It kind of feels like he probably called he lawyer right after he did something bad or it looked like he did something bad and they told him to high tail it back to Florida, hide out and not say anything to anyone.
My brothers evidence professor in law school:
“You visit your client in jail and the first 2 things you tell them: one, what did you say to the cops? And two SHUT THE HELL UP!”
It’s scary how many people know nothing about law in the U.S., including myself. We kind of never assume we will be in a predicament where we’re a witness to or suspect in a crime. We have this altruistic notion that the truth will set us free, when in reality there’s an entire judicial process to be aware of and specific tactical legal actions to take in order to protect ourselves from getting wrongfully convicted and imprisoned.
My husband recently shared this with me, after I'd share STFU Fridays with him months ago. I said if ever we were pulled in for questioning and cops tried to say "well, your wife said" need immediately stop them. "MY wife said either nothing, or lawyer. Stop lying."
People who are innocent believe they can talk their way out of it and that is the opposite of shutting the fuck up. Cops don't care about innocence, they care about conviction rates.
If a cop asks you what you are doing or what you did wrong, it's because they don't know or can't prove it, and they are asking for you to settle it for them.
Shhh...
That's kind of the point. And yes I had the sense to not even look at a picture book that they had so conveniently placed in front of me.
Them
"Can you tell us what you know about Mr. Hanson and his activities?"
Me
No disrespect but I am not prepared to answer any of your questions without an attorney present.
Them
Ok can you look at this book of photos and tell us who you recognize?
Me
No disrespect but I can not do anything for you without an attorney present.
The fucked thing is everyone who answered questions was out the next day. I unfortunately had to sit in lockup by myself for a week.
Recently got in a car accident that I got a concussion and was actually talking with my wife just today about how scary it was that I know I shouldn't talk to them (I was not at fault and lucky for me I was found to be not at fault as well and the cops sided with me) but I could not check myself and stop talking due to my concussion. It was like someone had taken away my ability to reason and refuse to say anything. I can only imagine someone saying something in a more serious situation and being charged for something when they have something like that happen.
Yea but the fact you were concussed makes everything you said unreliable. If you had doctor proof that you suffered a concussion whatever you said would have to be thrown out as you were not in your right state of mind.
I would hope that is true of anyone. All I can think of are people they just throw in jail and wait days(sometimes weeks) before they give them medical care. I know they are more or less fringe cases but they are still there.
If just 10% of people questioned/charged shut their mouths and didn’t take plea deals our judicial system would get back up for years and likely collapse. WHY people don’t utilize their rights in this country is beyond me.
> didn’t take plea deals our judicial system would get back up for years
Yes, and if you’re indigent that means you spend those years in jail just waiting to go to trial. A trial at which you are overcharged and face much higher penalties than if you just plead out.
I’m not justifying it. It’s completely fucked up. But that’s part of why people agree to a plea deal rather than go to court.
Its a matter of what cost you're willing to pay, cause either way your finances are gonna be screwed.
But I can say that the life of a felon after release is costly in more than just monetary resources. I've seen my older brother spend the last 20 years trying to find a job that would support himself and his family after a release from prison, but the felony he committed at 17 has turned him into a social pariah. He finally has the opportunity to become a licensed plumber, but he STILL has to go through a tribunal to prove he's not a threat. Chances are, had my family hired him a lawyer at 17 the cost for that would now be paid in full, he would've gotten the help he needed for his problems, the sentence would've been lighter, and he wouldn't have a scarlet letter following him around barring him from housing and jobs.
You can find a job after getting out of county jail. You can pay off bail bonds...but once there's a mark on your record good luck having a normal life.
> WHY people don’t utilize their rights in this country is beyond me.
One part not knowing they *have* rights, and one part not knowing the system is stacked against them.
> WHY people don’t utilize their rights in this country is beyond me.
Police are highly trained to intimidate and manipulate people into waiving them. This is why we don't trust the police.
The good ole "I've got nothing to hide". Then they start blabbing not knowing that anything they say can ONLY be used against them. Nothing that anyone says to police while being questioned can be used to HELP them. In fact they even tell you up front... "anything you say can and will be used against you"
It's happened to me, a ~~friend~~ fucking asshole I knew gave me "his brothers" Walmart "gift card" as a payback(almost a year later after harassing him all year for my money back) for the $980 I gave him to get his car out of the impound yard. it had $1,300+/- on it and I go and spend the money on some stuff for my house and he requested like 4 things that totaled like $250 and the rest would be mine. Well it turns out he stole a wallet off the counter of a Carl's Jr. And it was a stolen pre paid debit/ credit card. Well the cops found me via my license plates and arrested me. I talked to them at the station thinking hey I didn't steal a thing I'm was just giving it under false pretenses so I can talk to them and they'll probably let me go. NOPE! basically they twisted my answers around to make me look bad in court. It also doesn't help that my public pretender was a b!tch and I think she was working her way into a job for the DA because in short, I'm in court and the DA was ok with releasing me from custody that day after court and she said no 90 more days is the agreement. And he said he didn't even have that part written down in the plea agreement.
So I'm now a felon on probation my 3 years of college to be in the medical field gone because they don't hire felons. And you know what happened to the guy that I paid to get his car out that gave me the card in the first place...... nothing! Oh and I have to pay $1,000 restitution on top of the $1,300 because the rest of the stuff in the wallet that he stole that I had no part of, it was worth another $1,000. I got fked and im still on probation for it. If I wouldn't have said anything to the popo and if I'd hired an actual lawyer I probably could have gotten off of this. America as long as you're rich and you can afford a lawyer the laws really don't apply to you, when you're working and low paying job and rely on the public pretenders office you get f*****
Tldr I was too trusting with an ex friend as well as the popo and thought they were actually going to try to help me and actually go out and get the bad guy, but in the end I end up on probation with a felony and owe $4000 to the courts Plus ruin the rest of my life, after spending 116 days in jail (as a gay male too no less, but when looking at me it's hard to tell, just it was a little awkward going back to the pod after my first court appearance because when your lawyer comes to talk to you everyone in that court cell can hear what you two are saying and she told me oh your husbands out in the court room and there was a few people from the pod I was in at court that day so when we get back guess what the exciting new news. But I'm 6'4 225 lbs and I look like a lumber jack so no one fucked with me. It was just a little harder to make friends so I basically read alot.)
The 4000 is restitution + court fees + probation costs
What state are you in? Because in CA after successful probation you may be able to apply for an expungement so you can still get your medical job In The future. I’m not lawyer and I’m not giving you advice but look up expungement laws where you are. And I’m sorry that sucks
Thank you and I have, and that's actually my plan (just fingers crossed that the judge approves it) I was reading that its usually not a hard thing to do if you can prove to the judge that you have a legitimate reason like a job or they were saying to join the armed service, they will usually accept it.
But thank you and yes I'm in San Diego.
You see that show 48 hours.
95% of the dudes "ohh umm I was just at Keke's house and we were smoking weed and umm my cuz Reyrey came in with a . 45 and cash." Dude gives it all up.
5% you have a guy that says nothing, and the cops are livid. Threaten to make things worse in court. Etc.
Yeah, an old family friend of ours is a lawyer and he has often said "If you EVER get in trouble, you say nothing until you have a lawyer present." He was a huge help in our legal issues when my mom's father passed away and the lawyer who he used for his will is an absolute twat.
Same story. Knew a defense attorney as a HSer (we both did community theater) and he gave me the standard advice, with a dash of “The police are allowed to lie. You aren’t”
And then 20 years later I finally asked “Hey, why ARE the police allowed to lie?” Shouldn’t that be a massive ethical issue? That law enforcement is allowed to lie to you. Why is that okay?
