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Does Notebook Reveal Brian Laundrie Confesses to Gabby Petito Murder? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace in the last hours, a
0:15
Speaker 1: bombshell discoveries in the murder of beautiful young girl Gabby Petito,
0:22
Speaker 1: her body left out in a dispersed camping area, you know,
0:26
Speaker 1: the tetons to decompose. Now we learn that so called
0:33
Speaker 1: boyfriend Brian Laundry, who throttled her and bludgeoned her dead,
0:37
Speaker 1: then used her credit card sending fake texts all the
0:40
Speaker 1: way across the country back home to Florida, did actually
0:45
Speaker 1: make some self absorbed musings in writing claiming responsibility for
0:52
Speaker 1: Gabby's murder? What exactly did that note books say? I
0:57
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories, Thank you for being
1:00
Speaker 1: with us here at Fox Nation and series Exam one eleven.
1:05
Speaker 1: First of all, take a listen to our cut four
1:06
Speaker 1: to one News Nation. We know that according to the FBI,
1:10
Speaker 1: there was a note in the notebook where Brian Laundry
1:13
Speaker 1: claimed responsibility for Gabby's death. But what else did he say?
1:17
Speaker 1: Was it a long note? Did he give a motive?
1:20
Speaker 1: It would be very very interesting to see that. It's
1:24
Speaker 1: interesting even wondering where is the notebook right now? Because
1:27
Speaker 1: the Laundry family attorneys Steven Bertolino told us that they
1:30
Speaker 1: were going through the process of taking evidence back both families.
1:34
Speaker 1: I was messaging with him earlier tonight, trying to sort
1:36
Speaker 1: of get that information out of him. I asked, can
1:38
Speaker 1: you say where the notebook is right now? And can
1:41
Speaker 1: you tell us what was in the notebook? And he
1:44
Speaker 1: just said no and no. Why won't stay Bertolino, the
1:48
Speaker 1: Laundry family attorney, shut up and go away. There's really
1:53
Speaker 1: no nice way to put it. I mean, not very
1:56
Speaker 1: many lawyers get it, but there is a point in
1:59
Speaker 1: Core and elsewhere when you should just sit down and
2:03
Speaker 1: try your best to keep your lips together. Because he
2:06
Speaker 1: keeps referring to Gabby's murder as a tragic incident, a tragedy.
2:13
Speaker 1: It was a murder, and he keeps talking about how
2:18
Speaker 1: it's all been very sad. It's sad because Brian Laundry
2:23
Speaker 1: murdered her. And I don't take to him putting Brian
2:28
Speaker 1: Laundry the killer, the abuser in the same pot with
2:32
Speaker 1: Gabby Petito and her family. No, take a listen to
2:37
Speaker 1: our cut four seventeen. These are our friends at wp
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Speaker 1: b F. The FBI's final report into the killing of
2:44
Speaker 1: Gabby Petito does more than just wrap up the case.
2:47
Speaker 1: It includes details never shared before and the former FBI
2:51
Speaker 1: agent Stewart Kaplan. The biggest detail is the fact that
2:54
Speaker 1: Gabby's fiance, Brian Laundry, confessed to killing her. Obviously, there
2:59
Speaker 1: is a confess that satisfies law enforcement that Brian Laundry
3:03
Speaker 1: in fact took responsibility. According to the report, the confession
3:06
Speaker 1: was written in the notebook found with Laundry's remains. The report, however,
3:10
Speaker 1: does not give specifics of the confession, if Laundry said
3:13
Speaker 1: exactly what happened or why it happened. I think we're
3:16
Speaker 1: all interested to know how it escalated to the point
3:21
Speaker 1: where you have Brian Laundry taking the life of Gabby Petito.
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Speaker 1: The report does say Laundry tried to cover up the murder,
3:28
Speaker 1: saying he used Gabby's debit card on his drive back
3:31
Speaker 1: to Florida from Wyoming, and he also sent text messages
3:34
Speaker 1: from her phone to his phone. The FBI says his
3:37
Speaker 1: actions quote are indicative of mister Laundry attempting to deceive
3:41
Speaker 1: law enforcement by giving the impression that miss Petito was
3:45
Speaker 1: still alive. Confession notebook, schmotebook, It's all self absorbed woke
3:53
Speaker 1: musings by a woman beater, self absorbed, self, just defying
4:00
Speaker 1: self pitying. All three of those start with the word self,
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Speaker 1: because that's all Brian Laundry was concerned with him self.
4:11
Speaker 1: With me and I'll star panel to make sense of
4:13
Speaker 1: what we know right now. High profile lawyer joining us
4:16
Speaker 1: out of Jacksonville. Former fed with the FBI, FBI agent,
4:20
Speaker 1: author of Arrest Proof Yourself at Delle Carson Law dot com.
4:25
Speaker 1: Renown in psychoanalysts, joining us out of Beverly Hills. Doctor
4:30
Speaker 1: Bethany Marshall at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com. Start a
4:34
Speaker 1: hit series on Netflix, Bling Empire, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University,
4:41
Speaker 1: author of Blood Beneath my Feet on Amazon, and star
4:44
Speaker 1: of another hit series, Blody Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan
4:48
Speaker 1: on iHeart. But first to Michael Ruiz, reporter with Fox
4:53
Speaker 1: News Digital who's been on this case from the very beginning. Michael,
4:58
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Tell me the discovery.
5:03
Speaker 1: Two things right now. One, the MOAP police continue, even
5:09
Speaker 1: now after we know Brian Laundry murdered Gabby, are still
5:17
Speaker 1: claiming they were right, they got it right, that Gabby
5:22
Speaker 1: was the aggressor. They're still saying that. But before I
5:25
Speaker 1: get to them and their big self justification of their
5:30
Speaker 1: crap report and what they're saying about Gabby even now,
5:34
Speaker 1: let me talk about this note but who fat We're
5:37
Speaker 1: find why hit me? Michael? And this notebook be found
5:39
Speaker 1: on October twentieth, right near Brian Laundry's body, in the
5:43
Speaker 1: same area where his parents had been telling police to
5:45
Speaker 1: search for weeks. And if you remember, the police had
5:48
Speaker 1: been going out into that swamp and there was a
5:51
Speaker 1: big debate over whether he was there or he had
5:52
Speaker 1: run away up to the Appolician trail or anywhere else.
