Why is everyone so obsessed with Gabby Petito?

Causse of death... Homicide.

https://apnews.com/article/gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-florida-nature-preserve-22849ef5cc8c22997d886227d94d790f

bipoc people go missing too wrote:

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/21/1039268981/media-petito-like-racism-native-americans

It has nothing to do with the media. This is the kind of story that generates a lot of interest and the media is only meeting demand.

Many people beg to differ:

https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol106/iss2/4/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/business/media/gabby-petito-missing-white-woman-syndrome.html?searchResultPosition=2

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/gabby-petito-case-missing-white-woman-syndrome-experts/story?id=80144611

bipoc people go missing too wrote:

Many people beg to differ:

https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol106/iss2/4/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/business/media/gabby-petito-missing-white-woman-syndrome.html?searchResultPosition=2https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/gabby-petito-case-missing-white-woman-syndrome-experts/story?id=80144611

It's still the kind of story a large population of people will be fascinated by. It involves an attractive young couple and bizarre circumstances.

Were people obsessed with Simpson trial only because it was hyped by the media?

I keep seeing stories like this and don't know why. I don't follow every murder, missing person, or news story because there are thousands of cases. If there is a twist or something unusual about the story then it might grab me. I watched the OJ case when it was going on but rarely any others. My mother in law was obsessed with Jon Benet-Ramsey and it did interest me. I googled famous missing persons and did not see a case that I recognized. I was interested in the Chilean miners when they were trapped and the rescue was ongoing for days. I also was obsessed with the Serial podcast and the Adnan Syed case when it was the biggest thing. Do most people regularly follow missing persons stories? I know it is supposed to be a racial thing but I don't get it.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

[quote]Mid Age Guy wrote:

[quote]Oil embargo wrote:

[quote]Smoove wrote:

Even if Launderie's parents could afford to send him $1,200 per month, it's likely the police will be monitoring any money they wire.

You missed my point, that it's a lot harder these days to disappear than it was 20 years ago when Hollywood did. However, the cops haven't issued an arrest warrant as of a few hours ago, so I don't know if they can actually monitor bank accounts. Until they do they have very limited avenues, which is why they are searching the area so thoroughly. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

bipoc people go missing too wrote:

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/21/1039268981/media-petito-like-racism-native-americans

It has nothing to do with the media. This is the kind of story that generates a lot of interest and the media is only meeting demand.

Well, I’d say both. Media is fueling people’s innate appetite for such stories by giving them more of it. Sort of like how social media adds a multiplier effect to polarization that is intrinsically caused by and present in a two-party people.

But I agree with the “media is only meeting demand” sentiment in that of the media held back reporting on such stories or introduced “fairness” in their coverage that went against the grain of eyeballs revenue, they would only be treating the symptom, not the cause, sort of like how painkillers or anti-inflammatories don’t help healing.

Healing here requires most people to truly feel envious, desirous, wannabe-ness, and relateable-ness towards, say, Native American women to feel intrigued by one of them going missing, which I suspect requires complete assimilation and approximate equality of wealth and privilege with the rest of the population. Which is probably not happening any time soon.

that "is this x" meme with the butterfly applies to nearly every argument on the internet.

99% of people have only 2 or 3 ideas in their head and they want to apply them to everything.

I'm starting to think that the authorities' apparent lack of urgency in locating him may be because they have reason to believe he may no longer be alive. He may not have gone to the nature preserve to hide...

I think it's amusing that this thread had pages of people arguing over whether or not he should be convicted and the ones that don't are basing it entirely on the entire at hand today, which is almost nothing. You don't even know how she was killed. We are going to get drip, drip, drip of evidence that eventually will be an ocean. How much do you want to bet that his computer has all sorts of interesting google searches (like how to get rid of evidence or how to create a fake alias). The guy wasn't the brightest. If he were, he would have disposed of her body, driven far away and then reported her missing with something like "I woke up in the morning and she was gone." He would be in a much better position than he is now after having driven home without her, not reported her missing and then no cooperating.

Even if there is some racist-like element to people’s fascination with pretty white girls gone missing, I’m wondering why white boys going missing doesn’t make news. Presumably teenage or older boys don’t get attacked as much as they are not seen as physically as vulnerable as young girls, but there must still be some that do go missing. Pre-teen white boys I’m sure are vulnerable just like girls, so they must be occasionally getting kidnapped.

I’m having a hard time coming up with some sexist explanation, so I don’t think it’s sexism. But what is it then? Why don’t mothers, fathers, and young men and women of our country find a missing pretty white boy story as intriguing as a missing pretty white girl story?

Ben Shiller wrote:

The guy wasn't the brightest. If he were, he would have disposed of her body, driven far away and then reported her missing with something like "I woke up in the morning and she was gone." He would be in a much better position than he is now after having driven home without her, not reported her missing and then no cooperating.

Not so easy. He’d have to drive out really far to like a different state, and find some campground like place in the wilderness, but wouldn’t have any witness attesting that they saw both of them coming there. Their travel life was online, so with his bizarre story of her disappearance into thin air, the suspicion would most naturally go to the date and place they most recently posted on Instagram and places in between. And if a fellow van-lifer reported seeing his van like they did in this case, they’d easily find her body just like they did in this case.

He probably figured that his best strategy was to hope that they’d never find her body and, if not, use the time it bought him to plan his escape.

Discusss wrote:

He probably figured that his best strategy was to hope that they’d never find her body and, if not, use the time it bought him to plan his escape.

If I had to guess this was some crime of passion and the guy didnt have strategy and he has been winging it ever since. Seriously if instead of driving home, he just left the search range would be insane. Instead he wastes time driving back to see his parents..

thsjdjdjdjd wrote:

All they need is some cash initially and then steal an identity (usually the SSN of a dead child.) Sara Jane Olson (a runner!) was hiding in plain sight for 20 years. Married a doctor and had 3 kids. Look at any 'most wanted' list and there are a lot of people that avoid getting caught.

John List.

Tragedy for her family and friends. Why all the attention. Part of it is the mysterious circumstances.

We'll have to ask the national media why they give so much attention to this tragedy when innocent young males and females that are most often Black get gunned down every week in cities like Chicago and those stories are never reported.

Mid Age Guy wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

[quote]Mid Age Guy wrote:

[quote]Oil embargo wrote:

[quote]Smoove wrote:

Even if Launderie's parents could afford to send him $1,200 per month, it's likely the police will be monitoring any money they wire.

You missed my point, that it's a lot harder these days to disappear than it was 20 years ago when Hollywood did. However, the cops haven't issued an arrest warrant as of a few hours ago, so I don't know if they can actually monitor bank accounts. Until they do they have very limited avenues, which is why they are searching the area so thoroughly. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this.

They got a warrant to search the parents' house without having put out an arrest warrant. I don't see why a judge wouldn't sign off on monitoring banks accounts.

picnic for Yogi wrote:

I'm starting to think that the authorities' apparent lack of urgency in locating him may be because they have reason to believe he may no longer be alive. He may not have gone to the nature preserve to hide...

Wrong, Yog. The authorities' clear lack of urgency is due to (1) they know Laundry has given them the slip (duck and weave, skipped town, off the grid, laying low, circumlocute), (2) they can't do jack when they find, except ask if he's willing to answer questions, which he clearly is not, and (3) general incompetence and/or disinterest.

Embargo