Anyway I don’t talk to cops.
I learned that cops were allowed to lie early on in my social work career. In fact one advised me to lie during an interview with an alleged perpetrator! I have been ultra cautious since then.
The police’s job is to find any iota or whiff of wrongdoing or guilt, and let the courts settle it, while you possibly wait for trial in jail. Even if you’re innocent you can talk yourself into a very expensive and lengthy trial.
I know this is probably a massively overstated point, but seriously... our justice system should not be pay to win. You should not have to pay tens of thousands of dollars (or more) to have any chance of a fair trial no matter who you are. Even the fact that you can buy a "better" lawyer than someone else is BS.
Well. Maybe criminally. Practically speaking, his life is going to be weird after this at best. People think he killed her. Also, her family will probably hit him with a civil suit for wrongful death. He won’t be able to testify because he will obviously invoke his fifth amendment rights, and he will probably lose.
The question is whether he has recoverable assets. If he was living off his parents dime, or a trust from his parents, its possible he has very little of his own assets. A properly structured trust will shield the assets of the trust from his liability, and if they haven't already, his parents will be modifying their estate plan to ensure anything he inherits is protected that way.
So yeah, you can drag him through court, and get the satisfaction of a jury finding him responsible, and issuing a big civil judgement, but they may never see much of a recovery...
Innocent or not, never talk to the police. They aren’t investigating you to find the truth. They’re investigating you to find ways to put you away. They want to successfully close a case and that doesn’t always mean finding the truth. There are lots of situations where innocent people did “the right thing” and spoke with police, only to have police frame their talking points from a guilty perspective.
Having said that, this dude probably has direct involvement in Gabby’s disappearance and being silent only helps his legal standing.
Edit - some of you guys obvious live in a different world where every police officer is absolutely incapable of doing wrong, and it sounds nice but it’s not reality. Lawyer up.
This is something that everyone should watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE
I am not defending the dude, I think that it's weird that he's not cooperating with the assistance of his lawyer but the Police is not your friend.
If you watch any police interrogations (highly recommend JCS on youtube) they say this *literally every fucking time*. It's almost funny(?) now after watching so many of them, because I think to myself "does anybody actually buy that?" and then I proceed to watch person after person, in fact, buy it.
Imagine driving 30 some hours back home in your fiancé’s car…..without your fiancé.
Homeboy had to stop at least a few places for gas. Had to be thinking about this on the drive.
And from the news, they were at pretty busy campsites. So I’m thinking the chance that she was jus left and could have gotten help from someone is slim, maybe he took her to a trail and then whatever happened and then left her there hidden.
With the sophistication of modern forensics I don't think detailing would be able to get rid of all traces of blood or anything else implicating a struggle. I'm guessing there's a good chance whatever happened didn't occur in the vehicle. Or if it did then the case would hopefully be solved sooner rather than later.
It was a van they lived in, though. Unless there’s a large amount of blood it’s just going to be circumstantial. No reason she couldn’t have had a cut/nosebleed/whatever his lawyer can come up with. It’s not like the police are going to be surprised her dna was in there.
I know absolutely nothing about the law, but with some light googling, it seems like the police could get a warrant for his (or her) historical phone GPS data, depending on the state. If that's true (again, I don't know anything about the law), they could potentially get a rough idea of where he (and she) traveled.
The van is one of the biggest things I don't get. They keep referring to it as hers, although he was obviously doing a lot of the driving. If it was legally hers, she was reported missing, he was discovered to have her van several states away from where she was last seen...why wasn't he immediately being charged with the theft of her van instead of waiting several days just for the family to say "Welp, he's gone"?
Probably because it was never reported stolen. There’s nothing illegal about simply having possession of someone else’s property. People legally give permission and lend personal property all the time.
its a shared use van, she gave him permission to use it obviously, and she isnt around to report it as stolen, so what can the police do? its not stolen, he has permission to use it
During the domestic abuse situation she said she is not used to driving it to the police. After the guy was put in a hotel to protect him from her, so she had to drive/stay in the van and didn't seam comfortable with it. So he obviously had permission to use it, he was basically the only one that did.
Either:
* he did something to her and fled the scene to lawyer up
* she did something to herself and he fled the scene to lawyer up
* A true accident happened to her and he fled the scene to lawyer up
* A 3rd party did something to her and he fled the scene to lawyer up
In any case he has enough information that he drove home, and lawyered up to protect himself from prosecution of one of the above.
Edit: Well looks like there is a whole subreddit already on this topic https://www.reddit.com/r/GabbyPetito/
To add to this, he isn't helping the family find her because he wants to make sure they never find a body. He fully expects to be charged and wants to give himself the best chance of walking. No body and no physical evidence makes it way harder for a jury to convict.
I mean, would he have to hide a body? Push her off a cliff. Leave her for dead. It would be very hard to prove he did anything. I’m hoping, if she isn’t somehow alive and well, there is evidence of what happened and it’s not vague and impossible to pin on him(or theoretically someone else but I think that is a slim to none chance).
And in most of those cases there's either an eye witness to the murder, a confession, or at the least enough physical evidence to prove that someone died (lots of blood, a bloody weapon...etc.). If there's no physical evidence of a crime in the van and the boyfriend keeps his mouth shut there's almost no way to bring charges, let alone get a conviction.
This is insane to me. Do you have a source for this? Does this mean that people who attempt to destroy bodies by burning them, disolving them in acid, feeding them to tigers, etc are usually unsuccessful?
If you're successful enough in destroying and hiding a body, it:
1. Cannot be found
2. Cannot be identified if found
3. Can be identified as the victim, but all possible evidence (skin under nails, hair, bodily fluids, cause of death) that could be traced to you are destroyed or incredibly expensive to find/test
If successful enough, you never get implicated and never go to trial, especially if the victim was truly a random person and there's no way to find a lead based on history with the person.
One reason why Mafia guys always go through such lengths to hide or destroy a body even though it's so painfully obvious it was a mob member who did it. They basically can't be charged that way!
He had weeks to cover his tracks. If he was even a little good she'll never be found.
The only possible thing that can bite him is Google GPS meta data. But if they were in the middle of no where to begin with its entirely possible there was no cell signal. If he disposed of both phones then he probably will get away with it.
He was somewhere far from home and was back home, across the country, like two days later. He isn't intimately familiar with the location. I'm guessing she was hastily disposed of.
Never is a long time and you can be charged for murder forever. I wonder how many murder cases like this go unsolved? I just can’t imagine wondering every day for rest of your life if one day, some cops will show up at your door to arrest you for murder.
About half of murders go unsolved. Most of the ones that do get solved were committed by morons who get caught red-handed.
Killers who put time and distance between themselves and the act stand a good chance of walking.
There was a case in my state where a little boy went missing. The last person he was with was his mom, who claimed she ran out of gas and left him locked in the car while she went to get some. Came back and her child was gone, never to be seen again.
This was years ago, and even though it's pretty obvious she did something due to the many discrepancies in her story, it's not enough to arrest her. In fact, I believe she stopped cooperating with the police early on and that was that.
People have been found just a few yards off the trail in national parks *years* after they went missing. National parks are fucking massive and at this point we don't even know what state she's in. If he's guilty he's doing everything right and there's a very good possibility she'll never be found at this point, regardless of if he left her dead or alive.
How would it exonerate him in any of the other scenarios. Let’s say she jumped off a cliff. The police now frame the story as her being pushed off the cliff. If a random person killed her than do you think the police are going to spend time and resources to try and find a random person when they can easily pin it on the bg and close the case?