5:55
Speaker 1: And he turned out he was there the whole time.
5:57
Speaker 1: Turned out he was most likely dead the whole time.
6:00
Speaker 1: And when the floodwaters went down, they found a bag,
6:03
Speaker 1: they found some other belongings, and they found Brian's remains.
6:06
Speaker 1: So that bag, Michael Ruiz, was a dry bag. And
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Speaker 1: as I recall, I don't believe the notebook was in
6:15
Speaker 1: the dry bag, which leads me to imagine Brian Laundry
6:21
Speaker 1: was out there, self absorbed, writing his self absorbed musings
6:25
Speaker 1: in a notebook, and he writes a so called confession. Boy,
6:30
Speaker 1: I'd love to see what he wrote and then killed himself.
6:36
Speaker 1: Where that leads me is that I think he wrote
6:41
Speaker 1: his thoughts and then killed himself, and that's why the
6:43
Speaker 1: notebook didn't make it into the dry bag, which leads
6:47
Speaker 1: me to a whole forensic mess as to how you
6:50
Speaker 1: actually rehabilitate this notebook, the sopping wet notebook that has
6:57
Speaker 1: been underwater at Carlton Reserve for the rainy season. How
7:02
Speaker 1: you do that so you can read it? And I'll
7:04
Speaker 1: circle back to just Scott Morgan on that again. Michael Ruise,
7:07
Speaker 1: it was found in October. We're just hearing about it. Now.
7:12
Speaker 1: Tell me more about how it was found, where it
7:14
Speaker 1: was found, and what happened then. So right inside the
7:17
Speaker 1: entrance to this trail, there was a little clearing on
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Speaker 1: the left hand side, and the parents had been telling
7:24
Speaker 1: the FBI and police to search that area for weeks,
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Speaker 1: and they went on this morning of October twentieth with
7:30
Speaker 1: one detective from Northport Police and one FBI agent and
7:35
Speaker 1: the parents and they were essentially zig zagging through the area,
7:37
Speaker 1: just looking around at places they thought they might find
7:40
Speaker 1: Brian and the parents came across the dry bag and
7:45
Speaker 1: split up from the law enforcement officers, and when they
7:48
Speaker 1: met up a few minutes later, the Northport detective told
7:52
Speaker 1: the parents, we think we found something. It's human remains,
7:56
Speaker 1: And at that time they hadn't positively ideated as Brian.
8:00
Speaker 1: But the next day they came out and said, with
8:01
Speaker 1: Dentil records, this is Brian Laundry. Do we know if
8:05
Speaker 1: they ever got DNA identifying him, Michael Rowis. I believe
8:10
Speaker 1: that later they did identify him with DNA, but at
8:14
Speaker 1: that time it was Dentil records with the first first
8:18
Speaker 1: means used on the twenty first. The next day, take
8:21
Speaker 1: a listen to our cut four to four our friend
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Speaker 1: Evan exel Bake Fox thirteen. And then on October twentieth,
8:27
Speaker 1: he was found in the Carlton Reserve, which is a
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Speaker 1: big giant swamp twenty five thousand acres here in Tampa
8:35
Speaker 1: Bay in Sarasota County. He was found October twentieth. They
8:38
Speaker 1: found him with a notebook. They found him with a revolver,
8:41
Speaker 1: and in that notebook it is said by the FBI
8:43
Speaker 1: that he admitted and took responsibility for the death of
8:48
Speaker 1: his former girlfriend and fiance. And then a month after
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Speaker 1: he was found with the notebook. They also revealed that
8:55
Speaker 1: he was found with a revolver, and they said, after
9:01
Speaker 1: a lengthy investigation into his death, they found that he
9:03
Speaker 1: had shot himself. So that was the final piece there.
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Speaker 1: The notebook and then the revolver had showed the cause
9:10
Speaker 1: of death. And over the course of this the FBI
9:13
Speaker 1: has said and other law enforcement has told us that
9:15
Speaker 1: there was no one else they suspected in this death
9:18
Speaker 1: of Gabby Petito beyond Brian Laundry. And today the FBI
9:22
Speaker 1: confirmed that all investigative leads led to no one but
9:27
Speaker 1: Brian Laundry. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace straight out to
9:46
Speaker 1: you Justice Got Morgan, Professor Forensics at jacksonvill State University.
9:51
Speaker 1: Many people have wondered why we are just hearing about
9:54
Speaker 1: the notebook and the electric confession in the notebook. Now,
9:57
Speaker 1: how long would it take to rehabilitate a sopping wet notebook.
10:03
Speaker 1: Let's just say, yeah, where the musings were written in
10:08
Speaker 1: ink and it it actually been submerged during the Culture
10:12
Speaker 1: Reserve rainy season. Yeah, it would be a protracted period
10:15
Speaker 1: of time. Nancy, The key to it is that you
10:19
Speaker 1: know paper just like you know human bodies and anything
10:23
Speaker 1: else out in nature is actually made from trees. Okay,
10:28
Speaker 1: so it's it's an organic substance. And what that means
10:31
Speaker 1: is the more you have it around water, the relative humidity,
10:36
Speaker 1: it begins to break down. So what they have to
10:38
Speaker 1: do the scientist and I would assume if they took
10:40
Speaker 1: this back to the question document section at the FBI lab,
10:44
Speaker 1: you mean in quantico, in quantico, and they would have
10:47
Speaker 1: to freeze that notebook in order to stop what's referred
10:51
Speaker 1: to as as as the decomposition of the paper. Because
10:55
Speaker 1: keep in mind, it's it's pulling apart at a molecular level.
