparently the school that she

11:24 went to in high school I think was like almost a select entry

11:29 type school. Like she's incredibly

11:30 intelligent. She was a really talented artist

11:33 and that's evident by like you can actually see some of her

11:37 drawings and she does like her family now have all went and got

11:41 tattoos, matching tattoos or not matching, but tattoos that Gabby

11:44 had sort of drawings of hers. Yeah, yeah, really talented

11:49 artistically. I certainly have none of that in

11:51 me. Appreciate someone else who has

11:53 all that ability. Yeah, absolutely.

11:55 And she was an incredibly adventurous spirit.

11:58 And I think that goes that shows in in the life choices that she

12:01 made. And she just kind of, you know,

12:04 went with the flow and, yeah, incredible, incredible young

12:08 woman. Absolutely.

12:10 I guess her undoing came when she met.

12:14 So when she was at high school, she met Brian Christopher

12:17 Laundry. He was born on 18th of November

12:20 in 1997. So he was a couple of years, a

12:23 year and a half or so young, older than her.

12:26 It was. Either a year ahead of her at

12:27 school though is that. Right.

12:28 He was one year ahead of her. So they met and knew each other

12:32 at high school, but they hadn't kept in contact sort of after

12:35 high school, I don't think. Read Mixed Things.

12:37 There were some friends were commenting that they were they

12:40 knew each other at school, but it wasn't until after the school

12:43 that they really started dating. Officially, they bumped into

12:47 each other at a party, recognized one another and and

12:51 started dating and I from from what I've read, I think their

12:55 relationship went from zero to 100 in about 30 seconds There's.

12:59 Certainly comments from friends and stuff that their

13:01 relationship was quite volatile that they.

13:03 Right from the get go, yeah. I didn't really know what they

13:05 were gonna get in terms of the two of them, whether they were

13:07 totally loved up or whether they were fighting OK.

13:10 There was definitely some comments from friends, you know,

13:12 I'm some interviews around that. But even early on.

13:14 Yeah, OK. Her really close friend Rose.

13:18 Yeah, actually she commented around a story that where the

13:21 two of them like, so she was single Rose.

13:23 But you know, Gabby was obviously partnered with with

13:25 Brian, but the two of them are going to go out to this line

13:27 dancing night where they were. It was it was ladies night.

13:30 So it wasn't about bringing along a partner.

13:31 I think it's just two of them want to go out and have a fun

13:33 night. And they were getting ready that

13:36 Gabby was going to get a cab or something to meet up with Rose.

13:39 And she got halfway there in this cab and realized her

13:42 wallet, her ID, was missing. And it turned out that Brian had

13:45 taken it off her. He didn't want her to go because

13:49 he didn't like what she was wearing and all these sorts of

13:51 things. And was.

13:51 Yeah. He was incredibly jealous, Yeah.

13:54 So I think that actually happened like after they'd moved

13:58 down to Florida. So I'm from my impression is

14:01 that early on in their relationship, everything looked

14:04 to Fred like friends and family very early on that things were

14:07 OK. Although Gabby's mum reckons she

14:12 thought Brian was OK, but she never really like clicked with

14:16 him. Like there was not that.

14:18 Oh yeah, he's a really good bloke.

14:19 And I, I'm really happy Gabby's with him.

14:21 But also Gabby was an adult and she had to make her own choices.

14:26 And we all like everyone makes, you know, some not so great

14:30 relationship choices early on in their lives.

14:33 And that just happened to be like, she just thought, you

14:35 know, Gabby was kind of going through going through all that.

14:38 Yeah. But Gabby was smitten right from

14:40 the get go. She was just head over heels in

14:43 love with Brian and. And supposedly he with her as

14:46 well. Yeah.

14:49 But yeah, as you said, things, things took a turn very, very

14:53 quickly. So Gabby, they met in New York

14:57 and then and Brian's parents then moved from New York down to

15:01 Florida. And Brian didn't have enough

15:03 money to stay in New York and sustain his like, he couldn't

15:07 have afforded to rent a place of his own.

15:08 So he had basically no choice but to move to Florida with his

15:11 parents. Yeah.

15:13 And basically he said to Gabby, do you want to come with me?

15:17 And she thought, well, why not, like.

15:19 So she moves down with the family down to Florida.

15:22 They lived in, they lived down there together in North Port, FL

15:28 for 12 months. And in that time, I guess they

15:31 did odd jobs here and there. So they both worked at Publix,

15:35 which is like a grocery type store casually.

15:39 And then Gabby got a job at a bar.

15:41 Now this was much better paying than a, than the public's job.

15:45 Brian wasn't happy about that. He didn't, he wanted, he was

15:48 already starting to really isolate her.

15:50 I mean #1 he's moved her away from all of her friends and

15:53 family and support network down to Florida.

15:55 Yeah. He then wanted to work with her

15:58 and be with her all the time. And she's, she's hoping to earn

16:02 enough money to be able to move out of, out of the Laundry's

16:06 family home so that she and Brian could start their life

16:09 together. He wasn't happy about her

16:13 getting this job at a pub or a bar or whatever it was, but he

16:17 but she basically said well I'm going to earn more money and

16:20 that way we can move out quicker and start our lives together.

16:24 She was committed to him. That's all that needs to be

16:26 done. But the jealousy was already

16:29 starting, and I think this is where you were saying so.

16:32 She met Rose down in Florida. When you started, I'm like,

16:34 yeah, I'm getting. A little bit ahead, yeah, but

16:37 that's cool. We're there now.

16:39 So she met Rose and they instantly, I think they met via

16:44 social media. I'm pretty sure I'll buy a

16:46 friend app or something. Yeah.

16:48 And she, yeah, they really hit it off straight away.

16:52 And they were besties. Like they were doing everything

16:55 together. And what a beautiful friendship.

16:57 And have you seen Rose interviewed?

16:59 Yeah, she's a lovely girl. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

17:02 I think her mum was commented around Rose saying, you know,

17:04 that she was so close with her that she felt like if there was

17:07 an issue with her and Brian's relationship that she would

17:09 probably have opened up to her before.

17:12 Even her mum and her mum and Gabby were very close.

17:15 But yeah, she was, her mum was like even just her mum was very

17:19 happy with this friendship that she developed.

17:20 It was a good friendship for her.

17:22 But. Rose Rose's account of

17:24 everything, though, is that she identified the fact that Brian

17:28 was, you know, very controlling and jealous, but he but and she

17:35 would sort of mention things to Gabby like this is actually not

17:38 OK. Like he can't treat you like

17:40 that. He can't do that to you.

17:41 The night that you were talking about where he took her ID out

17:44 of her wallet so that she couldn't go to this line dancing

17:47 thing. Yeah.

17:49 That night, Gabby ended up going back to Rose's house and

17:52 spending the night with her because she was so upset and

17:54 felt so betrayed by what Brian did.

17:57 And Rose thought that that was kind of potentially the end of

18:00 the relationship. Relationship.

18:01 Yeah. But she the next day, she went

18:03 back there because he was so sorry.

18:05 And he brought her flowers, and he, like he loved, bombed her.

18:08 Well, there's statistics on it of how many, you know, attempts

18:11 it takes for, you know, someone in a relationship like this to

18:13 leave, and it's at least five. OK, so you know it can take

18:18 multiple attempts to leave and. That's just on average, like

18:21 Gabby might have taken some. People might take 7.

18:24 Yeah. 20 yeah, some people might be able to leave that first

18:26 time, might be the second or third, Yeah, for others it's a

18:29 lot more. It's typically it's around, you

18:32 know, four to five attempts. Before they leave.

18:34 OK. Yeah, yeah.

18:36 It's tricky. It's very, very tricky.

18:39 Oh, it's just, it's just horrible.

18:41 Yeah, absolutely horrible. So while they were.

18:44 Living in Florida, though, I mean, obviously Gabby was living

18:47 in the Laundry's family home. Yeah.

18:50 So there was, it's one stage she was living with his sister and

18:54 brother-in-law. And then another stage, there

18:56 was his mom and he and his dad, I believe.

18:59 Yeah. So there was kind of some time

19:01 where his parents were overseas, I think when.

19:03 And that was when Cassie, his sister and the hit James, his

19:06 brother-in-law, was living in the house.

19:08 And then they moved into another property.

19:10 Yep. And so there was crossover

19:11 there, but I mean, she was building relationships with his,

19:15 you know, brought a family through this, you know, nephews

19:18 and stuff like that as well. So that's just playing that seed

19:21 for later. Yeah, yeah, totally.

19:23 Yeah, yeah. So on the 2nd of July in 2020,

19:27 now we've got to probably put a bit of a COVID mask on, on the

19:31 timing of all of this. Yeah, they were engaged.

19:37 So this was exactly a year to the day before they left on

19:40 their van trip, which we will get into.

19:42 On that whole topic then as well, like so they've got

19:45 engaged and there's and they're building.

19:47 She's built this relationship then with his extended family.

19:50 I'm, I don't normally go to this level of like, I feel like

19:54 there's a, there's a lot of privacy with, you know, like

19:56 people that we research in these things.

19:58 And I don't typically, typically go to social media stuff.

20:01 However, obviously with this case being a bit different with

20:03 social media, yeah, I did search her social media and things like

20:05 that. One thing I did find was that

20:08 her Pinterest account is still open and if you go in there's a

20:12 particular board called Life Goals and when you click on it,

20:16 it's a shared board. It's shared with three other

20:20 people. So this life goals board is

20:22 literally wedding planning, right?

20:25 And holy shit Jesus she's got a vision.

20:27 I was like, the board is stunning.

20:29 Love that for her I. Love that I want to say that

20:32 wedding, but not till they're Aunt Brian, obviously.

20:35 But yeah, so there was. It was shared with Brian, her

20:39 mum and Brian's mum, yeah. Brian's mom's name's Roberta and

20:45 his dad's Chris, just in case we refer to them by name.

20:48 Upcoming but. Yes.

20:49 So yeah, I just found that very interesting.

20:51 So clearly she's built relationships enough to have a

20:54 shared board of like life. Goals for these two, That's it's

20:57 very, very telling, yeah. Given it was during COVID, they

21:01 sort of ended up postponing, I guess, any sort of wedding

21:05 planning, not knowing what was coming up, how long lockdown

21:08 would be, what restrictions would be coming up.

21:12 And so on the 11th of December in 2020, they or Gabby purchased

21:18 a van in the hopes of doing it up and living out of it and

21:22 doing a cross country trip across the United States.

21:25 Yeah, she, it was a white, a 2012 white Ford Transit van.