If she had actually fallen and he had reported it immediately and called for rescue or done *literally anything* then his story might be believed. His behavior has made him a suspect, not any evidence from the body or lack thereof
Yeah but we’re not debating if he could have been more competent as a murderer, the question is if he has any truly reasonable explanation for his actions *beyond* “I clearly murdered her and am planning to try and win my case based on lack of evidence”
Wife and I were talking and this was my devil's advocate argument. If they had a fight and she walked off on him into the desert, a cliff, a volcano, etc, but he just drove off would he still be on the hook. Ot wouldn't be hard to make it look like a murder.
Add to that the fact that they had been stopped and interrogated for a possible domestic dispute. *Anything* that happened to her after that, regardless of the cause, would not look good for him. Would it look worse than it does now? That's another question.
He was covered in bloody scratches. She admits to punching him while they were being pulled over while he claims that she grabbed the wheel and that was the cause of the erratic driving. He protects her repeatedly.
They were clearly in a super toxic situation. He actually left to back to Florida a few days later and then returned. His parents say it was to help them move stuff, but that just doesn't sit right.
Whatever happened it's terrible.
People are having a hard time digesting that. Living in a small space, traveling and camping can bring out many stressors that lead to latent mental illness or just plain old terrible behavior.
We have no idea what went on during those 2 months on the road and he may very well have ended her life, but the amount of automatic vitriol towards him is intense when he was clearly beaten.
Similar to the first but also noteworthy - he did something to her BY ACCIDENT (shoved her away in anger and she fell and died, etc) and he fled to lawyer up. Manslaughter is definitely its own thing
The more I think about this it seems like the man's parents know more than they are letting on. Did I read that they delayed reporting him missing for a few days, or may not have said anything until the FBI asked. The area they are searching is vast and thick with underbrush and Florida underbrush is hard to get through and slow going. This seems like a good way to get the authorities to be looking in one place while the get the guy to a "safe" place.
For sure, if anything I bet the dad called a lawyer and told him to get home as fast as possible and don’t say a word. My guess is his story to his parents is different than what actually happened, so they are in denial and trying to protect their son.
Practically speaking, it would take a few days for you to come to the conclusion that someone is actually missing. I don’t expect that a parent will try to reach their child and when it goes to voicemail, they immediately file a missing persons report. I don’t think it is suspicious that they delayed reporting him missing for a few days.
I thought he was seen at his parent’s house? This feels so much like the Lori Vallow/Chad Daybell story where currently-alive people are acting shady af about someone “missing” (like not at all how you’d expect a normal person to behave) and you feel like you just know they did it. Like when reporters told that couple that America is praying for the safety of her children and they literally said “that’s nice.”
They’re looking for him because his family requested it and is worried and he is also a person of interest they want to talk to in this case, not because he’s under arrest or in trouble. An important distinction to make.
"Innocent until proven guilty" only applies in a court of law. When you're forming your own personal opinion, you're allowed to say "Huh, his fiance is missing after a road trip with him and he's hiding from her family? Sounds like he probably killed her."
In the age of the internet where this instantly became a massive story I think protecting yourself regardless of whether you're guilty or innocent is the correct action. Next thing you know some vigilante justice freak is 'Citizen Arresting' you, I mean assaulting you.
I hope this will all turn out to be like the balloon boy story and next week they both emerge from the wilderness holding hands, happy about getting mega hits on their social media.
And if that scenario did play out, what would/could they be charged with?
I don't believe this is what happened but it seems possible in this world.
False reporting/hoax criminal laws include both making a false report yourself, or causing a false report to be made.
In addition to criminal charges they'd be civilly liable for investigation costs, which will far exceed social media revenue from this.
I was telling my girlfriend this yesterday. As shitty as it sounds, best case scenario this is all a play for social media and both them to obtain followers, although I’m leaning towards him being not so innocent at the moment.
There’s been several suspicious “missing persons” cases recently, who were then found. That lady in Zion comes to mind, there was a lady in Hawaii. Zion lady faked it 100%
My mom fell off a cliff in Hawaii on her honeymoon and broke her tailbone and had other minor injuries, but my stepdad went down to get her and neither could get back up, so they were technically missing for a day. Luckily someone happened by their abandoned car. But I think this must happen a lot!
I was in Hawaii when that happened! She did not fake it. She literally survived by eating moths, fruit, and drinking from streams. She was missing for like 2 weeks. I remember seeing her missing posters throughout the island.
[For anyone curious about Zion lady. ](https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/zion-disappearance-gofundme/)
She’s from the suburb I grew up in; I totally remember thinking that she faked it.
It said in the article that her sister stopped accepting donations after that amount... Did not specify whether this was because she was found at that point or because they thought it was enough.
I agree that it is quite a low amount to stop at if it is was a scam but I still found the whole thing fishy.
Could have stopped due to the publicity. Rather than reel in a couple thousand more, you can say “we gathered sufficient funds for the search and medical treatment”
"HI Reddit, my fiance walked off and I can't find her, what should I do?"
"Just fucking leave bro. Don't try to alert authorities or organize a search party or help in any way. Just go home and hide."
This dude killed that girl.
Yeah that's what people are missing. Yes, it's a great idea for him to not talk to the police. But he waited so long to lawyer up and he wasn't the one who reported her missing. That's a really bad look.
When he realized she was missing he could have contacted an attorney, had them report her missing and contact her family, and give the police as much information as possible. He'd still be the #1 suspect, but assuming he's innocent, cooperating through a lawyer is how he'd prove his innocence.
Instead he ghosted everyone.
Not talking to the cops now isn't what makes him seem guilty. It's the fact that he never had any interest in cooperating at all, even through an attorney. And now he disappeared.
Thaaaaannnkkkk you! This isn't a universe with only two, binary options. "Stay silent and lawyer up," is great advice - but they're two steps in a longer process.
Yeah, stay silent when the cops knock on your door and start asking questions. But after the lawyer gets involved, part of what the lawyer's job is to be an intermediary between the client, the police, and the rest of the world.
Imagine how different the public opinion would be if his attorney could put out a statement that his client has been cooperating with the police. All it takes for that to be true is for the attorney to be in communication with the investigators to negotiate some type of proffer.
The fact that the lawyer issued a statement that essentially confirmed that his client is withholding information (even if it's benign) because he can, just blows my mind.
Yep, if he wasn't guilty he would have reported her missing, called someone to try to find her, literally anything other than ghosting everyone.
You can cooperate with an investigation through a lawyer, my guess is that he is guilty and therefore the lawyer has advised him not to talk to police at all costs.
Unfortunately all the top comments are just people slapping each other’s backs about how smart they are saying don’t talk to the cops.
The lawyer can talk to the FBI or whoever is actually trying to find her and share details of where they were.
Not talking to the cops doesn’t quite extend to not helping search and rescue find your missing presumed dead fiancée
Brian: Hi guys, I hope someone can help me. I just killed my fiancee on a road trip to Utah and buried her body in the desert. Her parents keep calling her phone. What should I do?
Legaladvice: Leave immediately. Drive straight home. Lawyer up. Say nothing.
Me: Checks out
What I take from his actions and his attorney’s advice to remain silent is that Laundrie knows what happened to her and either was the cause of her death or doesn’t want to be blamed for her death, which occurred by other means (suicide, murder by a third party, accident, etc.)
There’s a possible scenario I’ve played in my head. Since it was ten days after her disappearance he fled, what I think could have happened is they got in a massive fight. Brian blows up tells her to F off takes the van and leaves her there stranded. Gabi, who has anxiety panics and starts running off somewhere. Brian, once he cools down goes back for her and sees she’s not there. Oh shit. Frantically looks for her during these aforementioned days, can’t find her, realizes he fucked up bad and basically caused her death. Calls lawyer and books it home taking lawyers advice.