10:59
Speaker 1: So you have to out that first, think about wet
11:02
Speaker 1: toilet paper. Oh exactly, that's what's happening. Go ahead, and
11:06
Speaker 1: it's a horribly hostile environment where this thing was found.
11:10
Speaker 1: And one of the keys here is Nancy, I think,
11:12
Speaker 1: is this that you've hit upon this point of was
11:15
Speaker 1: the bag? Was it in the bag or outside of
11:17
Speaker 1: the bag? If it's outside of the bag, that means
11:20
Speaker 1: it's going to be chronically exposed to water over a
11:22
Speaker 1: protracted period of time. And so this kind of you know,
11:27
Speaker 1: spiraling off into breakdown has got to be stopped before
11:31
Speaker 1: they can ever touch at Nancy before they can ever
11:33
Speaker 1: put any kind of alternative light like infrared. So it's
11:37
Speaker 1: my understanding, and this is a lay person's understanding of it.
11:41
Speaker 1: They take the pages and they try their best to
11:46
Speaker 1: lay them out flat, if that's possible. Again, think wet
11:49
Speaker 1: toilet paper is how I would describe it to a jury.
11:53
Speaker 1: And then let them dry, either through a laser light
11:59
Speaker 1: or infra light, let them dry out. How does that
12:04
Speaker 1: process work? Well, what you would have to do? Nanswer's
12:07
Speaker 1: They keep using the term notebook. We really don't know
12:09
Speaker 1: what type of notebook, if it's spiral bound, or if
12:12
Speaker 1: it has like a standard sewn in spine. Hey, mo, yeah,
12:17
Speaker 1: let me here that they do have a photograph of
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Speaker 1: the book, the notebook that he had purportedly had in
12:22
Speaker 1: one of our news articles. And in addition to which
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Speaker 1: it appears they're using indelible pen ink in order to
12:29
Speaker 1: write in the notebook. So well that mays answer the
12:33
Speaker 1: question of why we can see it later? Hey, what
12:35
Speaker 1: does the notebook look like? Del Carson is in my mind,
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Speaker 1: I imagine one of those remember those notebooks that were
12:42
Speaker 1: sewn into the spine and they're black and white squiggly
12:46
Speaker 1: on the front. We had almost like a drama decision. Yes,
12:49
Speaker 1: this is what I had in my head. This is
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Speaker 1: a spiral notebook and it's green in color. Probably it's
12:55
Speaker 1: about ten inches by six inches, and it's littered on
12:59
Speaker 1: the top with these indelible pens, sort of like a
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Speaker 1: magic marker that you would use to write in. It's
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Speaker 1: not up here, is that one of the photos? Michael
13:08
Speaker 1: Ruise joining us from Fox News Digital. Remember that Gabby
13:12
Speaker 1: was posting her travel her vlog, a video blog, which
13:17
Speaker 1: is really interesting. I watched every bit of that. I
13:20
Speaker 1: could see she's really good at it. By the way,
13:22
Speaker 1: she would have made a great travel editor. But there
13:26
Speaker 1: were a lot of photos as well, and very often
13:28
Speaker 1: he would see photos of Brian Laundry, lounging, reading and
13:33
Speaker 1: writing in his notebook. I wonder if that was the notebook,
13:36
Speaker 1: Michael Ruise, I wonder you I don't know. Sure, that's
13:40
Speaker 1: a good question, and I guess you know. We're asking
13:43
Speaker 1: the FBI for more information they've been reluctant to He's
13:46
Speaker 1: pulling out the notebook. I see it. It's Brian Laundry.
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Speaker 1: It looks like a big light blue blanket has been
13:52
Speaker 1: laid out on their camping trip and he has that Yes, yes,
13:57
Speaker 1: I see, we're talking about Dell Carson. It's kind of
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Speaker 1: a greenish spiral note. But is it spiral jack And
14:04
Speaker 1: there's yeah, yeah, yes, and there's like a silver I
14:11
Speaker 1: guess a tree pattern on the top. And they're all
14:14
Speaker 1: his sharpies laid out where he's writing his innermost thoughts
14:17
Speaker 1: and feelings. I guess I bet that's it. Okay, back
14:20
Speaker 1: to you, Joe Scott, Yeah, you know. It's when you
14:23
Speaker 1: begin to think about this. As I stated, they have
14:25
Speaker 1: to freeze this thing, get it away from any further
14:29
Speaker 1: exposure to humidity at all. Once that is accomplished and
14:33
Speaker 1: it begins to kind of dry on itself, we actually
14:36
Speaker 1: have would refer to as evidence dryers at labs Nancy,
14:40
Speaker 1: where we can hang clothes and that sort of thing up.
14:42
Speaker 1: You have to completely suck all of humidity out of
14:44
Speaker 1: the air. Now, this thing is going to be so fragile.
14:47
Speaker 1: It's almost like doing surgery if you. If folks have
14:50
Speaker 1: never seen a question document lab, they go into this
14:53
Speaker 1: thing wearing gloves, masks, this sort of thing, and my
14:56
Speaker 1: suspicion is they would have literally dissected out each page
15:00
Speaker 1: with a scalpel, getting it as close to that spin.
15:02
Speaker 1: Slow down, slow down, I'm drinking from the fire hydra here.
15:05
Speaker 1: Dissect each page with a scalpel. Take it apart with
15:09
Speaker 1: a scalpel, which should make then your fingers. Yeah, very
15:15
Speaker 1: much so. Because they're all by now, they're probably dry together.
15:19
Speaker 1: I don't know that, but they could be you know,
15:20
Speaker 1: a water log. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, And then you
15:24
Speaker 1: know you had mentioned how they were trying to dry
15:25
Speaker 1: each page independently, So that's the only way that this
15:29
Speaker 1: can actually be accomplished. Oh my goodness, can you imagine
15:32
Speaker 1: them trying to they'd probably the spiral, cut the spiral out,
15:37
Speaker 1: because there's no way you could pull that page off
15:39
Speaker 1: the spiral. Again, wet toilet paper, you can't pull it
15:42
Speaker 1: off the spiral. Yeah, And if it is spiral, they
15:45
Speaker 1: could go in with a pair of wire snips and
15:47
Speaker 1: cut it along the long axis of the spiral and
15:49
Speaker 1: then just kind of delicately pull it out. It's a
15:51
Speaker 1: painstaking process. Remember how much is riding on this nancy. Anything,
15:57
Speaker 1: anything that is disrupted can completely skew the narrative here.