21:32 She spent the next or they spent the next six or seven months

21:36 decking it out. So they popped a bed in the

21:38 back. They put, I don't know,

21:41 different bits and pieces that you need to live out of a van.

21:43 I don't know. She had it very well set up.

21:44 It looked everything. She had its place and she had

21:47 like pegboards with things hanging up and it was all like,

21:50 it's a tiny, tiny little van. It's not like a camper van or

21:53 anything like that. Smallest version of a camper

21:56 van, I think you can never get like, yeah, yeah, it's tiny,

21:58 but. Tiny, yeah.

21:59 But she did the amazing job of having everything in there and

22:02 but very like hashtag van life kinda.

22:04 It was very Instagramable. So I think that was the intent,

22:07 right? She wanted to be an influencer,

22:10 Yeah. And she was already doubling in

22:12 that social media space. But thought we've decided now,

22:15 postpone the wedding, go on this amazing cross country trip.

22:19 They didn't have huge plans in terms of timeline for anything.

22:22 They wanted to visit all of the national parks.

22:24 I think that was their goal when they set out.

22:29 And yeah, she had everything sort of set up and ready to go.

22:32 And they literally departed exactly 12 months after they got

22:35 engaged on the 2nd of July in 2021.

22:38 Yeah. So they actually ended up

22:40 departing from Blue Point in New York.

22:43 They were there celebrating Gabby's younger brother's

22:45 graduation from high school. And so they just thought it was

22:49 the last opportunity to sort of see Gabby's family before they

22:52 departed on their on their journey.

22:54 And yeah, they, you know, celebrated with her family and

22:59 we're off on this amazing adventure.

23:01 Gabby's mum says. You know, she was kind of a

23:03 little bit even jealous of Gabby.

23:06 Like she as in she's got this whole amazing, exciting

23:10 adventure ahead of her, as she should when she's 22.

23:16 Her mom, her mom had a 2 year old, I think, you know, So yeah,

23:19 she's her daughter is living a life that she probably didn't

23:22 get to do because she had a little child with her at that

23:23 stage. And so she'd been so proud of

23:25 her. Like, yeah, amazing.

23:27 Yep. So they're they're plan, I guess

23:33 very loosely was to drive basically make their way back

23:38 down to Florida and start really start the hook through from

23:41 there. So they've driven Florida to

23:43 Kansas. They were looking to then go

23:45 through Colorado and Utah. Yep.

23:47 Okay just real quick on Utah Tamp side nerd Real Housewives

23:53 of Salt Lake City. I'm still need to get back.

23:56 On it's the best you need to give it a go, yeah, but the one

23:59 that you love so much. And this really ties into the

24:01 social media side of things. If anyone hasn't watched Secret

24:04 Lives of Mormon Wives. Now, if you haven't, where have

24:06 you been? Get on it.

24:08 Yeah, you've been living under a rock.

24:10 It's amazing and it's about the the mum talk.

24:14 Sorry mum talk, mum talk. Can mum?

24:16 Talk even survive this. Anyway, sorry, tangent.

24:19 I just, I just like, I was writing down Utah and I'm like,

24:22 well, we can't not mention it if you're.

24:24 In Utah you have to mention it like totally melons, I mean God

24:27 and soft swinging I mean. I never thought we'd bring soft

24:33 swinging swinging into this podcast anyway.

24:39 Within the next sort of month or so, they've they visited

24:43 monument Rocking Kansas, they've gone through Colorado Springs,

24:47 the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado, Zion National Park in

24:50 Utah, Bryce Canyon in Utah, Mystic Springs in Utah.

24:54 They've been to a couple of national parks, Archers National

24:57 Park and Canyonlands National Park.

25:00 Yeah. And this all sort of took place

25:01 between the 4th of July and the 12th of August.

25:05 And they're posting regularly on social media, you know, with

25:08 throughout that. So there's and quite lengthy

25:10 posts that Gabby put up around what they were doing and how

25:13 they what they've been up to. So, yeah, so the other thing,

25:16 actually, I'm wondering whether you know a bit more about this.

25:19 I know they posted one YouTube video, so they started a YouTube

25:23 channel. Yeah.

25:24 And with the hope to like, I think Gabby's intent was to

25:27 eventually monetize, yeah, her content.

25:30 And so she was creating all of these videos, but I believe they

25:35 only released one on YouTube. Is that right?

25:38 She. Really managed to get one up

25:39 there was like an 8 minute I think video.

25:42 So they had a website and she posted that YouTube clip to that

25:46 website. OK, because so she was, she was

25:49 at the time, this was like when blogging and vlogging was a

25:52 thing like, which is we've now moved further into, I guess,

25:54 more of other aspects of social media of, you know, releasing

25:58 these sorts of things on YouTube being, I think a bigger thing.

26:01 You almost don't need a website for this sort of stuff these

26:04 days. Whereas at the time it was, you

26:05 know, you have a website, you release your videos on your

26:08 website. So, yeah, she was in the midst

26:09 of creating all of that. And she was so artistic.

26:12 I think she was really particular around how she wanted

26:15 it all presented, which good on her.

26:16 She was branding herself, you know.

26:17 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

26:19 That video, though, have you watched it?

26:20 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's really well done and

26:24 very well edited. And yeah, she's, it's basically

26:27 like her perspective of what they were doing for the day and

26:30 what how they were setting up and she, she was just going

26:32 through what they did in a day. Yeah.

26:35 And I mean, look, it's probably not the type of YouTube content

26:39 I would watch. It's not really my cup of tea.

26:42 But Van. Life is a huge.

26:43 Massive. Especially in America, I think

26:45 with the with I mean there's stunning national parks in

26:47 America and I mean and to jump in a in an RV, as they call it

26:51 like, you know, and go across the country is huge over there.

26:53 There would definitely be a very good big community who wouldn't

26:56 tap into that absolutely massive.

26:57 You know, this is looks amazing. Let's go there and, you know,

27:00 follow through with what, you know, journey they've taken.

27:02 Yeah, hashtag. Van life, yes.

27:05 So there's August 12th, August 12th.

27:09 This is yeah, this is a this is a turning point.

27:12 Yeah, yeah. So there was an altercation,

27:14 they were in Moab City, Utah, and there was an altercation

27:19 that was witnessed by several witnesses who then called that

27:24 into 911 and. Get on those people for calling

27:27 this behaviour out. Oh, I fully agree.

27:29 I mean, when there there is a movie that's been made of this

27:36 and I watched the movie, it's not really necessarily true to

27:41 the timeline's a bit warped on it.

27:43 It it doesn't quite follow the timeline exactly.

27:46 And there's a few things that happened in it that are

27:48 fictionalized. But when I was watching the

27:51 movie and it's called the Gabby Potato story, Peter came in, my

27:56 husband came in and he just saw the scene.

27:58 This scene where basically Brian has hit the depiction is Brian

28:04 has hit Gabby and the witness calls 911.

28:09 Now the way that the movie has depicted it is that they are at

28:12 the front of a grocery sort of shop and the witnesses see this

28:17 altercation happening in the car park.

28:20 They don't go and physically intervene though.

28:22 They just ring 911 now I kind of get that as like I as a woman, I

28:29 don't I wouldn't go over there. I would do the same.

28:32 I would ring the police you. Don't really know what you're

28:34 walking into. Yep, Yep.

28:35 And also there's like, there is a bit of an element of, well,

28:39 like that's, I don't know, between two people, but this

28:42 woman is being hit like, but Peter, Peter's take on it was, I

28:48 don't understand what, how that bloke could just stand there and

28:50 not go over there and do something.

28:52 I think from the the actual nine on one call, to me it seems as

28:56 though he did maybe approach and they've immediately got in the

28:58 car. Yeah.

28:59 I think that's, I think that's actually what happened.

29:02 I think you're right. Yeah.

29:03 I mean, yeah, I know what you're saying that Eva, if you saw this

29:06 stuff, wouldn't you into like try and physically intervene at

29:08 the time? But I do think that's maybe

29:10 where they were like, oh, do we approach?

29:11 And when they did go to approach, they like get in the

29:14 car. Like, yeah.

29:15 And they've driven away, yeah. Yeah, that's what I've sort of

29:18 took from that call. Yeah, So the the report, the man

29:22 who made the report or the 911 call, the most prominent 1, I

29:25 believe there were two, but there's one that's like very

29:28 readily available on online. He does say that like he gives

29:33 them a description of the van and the license plate number.

29:35 So yeah, Florida number plate. Exactly.

29:38 So the they know like the police.

29:43 They find them very. Lookout.

29:44 Yeah, they're on the lookout for them.

29:45 So they find them, they pull them over on a highway and Oh my

29:49 God, the the body Cam footage of this which was released many

29:54 many weeks later. But Oh my God, it is harrowing

29:59 it. Really.

30:00 Is it trees? Something shocking?

30:03 It's really, really horrendous. Gabby is so distressed.

30:08 Like so extremely distressed. You see such a different domain

30:12 between the two of them in that video clip, so there's two

30:15 different body Cam footages. And funnily enough, they only

30:18 released one of those body Cam images originally.

30:22 So months later after this, it occurred still, but they

30:25 released one lot of body Cam footage which gave one

30:29 perspective of what happened and it wasn't until they released

30:33 the second body Cam footage that you that it's holy fuck this was

30:37 not done well. No, there's moments in that

30:41 interaction that is just so appalling by those police

30:45 officers. Disgusting.

30:47 I understand that it's really hard to take, you know, two

30:50 people's word on what they're saying, you know, kind of you

30:52 know and know and then know what's happened.

30:54 Absolutely. There's always three story, 3

30:55 parts to every story. You know, there's three sides to

30:57 every story, however, but if they had only been able to

31:01 listen to that nine on one call or call the nine on one

31:03 dispatcher and actually discuss and find out what was said, I

31:06 think there would have been a very different take on what

31:08 happened. OK, but.

31:09 This is what gets me, right? There's a lot of this out there

31:12 where people are like, oh, if only they knew.

31:13 They knew because the body Cam footage, the 1:00 where they're

31:16 talking to Gabby, the police officer says to her, He says to

31:20 her, we've got a report that he hit you with a closed fist.

31:24 Yep, Yep. And so there's, I feel like

31:27 there's one cop who knows, but they haven't somehow

31:29 communicated to the other cop who's maybe more senior.

31:32 Yeah, yeah. So the I think you're right.

31:35 So the first body Cam footage that was released was the police

31:38 officer who was with Gabby. Yep.

31:40 We didn't then see the body Cam footage of the police officer

31:43 who or police officers who were with Brian until much later on.

31:47 So we didn't have that perspective to start with.

31:50 Yeah, All we can see is Gabby's really distressed.

31:52 She's in the back of the police car.