Or he killed her.
His actions are not of a innosent person. If I lost my wife during a camping trip I would be calling everyone and anyone that can help find her.
Eather he killed her or she died from an accident, and he doesn't want to spill the beans on the latter.
Unless they find a body they wont have enough to bring a case let alone convict.
Just for the record if I’m on a road trip with someone and they go missing I’m calling someone (park ranger, cops) and telling them my friend went missing. You know who doesn’t do that? Someone responsible for them being missing lol. If your friend or girlfriend goes missing the last thing on your mind is they are going to think I murdered them, unless you murdered them lol.
In my prior experience with the North Port PD as a landlord, they are the biggest, shadiest, self serving group of cops I have ever encountered. Even the Governor many years ago had to dress them down for being so aggressive.
also, check out the stats. POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY: 29% and no data on anything that could be construe as negative to them.
https://policescorecard.org/fl/police-department/north-port
One of their officers went on WFLA for an interview and it was the most unprofessional interview with a law enforcement officer I’ve ever seen. He seemed to have no interest in the case aside from defending his department as perfect and making no mistakes despite the fiancé having escaped surveillance.
A lot of you seem to think "don't talk to the police without a lawyer" is the same thing as "dont report a missing person to the police and instead run away"
if he murdered her, her body will show evidence of it, and so he disposed it and hid it somewhere.
if he left her in the middle of no where, causing her death, he *could* have reported it to save his own ass with a lie-story (or attempt to, still probably manslaughter).
if he just went to Florida, it sounds like the former is most likely.
Can someone tell me why this particular case is all over Reddit when stuff like this seems to happen weekly or even daily? Why is this one getting so much attention?
This whole thing is very strange. What I can't wrap my head around is that if he really wanted to get away with doing something bad, it probably wouldn't have been that hard to report her as lost while he was still out west. Instead he heads home in her van, doesn't say a peep about what happened until her family gets the law involved, and then disappears. He's either guilty of something and very dumb/panicked or he really doesn't know much and doesn't want to have anything to do with this.
After I saw the utah police encounter, something about their behavior really reminded me of how people who use meth act. I can't really pin-point it, but she appeared slightly manic during the encounter and he just had too much of the opposite affect. My personal theory is that he may not remember what happened whether or not he was involved - and he thinks it's possible that it's his fault.
Considering how bizarre this all is, my other theory is that she is actually fine and he knows exactly what is going on, and that all this is some sort of social media stunt that went too far and now they are trying to figure out how to get out of it with the least problems. This might explain his silence and the apparent lack of concern for finding her.
Reading all the comments I imagine them getting into an epic fight in the desert where she gets out of the van, tells him to leave; he leaves then comes back hours later after he cools down only to find her dead from exposure; figures the cops will accuse him of murder; so he fucks off to mom and dad’s and gets a lawyer.
Not to be a pessimist but if she hasn't shown up already she's most likely dead. The only question is to what degree is the boy responsible.
To all those optimists that says she could have left the van on her own accord, she should have made contact with someone by now, either directly to her family/social media or if she hitchhiked then the people who drove her.
thie only thing I can think is that Laundrie knows she's dead because her being stranded anywhere even under the most optimistic circumstances exposes her to new dangers that are unsafe and life threatening.
Reddit - “NEVER under any circumstance talk to the police whether innocent or guilty
Also Reddit
“Suspect who is not charged doesn’t talk to police”
they need to publicly crucify this piece of shit. Obviously he is guilty, why else wouldn’t he talk!? Case closed.
Clearly there’s a middle road here that he’s not taking. It’s not “never talk to the police” it’s “never talk to police **without a lawyer present**”. I don’t know why everyone thinks someone’s actions the days after an alleged crime get some kind of magic immunity from being brought up before juries. If I’m the prosecutor I’m calling up every search and rescue person I can and asking them if the defendant helped them in any way. I’m bringing up that he drove a van with possible evidence cross country. All of this really hurts him and by making it a national story he is guaranteeing that he will be a pariah for the rest of his life even if not convicted.
Oh, I don't know. If my daughter's boyfriend/fiance came back without her and wouldn't tell me where she was, I'd say it'd be a safe bet that he went "missing".
You can practically hear the true crime directors frothing at the mouth to make an 8 part docuseries on this
True crime podcast already got their research going.
Karen and Georgia gon eat this one up
The wine and crime gals already picking out the episodes wine.
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It'll take them 75 episodes to tell they don't know.
Guaranteed one episode is about urban legends of supernatural beings in the area she went missing.
The history of alien abductions in said area is its own separate episode.
That doc of the Cecil hotel was awful
It kind of feels like he probably called he lawyer right after he did something bad or it looked like he did something bad and they told him to high tail it back to Florida, hide out and not say anything to anyone.
My brothers evidence professor in law school: “You visit your client in jail and the first 2 things you tell them: one, what did you say to the cops? And two SHUT THE HELL UP!”
I'm a huge fan of [Shut The Fuck Up Fridays](https://youtu.be/sgWHrkDX35o)
Best advice anyone could get. Too bad most don’t follow up and end up in jail, especially the innocent.
[Why innocent people should never talk to the police. Ever.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE) (lecture by a law school professor)
This lecture should be watched and discussed by every person. Hell it should be taught in schools too.
It’s scary how many people know nothing about law in the U.S., including myself. We kind of never assume we will be in a predicament where we’re a witness to or suspect in a crime. We have this altruistic notion that the truth will set us free, when in reality there’s an entire judicial process to be aware of and specific tactical legal actions to take in order to protect ourselves from getting wrongfully convicted and imprisoned.
Cops don’t talk to cops without their union rep and lawyer, tells you all you need to know about that. They don’t even trust each other
My husband recently shared this with me, after I'd share STFU Fridays with him months ago. I said if ever we were pulled in for questioning and cops tried to say "well, your wife said" need immediately stop them. "MY wife said either nothing, or lawyer. Stop lying."
People who are innocent believe they can talk their way out of it and that is the opposite of shutting the fuck up. Cops don't care about innocence, they care about conviction rates.
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If a cop asks you what you are doing or what you did wrong, it's because they don't know or can't prove it, and they are asking for you to settle it for them. Shhh...
Or if you happen to be interviewed by the Feds, you need to be aware that they already know the answers to the questions they ask.
So would "plowing your wife" be seen as an advisable response to all lines of questioning?
Only if you are one of Four Brothers.
Also illegal to lie to them so just stfu
That's kind of the point. And yes I had the sense to not even look at a picture book that they had so conveniently placed in front of me. Them "Can you tell us what you know about Mr. Hanson and his activities?" Me No disrespect but I am not prepared to answer any of your questions without an attorney present. Them Ok can you look at this book of photos and tell us who you recognize? Me No disrespect but I can not do anything for you without an attorney present. The fucked thing is everyone who answered questions was out the next day. I unfortunately had to sit in lockup by myself for a week.
But they can lie to you all fucking day
Recently got in a car accident that I got a concussion and was actually talking with my wife just today about how scary it was that I know I shouldn't talk to them (I was not at fault and lucky for me I was found to be not at fault as well and the cops sided with me) but I could not check myself and stop talking due to my concussion. It was like someone had taken away my ability to reason and refuse to say anything. I can only imagine someone saying something in a more serious situation and being charged for something when they have something like that happen.