16:00
Speaker 1: Like I mean, even if there were three words I
16:02
Speaker 1: killed Gabby. I mean, if you lost those three words,
16:05
Speaker 1: you would no longer have a confession. Not that I
16:07
Speaker 1: think that's what it is. And I'll tell you why. Hey,
16:09
Speaker 1: hold of thought, Joe Scott, Dctor, Bethany Marshall. I can't
16:12
Speaker 1: believe you've held back this long. You know. The other
16:15
Speaker 1: day I tried to read Lousey's notebook, I mean her diary,
16:18
Speaker 1: which isn't a notebook. First of all, she writes in
16:23
Speaker 1: such tiny letters. Of course, looking for anything about drugs, alcohol,
16:28
Speaker 1: wild behavior, I found nothing like that. She's talking about
16:33
Speaker 1: something about Sunday School, she's talking about the Scout trip,
16:37
Speaker 1: she's talking about skincare. I'm like, oh, dear lord, he's tiny.
16:41
Speaker 1: Hare Okay, nothing about murdering Maham. But it was so
16:46
Speaker 1: tiny I could hardly read it. And she writes even
16:50
Speaker 1: when she writes a little note, it looks like calligraphy.
16:53
Speaker 1: She's just well, she's perfect in every way. That's just
16:55
Speaker 1: all I can say. Practically perfect in every way. But
16:59
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about Brian Laundry. You know, at his age,
17:04
Speaker 1: my dad had already let's see Brian Laundry twenty three.
17:09
Speaker 1: My dad had already had I think was still fighting
17:12
Speaker 1: in the World War, was about to head back, meet
17:17
Speaker 1: my mom, get married, have three children, and start trying
17:22
Speaker 1: to go to school at night to get his accounting degree.
17:28
Speaker 1: And here's Brian Laundry kicked back. Nothing wrong with that,
17:35
Speaker 1: musing his music. It sounds like a fifteen year old boy. Yeah,
17:40
Speaker 1: And how old is Lucy now, my angel? Your angels?
17:44
Speaker 1: Let's see Lynch and John David are both fourteen, so
17:48
Speaker 1: it is developmentally appropriate for her to be writing in
17:51
Speaker 1: a journal. And John David, my son, wouldn't journal if
17:54
Speaker 1: it hit him over the head, He'd go, what if
17:56
Speaker 1: it bit him in the neck? It was an he
17:59
Speaker 1: wouldn't write in a journal. You know, forget it. It
18:05
Speaker 1: is developmentally appropriate for a young woman to be not
18:09
Speaker 1: to be sexist, but women tend to do it more
18:11
Speaker 1: than men or girls do, to be writing in a
18:14
Speaker 1: journal because she's trying to consolidate a sense of self.
18:17
Speaker 1: She's putting the words out there, she's reading them, she's
18:21
Speaker 1: reabsorbing them, and she's learning who she is by documenting
18:24
Speaker 1: her life. And this is not the same as Brian Laundry.
18:29
Speaker 1: How old was he twenty three? Going on twenty four.
18:32
Speaker 1: I'm a bassony. I mean, you're using all these these terms,
18:35
Speaker 1: but in my mind, what is he doing with his
18:39
Speaker 1: rear end on a blue blanket. He needs to be
18:41
Speaker 1: pitching the tent and getting firew for Pete's sake. He's
18:44
Speaker 1: absorbed with himself. That's what he is. He's very self absorbed,
18:48
Speaker 1: self preoccupied. You know, it's a little bit like O. J.
18:51
Speaker 1: Simpson writing, if I did it, I cannot believe you
18:55
Speaker 1: just said the life Those are in my handwritten knows
18:58
Speaker 1: this might as well be OJ says this a notebook
19:01
Speaker 1: scribbling at the defense table, self absorbed sidlings of a killer.
19:06
Speaker 1: Now you got Mike exactly. And you know the other
19:11
Speaker 1: thing is she, in a sense is grabbing the spotlight.
19:14
Speaker 1: Gabby Petito is because she's doing this blog and she's
19:17
Speaker 1: getting all these followers and people are interested in her.
19:21
Speaker 1: And sometimes I see in session, like when I see
19:23
Speaker 1: couples and there's an abusive dynamic and the victim is
19:27
Speaker 1: describing quite eloquently their experience. The perpetrator will grab a
19:32
Speaker 1: note or can start writing down their thoughts furiously scribbling.
19:35
Speaker 1: This is what I think that they want to get
19:37
Speaker 1: it out. They want to defend themselves. They want to
19:39
Speaker 1: be as important or as eloquipped as the victim is
19:43
Speaker 1: in describing their experience. So it almost seems not only
19:46
Speaker 1: is he self absorbed, but he's sort of emulating her,
19:49
Speaker 1: trying to get his point out, trying to be the
19:51
Speaker 1: important one. And you know what, sadly, in death, that's
19:56
Speaker 1: what's happened, because he's the one we're talking about. He
19:58
Speaker 1: went out with this and grand gesture, and that's what
20:02
Speaker 1: happens with really self absorbed people. You know how you
20:05
Speaker 1: say that, you hear the term, oh, he took all
20:07
Speaker 1: the oxygen in the room. In a sense, he's taking
20:10
Speaker 1: our oxygen on the show, right, I don't even everyone
20:12
Speaker 1: we're talking about what does that mean? Yeah? Okay, so
20:16
Speaker 1: if I have someone come into my office and describe
20:18
Speaker 1: somebody's toxic or disturbed, that's really kind of torturing them.