31:53 So they've they've told them to get out of their van.

31:56 They've pulled over on the side of the road, get out of your

31:58 van. They've separated them.

32:01 They've taken Gabby. She's sitting in the back of a

32:02 police car. Brian's standing at the back of

32:05 their car having a chat with another group of police

32:07 officers. Don't even.

32:08 OK, Thank you. Yeah, we'll get to that in a

32:10 second. The police officer says to

32:12 Gabby, like what's happened here?

32:15 We've got a report that you that he hit you.

32:17 We've got a witness stating he hit you.

32:18 And she goes, oh, yeah, but I hit him first.

32:20 She's. Defending him.

32:21 She's immediately now another thing worth noting, a month

32:26 before this incident, before this, they they had this

32:30 interaction with Gabby and Brian, their entire police force

32:34 undertook ADV professional development course, domestic

32:40 violence professional development course.

32:42 Also though, one of those cops who when he separated from his

32:45 ex-girlfriend. Threatened to kill her?

32:47 Yep. But that was one of the ones

32:49 with Brian, right? Yep.

32:51 Yep. So the cop who was with Gabby,

32:54 though, he he's conflicted, You can see it.

32:58 Yeah, in he doesn't know what to do.

33:00 Because she's, I mean, it's really difficult because she's

33:02 saying, but I hit him as well. Like, you know, she's trying to

33:05 take, I started it because that's what she has been like

33:08 conditioned to do. This is what police They should

33:12 be treated that well. Well, I believe they had been

33:15 Yeah, but they just. But why just looking at the two

33:17 of them, I mean, one of them even says it, and that's in that

33:19 second lot of footage. Yeah, he even says it.

33:22 Look, she's 105 lbs soaking wet. Like she's tiny.

33:25 There's no way that she was going to injure him.

33:29 She was not powerful enough over him.

33:31 He was the more physically powerful of the two.

33:35 Therefore, he is the threat, so even if she is hitting back,

33:40 he's the one who's gonna hit a lot harder.

33:43 Well, she had she had a mark on. Her face of the mark on her

33:45 face, the photo that she took herself, even I know, which is

33:48 only taken 10 minutes or something before they pull her

33:50 over, pull them over. So they had to have seen those

33:53 marks on her face. Oh for sure.

33:54 And like it's under her eye, like that bit looks like a bit

33:57 on her eye looks horrible, but then you can actually see like a

34:00 big red mark on her cheek. Yeah, and one further down where

34:03 you can see where she then in the video clip shows that he's

34:05 grabbed he's grabbed her here, which again, but by here for

34:09 those who are listening like he's grabbed her chin, chin kind

34:12 of thing with one hand like pin in pincer grip, which is classic

34:17 of that's someone who then will go for a neck if they if he's

34:21 grabbing her here, it's not much further to go to the neck.

34:23 And then for the strangulation, it is an indicator of someone

34:27 who is capable of it. Yep.

34:29 And that should have been picked up immediately, that it doesn't

34:31 need to be as physical as I think some people think it needs

34:35 to be for it to escalate. To that the way it had the way,

34:38 yeah, so. So many points.

34:40 So many points at the end of all of it and please go and have a

34:45 look at the at the footage that's available.

34:47 Google it It's it's it's really it's everywhere like it's

34:50 readily available. Basically what the police

34:54 decided to do was to separate them for the night because they

34:57 they actually had no choice but to act in some way based on the

35:01 laws they still. Didn't follow the law.

35:03 They they didn't, but they they went.

35:06 They they. Took a stated.

35:07 It a little bit yeah, because Gabby wouldn't say that she like

35:11 say they decided that she was the aggressor that was their

35:14 take on it which. Because actually, let's talk

35:17 about that now. Yeah.

35:18 Why did they think she was the aggressor?

35:20 Because she admitted to hitting him and but they never asked.

35:23 Brian, did you hit Gabby? They never asked.

35:26 Him No, because they were his best mates.

35:29 I was, I was. It's so awful, it's disgusting.

35:31 So you see them at the back of the van, particularly where

35:33 it's, and I'm sorry, but I know they put Gabby the car, the

35:37 police car behind the van. Yeah, she would still be out of

35:40 here. And see.

35:41 And see that going on. So as a victim and she was in

35:46 that moment, not that they were treating her, they weren't.

35:49 They were somewhat being, they were being somewhat nice, but

35:52 they didn't ultimately treat her as the victim as she should have

35:55 been. Well, they, they actually, one

35:57 of the quotes was, and this isn't a direct quote, but it's

35:59 something along the lines of it was just a slap fight between

36:03 lovers. Lovers quarrel.

36:06 Fuck me. So she would have heard all that

36:08 and seen that. So how's she feeling in the back

36:10 seat? They're going.

36:12 I'm being hit on being this, but I make this happen, it's my

36:15 fault. And then hearing them all

36:17 jovially chatting and laugh with him.

36:20 She must have felt so alone and so unsupported to be able to

36:26 come up and say, you know what, I don't feel safe.

36:29 Yep. She could not have done that.

36:30 No. Yeah, you've got his mates

36:32 hanging around having a chat. His.

36:34 New mate. Then they're they're laughing

36:35 and joking around just. Gives me that.

36:38 And they ask, they say to him, did she hit you?

36:41 And he's like, oh, yeah, it's a boys club.

36:43 Yeah, it's a total boys club. So what they decide then is

36:46 under the domestic violence laws in Utah, they need to separate

36:50 for a night now because they've only got one residence and that

36:53 is their van. They decide to put Brian

36:56 because. He's the victim.

36:58 As the victim into state funded domestic violence emergency

37:03 care, which was like a motel type thing for the night, they

37:07 left Gabby to sleep alone. Alone in the camper van in the

37:13 fucking wilderness. Like in the middle of nowhere in

37:17 bum fuck Utah. Yep, Yep.

37:21 Like now imagine if I don't know somebody else had have come

37:24 across her that night. I don't know.

37:27 Yeah, the liability 100% then is with those.

37:30 Cops like I just can't. It's like, where's the judgement

37:36 here? Like, where's the good judgement

37:38 from them? Yeah, yeah, if nothing else.

37:41 I wish if that were the worst case scenario of this was that

37:44 they should have just bloody arrested Gabby if they really

37:47 thought she was the aggressor. Which is what they, which is

37:49 what they should have done by law.

37:51 What they should have done, Yep, at least at that point, what

37:54 would have come out was then it goes through the court system

37:57 and within a court system it would have, well one, she would

38:00 have had time to contact her family and get support she

38:02 needed. Yep, 2 they would have listened

38:04 to that nine on one call a little bit closer and realized,

38:06 oh shit, there is actually witnesses to this.

38:08 They might have even interviewed those people and said what did

38:10 you see? And it would have come out what

38:12 needed to if they just arrested her.

38:15 Yep. I just can't.

38:19 It really irks me it. Like the the liability of the

38:23 police will come into play a little bit later on.

38:25 But anyway, it happened the way it happened.

38:28 Brian spent the night in emergency accommodation paid for

38:31 by the state and Gabby spent the night in their trans van.

38:34 She picked him up from the accommodation the next morning

38:38 and they went on their merry way.

38:41 Now, so this happened on the 12th of August.

38:44 On the 17th of August, Brian flies home to Florida and leaves

38:49 Gabby with the van on her own. On her own because she wanted to

38:55 work on her website content and website or her YouTube channel.

39:02 Now this, this bit gets me. When they left Florida, Brian

39:10 hired O'Brien and Gabby hired a storage facility to put all

39:14 their belongings into. Which, OK, if that's what you

39:20 need to do, that's maybe your mom and dad didn't want all of

39:22 your shit at their house. I don't know.

39:24 He's gone back on the 17th of August.

39:26 Now, mind you, they've left home on the 2nd of July.

39:29 He's now back in Florida on the 17th of August to clean up.

39:34 Well, this is his excuse to clean up the storage unit.

39:37 Yeah. And to save the money because

39:40 they would maybe think of extending the trip.

39:42 But yet they flew. He flew, Yeah, and spent money.

39:46 Yeah, what? It's what he probably saved

39:48 probably, you know, paid on flights, Yeah.

39:51 Which again, they paid out of Gabby's account.

39:53 Yes, it came out of Gabby's account.

39:55 Yeah. Yeah.

39:56 OK, Cool, cool, cool. Yeah, I do.

39:58 I feel like that whole that whole trip was again a control

40:01 thing. Yeah, he was punishing her.

40:03 He was punishing her for sure. Even his sister said she thought

40:07 like he she knew that he came back for these five days, so he

40:11 went back on the 23rd of August and she was like, it was weird.

40:15 Like why didn't he bring Gabby? I mean I'm sure we'll get into

40:17 it, but that whole family relationship is fucked up.

40:20 So it's so fucked up. Yeah, we will get, I think that

40:23 comes a bit later in a time when we can chat about them.

40:26 So he flew back into Salt Lake City on the 23rd of August.

40:31 He's, you know, he apparently was just he'd missed Gabby so

40:34 much, he just had to get back to her.

40:38 OK, 27th of August is the next big.

40:42 Yeah, just five days after he gets back.

40:44 Yep, from this break, I guess that, you know, if you want to

40:48 call it that, in that they've had a big blow up.

40:50 Travelling with with a person is, if you want to put a real

40:52 glaze over this, travelling together is tough.

40:55 They've had an argument and which has involved police.

40:58 They've had five days apart from each other to cool everything

41:00 down. You'd think coming back from

41:02 that, you know that as a relationship, you know you've

41:04 missed each other. Things were all shiny and good.

41:07 You know, you'd be like in a good place.

41:09 Right, right. So it just just adds up to me.

41:15 But yeah, Yep. So the 27th.

41:18 Of the 27th. This is the last known sighting

41:21 of them together. Yeah, they were at the Merry

41:23 Piglet restaurant, and there were witnesses saying that Brian

41:29 was, like, screaming at the Hostess.

41:30 Gabby was in tears. Apologizing for.

41:34 Him, yeah. I mean his behaviour just sounds

41:36 absolutely disgusting, like he was being horrible.

41:38 And it was all female workers. One of the one person really

41:41 made a point of stating that that it was all females that he

41:44 was yelling at. Just being an absolute pig

41:46 showing, showing everyone who he really is, yeah.

41:48 Interesting to pay or something is that?

41:51 Right. Yeah.

41:51 He, he thought they didn't get the service they want that he

41:54 thought he deserved because, you know, God's gift to the world

41:56 and whatnot. And then Gabby and Brian, the

42:00 witnesses saw Gabby and Brian sort of fighting because Gabby

42:03 was so embarrassed by his behaviour, but he obviously

42:08 thought it was absolutely fine. And so they had an altercation

42:10 there. And as I said, this is the last

42:12 known sighting of them together. And the police believe that

42:16 these two witnesses, it was a couple who made contact.