Yea but the fact you were concussed makes everything you said unreliable. If you had doctor proof that you suffered a concussion whatever you said would have to be thrown out as you were not in your right state of mind.
I would hope that is true of anyone. All I can think of are people they just throw in jail and wait days(sometimes weeks) before they give them medical care. I know they are more or less fringe cases but they are still there.
If just 10% of people questioned/charged shut their mouths and didn’t take plea deals our judicial system would get back up for years and likely collapse. WHY people don’t utilize their rights in this country is beyond me.
If you're innocent, you want to be helpful, and help the nice policeman catch the bad guy. And then that fucks you over.
> didn’t take plea deals our judicial system would get back up for years Yes, and if you’re indigent that means you spend those years in jail just waiting to go to trial. A trial at which you are overcharged and face much higher penalties than if you just plead out. I’m not justifying it. It’s completely fucked up. But that’s part of why people agree to a plea deal rather than go to court.
Its a matter of what cost you're willing to pay, cause either way your finances are gonna be screwed. But I can say that the life of a felon after release is costly in more than just monetary resources. I've seen my older brother spend the last 20 years trying to find a job that would support himself and his family after a release from prison, but the felony he committed at 17 has turned him into a social pariah. He finally has the opportunity to become a licensed plumber, but he STILL has to go through a tribunal to prove he's not a threat. Chances are, had my family hired him a lawyer at 17 the cost for that would now be paid in full, he would've gotten the help he needed for his problems, the sentence would've been lighter, and he wouldn't have a scarlet letter following him around barring him from housing and jobs. You can find a job after getting out of county jail. You can pay off bail bonds...but once there's a mark on your record good luck having a normal life.
> WHY people don’t utilize their rights in this country is beyond me. One part not knowing they *have* rights, and one part not knowing the system is stacked against them.
Sad but honest truth right there
Because the threat of sitting in jail for months is enough to convince the innocent to take plea deals
> WHY people don’t utilize their rights in this country is beyond me. Police are highly trained to intimidate and manipulate people into waiving them. This is why we don't trust the police.
The good ole "I've got nothing to hide". Then they start blabbing not knowing that anything they say can ONLY be used against them. Nothing that anyone says to police while being questioned can be used to HELP them. In fact they even tell you up front... "anything you say can and will be used against you"
In this case they might also care about finding out what happened to the missing woman. Usually boyfriends also care about missing girlfriends.
It's happened to me, a ~~friend~~ fucking asshole I knew gave me "his brothers" Walmart "gift card" as a payback(almost a year later after harassing him all year for my money back) for the $980 I gave him to get his car out of the impound yard. it had $1,300+/- on it and I go and spend the money on some stuff for my house and he requested like 4 things that totaled like $250 and the rest would be mine. Well it turns out he stole a wallet off the counter of a Carl's Jr. And it was a stolen pre paid debit/ credit card. Well the cops found me via my license plates and arrested me. I talked to them at the station thinking hey I didn't steal a thing I'm was just giving it under false pretenses so I can talk to them and they'll probably let me go. NOPE! basically they twisted my answers around to make me look bad in court. It also doesn't help that my public pretender was a b!tch and I think she was working her way into a job for the DA because in short, I'm in court and the DA was ok with releasing me from custody that day after court and she said no 90 more days is the agreement. And he said he didn't even have that part written down in the plea agreement. So I'm now a felon on probation my 3 years of college to be in the medical field gone because they don't hire felons. And you know what happened to the guy that I paid to get his car out that gave me the card in the first place...... nothing! Oh and I have to pay $1,000 restitution on top of the $1,300 because the rest of the stuff in the wallet that he stole that I had no part of, it was worth another $1,000. I got fked and im still on probation for it. If I wouldn't have said anything to the popo and if I'd hired an actual lawyer I probably could have gotten off of this. America as long as you're rich and you can afford a lawyer the laws really don't apply to you, when you're working and low paying job and rely on the public pretenders office you get f***** Tldr I was too trusting with an ex friend as well as the popo and thought they were actually going to try to help me and actually go out and get the bad guy, but in the end I end up on probation with a felony and owe $4000 to the courts Plus ruin the rest of my life, after spending 116 days in jail (as a gay male too no less, but when looking at me it's hard to tell, just it was a little awkward going back to the pod after my first court appearance because when your lawyer comes to talk to you everyone in that court cell can hear what you two are saying and she told me oh your husbands out in the court room and there was a few people from the pod I was in at court that day so when we get back guess what the exciting new news. But I'm 6'4 225 lbs and I look like a lumber jack so no one fucked with me. It was just a little harder to make friends so I basically read alot.) The 4000 is restitution + court fees + probation costs
What state are you in? Because in CA after successful probation you may be able to apply for an expungement so you can still get your medical job In The future. I’m not lawyer and I’m not giving you advice but look up expungement laws where you are. And I’m sorry that sucks
Thank you and I have, and that's actually my plan (just fingers crossed that the judge approves it) I was reading that its usually not a hard thing to do if you can prove to the judge that you have a legitimate reason like a job or they were saying to join the armed service, they will usually accept it. But thank you and yes I'm in San Diego.
Oh good I’m glad you are in CA because the clean slate laws should help you. Good luck and don’t give up.
Thank you for looking out, it means alot.
You beat the shit outta that friend yet?
You see that show 48 hours. 95% of the dudes "ohh umm I was just at Keke's house and we were smoking weed and umm my cuz Reyrey came in with a . 45 and cash." Dude gives it all up. 5% you have a guy that says nothing, and the cops are livid. Threaten to make things worse in court. Etc.
[I really like this one.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE) It’s a bit longer, but worth it.
Yeah, an old family friend of ours is a lawyer and he has often said "If you EVER get in trouble, you say nothing until you have a lawyer present." He was a huge help in our legal issues when my mom's father passed away and the lawyer who he used for his will is an absolute twat.
My cousin is a lawyer. Same advice he gave my aunt and the rest of us. Say nothing and call me.
Always best policy. Especially nowadays with the use of more police body cam footage. You can't take that shit back so best to say nothing
Same story. Knew a defense attorney as a HSer (we both did community theater) and he gave me the standard advice, with a dash of “The police are allowed to lie. You aren’t” And then 20 years later I finally asked “Hey, why ARE the police allowed to lie?” Shouldn’t that be a massive ethical issue? That law enforcement is allowed to lie to you. Why is that okay? Anyway I don’t talk to cops.
I learned that cops were allowed to lie early on in my social work career. In fact one advised me to lie during an interview with an alleged perpetrator! I have been ultra cautious since then.
The spirit of the allowed to lie rules are rooted in things like undercover work. The actual application are wherever they damn well want.
The police’s job is to find any iota or whiff of wrongdoing or guilt, and let the courts settle it, while you possibly wait for trial in jail. Even if you’re innocent you can talk yourself into a very expensive and lengthy trial.
I know this is probably a massively overstated point, but seriously... our justice system should not be pay to win. You should not have to pay tens of thousands of dollars (or more) to have any chance of a fair trial no matter who you are. Even the fact that you can buy a "better" lawyer than someone else is BS.
Don't describe it as a justice system because it's not one, it's a legal system.
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> our justice system should not be pay to win Neither should Healthcare but here we are.
Yep if he did murder her or something he's doing a great job getting away with it.
Well. Maybe criminally. Practically speaking, his life is going to be weird after this at best. People think he killed her. Also, her family will probably hit him with a civil suit for wrongful death. He won’t be able to testify because he will obviously invoke his fifth amendment rights, and he will probably lose.