20:23
Speaker 1: They'll say, do you know what, doctor Bethany, He's like,
20:25
Speaker 1: he's a kind of person that sucks all the oxygen
20:28
Speaker 1: out of the room and shorthand that means he takes
20:31
Speaker 1: all the attention, grabs all the attention. It's all about him.
20:35
Speaker 1: I think that's what he did. And we'll talk about
20:37
Speaker 1: this later in the show. I'm sure when the Moab
20:39
Speaker 1: police officers pulled him over, he sucked all the oxygen
20:42
Speaker 1: out of the situation. It was all about him. He
20:44
Speaker 1: got to go to the hotel, he got to take
20:46
Speaker 1: the shower. You know, he got the cushy, He got
20:51
Speaker 1: the cushy assignment time stories with Nancy Grace. There would
21:11
Speaker 1: be no way in h e double l Dell Carson
21:18
Speaker 1: that my husband, David Lynch, who is a saint. There's
21:23
Speaker 1: no way he would have stayed in the hotel and
21:27
Speaker 1: I sleep in the car. I wouldn't ask him to switch,
21:30
Speaker 1: no way, but there's no way that he would do that.
21:33
Speaker 1: He would sleep on the pavement before he would have
21:37
Speaker 1: me or the twins sleep in the car and him
21:40
Speaker 1: be slung up in a king size bed with a shower.
21:42
Speaker 1: That wouldn't happen. That's what gentlemen do. They take care
21:45
Speaker 1: of their women. They don't injure them. I'm just you know,
21:49
Speaker 1: it's bringing it all back, Michael Ruise, what happened to
21:52
Speaker 1: Gabby and I haven't even touched on the Moap police
21:57
Speaker 1: still going down with his ship claiming Ab was the
22:00
Speaker 1: aggressor here, but Michael, I want to bring you back
22:03
Speaker 1: to Oh my goodness for running out of time. I
22:05
Speaker 1: want to bring you back to the notebook. So we
22:07
Speaker 1: got the notebook, and what if anything do we learn?
22:12
Speaker 1: And do you think Michael will ever actually see what
22:15
Speaker 1: he wrote in the notebook? I hope so, and we've
22:18
Speaker 1: asked to see it. And you know that's kind of
22:20
Speaker 1: on the FBI, but I don't I don't really know
22:23
Speaker 1: why they wouldn't release it at some point down the line.
22:26
Speaker 1: And something you said at the beginning, Michael, release I
22:28
Speaker 1: want to follow up the fact that he's writing this
22:33
Speaker 1: confession of sorts as to what he did. But no, no,
22:38
Speaker 1: don't get sucked in his life. Take a listen to
22:41
Speaker 1: our cut four nineteen News Nation. Those final text messages.
22:46
Speaker 1: That was something new, at least coming from the FBI.
22:49
Speaker 1: You'll remember, when all of this started, we heard from
22:51
Speaker 1: Gabby's mom and she said that something was very strange
22:56
Speaker 1: about the final text messages from g to her mom.
23:01
Speaker 1: She called her Grandpa Stan. She would have never done that.
23:04
Speaker 1: It didn't make much sense at all. Well, now the
23:06
Speaker 1: FBI today confirming in this report that the final text
23:11
Speaker 1: messages sent by Gabby Petito's phone were actually sent by
23:15
Speaker 1: Brian Laundry after he killed Gabby Petito. Get it, he's
23:20
Speaker 1: still lying after her murder, trying to cover up prime murder.
23:25
Speaker 1: Let's clarify that with our cut four one five. This
23:28
Speaker 1: is Evan axel Bang, our friend at Fox thirteen. Gabby
23:32
Speaker 1: Petito's body was found in the Grand Titan September nineteenth.
23:36
Speaker 1: Brian Laundry's body was found a month later in a
23:39
Speaker 1: swamp near Northport, and with his remains, the FBI now
23:43
Speaker 1: says they found a revolver he apparently used to kill
23:46
Speaker 1: himself and a notebook where the FBI says he'd taken
23:50
Speaker 1: responsibility for killing Gabby. The FBI released an executive summary
23:55
Speaker 1: like explainer of the evidence they've gathered since the investigation
23:58
Speaker 1: into her disappearance again in September twelfth. It says the
24:02
Speaker 1: investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian
24:06
Speaker 1: Laundry directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito.
24:10
Speaker 1: They said they found text messages between their phones sent
24:14
Speaker 1: after they believe she was strangled that appeared to be
24:17
Speaker 1: Brian trying to make it look like Gabby was still alive.
24:20
Speaker 1: He'd returned to his family's Northport home in her then,
24:24
Speaker 1: but without her. The FBI did not say if they
24:28
Speaker 1: know why Laundry killed her. Actually, under the law, the
24:32
Speaker 1: state doesn't have to prove motive. We're not responsible for
24:35
Speaker 1: going in the mind of a killer and trying to
24:37
Speaker 1: make sense of why he would do such a thing
24:41
Speaker 1: to a defenseless woman out and dispersed camping. Dispersed camping
24:45
Speaker 1: being camping out where there's not a water or a pump,
24:49
Speaker 1: so there's no hookup there, there's no lights, there's not
24:54
Speaker 1: a bathroom or nothing like that. You're off the grid.
24:59
Speaker 1: Would take her out there and murder her and bludge
25:02
Speaker 1: in her. But there's the more to his devious mind.
25:05
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut four two three our
25:07
Speaker 1: friend Evan Axel Bank at Fox thirteen between August thirtieth
25:11
Speaker 1: in September. First, they found that he'd use Gabby's credit
25:14
Speaker 1: card or her debit card during his drive back from
25:18
Speaker 1: Wyoming to Florida. They then found text messages where it
25:23
Speaker 1: appeared that he was posing as Gabby Petito, trying to
25:28
Speaker 1: make it look to law enforcement like she was still alive.