42:20 They actually saw what had transpired on social media and

42:23 made contact with the police when they saw Gabby because

42:25 they're like, oh, she's the girl we saw at the Mary Piglet, at

42:28 the Mary Piglet. And their account, you know,

42:31 really went towards and they all of this is backed up by CCTV and

42:35 everything. Yeah.

42:37 And by the waitresses in the in the restaurant as well.

42:40 Yeah. But yeah, they think that that

42:42 couples the the last people to that they know of to see Gabby

42:46 alive. Yeah.

42:49 On the 30th of August, there was a text message that came from

42:53 Gabby's phone to Gabby's mum Nicole it Gabby's mum states

43:01 that it was a really strange text and this was the start of

43:06 her suspicion that something was not quite right.

43:08 So the text, so the text said can you help Stan?

43:13 I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls.

43:17 Stan is Gabby's grandfather. Gabby never referred to him as

43:23 Stan was always grandpa. So that immediately arose

43:28 Nicole's suspicion. She's like, well, like, and also

43:32 Gabby would have called him. Like if he was calling her, she

43:35 wouldn't have, she wouldn't have contacted Nicole to call him.

43:37 She would have just called him. They had that kind of

43:40 relationship. They were in contact.

43:43 And so you know that. So August 30th, she the mum,

43:47 like Gabby's mum's thinking, Oh yeah, OK, that's strange.

43:52 Didn't hear anything else from her or any any responses back.

43:57 We now know that on the 1st of September Brian returns to North

44:01 Port, FL to his parents home in the van which was a. 40 hour

44:06 drive. Yep, it was 33 hour drive, 2300

44:10 miles or 3700 kilometres from where they were last known to

44:16 be. Crazy.

44:19 I mean driving that. Yep.

44:21 So he's driven that distance in probably what was four days.

44:27 Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

44:30 So wow, there's sorry, I actually went super, super,

44:37 super deep into the FBI files about this now.

44:41 They're all available on the FBI website.

44:43 I'll link it in the show notes, but it's vault.fbi.gov.

44:49 There are over 400 pages of of documents that relate to this

44:55 case and Oh my God it blew my mind how just how detailed they

44:59 are all. Right.

45:00 Oh. It was I, I was like, oh, I have

45:03 faith in in all this because they checked literally

45:08 everything. Yeah, they went to every single

45:10 gas station that he went to. They checked.

45:13 Like like a debit card? Well, her debit card.

45:16 He was using her debit card. Yeah, so they wanted to know

45:18 where he was. Travelling, yeah.

45:19 So they looked at, they went to everyone.

45:21 They got CCTV images, Yeah, CCTV footage from every gas station.

45:25 They confirmed Gabby was not in the van at this point.

45:27 Gabby was she? Didn't appear in the in the

45:30 footage anywhere. Snacks or.

45:31 Anything, yeah and even like a couple of the servos, which you

45:35 can actually again see CCTV footage online.

45:37 Yeah, you can see into the car like the, the, the CCTV is quite

45:41 low, so you can actually see people's faces in their cars,

45:44 right. And yeah, they she's not in the

45:47 van and there's no, it's not like she could have been sitting

45:49 in the back. No, because the back was a bit,

45:51 yeah. There were two seats in this

45:53 van. That's it.

45:53 That's it. Yeah.

45:55 So they the, you know, the FBI have really gone hell for

46:00 leather in this once. Once it's all been reported

46:02 through to them. Yeah, but on.

46:05 So Brian arrives September 1st at his family's house.

46:09 September 11th is the day that Gabby's family reports her

46:13 missing in the lead up to this. So from the last contact that

46:17 they supposedly had from her, which probably wasn't her on the

46:20 30th of August, all the way through to the 11th of

46:23 September, they have tried everything they can to contact

46:27 Gabby. Now at first they're saying to

46:29 themselves, oh, they're travelling, they're in the

46:31 wilderness, they're in national parks, there's no phone

46:34 reception. Yeah, it wasn't like Gabby to go

46:37 that long without contacting her family.

46:38 She was kind of at least in contact with them daily if she

46:41 could, if not every other day, Well.

46:42 If she wasn't contacting them, she was posting the social

46:44 media. Yeah.

46:45 So there was some way of if they weren't actually physically like

46:47 speaking to her or getting a receiving a direct text message,

46:50 they at least could check her social media and say, oh, that's

46:53 where they are today, you know, so and all that went dead.

46:56 Yeah, yeah. And so they've reported her

46:59 missing to Suffolk County with. D also in that time they also

47:03 were contacting, sorry, Brian's parents to say, have you heard

47:06 from the kids because there was a relationship there.

47:08 Obviously, Gabby having lived with them of like, you know,

47:11 have you guys heard from them because we haven't like very

47:13 Azure would, wouldn't you? Oh, absolutely.

47:16 And what did they do? Blocked their phone and blocked

47:20 them on Facebook. Yep, there was no way of Gabby's

47:22 family contacting them. They blocked them, they just

47:25 didn't answer them, not even pick up the phone and say we

47:28 don't know. Yep, they blocked them.

47:31 Because they knew the police, so they reported this to Suffolk

47:37 County PD in New York on at 6:55 PM that night, the police

47:42 knocked on the laundry's door in Florida.

47:44 So the police acted on this very quickly to their absolute

47:47 credit. Absolutely.

47:48 And I love, like, you can hear and see a lot of the different,

47:51 like even there's a body Cam footage of a police officer who

47:54 attended the laundry's home, then speaking to a detective in

47:58 New York who'd had contact with with Gabby's family.

48:03 Yep, and they're all over it. Like they're they're they're

48:06 communicating so well. I.

48:08 Mean because the nothing's falling through, they have

48:10 slightly different ways protocols, but they also have

48:12 slightly different laws on things.

48:14 And so they try they've, you know, got to manage it in terms

48:16 of what the New York detective wants to have happen and what

48:19 the Florida police officer can actually enact on, you know, it

48:23 can be slightly different. So they're both trying to work

48:25 through that. Yeah.

48:26 It's really interesting watching that body Cam footage.

48:28 Don't like how on top of it they are of getting what they need.

48:31 Yeah, and nothing's slipping through the cracks.

48:32 They're communicating every little tiny bit of information

48:35 there. Highly respectful of the

48:37 laundries, I have to say. Like they were not.

48:39 Aggressive. No.

48:40 No, they gave them every opportunity.

48:44 To be reasonable, to be reasonable about it.

48:45 Yep. Yeah.

48:46 And they weren't. So when they knocked on, when

48:51 the police knocked on the laundry's door, the dad, Chris

48:54 and mother Roberta appear. So there's like a little like

48:57 sunroom type thing, and then there's their front door and the

49:01 police don't even go past the sunroom door.

49:03 They literally go front and knock the door and then he exits

49:05 himself. Back out.

49:06 He gives them again, being incredibly respectful.

49:09 Yeah. He then says, you know, is Brian

49:14 home? And they say any questions you

49:18 have, you need to contact our lawyer.

49:19 I can give you his number. So this is 11 PMI think Florida

49:22 time, ten, 11:00 at night. Yeah, so it was late.

49:25 Yeah. And the police officers like,

49:27 well, I'm not going to call your lawyer at 11:00 at night.

49:29 I'm just asking you if Brian's here.

49:30 Yeah. And they say.

49:31 Answers real quick here is if Gabby and and Brian are.

49:34 Here. Come on then, we're all good.

49:35 We just tell the parents that's where she is, you know?

49:37 So they and he's like, Yep, Brian's here.

49:40 And they say, well, is Gabby here?

49:42 And he's like, no. Contact our lawyer.

49:44 We're not talking to you. We will not speak.

49:46 We, yeah, we have nothing further to say.

49:48 They are fucking feral humans. This only made me even hate them

49:52 more like if I could, they were. So in that instance of like

49:59 enact your 5th Amendment right, understand that you don't want

50:02 to speak to law enforcement, but answer the question, do you know

50:06 where Gabby is? I am sorry, but invoking the 5th

50:10 amendment when your daughter-in-law is missing.

50:16 Who you say you love. Yeah, I mean, you said it

50:19 before, like Gabby wanted to share her wedding plans with her

50:22 mother-in-law. Like exactly They had they had a

50:25 relationship. And then to go and do that, I

50:27 just can't. And it's an enabling freaking

50:30 narcissist son. Well, this is exactly how this

50:33 has been developed. Been able to develop to this

50:35 point is his mother. Yep.

50:37 I'm sorry, I'm gonna get angry. Get angry.

50:40 Get angry because it is. This is not.

50:42 OK, an enabling piece of shit. Yep, has allowed her son to

50:46 become the full blown narcissist that he did because without that

50:50 he would have been had been pulled into line earlier to not

50:54 behave this way. But the fact is that his family

50:57 enabled this shit is exactly why it got to this.

51:01 They are to blame. They are to blame.

51:02 They are. They are.

51:03 And I mean, obviously Brian is 100% to blame, but they at the

51:07 core of it. Yeah.

51:09 You back your son, Absolutely. You support him and everything?

51:12 I Yes. But you support your son to do

51:14 the right thing. But you do the right thing.

51:16 Like yes, yes you would support them like you'd never.

51:20 I would never abandoned my child, however, I would also I

51:24 would the the expectation is that they would do the right

51:28 thing and I would support them in doing that.

51:29 Yes, I'd get them, you know the legal means, but that that you

51:34 know that they required. I would do anything I could to

51:36 help them, but I would like they they knew what he'd done at this

51:40 point. A. 100%.

51:42 Oh, we know. We know they knew.

51:43 Well, we do and we don't. As in, like in the deposition,

51:47 they still won't admit that they knew she was dead.

51:51 They they knew she was. Gone or gone?

51:54 Yes. God, Yep.

51:55 Yep, Now I'm sorry, any parent in that phone call they talk

51:58 about and we can sort of maybe jump in here, I don't know, but

52:00 there's so in the deposition that they, because they're the

52:03 lawsuit that the Potato and Schmidt family enacted upon the

52:06 laundries in respect to what was it called.

52:10 That lawsuit was I had it highlighted.

52:13 They, oh God, they sued them for and where's my piece of paper?

52:19 So they sued them originally for wrongful death, but then no.

52:24 But then they sued. Them for intentional infliction

52:27 of emotional distress. That's it.

52:28 Including their lawyer, which I fully agree with.