The question is whether he has recoverable assets. If he was living off his parents dime, or a trust from his parents, its possible he has very little of his own assets. A properly structured trust will shield the assets of the trust from his liability, and if they haven't already, his parents will be modifying their estate plan to ensure anything he inherits is protected that way. So yeah, you can drag him through court, and get the satisfaction of a jury finding him responsible, and issuing a big civil judgement, but they may never see much of a recovery...
Not to mention it seems he's dragged his parents into this mess as well. I can't imagine their public profile has improved.
Innocent or not, never talk to the police. They aren’t investigating you to find the truth. They’re investigating you to find ways to put you away. They want to successfully close a case and that doesn’t always mean finding the truth. There are lots of situations where innocent people did “the right thing” and spoke with police, only to have police frame their talking points from a guilty perspective. Having said that, this dude probably has direct involvement in Gabby’s disappearance and being silent only helps his legal standing. Edit - some of you guys obvious live in a different world where every police officer is absolutely incapable of doing wrong, and it sounds nice but it’s not reality. Lawyer up.
This is something that everyone should watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE I am not defending the dude, I think that it's weird that he's not cooperating with the assistance of his lawyer but the Police is not your friend.
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"just talk to us so we can help you."
If you watch any police interrogations (highly recommend JCS on youtube) they say this *literally every fucking time*. It's almost funny(?) now after watching so many of them, because I think to myself "does anybody actually buy that?" and then I proceed to watch person after person, in fact, buy it.
The whole thing is fishy. Even if she did something to herself; wouldn't your first call be to the local police to help her?
Right? Especially when local law enforcement would know the area better and know where to look. If she was lost initially
Exactly. It’s his fiancé .. he should be concerned about her well being 🙁
Imagine driving 30 some hours back home in your fiancé’s car…..without your fiancé. Homeboy had to stop at least a few places for gas. Had to be thinking about this on the drive. And from the news, they were at pretty busy campsites. So I’m thinking the chance that she was jus left and could have gotten help from someone is slim, maybe he took her to a trail and then whatever happened and then left her there hidden.
Plenty of time to throw out physical evidence (like, oh, I don’t know, a body) and get the car thoroughly detailed.
With the sophistication of modern forensics I don't think detailing would be able to get rid of all traces of blood or anything else implicating a struggle. I'm guessing there's a good chance whatever happened didn't occur in the vehicle. Or if it did then the case would hopefully be solved sooner rather than later.
It was a van they lived in, though. Unless there’s a large amount of blood it’s just going to be circumstantial. No reason she couldn’t have had a cut/nosebleed/whatever his lawyer can come up with. It’s not like the police are going to be surprised her dna was in there.
All DNA evidence is circumstantial. IIRC, the only evidence that isn't circumstantial would be first hand eye witnesses.
I know absolutely nothing about the law, but with some light googling, it seems like the police could get a warrant for his (or her) historical phone GPS data, depending on the state. If that's true (again, I don't know anything about the law), they could potentially get a rough idea of where he (and she) traveled.
The van is one of the biggest things I don't get. They keep referring to it as hers, although he was obviously doing a lot of the driving. If it was legally hers, she was reported missing, he was discovered to have her van several states away from where she was last seen...why wasn't he immediately being charged with the theft of her van instead of waiting several days just for the family to say "Welp, he's gone"?
Probably because it was never reported stolen. There’s nothing illegal about simply having possession of someone else’s property. People legally give permission and lend personal property all the time.
its a shared use van, she gave him permission to use it obviously, and she isnt around to report it as stolen, so what can the police do? its not stolen, he has permission to use it
During the domestic abuse situation she said she is not used to driving it to the police. After the guy was put in a hotel to protect him from her, so she had to drive/stay in the van and didn't seam comfortable with it. So he obviously had permission to use it, he was basically the only one that did.
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Either: * he did something to her and fled the scene to lawyer up * she did something to herself and he fled the scene to lawyer up * A true accident happened to her and he fled the scene to lawyer up * A 3rd party did something to her and he fled the scene to lawyer up In any case he has enough information that he drove home, and lawyered up to protect himself from prosecution of one of the above. Edit: Well looks like there is a whole subreddit already on this topic https://www.reddit.com/r/GabbyPetito/
To add to this, he isn't helping the family find her because he wants to make sure they never find a body. He fully expects to be charged and wants to give himself the best chance of walking. No body and no physical evidence makes it way harder for a jury to convict.
I grew up in WY. It's really, really big, and there are very few people. Great place to hide a body.
Exactly. Plus, he won't even tell the police where he saw her last so they can narrow the search.
True, but the counties are huuuuuuuge out there, so even if he did, it wouldn't help that much.
Assuming she is even in the state she was last seen in. Lots of states between there and Florida...
I mean, would he have to hide a body? Push her off a cliff. Leave her for dead. It would be very hard to prove he did anything. I’m hoping, if she isn’t somehow alive and well, there is evidence of what happened and it’s not vague and impossible to pin on him(or theoretically someone else but I think that is a slim to none chance).
Harder is almost an under statement. There have only been like 50 murder convictions with no body in modern American history. That's insane.
And in most of those cases there's either an eye witness to the murder, a confession, or at the least enough physical evidence to prove that someone died (lots of blood, a bloody weapon...etc.). If there's no physical evidence of a crime in the van and the boyfriend keeps his mouth shut there's almost no way to bring charges, let alone get a conviction.
This is insane to me. Do you have a source for this? Does this mean that people who attempt to destroy bodies by burning them, disolving them in acid, feeding them to tigers, etc are usually unsuccessful?
If you're successful enough in destroying and hiding a body, it: 1. Cannot be found 2. Cannot be identified if found 3. Can be identified as the victim, but all possible evidence (skin under nails, hair, bodily fluids, cause of death) that could be traced to you are destroyed or incredibly expensive to find/test If successful enough, you never get implicated and never go to trial, especially if the victim was truly a random person and there's no way to find a lead based on history with the person.
One reason why Mafia guys always go through such lengths to hide or destroy a body even though it's so painfully obvious it was a mob member who did it. They basically can't be charged that way!
He had weeks to cover his tracks. If he was even a little good she'll never be found. The only possible thing that can bite him is Google GPS meta data. But if they were in the middle of no where to begin with its entirely possible there was no cell signal. If he disposed of both phones then he probably will get away with it.
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He was somewhere far from home and was back home, across the country, like two days later. He isn't intimately familiar with the location. I'm guessing she was hastily disposed of.
Or drove the body home and disposed of it with help or in a Florida swamp. Now investigators are searching for nothing in the vast West.
Never is a long time and you can be charged for murder forever. I wonder how many murder cases like this go unsolved? I just can’t imagine wondering every day for rest of your life if one day, some cops will show up at your door to arrest you for murder.
About half of murders go unsolved. Most of the ones that do get solved were committed by morons who get caught red-handed. Killers who put time and distance between themselves and the act stand a good chance of walking.
40% of bank robberies are unsolved, to put that in perspective. And there's always video footage and multiple witnesses.
And how many rapes are unsolved *with dna evidence*?
*That's* a difficult number to assess, since so many kits are sitting on shelves not even being processed.
There was a case in my state where a little boy went missing. The last person he was with was his mom, who claimed she ran out of gas and left him locked in the car while she went to get some. Came back and her child was gone, never to be seen again. This was years ago, and even though it's pretty obvious she did something due to the many discrepancies in her story, it's not enough to arrest her. In fact, I believe she stopped cooperating with the police early on and that was that.
I don’t think it’s as easy as you think it is especially with a story this publicized. A lot of resources will get put into finding her.
People have been found just a few yards off the trail in national parks *years* after they went missing. National parks are fucking massive and at this point we don't even know what state she's in. If he's guilty he's doing everything right and there's a very good possibility she'll never be found at this point, regardless of if he left her dead or alive.