25:30
Speaker 1: So basically they found both of their phones and then
25:33
Speaker 1: realized that he was simply using her phone to make
25:36
Speaker 1: it look like she was still the one sending text
25:38
Speaker 1: messages back and forth, so not only using her phone
25:43
Speaker 1: but also her credit card to make everybody think that
25:47
Speaker 1: Gabby is still alive. And then in the better m
25:51
Speaker 1: Dancy did you jump in? Can I jump in on
25:53
Speaker 1: this place? Is the credit card? Once? Law enforcement is
25:56
Speaker 1: saying he's trying to cover up that he killed her,
25:58
Speaker 1: and probably he us trying to cover it up at
26:01
Speaker 1: the same time, he thought he owned her and possessed her.
26:04
Speaker 1: Therefore her credit card is his credit card. Sometimes thinks
26:08
Speaker 1: are more basic than we think. And she's gone, there's
26:11
Speaker 1: probably an extra couple hundred dollars in the bank account,
26:13
Speaker 1: and he just thinks that those dollars belong to him.
26:17
Speaker 1: I mean, her life slonged to him in his mind.
26:19
Speaker 1: So I think it's symbolic of how he disposed of
26:22
Speaker 1: her and used her life, like he used the credit
26:25
Speaker 1: card and used her bank account. Well, there's actually a
26:27
Speaker 1: little more to that, because the FBI or Law Enforcement
26:31
Speaker 1: Guild of arrested Laundry immediately after determining that, in fact,
26:37
Speaker 1: he was using her credit card without authorization. And he
26:40
Speaker 1: attempted to cover up her murder. And it's surprising to
26:43
Speaker 1: me that they didn't arrest him down there, put him
26:46
Speaker 1: in cuss Did he have hearings in order to solve
26:50
Speaker 1: this fully? You know what I'm thinking about. This comes
26:52
Speaker 1: back to mind, and just bear with me one more minute.
26:55
Speaker 1: Michael aways, speaking of him using her credit card. I
26:58
Speaker 1: remember a case I had. It was a rape case,
27:02
Speaker 1: a very brutal and violent rape, and then after the rape,
27:07
Speaker 1: the defendant spit on the victim. Before you get angry
27:14
Speaker 1: like I did, just know that we collected the spit
27:18
Speaker 1: and got a positive DNA match back to the defendant
27:22
Speaker 1: that said it was just like adding insult to injury.
27:29
Speaker 1: After he had throttled her dead, he then crosses the
27:33
Speaker 1: country using her cell phone and using her credit card,
27:38
Speaker 1: just he had already murdered her. I don't know if
27:40
Speaker 1: he raped her first, but he did murder her and
27:43
Speaker 1: then used her van, her money, her cell phone all
27:48
Speaker 1: the way back. So that brings that to mine. Okay,
27:52
Speaker 1: this is what we know. We're still waiting for the
27:54
Speaker 1: FBI to release the notebook, the exact confession, if they ever.
28:00
Speaker 1: Michael Ruise, I also want to talk about another disturbing
28:04
Speaker 1: aspect of this entire, entire scenario, that now the Moab police,
28:11
Speaker 1: while they had Brian Laundry in their grasp, they let
28:15
Speaker 1: him slip through their fingers, and still to this day
28:19
Speaker 1: insist that Gabby Petito, this waif weighs about one hundred
28:24
Speaker 1: and five pounds versus Brian Laundry approaching two hundred pounds,
28:30
Speaker 1: she was the aggressor. Did they miss every classic symptom
28:34
Speaker 1: of battering, that she was abused, The denial, the hysterical crying,
28:41
Speaker 1: They desire not to be separated, taking the blame herself,
28:47
Speaker 1: explaining away her own injuries, ignoring the nine one one
28:53
Speaker 1: call that had just happened. For a witness outside, I
28:57
Speaker 1: believe the Moonflower co Op Cafe saw Brian Laundry hitting
29:02
Speaker 1: her in the face on the street in broad delight,
29:07
Speaker 1: and still, even with that knowledge, called her the aggressor. Okay,
29:17
Speaker 1: you know what I want you to take a listen to.
29:20
Speaker 1: It's very very disturbing to me. It's our cup. Four
29:23
Speaker 1: twenty eight is Nate Carlisle at Fox thirteen. Here on
29:27
Speaker 1: what's labeled page two, the captain takes a moment to
29:30
Speaker 1: ponder would Gabby be alive today if this case was
29:34
Speaker 1: handled differently, that is an impossible question to answer. For
29:37
Speaker 1: his part, Pratt told the captain who worried taking Potito
29:41
Speaker 1: to jail would invold in laundry. So if he's going
29:43
Speaker 1: to go bail her out, is he not going to
29:46
Speaker 1: have more control over her? Now? Pratt's quoted as saying
29:49
Speaker 1: mo absent, it would adopt the recommendations to improve training
29:53
Speaker 1: and added domestic violence specialist to oversee incidents investigated by
29:57
Speaker 1: its officers. So they're still sticking with They're going now
30:04
Speaker 1: with a ship. They refused to admit, they screwed up,
30:09
Speaker 1: they had laundry, They did nothing, and they let him
30:12
Speaker 1: go and now she's dead. Jump in Dell. And when
30:14
Speaker 1: I used to teach domestic violence at police academies in Florida,
30:18
Speaker 1: one of the things that's mandated, certainly in Florida and
30:21
Speaker 1: is now mandated everywhere is to arrest one of the parties.
30:26
Speaker 1: And there's even legislation that prohibits individuals from suing the
30:31
Speaker 1: police if they arrest the wrong person. So back at
30:34
Speaker 1: that time that this happened, they should have arrested either
30:38
Speaker 1: one or both of these individuals. And that would have
30:41
Speaker 1: resolved the problem at least for the moment, and then
30:44
Speaker 1: you can investigate further to find out, because she's now
30:47
Speaker 1: removed from that individual, whether or not she's being in
30:50
Speaker 1: an abuse of a relationship that might concern her welfare.
31:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Michael Ruis, tell me about
31:10
Speaker 1: the Moa Police and the investigation by the neighboring county.