52:31 Yep. So basically this is them suing

52:33 them for the fact that they knew where that Gabby was dead if at

52:36 very least and didn't inform the police and have and allow Brian

52:41 to speak to or not that Brian didn't step forward and speak to

52:44 the police. But they knew that this was at

52:46 the point of we're looking for a body, not a person.

52:48 Yeah, you know, walking around. And they could, they should have

52:52 followed through and let police know that.

52:54 Yeah. So in the deposition, the they

52:58 asked them multiple times what happened.

53:00 And there was a so the the his, their dad, his dad, Christopher

53:04 says there was a phone call, a frantic phone call on the 29th

53:08 of August from Brian saying that Gabby is gone.

53:14 Now any reasonable parent would say, I'm sorry, mate, mate,

53:17 mate, calm down. Gone.

53:18 What do you mean by gone? Gone.

53:20 Gone. What do you mean gone?

53:22 And that answer needs to be she's gone for a walk, she's

53:26 gone to X place, she's gone home, she's gone as in she's

53:30 dead. Now, if you are not anything

53:33 other than an enabling fucking moron, you know how to interpret

53:36 that without If you're not going to answer, if you don't ask the

53:38 question, you know the answer. What do you I could not, I could

53:43 not agree with you more. They didn't ask the question

53:45 because they didn't want to know what the answer was and at that

53:48 or did they ask the question and they're just perjuring

53:50 themselves in when they're in their deposition?

53:53 Is fucked up like. They they knew like you can't

53:56 convince me they didn't that absolutely they're they are

54:01 criminally liable in my opinion. Have you read the?

54:06 Burn after reading Yes. Better yes.

54:08 Do you want us to? Read it.

54:09 Yeah, I think we should. Do you want to maybe go back

54:12 and, like, in terms of the timeline, get to that point?

54:14 Because I think there's a little bit more context that we can

54:17 give to that before we get to that point.

54:19 Is that all right? Yeah.

54:20 So September 16th, there's a press conference held where

54:26 Gabby's dad fronts the media and he begs for Gabby's return.

54:31 But mostly it's about getting Brian to speak up.

54:35 So he's, he's begging Brian. He's like, I know you're at

54:37 home. I know you're, I know you know,

54:40 we just need to find Gabby. Please, whatever you do.

54:43 If nothing else, if you loved Gabby at all, you would tell us.

54:47 Even if he just said we lot we separated last at X campsite.

54:51 Yep, that's the last place I saw.

54:54 Whatever, September 16th and 17th as well.

54:58 Laundry's sister speaks to, I mean Good Morning America.

55:02 They interview her on her front lawn with her husband.

55:04 Oh well then Good Morning Australia that interviewed her.

55:06 It was actually protesters who went out to her house.

55:10 They'd been out the front of the the Laundry's house multiple,

55:13 multiple mornings and evenings, yelling at them to tell them

55:16 where Gabby was. Is this that?

55:18 Is this that blonde woman with the megaphone?

55:20 The Yeah, she's cool. She's amazing.

55:23 So it's her and this other guy who actually when they they go

55:26 to protest out the front of them right after her comments on

55:29 another on Good Morning Australia, I think were.

55:31 Good Morning, America. When I say Australia, yeah,

55:35 sorry. Yeah.

55:36 So I think that her comments and I agree with her.

55:39 She was, it was misquoted. Yep.

55:42 In an article, I think it was, yeah.

55:44 And so I think after that article was released, they went

55:46 and protested at her house, believing that, oh, she's the

55:49 same as them, you know, and her and her husband came out to say

55:53 because we've got our kids inside who are crying because

55:56 they've heard you yelling out, you know, that they're awful

55:59 stuff. They're auntie, basically.

56:01 Yeah. And we haven't had that

56:02 conversation with them like. Because at this point they don't

56:05 know anything. Yeah.

56:08 So that's, yeah, that is actually protesters that they

56:11 were talking to. Right.

56:12 And then and then that was aired online.

56:14 A lot of it was, so it's a 20 minute it's.

56:16 Going to YouTube, it's when you watch the whole.

56:18 Thing they give the all credit to both of them.

56:21 They gave them plenty of time and they were saying things as

56:23 they said. We're probably saying too much.

56:25 We shouldn't be. We've been told not to talk, but

56:28 we're sick of this and we need to say something because hey,

56:30 reasonable people, no, that things should be said.

56:33 And they, they were kept in the dark.

56:35 I mean, their story is that they didn't know anything and they

56:38 were learning things as the rest of the public were.

56:40 Learning things I actually. Believe.

56:41 I fully believe her. Yeah.

56:43 I I you look at her face, you can see she's really distressed.

56:46 She loved Gabby. She even says that she loved

56:48 Gabby. Like her sister, her.

56:49 One of the five that maybe Brian was the golden child.

56:52 Oh, obviously, I mean. She was not.

56:55 No exactly if. You want to go down that path

56:58 and look into what narcissist and how narcissist developed.

57:01 Another narcissist. Yeah.

57:02 Yeah. And what Golden Child and

57:03 everything? That's a whole other podcast.

57:05 We can go into another day. Yeah.

57:06 Absolutely. But yeah, it, it, it's it, it

57:09 has followed that pattern in this, in this family.

57:11 Yeah. Cassie, one of her quotes from

57:14 that interview was obviously me and my family want Gabby to be

57:18 found safe. She's like a sister and my

57:20 children love her. All I want is for her to come

57:22 home safe and sound and for this to be a misunderstanding.

57:26 I felt for her in that. Because you think you'd be so

57:29 desperate that, I mean, even if your brother is an asshole, you

57:33 would never want to believe that he's a murderer.

57:35 Oh, no. You know, So she's, she's trying

57:37 to unpack all of this. Well, the rest of the world's

57:39 unpacking it. And, like, well, poor her.

57:44 Yeah, poor her. But yeah, I mean, she talks in

57:47 that in that that that if I want to call it interview or not, but

57:50 she talks at that point about the camping trip that they went

57:53 on. So Brian arrived back on the 1st

57:57 of September to his family home and was it the 5th?

57:59 Of September 5th, yeah. 5th to the 6th, they've gone on a

58:04 camping trip and this sister, she went as well, like but

58:07 completely oblivious to be honest, by the sounds of things.

58:09 And she regrets now that she didn't pick up on any vibes of

58:12 anything. Again, the enabling parents have

58:15 probably just swept all under the rug.

58:16 We're just on our camping trip. They only stayed for a few like

58:19 for six hours, I think she said because they've got young kids

58:21 have to go to school the next day.

58:23 They're hooked up to have like, you know, a bit of a, you know,

58:25 muck around to the campsite and, you know, and have some dinner

58:27 with the with them all because they haven't seen Brian much

58:29 since he's come back from his big fan life trip.

58:33 So she's a bit, I think, you know, oblivious at this point

58:36 and. And I think she believed that

58:37 Gabby was just back, like working on social media.

58:40 But again, it's very telling how she didn't know.

58:44 Well, she didn't feel she could ask questions.

58:46 No. So I feel like she yes, she

58:48 didn't ask the. Right.

58:49 So she's been groomed as well. Exactly.

58:51 She knows that this family is not one that you question.

58:54 What Brian, Christopher and Roberta have going on You, you

58:59 are better off staying out of that.

59:01 Yeah, just to wind back just a tiny little bit, the police

59:06 actually set up surveillance cameras and were surveilling the

59:09 laundry's home during this time. They put surveillance cameras

59:13 like all around the house, not not on their property, yeah, but

59:16 on neighbours properties on. Neighbours like Yep, get them.

59:19 Yeah, they're like, yeah, sure. Go ahead.

59:21 Like put stuff up. So there was there was footage

59:23 of Roberta, like I think Brian was hiding out in a shed, like a

59:27 big shed. Leave that that we don't know.

59:30 Well, no, they think. They think he was in there for.

59:32 A bit. It says that people thought he

59:33 was living in a bloody garden bed too.

59:35 Oh, what? I didn't hear that.

59:36 I know. That yeah, yeah, this is, I

59:38 remember that at the time. There's a there's footage of

59:40 them which God, this is all going on and they go out

59:42 gardening. I couldn't anyway, so.

59:46 Roberta stuck at home, though. Roberta and Christopher are out

59:49 gardening and there's footage of where people believe.

59:51 They see a hand pop out of like a garden bed and they think that

59:55 that Brian's living under the garden bed.

59:58 I did not know that. Oh, that's so funny.

1:00:01 Yeah. But look, whether or not he was

1:00:03 living in the shed, Roberta was. Oh, that's so funny.

1:00:05 Roberta was back and forth to the shed.

1:00:07 So they think maybe Brian was in there, I guess.

1:00:10 But even though the police were surveilling them, Brian managed

1:00:14 to get out. The police thought that it was

1:00:16 Roberta leaving the house and so obviously she wasn't somebody

1:00:20 they were necessarily interested in following.

1:00:22 So thinking it was Roberta, they have not followed.

1:00:28 And on the 17th of September, the Laundry's actually they

1:00:35 reported Brian missing. So going back slightly, what

1:00:41 date was it that he supposedly he left on that camping trip

1:00:43 that he went on I. Think it was the sure the 14th,

1:00:47 4th, Yeah, 14th or 15th? Because on the 15th of

1:00:50 September, Christopher and Roberta go to that camp entry,

1:00:55 Yep. Collect the Mustang car that

1:00:58 Brian drove to there and brought it home?

1:01:01 Yep. So they.

1:01:01 Knew where he went and they knew to collect the car from there.

1:01:05 As if like to say, we know he's not walking back out of that

1:01:09 camping trip and coming home in that car.

1:01:13 Just leave that with you. But then like, how could they be

1:01:19 complicit in this in what was to come next?

1:01:23 Oh. My like, I'm like, did they go

1:01:28 and get the car because they wanted, they wanted their car

1:01:30 back? No, they knew what he was going

1:01:32 to do. But how as a parent, could you

1:01:34 allow like I? No, they're not fucking human.

1:01:37 Yeah, they're not human. Yeah.

1:01:40 Yeah, at this point, Brian was named a person of interest.

1:01:45 So on this 15th of September, he was actually named a person of

1:01:48 interest, but never a suspect. And because he was only named a

1:01:51 person of interest, the police couldn't actually compel him to

1:01:56 talk to them. And so basically at this point,

1:02:00 any contact the police had is through this lawyer who a week

1:02:04 before anyone knew Gabby was even missing, was paid a $25,000

1:02:08 retainer by the laundry family. That's an also.

1:02:11 On that 29th of August phone call, that frantic phone call

1:02:14 where he told his dad that Gabby was gone.