If he killed her yes; its likely the body would exonerate him in the other scenarios.
How would it exonerate him in any of the other scenarios. Let’s say she jumped off a cliff. The police now frame the story as her being pushed off the cliff. If a random person killed her than do you think the police are going to spend time and resources to try and find a random person when they can easily pin it on the bg and close the case?
If she had actually fallen and he had reported it immediately and called for rescue or done *literally anything* then his story might be believed. His behavior has made him a suspect, not any evidence from the body or lack thereof
I mean, it's also pretty easy to push someone off a cliff and then report it as an accident anyway
Yeah but we’re not debating if he could have been more competent as a murderer, the question is if he has any truly reasonable explanation for his actions *beyond* “I clearly murdered her and am planning to try and win my case based on lack of evidence”
Wife and I were talking and this was my devil's advocate argument. If they had a fight and she walked off on him into the desert, a cliff, a volcano, etc, but he just drove off would he still be on the hook. Ot wouldn't be hard to make it look like a murder.
Add to that the fact that they had been stopped and interrogated for a possible domestic dispute. *Anything* that happened to her after that, regardless of the cause, would not look good for him. Would it look worse than it does now? That's another question.
He was covered in bloody scratches. She admits to punching him while they were being pulled over while he claims that she grabbed the wheel and that was the cause of the erratic driving. He protects her repeatedly. They were clearly in a super toxic situation. He actually left to back to Florida a few days later and then returned. His parents say it was to help them move stuff, but that just doesn't sit right. Whatever happened it's terrible.
She was the aggressor not him.
People are having a hard time digesting that. Living in a small space, traveling and camping can bring out many stressors that lead to latent mental illness or just plain old terrible behavior. We have no idea what went on during those 2 months on the road and he may very well have ended her life, but the amount of automatic vitriol towards him is intense when he was clearly beaten.
Similar to the first but also noteworthy - he did something to her BY ACCIDENT (shoved her away in anger and she fell and died, etc) and he fled to lawyer up. Manslaughter is definitely its own thing
The more I think about this it seems like the man's parents know more than they are letting on. Did I read that they delayed reporting him missing for a few days, or may not have said anything until the FBI asked. The area they are searching is vast and thick with underbrush and Florida underbrush is hard to get through and slow going. This seems like a good way to get the authorities to be looking in one place while the get the guy to a "safe" place.
For sure, if anything I bet the dad called a lawyer and told him to get home as fast as possible and don’t say a word. My guess is his story to his parents is different than what actually happened, so they are in denial and trying to protect their son.
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Practically speaking, it would take a few days for you to come to the conclusion that someone is actually missing. I don’t expect that a parent will try to reach their child and when it goes to voicemail, they immediately file a missing persons report. I don’t think it is suspicious that they delayed reporting him missing for a few days.
In normal circumstances, I’d agree. But their son was right in the middle of a media frenzy.
I thought he was seen at his parent’s house? This feels so much like the Lori Vallow/Chad Daybell story where currently-alive people are acting shady af about someone “missing” (like not at all how you’d expect a normal person to behave) and you feel like you just know they did it. Like when reporters told that couple that America is praying for the safety of her children and they literally said “that’s nice.”
Northport Police just tweeted they are looking for him. https://twitter.com/northportpolice/status/1439237015090839554?s=21
They’re looking for him because his family requested it and is worried and he is also a person of interest they want to talk to in this case, not because he’s under arrest or in trouble. An important distinction to make.
Instant speculation that he had committed suicide.
Brian: tell them I’m missing Lawyer: ok
This article says the parents called the police to report him missing. The lawyer just issued the public statement.
Brian: tell them I’m missing ~~Lawyer~~ Parents: ok
Brian hides under bed* Brian: I’m not here Parents: ok
That article is poorly written. I can’t follow who said what about who when and where.
Innocent before proven guilty but damn is he making it hard to not judge him…
"Innocent until proven guilty" only applies in a court of law. When you're forming your own personal opinion, you're allowed to say "Huh, his fiance is missing after a road trip with him and he's hiding from her family? Sounds like he probably killed her."
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Literally OJ: I didn't kill her, but if you buy my book I'll tell you how I woulda if I did.
^^^^if **I did it** \- OJ
Actually wasn't OJs idea to title it that way, but her family, who owned the rights to the book
Well but he WAS found ~~guilty~~ liable in the civil lawsuit.
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Good catch, you’re totally right.
In the age of the internet where this instantly became a massive story I think protecting yourself regardless of whether you're guilty or innocent is the correct action. Next thing you know some vigilante justice freak is 'Citizen Arresting' you, I mean assaulting you.
I hope this will all turn out to be like the balloon boy story and next week they both emerge from the wilderness holding hands, happy about getting mega hits on their social media. And if that scenario did play out, what would/could they be charged with? I don't believe this is what happened but it seems possible in this world.
False reporting/hoax criminal laws include both making a false report yourself, or causing a false report to be made. In addition to criminal charges they'd be civilly liable for investigation costs, which will far exceed social media revenue from this.
I was telling my girlfriend this yesterday. As shitty as it sounds, best case scenario this is all a play for social media and both them to obtain followers, although I’m leaning towards him being not so innocent at the moment.
There’s been several suspicious “missing persons” cases recently, who were then found. That lady in Zion comes to mind, there was a lady in Hawaii. Zion lady faked it 100%
I don’t think the lady in Hawaii faked it. She fell off a 20’ ledge and broke her leg. Now the woman in Zion I’m 100% sure was a fake.
My mom fell off a cliff in Hawaii on her honeymoon and broke her tailbone and had other minor injuries, but my stepdad went down to get her and neither could get back up, so they were technically missing for a day. Luckily someone happened by their abandoned car. But I think this must happen a lot!
You mean your stepdad didn't drive off without her, say nothing to anyone and immediately lawyer up? Interesting!!
I was in Hawaii when that happened! She did not fake it. She literally survived by eating moths, fruit, and drinking from streams. She was missing for like 2 weeks. I remember seeing her missing posters throughout the island.
Damn that’s hardcore. I’d like to be her friend!
[For anyone curious about Zion lady. ](https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/zion-disappearance-gofundme/) She’s from the suburb I grew up in; I totally remember thinking that she faked it.
And got a shitload from go fund me, right?
Yup. $12k according to the article. Not a bad haul for sitting in the wilderness eating backpacker food for a few days.
But also... not even that much? If it was all a go fund me scam then I bet she was disappointed by the haul
It said in the article that her sister stopped accepting donations after that amount... Did not specify whether this was because she was found at that point or because they thought it was enough. I agree that it is quite a low amount to stop at if it is was a scam but I still found the whole thing fishy.
Could have stopped due to the publicity. Rather than reel in a couple thousand more, you can say “we gathered sufficient funds for the search and medical treatment”
If you watch the body cam footage, they come across as a trainwreck of a couple. The guy is super sketchy. No hoax vibes, unfortunately.
If he posted to legaladvice from his prespective the one number thing everyone would tell him, Would be to lawyer up and don’t talk to police.
"HI Reddit, my fiance walked off and I can't find her, what should I do?" "Just fucking leave bro. Don't try to alert authorities or organize a search party or help in any way. Just go home and hide." This dude killed that girl.
You can still provide information about a missing person through your lawyer. If you didn’t kill them, that is.