31:16
Speaker 1: I believe it was Price County. Yeah, it was Price
31:18
Speaker 1: police who did the investigation. The Moab Police department is
31:21
Speaker 1: very small, and then the chief takeaways from the investigation
31:24
Speaker 1: into their handling of the traffic stop or the domestic
31:27
Speaker 1: violence stop was that these officers involved need more training
31:31
Speaker 1: and they should go back on probation. And you know,
31:33
Speaker 1: if a small department, they're probably not as trained as
31:36
Speaker 1: a lot of the big city departments were used to
31:38
Speaker 1: dealing with. So they're they're saying, kind site is twenty twenty.
31:43
Speaker 1: We had no idea that Brian was a killer, and
31:45
Speaker 1: that's that's the point that they're sticking to. Well, I
31:47
Speaker 1: agree with that. I agree with them on that, But
31:51
Speaker 1: in this day and age, I mean, women are beaten
31:55
Speaker 1: all across the world. It doesn't matter if you're in
31:57
Speaker 1: a small town or a big city like New York City,
32:00
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter if you dropped out of school in
32:03
Speaker 1: the sixth grade, or if you've got your phud. It
32:06
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you make two hundred thousand dollars a
32:09
Speaker 1: year or you make thirty thousand dollars a year, or
32:11
Speaker 1: if you have one child, no children, or six children.
32:14
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. Women are abused, beaten, senseless across the board.
32:21
Speaker 1: None of that socioeconomic distinctions, none of them matter period.
32:27
Speaker 1: That has been proven statistically. So the fact that Mohai
32:32
Speaker 1: Police is a small jurisdiction, does that mean the women
32:34
Speaker 1: there aren't getting beaten behind closed doors? No, it does not.
32:38
Speaker 1: And right there on the main street, Michael Ruis, we
32:43
Speaker 1: have a witness calling nine one one that Gabby is
32:46
Speaker 1: getting beaten basically on main street in broad daylight. What
32:52
Speaker 1: they couldn't check that out and figure out this is Gabby.
32:56
Speaker 1: So I spoke with quite a few experts on the
32:58
Speaker 1: legal side and in the law enforcement side, and you know,
33:01
Speaker 1: they found the report a little bit lacking. They thought
33:04
Speaker 1: the findings might not have been as as severe as
33:07
Speaker 1: as they could be. Okay, let's let's talk about what
33:09
Speaker 1: you just said, Michael Ruise? Okay, okay, let me get
33:15
Speaker 1: to my notes. Um, I never saw any photos that
33:20
Speaker 1: they took of Gabby's injury to her face. They mentioned
33:25
Speaker 1: it in their body cam, but I didn't see any video,
33:29
Speaker 1: did you. So they talk about him, yeah, you're right,
33:31
Speaker 1: they talk about him in the body cam, but there's
33:33
Speaker 1: no documentation of them. So they take pictures of Brian
33:37
Speaker 1: Laundry and his injury, but not Gabby is yes? No, right? Okay.
33:43
Speaker 1: Did they contact the nine one one caller who reported
33:46
Speaker 1: the Brian Laundry attack on Gabby? Did they call him?
33:50
Speaker 1: Michael Ruise? So we found out from this report they went,
33:54
Speaker 1: they circled back with one witness, but that witness was
33:58
Speaker 1: not the nine one one caller, so that would be
34:00
Speaker 1: a no. They did not contact the nine one one caller,
34:04
Speaker 1: not the one who said he saw I think the
34:06
Speaker 1: quote was I saw the gentleman slapping the lady, is
34:09
Speaker 1: what the nine one one caller said. Did they mention
34:13
Speaker 1: Gabby's injuries in their written report? The best of my memory,
34:17
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything about it. Is no, they did not.
34:21
Speaker 1: Did they understand state law requirements for a claim of
34:25
Speaker 1: domestic assault Michael Ruis would I would think so, because
34:30
Speaker 1: Officer Pratt even said so in his own body cam
34:33
Speaker 1: He said, you know, the reason this law is on
34:35
Speaker 1: the books that we have to arrest one is because
34:36
Speaker 1: down the line someone's going to get killed. The domestic
34:40
Speaker 1: violence domestic assault law in that jurisdiction, it seems like
34:44
Speaker 1: they had skimmed it but didn't really know what they
34:48
Speaker 1: were doing. In fact, in the final findings, they stay
34:55
Speaker 1: the officers misunderstood state law requirements for domestic assault. Did
35:00
Speaker 1: they ever consider or write in their report that Brian
35:06
Speaker 1: Laundry could be considered the potential suspect or was it
35:10
Speaker 1: always Gabby and the initial police report it was Gabby?
35:13
Speaker 1: In the review from Price, the captain who wrote that
35:19
Speaker 1: report said that there was evidence that Gabby was a
35:22
Speaker 1: long term victim of domestic abuse. So in the officers
35:26
Speaker 1: initial report, at the moment they could have stopped Brian
35:28
Speaker 1: Laundry and maybe prevented Gabby's murder, they never considered Brian
35:35
Speaker 1: Laundry as a potential suspect. Is that correct? From the
35:37
Speaker 1: initial reports? That's how it seems. Did they ever connect
35:41
Speaker 1: either of them with mental health caregivers? Such as even
35:47
Speaker 1: a volunteer like me at the Battered Women's Center. It's
35:50
Speaker 1: a toll free number. I manned the hot line for
35:53
Speaker 1: nine years. Did they ever do that, Michael Ruise? They did.
