Apparently One missing item is a formal protocol between gabby and her parents. Under the circumstances there should have been a formal protocol. That is the earliest warning sign that something is off. The mother could have insisted on a next drop dead call date but did not. The daughter— same. That they both did not implies that they both had great trust in the bf fwiw.
(And what about a protocol for the father?)
The bf should have recognized that there was a lack of formal protocol but maybe was thinking with his heart (euphemism). Part of being in love is the notion of trusting and taking a risk. The bf may have been getting advice early and often from his parents. They might already have had some doomsday scenario contingency plans. Maybe one such plan was to let gabby walk away, and drive the van home while awaiting a next phone call from her— a phone call that never happened. The hypothetical doomsday plan had the flaw that it made the bf look guilty. Once they all realized that it was almost too late to do anything about it. The Lawyer probably got involved very late in game.
If a breakup happened, there were not likely to be any witnesses. Gabby could have said anything just drive away.
An attractive single girl without a car who has just broken up with her bf and who is emotionally unstable, with no local place to go for the night... is like a walking magnet for perverts who imaginably cruise the highways looking for such potential victims.
Most of the superficial info is stacked against the bf. Presuming he is innocent, The lucky break the bf got was keeping his mouth shut until he was able to lawyer up.
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the notion (feminist myth?) of an empowered independent woman only goes so far when confronted by the reality of everyday life including the superior upper body strength of the typical male adult which is a physical advantage over a typical woman, when all else is held to be equal.
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News coverage is fragmentary. One timeline that is published seems incomplete to me. No mention of Yosemite for starters.
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Also, were the parents divorced? Alas a daughter whose parents are divorced can be emotionally damaged goods. She can grow up in a home environment in which one parent is emotionally abusive to the other parent— and then she models her behavior after the abusive and presumably dominant parent. If that parent is the mother, she then becomes like the mother in her own relationships with people— manipulative, deceptive, emotionally and physically violent with little or no regard for any consequences of her own actions. These women are like human grenades. They can become angry for any small or imaginary slight that they perceive, without limit, and it empowers them to seek retribution, without limit, because they witnessed similar scenarios being played out between their own parents when they were young (and the mother typically prevailed at least in some way). After separation, the mother and daughter remain close while the father is emotionally embargoed from the daughter. I am not a psychologist but there may be studies about this type of situation which must be increasingly common as the number of divorces rise. The daughter becomes to some degree emotionally spoiled by the situation. She is not well equipped emotionally to deal with men when she becomes an adult. She seeks out a man who will give her the type of support she got from her mother growing up in a single parent home— unconditional love. The bf gives her as much love as he can, but the daughters emotional needs are bottomless and while the daughter is unaware of it, unrealistic. The bf gets roped in— let’s go on a multi month car camping trip, quit your job we’ll be ok. Both gabby and the bf enter into a vortex which puts both at risk.
The father was out of the security loop, probably a deliberate choice by the mother. More feminist koolaid? We don’t need a fathers help bringing up my daughter.
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If the couple spent any significant time in the Yosemite valley floor then there might be some videocam footage. No doubt park officials have been reviewing any video they might have.
'[It's like] drowning with your hands tied behind you,' Petito's father, Joseph Petito, told Newsday of his daughter's disappearance. 'You can't describe it. There's nothing you can do. You can't control anything.'
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic, and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and/or behaviors (compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.
A passenger Grabbing a steering wheel of a car in motion is imho a an emotional cry for help born of emotional desperation. Gabby was saying in so many words Ian not psychologically well. The police could have brought her to get psychological evaluation under the Utah equivalent of a California penal code 5150. However they did not.
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We are only told that the bf has lawyered up and is not cooperating. The reality might be different. In a more perfect world, the bf gave all relevant info to a cutout who then gave it to police, who are now hot on the trail of a real suspect. There might be reasons for playing possum in public— reasons such as lulling a potential suspect into a false sense of security as police follow promising leads. Mistake #2.
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Imho the mother should have called police after the third day without a callback from the daughter. Which imho would have been warranted under their informal protocol. Mistake #3 (not counting tabby’s parents divorce and resulting collateral damage to gabby).