1:02:17 He that was when he hung up from that phone call the father and

1:02:20 rang the lawyer. I'm helping you, mate, because

1:02:23 there was 20. He rang his dad 20 times in

1:02:27 those two days, I believe. Yes, after that.

1:02:29 So yeah, on that trip back, he was on the phone constantly to

1:02:32 his dad. Don't can't tell me they didn't

1:02:34 know anything. Oh.

1:02:37 Absolutely. Yeah.

1:02:40 The laundries. We have since found out we're

1:02:42 also quite rich. Yeah, yeah.

1:02:47 Now I've seen I've seen it written in multiple different

1:02:51 places and the amount's the same everywhere I've looked into.

1:02:53 It I wasn't, I've only found it one spot, a reputable spot.

1:02:56 Yep, and that was when I think I said it to you going Yep, can

1:02:58 you see this? Sorry because I can't.

1:02:59 Verify anywhere else. Two other places that they were

1:03:01 worth $7,000,000. Now they're home.

1:03:05 Very modest, nice, neat looking house prices.

1:03:09 Well, I looked into it. Yeah, OK, good.

1:03:11 And a house like that is somewhere in the 250 to $400,000

1:03:16 range. That makes me sick for what we

1:03:18 pay here in Australia, I know. Right.

1:03:20 I mean it's a nice, but it's a single story weather board type

1:03:23 home like there's nothing or stucco home.

1:03:25 There's nothing special about it.

1:03:27 It's on a decent size block I guess, but it's not what you

1:03:32 would think of 7 million. $7,000,000 in assets like.

1:03:36 You know what? I.

1:03:37 Mean like there's cash rich and then there's asset rich, which

1:03:40 can be, yeah, who knows? Oh yeah.

1:03:45 Yeah. Well, I hope the settlement was

1:03:46 good. We, well, we don't know.

1:03:49 No, we don't. Yeah.

1:03:51 So 17th of September. They Laundry's family have

1:03:55 reported him missing on the. 18th they knew he was missing 2

1:04:00 days prior when they went and picked up his car.

1:04:01 Yeah, let's be honest. Yeah, yeah, this, that bit I

1:04:04 can't get my head around Like I, I, there is nothing logical in

1:04:07 my brain that goes, oh, yeah, that's, that's why that

1:04:09 happened. September 18th.

1:04:12 The, you know, we're now searching for two people.

1:04:15 We're searching for Gabby still, because she still hasn't been

1:04:17 found and no information has been forthcoming from anyone.

1:04:22 And they're also now looking for Brian the next day on the 19th

1:04:28 of September in 2021 remains that a consistent with a very

1:04:35 small female were found and the following day, I think no two

1:04:42 days later were confirmed to be Gabby's.

1:04:46 It's it's so tragic, but I find the way that this all came about

1:04:52 really interesting. There was another van life

1:04:55 YouTube family who were travelling in the same area as

1:05:00 Gabby and Brian. And when all this sort of was

1:05:03 coming out on social media, they were like, oh, we were in that

1:05:06 area around the same time. I wonder if we've got any

1:05:09 footage because they would, they'd take footage of

1:05:10 themselves driving through themselves.

1:05:12 Yeah. And so the mum goes back and

1:05:16 she's like looking through all their footage and what does she

1:05:18 find? She finds their van parked, Not

1:05:22 even parked. It looks like it's just been

1:05:23 like, I don't know, dumped on the side of this sort of track.

1:05:28 It's not even a road. Yeah.

1:05:30 And she's like, oh, my God, that's the van.

1:05:32 That's the van you can see. The Florida plates you can.

1:05:34 See the Florida number plates? She lets the police know and

1:05:37 they find Gabby's body within 300 metres of that van.

1:05:39 Of the van in that footage of where the van was.

1:05:41 Sorry, you can. Actually see that Brian was in

1:05:43 the car at the time. Oh.

1:05:46 Can. You Yeah, didn't you see that

1:05:48 again? So again, you two other Tiktok

1:05:50 sleuths got onto it. One of the guys was able to

1:05:53 enhance the footage. That much you can see see the

1:05:54 back door of that van close. Yeah.

1:05:58 And so. And you can see there's actually

1:06:00 his shoes just outside the van. You can see all that happen as

1:06:03 they as she pulls up. It's really hard to see.

1:06:05 But when he enhances it, it's really obvious.

1:06:08 Yeah. So he was in the van at the

1:06:09 time, which I mean, she that family, they feel like not that

1:06:12 they could they would know to even, you know, because they're

1:06:15 also from Florida. She was like, we saw the Florida

1:06:17 plates, like, oh, we could talk to them like we're all from

1:06:19 Florida. But then as they drove past,

1:06:20 they were like, Oh no, there's no one there.

1:06:22 Oh well, they've. Got to keep driving like.

1:06:23 You know, maybe we'll see them at the campsite, you know,

1:06:26 because which is along that road.

1:06:28 We'll keep an eye out for them and, you know.

1:06:30 Yeah. And that's obviously exactly

1:06:32 when. Yep.

1:06:35 Yep. So, I mean, thanks to social

1:06:38 media, this, you know, they were able to find Gabby's body

1:06:40 quicker than they probably would have otherwise.

1:06:42 Yeah. So yes, she's they've picked,

1:06:47 picked, you know, discovered Gabby's body, Gabby's remains.

1:06:53 The autopsy confirmed that Gabby had been strangled.

1:06:59 I can't even the medical examiner or the coroner

1:07:06 basically stated that her estimated time of death was

1:07:09 between three and four weeks prior to when she was found,

1:07:13 which really fits the timeline of of it matches up to when that

1:07:18 family had driven through and located their van and then

1:07:24 Brian's subsequent movements. Kind of everything, just

1:07:27 everything tied up in with that. Yeah, roughly that 27th of

1:07:30 August date. And I, I'm, I'm hoping that you

1:07:34 found something because I certainly couldn't, because I

1:07:36 have many questions about that autopsy report, mainly how her

1:07:42 body was, whether it was buried or just on the ground.

1:07:46 I think it was on the ground, I think there was.

1:07:49 Some I think it's been released I that the the autopsy report

1:07:53 that like yeah, you can't Get full access to the full report

1:07:56 from what I've been able. To No, you can't.

1:07:58 Even in the FBI, actually. Illegal for them to release it

1:08:01 in that county where in in Yeah. So whereas Brian's one has been

1:08:07 released entirely because Florida laws.

1:08:09 Allow it. So from what I can gather, that

1:08:11 report can't be seen. In the FBI documents, they refer

1:08:14 to it, but a lot, even the references are redacted.

1:08:18 Yeah. Yeah, because there's.

1:08:19 So I had questions around. Yeah, how her body.

1:08:22 Yeah. So that that's 300 meters from

1:08:24 where that van is, is where her body was found because then it

1:08:29 was her body put there was that moved there?

1:08:31 Was that where it occurred was and also was there the blunt

1:08:37 force trauma to the head? Is that a head, head, head bump

1:08:41 on the forward where in a later situation it's mentioned by

1:08:45 Brian that he that he talks about a bump on the head or

1:08:48 because I know when they talk about throttling and that sort

1:08:50 of thing answer and they talked about that petition was hit

1:08:52 around the sides of her face from what I could read of what

1:08:55 was released, but no mention of particularly the forehead being

1:09:00 hit. So I just had many questions.

1:09:02 Yeah, I mean, as just answers, as you said, there's no answers

1:09:05 out there necessarily. There's some, I don't even know

1:09:09 where this information came from, but there's some

1:09:12 information about the position of her body, like she was like

1:09:15 on her side, almost curled up like her.

1:09:18 I mean that what they found was skeletal remains.

1:09:20 It's not like they found a body. Yeah, but you know, it looks as

1:09:25 though maybe she didn't die straight away.

1:09:27 She's kind of like gone into the fetal position on the side.

1:09:30 I haven't been able to substantiate that though,

1:09:32 whether that's true or not. Yeah, because that probably

1:09:35 doesn't align with the strangulation.

1:09:37 No. So yeah, no.

1:09:40 OK. But then that's what people are

1:09:41 saying. Like if she was in that

1:09:42 position, had he not quite killed her?

1:09:44 Or was it the blunt force trauma that ended up killing her?

1:09:47 Don't know. The autopsy report very clearly

1:09:50 states the strangulation. Yeah.

1:09:52 So yeah, yeah. Because, OK, right.

1:09:55 Yeah. When we get to that bit.

1:09:57 And I guess when when these documents aren't released,

1:09:59 people are speculating and it's very easy to speculate on

1:10:02 TikTok. Oh, yeah, that's why I like to

1:10:05 read it in autopsy reports. Yeah, yeah.

1:10:09 Oh, yeah. So now that we found Gabby,

1:10:14 thankfully, and, and Gabby's family are very grateful for

1:10:17 that fact. And you know, we still now don't

1:10:21 know what's happened to Brian or where he is or what's going on.

1:10:24 On the 23rd of September, an arrest warrant is issued for

1:10:27 Brian in Wyoming through the US District Court.

1:10:32 But all that they could get him on was intent to defraud because

1:10:35 they were able to prove that he'd used her, her credit card

1:10:39 or her debit card and her PIN when he was buying.

1:10:44 Well, they actually got him only on one charge of it because that

1:10:47 there's only one CCTV where they can see him in putting the PIN

1:10:50 into the pad and it was for like a $33 fuel charge.

1:10:54 Gotta get him on something though because.

1:10:55 But they had to get him on something.

1:10:56 That was the only question I had with the autopsy report that I

1:10:58 wanted to find was whether or not there was DNA found like

1:11:00 under her fingernails and things like that.

1:11:01 You know, that transfer, not just like not just a hair on of

1:11:04 his on her body because that's easily transferable.

1:11:07 I wanted to see evidence that would 100% link, but not because

1:11:11 I questioned whether or not it was him that was that did it.

1:11:13 She had no flexion to make. Sure, that I know, but to make

1:11:16 sure that they were able to get it like that there was a

1:11:18 definitive it was him, he was. There nail in the coffin, so to

1:11:22 speak. That there was just, yeah, like

1:11:24 they could still get something under fingernails potentially.

1:11:26 I don't know. A reward was offered for

1:11:29 Laundry's arrest on the 25th of September and on the 26th of

1:11:33 September Gabby's family held a memorial service for her in New

1:11:40 York in Holbrook, NY. This was beautiful.

1:11:43 There were two fire so the local fire station decided to send 2

1:11:47 fire trucks and almost make a guard of honor for Gabby.

1:11:50 So his step dad was a fireman? Yeah.

1:11:52 Oh, that's yeah. So, you know, lots of, you know,

1:11:54 huge amounts of respect there. They had pictures and lovely

1:11:57 things that Gabby had done, you know, adorning the fire trucks.