36:00
Speaker 1: They did bring Brian to a hotel through a charity
36:02
Speaker 1: for domestic victims, that they checked them into the hotel
36:07
Speaker 1: through that charity. But in the report from Price, we
36:10
Speaker 1: see that they didn't connect them with professionals. They didn't
36:13
Speaker 1: give them documentation. So the answer would be no, would
36:16
Speaker 1: it not? I guess not. Doctor Bethany Marshall, what are
36:20
Speaker 1: the classic symptoms of a domestic violence victim? And don't
36:23
Speaker 1: get me wrong, I know that there are some men
36:26
Speaker 1: that are battered and amused, but they are about one
36:30
Speaker 1: one percent of the entire partner battering universe. So let's
36:37
Speaker 1: just get real. Women are the victims. What are the
36:40
Speaker 1: symptoms that Gabby Petito displayed, Doctor Bethany, Well, everything she displayed,
36:45
Speaker 1: I mean protecting the abuser, minimizing the harm done to
36:49
Speaker 1: her self, flame not tailor telling a cohesive history about
36:54
Speaker 1: what had been done to her. The fact is that
36:57
Speaker 1: she owns her part in the thing. Who's been the conflict?
37:01
Speaker 1: She says she's punched him in the arm, but she
37:03
Speaker 1: minimizes that she punched him in the arm because she
37:06
Speaker 1: was so frustrated and he was driving erratically. He was
37:10
Speaker 1: taking her van and her cell phone exactly, and that
37:16
Speaker 1: you you put it more beautifully that I was trying
37:18
Speaker 1: to collect my thoughts. Fund I know he had taken
37:20
Speaker 1: the van. I know he had taken the cell phone. Well,
37:22
Speaker 1: that was That would be the final sign nilenial that
37:25
Speaker 1: she is a domestic violence victim. Her injuries, the fact
37:32
Speaker 1: that she tried to minimize, as you said, doctor Bethany,
37:36
Speaker 1: they damage to her. I mean, it goes on and
37:40
Speaker 1: on and on, the classic signs that she is a
37:43
Speaker 1: domestic violence victim. Just kinda heard you jumping in. What
37:46
Speaker 1: were you going to say? Yeah? I think one of
37:48
Speaker 1: the biggest takeaways for me, Nancy goes back to forensics
37:51
Speaker 1: and what is doctor Blue going to release from the
37:54
Speaker 1: corner's office up there, Because this is why if she
38:00
Speaker 1: got ongoing abuse, Nancy, we will potentially potentially be able
38:05
Speaker 1: to identify that at autopsy. It's just like we do
38:07
Speaker 1: with child abuse victims, Nancy. We look at bruises, we
38:10
Speaker 1: look at injuries, and we can date those we can
38:13
Speaker 1: get an idea how long has this been going on.
38:14
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. A grown man does not
38:17
Speaker 1: just stand forth in the middle of a stream and
38:19
Speaker 1: spontaneously start beating a young woman who weighed what less
38:23
Speaker 1: than one hundred pounds in public view. This is not
38:26
Speaker 1: the first time they've been down this road. I submit
38:29
Speaker 1: to you that he has beaten her for a period
38:31
Speaker 1: of time. He feels comfortable with this, so at autopsy,
38:35
Speaker 1: one of the things that we can do is age injuries.
38:39
Speaker 1: Who else was aware of this? Who else knew that
38:41
Speaker 1: this was going on? And again they're living under the
38:44
Speaker 1: laundry's roof. Is this something that they had had a
38:47
Speaker 1: history of that the family hadn't said anything about in
38:49
Speaker 1: the past. I think that's a big I mean, saying
38:52
Speaker 1: would it have stopped Gabby's murder is like reading the tiles.
38:56
Speaker 1: But I know this, that would have been a much
38:58
Speaker 1: better chance that she survived if she had gotten batter
39:03
Speaker 1: women's counseling, even over the phone with a volunteer at
39:08
Speaker 1: the shelter, even that could have saved her life. But
39:14
Speaker 1: the officers, to make themselves feel better, I guess, keeps saying, well,
39:17
Speaker 1: you know, we don't think it would have made a difference.
39:19
Speaker 1: Really well, you'll never know because you screwed it up.
39:23
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cup four to seven night.
39:25
Speaker 1: Carlisle thoughts thirteen. If I had any discretion in this,
39:29
Speaker 1: I would separate you guys from the day and just
39:31
Speaker 1: give you warnings to stop at each other. But I
39:34
Speaker 1: lawfully don't have the discretion here yet. Veteran Moab police
39:38
Speaker 1: officer Eric Pratt and the new officer he was training,
39:41
Speaker 1: Daniel Robbins, did let Gabby Petito and Brian Laundry go.
39:45
Speaker 1: The report by a price Utah police captain says that
39:48
Speaker 1: by law, Petito should have been cited or arrested once
39:52
Speaker 1: officers determined she was the aggressor. The captain sustained or
39:56
Speaker 1: confirmed multiple complaints where Pratt and Robbins failed to foll
40:00
Speaker 1: oh the law and Moab's own policies, including failing to
40:03
Speaker 1: obtain witness statements and properly documenting the roadside investigation. So
40:09
Speaker 1: give me your finals go ahead deal. There's a fifty
40:11
Speaker 1: percent reduction and homicides in domestic violence cases if one
40:15
Speaker 1: of the parties is arrested. That's the statistic that led
40:19
Speaker 1: to all this legislation, Bethany and I would say, if
40:23
Speaker 1: one of the classic signs of abuse is leaving the
40:25
Speaker 1: woman alone in a deserted place without resources, then all
40:29
Speaker 1: three men abused her. Jes Scott, I think for me,
40:32
Speaker 1: Nancy is this idea that there is ongoing abuse with her,
40:36
Speaker 1: and I think that other people had a full and
40:38
Speaker 1: complete awareness of this in their background, and it's a tragedy.
40:41
Speaker 1: It wasn't addressed earlier and special guests Michael Ruis, Fox
40:46
Speaker 1: News Digital, well, we're just going to be waiting here
40:48
Speaker 1: to see what we can get from the FBI on
40:49
Speaker 1: that notebook and following this case. Not over yet. No,
40:55
Speaker 1: it ain't over yet, Michael Ruis. True words were never
40:59
Speaker 1: spoken at this point. No charges planned against the Laundry family.
41:04
Speaker 1: We waked as justice some of the holes Nancy Grace
41:08
Speaker 1: crime story, signing off, Goodbye friend,