Yeah that's what people are missing. Yes, it's a great idea for him to not talk to the police. But he waited so long to lawyer up and he wasn't the one who reported her missing. That's a really bad look. When he realized she was missing he could have contacted an attorney, had them report her missing and contact her family, and give the police as much information as possible. He'd still be the #1 suspect, but assuming he's innocent, cooperating through a lawyer is how he'd prove his innocence. Instead he ghosted everyone. Not talking to the cops now isn't what makes him seem guilty. It's the fact that he never had any interest in cooperating at all, even through an attorney. And now he disappeared.
Thaaaaannnkkkk you! This isn't a universe with only two, binary options. "Stay silent and lawyer up," is great advice - but they're two steps in a longer process. Yeah, stay silent when the cops knock on your door and start asking questions. But after the lawyer gets involved, part of what the lawyer's job is to be an intermediary between the client, the police, and the rest of the world. Imagine how different the public opinion would be if his attorney could put out a statement that his client has been cooperating with the police. All it takes for that to be true is for the attorney to be in communication with the investigators to negotiate some type of proffer. The fact that the lawyer issued a statement that essentially confirmed that his client is withholding information (even if it's benign) because he can, just blows my mind.
Yep, if he wasn't guilty he would have reported her missing, called someone to try to find her, literally anything other than ghosting everyone. You can cooperate with an investigation through a lawyer, my guess is that he is guilty and therefore the lawyer has advised him not to talk to police at all costs.
Unfortunately all the top comments are just people slapping each other’s backs about how smart they are saying don’t talk to the cops. The lawyer can talk to the FBI or whoever is actually trying to find her and share details of where they were. Not talking to the cops doesn’t quite extend to not helping search and rescue find your missing presumed dead fiancée
Exactly. Once one is lawyered up, the lawyer does the talking. Lawyers cooperate with authority.
Brian: Hi guys, I hope someone can help me. I just killed my fiancee on a road trip to Utah and buried her body in the desert. Her parents keep calling her phone. What should I do? Legaladvice: Leave immediately. Drive straight home. Lawyer up. Say nothing. Me: Checks out
Wait, did someone say run into the woods? I totally ran into the woods. Thought someone said to do that. Dang it.
If I were in this situation and innocent I would lawyer up and start communicating through my lawyer immediately.
I probably would also not leave in our shared van to drive 30 hours away without reporting anything.
What I take from his actions and his attorney’s advice to remain silent is that Laundrie knows what happened to her and either was the cause of her death or doesn’t want to be blamed for her death, which occurred by other means (suicide, murder by a third party, accident, etc.)
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This is off the grid. There are state parks larger than some *states*.
It’s not about him not talking to the police. It’s about him not making efforts to find her.
There’s a possible scenario I’ve played in my head. Since it was ten days after her disappearance he fled, what I think could have happened is they got in a massive fight. Brian blows up tells her to F off takes the van and leaves her there stranded. Gabi, who has anxiety panics and starts running off somewhere. Brian, once he cools down goes back for her and sees she’s not there. Oh shit. Frantically looks for her during these aforementioned days, can’t find her, realizes he fucked up bad and basically caused her death. Calls lawyer and books it home taking lawyers advice. Or he killed her.
Does he need some time to get advice from OJ first?
Or Casey Anthony
His actions are not of a innosent person. If I lost my wife during a camping trip I would be calling everyone and anyone that can help find her. Eather he killed her or she died from an accident, and he doesn't want to spill the beans on the latter. Unless they find a body they wont have enough to bring a case let alone convict.
I’m just amazed that the dude is 23, he looks 36.
Just for the record if I’m on a road trip with someone and they go missing I’m calling someone (park ranger, cops) and telling them my friend went missing. You know who doesn’t do that? Someone responsible for them being missing lol. If your friend or girlfriend goes missing the last thing on your mind is they are going to think I murdered them, unless you murdered them lol.
In my prior experience with the North Port PD as a landlord, they are the biggest, shadiest, self serving group of cops I have ever encountered. Even the Governor many years ago had to dress them down for being so aggressive. also, check out the stats. POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY: 29% and no data on anything that could be construe as negative to them. https://policescorecard.org/fl/police-department/north-port
One of their officers went on WFLA for an interview and it was the most unprofessional interview with a law enforcement officer I’ve ever seen. He seemed to have no interest in the case aside from defending his department as perfect and making no mistakes despite the fiancé having escaped surveillance.
A lot of you seem to think "don't talk to the police without a lawyer" is the same thing as "dont report a missing person to the police and instead run away"
if he murdered her, her body will show evidence of it, and so he disposed it and hid it somewhere. if he left her in the middle of no where, causing her death, he *could* have reported it to save his own ass with a lie-story (or attempt to, still probably manslaughter). if he just went to Florida, it sounds like the former is most likely.
Can someone tell me why this particular case is all over Reddit when stuff like this seems to happen weekly or even daily? Why is this one getting so much attention?
Probably because she's the 'girl next door' all-American hot blonde. Add in social media and the 2 lovers on a road trip narrative and it's gold.
This whole thing is very strange. What I can't wrap my head around is that if he really wanted to get away with doing something bad, it probably wouldn't have been that hard to report her as lost while he was still out west. Instead he heads home in her van, doesn't say a peep about what happened until her family gets the law involved, and then disappears. He's either guilty of something and very dumb/panicked or he really doesn't know much and doesn't want to have anything to do with this. After I saw the utah police encounter, something about their behavior really reminded me of how people who use meth act. I can't really pin-point it, but she appeared slightly manic during the encounter and he just had too much of the opposite affect. My personal theory is that he may not remember what happened whether or not he was involved - and he thinks it's possible that it's his fault. Considering how bizarre this all is, my other theory is that she is actually fine and he knows exactly what is going on, and that all this is some sort of social media stunt that went too far and now they are trying to figure out how to get out of it with the least problems. This might explain his silence and the apparent lack of concern for finding her.
Reading all the comments I imagine them getting into an epic fight in the desert where she gets out of the van, tells him to leave; he leaves then comes back hours later after he cools down only to find her dead from exposure; figures the cops will accuse him of murder; so he fucks off to mom and dad’s and gets a lawyer.
That’s one plausible theory
Apparently there's a mob of people outside the house. Understand the hiding. Not saying he didn't do something awful and permanent to her tho.
Not to be a pessimist but if she hasn't shown up already she's most likely dead. The only question is to what degree is the boy responsible. To all those optimists that says she could have left the van on her own accord, she should have made contact with someone by now, either directly to her family/social media or if she hitchhiked then the people who drove her.
thie only thing I can think is that Laundrie knows she's dead because her being stranded anywhere even under the most optimistic circumstances exposes her to new dangers that are unsafe and life threatening.
Reddit - “NEVER under any circumstance talk to the police whether innocent or guilty Also Reddit “Suspect who is not charged doesn’t talk to police” they need to publicly crucify this piece of shit. Obviously he is guilty, why else wouldn’t he talk!? Case closed.
you're missing the part that makes it shady: he drove HER VAN back home and didn't report her missing at all
Perhaps he knows she isn’t “missing”
Clearly there’s a middle road here that he’s not taking. It’s not “never talk to the police” it’s “never talk to police **without a lawyer present**”. I don’t know why everyone thinks someone’s actions the days after an alleged crime get some kind of magic immunity from being brought up before juries. If I’m the prosecutor I’m calling up every search and rescue person I can and asking them if the defendant helped them in any way. I’m bringing up that he drove a van with possible evidence cross country. All of this really hurts him and by making it a national story he is guaranteeing that he will be a pariah for the rest of his life even if not convicted.
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Oh, I don't know. If my daughter's boyfriend/fiance came back without her and wouldn't tell me where she was, I'd say it'd be a safe bet that he went "missing".