1:12:00 And so many people came out to pay their respects.

1:12:04 And obviously, because this had been such a a media and social

1:12:08 media heart sort of thing, there were people who didn't know

1:12:13 Gabby still, you know, making the effort to attend.

1:12:15 And her family really appreciated that.

1:12:17 They understood that, you know, it was because of people

1:12:21 sleuthing and looking around that Gabby was found as quickly,

1:12:25 you know, as as she was. I can't imagine what it would be

1:12:30 like to be in that position to be burying a child of yours who

1:12:34 and, you know, thinking about her last moments and what that

1:12:38 would have been. Her mom says that she likes to

1:12:42 focus on the positives or the the nice parts of this.

1:12:46 And one of those things is she said at least Gabby had seen

1:12:49 some really beautiful things in her last few weeks.

1:12:53 And she said, I that's what I hold on to.

1:12:56 I don't want to think about the awful experiences that she had.

1:13:01 Look at the amazing things that she was able to do.

1:13:03 Yeah. Oh, the strength of that woman.

1:13:06 Yeah. The strength of the whole

1:13:07 family. But she's.

1:13:08 Amazing. The fact they've got each other

1:13:09 is what gets them through, thankfully.

1:13:11 Yeah. Such a supportive network there.

1:13:14 It's amazing. Yeah.

1:13:15 Yeah. Brian's family is still not

1:13:17 really cooperative with police, even though their son's missing

1:13:21 September the 27th. They speak to the police very

1:13:25 briefly and just basically say Oh well we don't know where he

1:13:28 is on the 7th of October. So a few weeks later, I guess

1:13:33 they decide to help out, no? No, no, no, not the 7th.

1:13:37 The 7th of October. The water recedes enough that

1:13:40 they can get to various different parts of the park.

1:13:44 OK, right. So from the 7th of September,

1:13:48 October, this October? Sorry, they're still quiet.

1:13:51 OK, but Brian's dad helps out that day, did he?

1:13:54 Yeah, I think he joined the 1st. Time they joined their search

1:13:59 was the day his body was found. Oh, right.

1:14:02 Which was what? The 20th?

1:14:04 20 October? The 20th.

1:14:06 And literally dog an hour, 45 minutes, I think even of them

1:14:10 helping to search. They find his remains.

1:14:15 They first find belongings. Yeah, first of all, belongings.

1:14:18 And then they see him right next to it.

1:14:20 They find the skeletal remains. Yeah.

1:14:24 And it's pretty obvious that he has died of a gunshot wound to

1:14:28 his head. Yep, now this screams to me that

1:14:34 they have negotiated with police complete immunity.

1:14:39 We'll show you where his body is if you promise us we're not

1:14:42 going to get any charges for. It.

1:14:48 It's that to me, that's the only, I don't know how on earth

1:14:52 do you think that they've been searching that place for like a

1:14:54 month? Yeah.

1:14:56 Yeah. And no sight of him whatsoever

1:14:58 cannot find him. The water recedes on October 7th

1:15:01 to where where he was found was then exposed, which was only

1:15:06 about I believe it was only a 10 minute.

1:15:08 Walk. Yeah, it was.

1:15:09 To that from the entry of the park, it was only about a 10

1:15:11 minute walk into where he was found.

1:15:13 Yep. So it wasn't like he'd gone

1:15:15 depths of this. It was a huge 25,000 acre, you

1:15:18 know, like. National wetlands or something,

1:15:20 yeah. So he was only 10 minutes in.

1:15:22 So they but his dad was able to walk in there when with 45,

1:15:27 within 45 minutes they found stuff and it's the only day they

1:15:31 go out there and look, they had negotiated immunity.

1:15:37 I can't, I can't. The thing I just cannot get my

1:15:40 head around is that they knew he was going to kill himself and

1:15:43 did nothing. I think that they knew this is

1:15:46 where I screamed that they knew what he did.

1:15:49 That edit hit. Brian had told them what he what

1:15:52 that he had done. They knew that he was going to

1:15:54 spend his life in jail if he was, if everything played out to

1:15:58 where he was in took, taken in custody by police.

1:16:02 So they've, I reckon, as a family, they've discussed this.

1:16:05 As in, like, yeah, I think you're probably best off killing

1:16:07 yourself. Kill yourself or you know, you

1:16:09 go to jail for life and he's then gone and chosen.

1:16:12 Kill his. Kill himself.

1:16:13 I just, I actually feel sick thinking about that.

1:16:16 I that is impulsive. That is, that is Oh my God, if

1:16:20 that's the case, that is so fucked up.

1:16:24 I no. I I can't, I don't understand it

1:16:28 any other way and I and I don't even understand that, but I

1:16:32 can't get any other story that makes sense.

1:16:36 That is what parent what, like even, OK, let's just say, let's

1:16:42 just say we go down the path of Yep, we're going to go to the

1:16:46 police. We're going to tell them what

1:16:47 happened. Yep, you might get 25 years.

1:16:50 You don't know what you're going to be sentenced to.

1:16:52 Wouldn't you rather chance it? Chance it Well, as they say,

1:16:55 like you know, you don't. You never plead guilty to murder

1:16:57 because you've all you know. Why not see what you can?

1:16:59 You can get see. What comes out in the wash?

1:17:01 Yeah, see what you can put forward and get jury to.

1:17:04 Believe. Oh my God, I I actually can't.

1:17:08 I actually just can't. No, it's disgusting.

1:17:11 Maybe this is the point where we read that letter.

1:17:13 Yep, I think that's a really because.

1:17:14 This is the parent that does that.

1:17:17 Now look reading this letter this.

1:17:19 Is from. Roberta from Roberta So she she

1:17:22 gave him a letter and now she claims that this letter was

1:17:24 written prior to them leaving on their trip across America.

1:17:30 But this was found. Well, there's I don't know where

1:17:35 they found it actually, because someone says that FBI had it

1:17:37 prior to him being found. I've seen elsewhere that was

1:17:40 found with the body. I think I've the most things

1:17:44 I've seen is that they found it in his dry bag.

1:17:47 Yeah, I believe it was found in the dry bag, but somewhere else

1:17:49 I was. Ready, which was with his found.

1:17:51 Yeah, which I and that somewhere else I read was that if I had it

1:17:54 already, but I don't know. OK, I'm not sure they originally

1:17:57 they released snippets of it, but this is the full letter that

1:18:00 she gave to Brian supposedly, which is it's not dated or

1:18:03 anything like that. So we don't we can't

1:18:05 categorically say when it was written.

1:18:06 Yep. But she says she gave it to

1:18:09 Brian as they left for their trip across the the country and

1:18:14 that apparently they had an in joke about a book that they both

1:18:17 they all they both enjoyed called Burn after Writing.

1:18:21 And so that apparently writing on the envelope of this letter,

1:18:24 Burn after reading is purely in relation to that and nothing

1:18:28 else. But that's her take.

1:18:31 This letter reads. I just want to I just want you

1:18:34 to remember I will always love you.

1:18:36 I know you will always love me. You are my boy.

1:18:39 Nothing can make me stop loving you.

1:18:42 Nothing will or could ever divide us.

1:18:44 No matter what we do or where we go or what we say, we will

1:18:48 always love each other. If you're in jail, I will bake a

1:18:51 cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a

1:18:54 body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.

1:18:58 If you fly to the moon, I will be watching the skies for your

1:19:01 re entry. If you say you hate my guts,

1:19:04 I'll get new guts. Remember that love is a verb,

1:19:07 not a noun. A noun, Sorry, it's not a thing.

1:19:10 It's not words, it is actions. Watch people's actions to know

1:19:13 if they love you, not their words.

1:19:16 Therefore I am certain that neither death, nor life, nor

1:19:18 angels, nor the ruling spirits, nor things present, nor things

1:19:21 to come, nor powers from above, nor powers from below.

1:19:25 Nothing in the entire create world can separate our love.

1:19:28 Neither hostile powers, nor messages of heaven, nor monarchs

1:19:32 of earth. Nothing has the power to

1:19:34 separate us. Romans 838 extended version.

1:19:38 Nothing can separate us. Not hatred, not hunger, not

1:19:41 homelessness, not threats, not even sin, not the thinkable or

1:19:44 unthinkable can get between us. Not time, Not miles and miles

1:19:49 and miles. I don't even know where to start

1:19:59 with that. I I don't think we can because

1:20:02 we will literally be here for another hour.

1:20:05 Yeah, that, that says a lot. Yeah, it says.

1:20:08 What kind of mum? I think she is.

1:20:09 Yep. As we both said, we would stand

1:20:12 by a child. Of course.

1:20:14 But to do the right thing, yes. Not and get you out of jail and

1:20:18 I'll bring the garbage. Back and I'll, I'll bake a Shiv

1:20:20 into a cake so you can like, you know, fuck shit up in jail.

1:20:23 She is diabolical. Like she's pathological.

1:20:27 Yeah. Yeah.

1:20:32 It's just, it's just too much. It's just too much on the 22nd.

1:20:37 Oh, sorry. In November 2022, a Florida

1:20:39 judge awarded Gabby's family a wrongful death suit against

1:20:44 Brian Laundry's estate to the tune of $3,000,000.

1:20:48 But he didn't have assets totalling anywhere near that.

1:20:51 I don't think they've actually seen any of that money, but it

1:20:53 was validating for them to absolutely have them just a

1:20:55 figuratively. Yeah.

1:20:56 They weren't value like that kind of thing.

1:20:58 They won't see that money. Yeah.

1:21:00 And not nor do they necessarily want to.

1:21:02 That wasn't the idea behind it. They wanted everyone to know

1:21:07 that Brian had Brian was was was culpable and he'd killed Gabby

1:21:12 Absolutely. In 2024, the Potato family and

1:21:15 the Schmidt family sued Brian's parents, claiming they know.

1:21:20 They knew that their son had killed Gabby and had

1:21:22 intentionally withheld that information.

1:21:26 That you can read the. What did you say?

1:21:28 700 day, 700 pages of. It did go pretty deep.

1:21:33 It goes deep. But it just goes to show how

1:21:36 fucked up. Yeah.

1:21:37 The laundry family are. Oh, man, you.

1:21:41 They're so evasive. It's horrible.

1:21:43 Yeah. So that deposition was in

1:21:45 October in 2023? Yeah, that was then.

1:21:48 They then decided from that that, yes, this should go to

1:21:50 trial with a jury. Mm hmm.

1:21:52 Which was slated for May 2024. Yep.

1:21:55 But in February this year, they actually settled.

