Rant #2,735: Another Day, Another Heartache

So what do you make of this Gabby Petito story?
 
Honestly, I usually pass these types of stories by, but I guess the Long Island connection—both she and her fiancé were originally from Suffolk County—kind of lured me into this soap opera-isa saga of young love--and death.
 
These two supposed “free spirits” had gone on a cross-country trip together in a van, and were chronicling the trip via video just about each and every day.
 
Her family became concerned when the videos did not continue, and it ended up that their concerns were correct, as all was not rainbows and flowers between these two supposed lovebirds.
 
Based on the videos they sent in reporting their cross-country van trip, they appeared to actually be two dimwits, who were not as loving and kind to each other as they had portrayed in the videos for all to see.
 
In fact, one video that they did not send in—a body camera video from police that was made public—showed that they had had a spat, and that Gaby had punched her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, during this particular skirmish.
 
And then Gaby basically disappeared, while Laundrie drove the van back to his home in Florida, almost as if nothing had happened.
 
This first became a local Long Island/New York story, and then went national, and every news show worth its salt covered it.
 
I mean, a young, pretty blonde goes missing … perfect for the news shows to divert viewers’ attention from more pressing matters.
 
And then, more crimps to the case: Laundrie refused to talk to police—supposedly at the advice of his lawyer—and then he, himself, vanished.
 
And then what most people knew would happen actually happened.
 
A body "consistent with the description of" Petito was discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
 
The FBI in Denver, the National Park Service and law enforcement made the announcement during a news conference Sunday evening in Grand Teton National Park.
 
The FBI said that a full forensic identification hasn’t yet been completed, but investigators did notify Petito’s parents.
 
So it could be the 22 year old probably is the body that they found, but no one is sure yet until other tests are done.
 
Yes, it almost sounds like I am talking about a Lifetime TV movie called “Bumped-Off Blonde,” but unfortunately, truth is often stranger than fiction, and here it is in plain sight.
 
Isn’t it funny how these two knew the way to connect to their passionate followers via Internet video, yet did not demonstrate the least bit of common sense toward each other?
 
Once they got into a spat where there was some violence—the girl admitted that she punched her cohort—that should have been the end of the trip right then and there.
 
The police did what they could, telling both of them to stay away from one another for 24 hours after the lovers' spat.
 
Did they? Evidently not.
 
And when they made up, they went on like nothing happened, and then what I bet happened is that they had another spat, and her boyfriend basically dumped the girl at Grand Teton, and left her there to fend for herself, in the middle of nowhere.
 
She probably died of exposure, if, in fact, the body they found is hers.
 
If it isn’t, the story widens, and who is the girl that police found dead there?
 
But anyway, the fiancé was supposedly only a “person of interest” in this mess, and I read the other day that they had no probable cause to charge him with anything related to her disappearance,  at least at the time before they actually found a body.
 
So, if what I said actually happened, what do you charge this imbecile with?
 
I don’t know the law very well, but how about criminally negligent homicide, for leaving her there in the elements alone?
 
Since he, himself has vanished, who knows if and when they will find him, perhaps in the same state as they found the girl.
 
I had also read that the two were attracted to each other in high school as they knew each other because each had a similar mental disability, so they kind of latched onto each other.
 
Whatever the case, this story has captivated the nation, with barbs being thrown the couples’ way, but mainly at the fiancé’s family’s way, and I do think that his family knows a heck of a lot more than they are telling about what is or was going on with the boy.
 
So that is where we stand now with this story, or at least a 7:15 a.m. in the morning on this Monday.
 
I am almost sure that more will come out to make this story that I have told almost moot, but these are the facts as we know them right now.
 
Another day, another heartache.
 
So goes life … and death.