1:21:58 Yep, which is undisclosed. We don't know what the, the

1:22:02 amount or anything was or what the settlement deal was really.

1:22:05 It was always all kept under wraps.

1:22:06 But I believe that they, they've come, they've come to a

1:22:10 agreement that the laundry family knew enough that they

1:22:14 should have, that they did behave despicably.

1:22:17 Apparently there was. It was language like that used.

1:22:19 There was certain, yeah, that there was definitely culpable

1:22:23 enough that there was enough to settle that it should.

1:22:26 Yeah, it it, it went in. They they basically.

1:22:28 The potato and Schmidt. They, I think if they went to

1:22:30 the jury like it was, would have been a landslide to be honest.

1:22:33 I think there was plenty of evidence there to to show that

1:22:36 these people are fucking motherfuckers.

1:22:39 Absolutely so. The other aspect of this thing

1:22:44 was what was found with Brian, which was one particular bit of

1:22:50 evidence, was a confession letter.

1:22:52 Have you read it? Yes.

1:22:53 Yeah. It is the most narcissistic,

1:22:56 awful piece of shit I have ever read in my life.

1:23:00 And look, we could be here for another day if we picked it

1:23:02 entirely apart. Yep.

1:23:03 But there's just a few things I wanted to note from that

1:23:06 disgusting letter. You can go online and you can

1:23:08 see look it's a the letter itself was obviously in a

1:23:11 notepad. It was got wet.

1:23:13 So reading it from its original state is quite hard to do.

1:23:17 But you can find it transcribed in multiple places.

1:23:19 But we can also link that in our show notes.

1:23:23 That letter was released by his look by the lawyer, the family

1:23:27 lawyer on this on a Friday, which happens to be the day that

1:23:32 any publicist releases things that they don't want a story on.

1:23:36 It's like Berry day. You release things on a Friday.

1:23:38 Not only that, it was the same day as the Roe V Wade overturn,

1:23:43 so that. Was so strategic.

1:23:45 So strategic and he was saying he released it to be

1:23:48 transparent, but that's the most untransparent.

1:23:52 Way to do it? To do it.

1:23:54 I'll just read a couple of little bits out of that letter

1:23:56 that really got to me. So he's basically inferring in

1:24:00 this letter that Gabby injured herself and he had to kill her.

1:24:04 It was like a mercy killing, so he says.

1:24:08 When I pulled Gabby out of the water, she couldn't tell me what

1:24:10 hurt. She had a small bump on her

1:24:13 forehead and eventually got larger.

1:24:15 Her feet hurt, her wrist hurt, but she was freezing, shaking

1:24:19 violently while carrying her. She continually made sounds of

1:24:22 pain laying next to her. She said little between violent

1:24:27 shakes, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain.

1:24:30 She would fall asleep and I would shake her awake, fearing

1:24:33 she shouldn't close her eyes. If she had a concussion, she

1:24:37 would wake in pain, start her whole painful cycle again.

1:24:40 And then there's like an illegible bit furious that I was

1:24:43 the one making her. Then a little bit later down she

1:24:46 he says. I don't know the extent of

1:24:49 Gabby's injuries, only that she was in extreme pain.

1:24:53 I ended her life. I thought it was merciful that

1:24:56 it, that it is what she wanted. But I see now all the mistakes I

1:25:01 made. I panicked.

1:25:03 I was in shock. But from the moment I decided

1:25:06 took away her pain, I knew I couldn't go on without her.

1:25:11 I have killed myself by this creak in the hopes that animals

1:25:14 may tear me apart, that it may make some of her family happy.

1:25:18 Please pick up all of my things. Gabby hated people who litter

1:25:22 and that is literally the end of the note.

1:25:26 So first of all, that letter jumps around in past and present

1:25:31 tense all over the shop. Not only that, the first

1:25:34 paragraph is it actually is addressed to Gabby.

1:25:35 Yep. But within that first paragraph

1:25:38 that supposedly speaking speaking to Gabby, he says the

1:25:42 word I8 times. Funny that narcissist saying I 8

1:25:48 times in one paragraph. Yeah.

1:25:50 Now I have many issues with his story of how it took place.

1:25:56 First and foremost, her body was found 300 metres from.

1:26:00 The car, the car, or from where the car was?

1:26:03 Yeah, he's saying this is how that this played out, right?

1:26:06 But he couldn't carry her any further.

1:26:08 She weighed what was it, 105 lbs which is like 50.

1:26:12 Something he was, he kept, they kept going.

1:26:14 He kept going on about how good a hiker he was and how great he

1:26:17 was at at all this stuff at wilderness stuff, being a

1:26:20 survival man. What he didn't have any first

1:26:23 aid equipment on him. No lighting because it was it

1:26:26 was dark. He said as well.

1:26:27 They had no what like headlamp thing or anything like that.

1:26:29 They had no light. He had no, I'm sorry, but she

1:26:31 was a vlogger. She would have had her phone

1:26:33 with her. At very least use that as a

1:26:34 torch. But.

1:26:35 They wouldn't have been out there without a torch.

1:26:37 This is it. They wouldn't have been.

1:26:39 So there's fault in that I can see.

1:26:42 But also if they would have had a cell phone, there was full

1:26:46 cell service in that area. Call 911.

1:26:50 Call for help. He never called out, never did

1:26:52 any of that. He was he the way he described

1:26:54 it in that letter is if he is in the they have been out in the

1:26:57 wilderness for days dealing with this like that.

1:27:01 She's got this if anything, she's tripped in a Creek and yet

1:27:05 indicate hit her head or something right and she's what

1:27:08 begging for him to end her life. That's what someone does who's

1:27:11 fallen from a Cliff and broken every bone in their body.

1:27:15 That's not a the reaction of someone who's tripped and fallen

1:27:18 and bumped their head. None of it actually makes any

1:27:22 sense. He apparently built a fire with

1:27:25 what? What?

1:27:28 He had a Flint on him at the time.

1:27:29 Like why did he have a Flint and not a freaking torch?

1:27:32 Like I just don't. None of it makes sense.

1:27:34 No, none of it makes sense. Like he's he's again, he's

1:27:37 constructing or trying to build a narrative around what

1:27:41 happened. It's not true.

1:27:42 Oh, he fucking killed her because he was jealous or pissed

1:27:45 off or rageful about something Like don't don't even make

1:27:49 that's. It's just so freaking insulting.

1:27:51 Oh, yeah. That he's gone down that path.

1:27:53 It makes me so mad. Yeah, it makes me so angry.

1:27:57 How fucking dare he put that on to Gabby Exactly in her fault.

1:28:02 Yeah, like. I want me to do it.

1:28:03 But that, again, that speaks to his.

1:28:05 It's never the narcissist's fault.

1:28:07 No, no, no. It's always someone else.

1:28:09 Yeah. Someone else is always to blame.

1:28:11 And then he's done the right thing by killing himself.

1:28:13 So her family will be OK because he's so good.

1:28:16 So her family will get a bit of justice.

1:28:18 He's. Gross.

1:28:19 He is fucked up and you know what?

1:28:21 Good fucking riddance. Nothing better than him being

1:28:25 dead. Yep, other than maybe being

1:28:28 beating the shit out of jail every other day.

1:28:29 Yep. I honest to God I just can't.

1:28:33 The fact that he said in there I ended her life and didn't know

1:28:38 what her injuries were. Who does that?

1:28:41 Who ends someone's life but not know what the injuries are?

1:28:45 And as you said, it's not like she'd fallen off a Cliff.

1:28:47 And like it was very clear that even then, you don't kill

1:28:51 someone. You do everything you.

1:28:53 Can get into a. Fucking even if, even if you

1:28:56 can't pick her up and carry her. OK, worst case scenario, no, get

1:28:59 in and say your phone's got no battery.

1:29:01 OK, cool. Yeah, get in the car, go and get

1:29:04 help and bring help back to her. Made it that.

1:29:06 But nobody made that. That was her fault too.

1:29:07 He she kept telling him not to don't go, don't go.

1:29:10 Well, she's talking to you and saying enough to say don't go,

1:29:14 stay with me. She's not ready to die.

1:29:17 Dude. Oh I fast not not.

1:29:21 That letter is the biggest piece of fucking shit.

1:29:24 And the thing that then ultimately gets me is it takes a

1:29:28 minimum 62 seconds to strangle someone up to like a minute and

1:29:35 1/2. I've even read up to three

1:29:37 minutes it. Can be 3 or 4 minutes for some

1:29:39 people depending on how big their neck is and all these

1:29:41 sorts of things. The pressure it takes, but for

1:29:42 how small she was, let's work off of the fastest possible

1:29:46 timing. You're looking at a good minute

1:29:49 of holding her and watching her go through that, you fucking

1:29:55 piece of shit. And you couldn't stop yourself.

1:30:00 So he's an evil piece of shit. I've got tears in my eyes.

1:30:04 I, I can't. I just actually can't.

1:30:06 You can't. You can do that.

1:30:08 That you are not human. That's not merciful.

1:30:12 There's nothing merciful about that, no.

1:30:16 I think we leave it on that note because, like, we could

1:30:18 literally discuss this and and get angry, get angry.

1:30:21 Yeah, this could escalate real quick.

1:30:23 I mean, it's escalated, but. I think we're all hormonal too.

1:30:26 It doesn't help. It doesn't.

1:30:28 It really doesn't. Just really quickly.

1:30:31 Thank you again to everybody for listening to another episode of

1:30:34 Two Crime Besties. We love doing this every week.

1:30:36 It is the highlight of my week. I absolutely love it.

1:30:38 Always look forward to Fridays. Why is it?

1:30:40 The crime calms me some way. Yeah, it does.

1:30:43 It does. We have a Buy me a Coffee so 2

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1:31:05 That really helps get us out to more and more people.

1:31:08 And we just love the conversation about it, too.

1:31:10 Exactly. I love, I love that we now have

1:31:12 a lot of regular listeners who we don't know.

1:31:15 It's funny. Because we're starting some back

1:31:16 and forth conversation with certain people like that are

1:31:18 really enjoying it, so it's really lovely.

1:31:20 And you know, we bullied all of our friends and family into

1:31:23 listening, and now we've got actual people who we don't know

1:31:25 listening to us genuinely. Wanna yeah.

1:31:27 Next week, we are going to be talking about the Maria Corp

1:31:30 case. So she's the body in the boot.

1:31:33 Yeah, this is a really fascinating one.

1:31:36 Again, we're sort of zooming back to Australia based in in

1:31:39 Victoria near us again. So stay tuned for that one next

1:31:43 week. And thank you so much for

1:31:44 joining us. Thanks, everyone.

1:31:47 Stay curious. Kind of besties.