July 3, 2025 • 57 mins
In this emotionally charged episode of The Guilty Files: Revisited, Brian and Dani take on one of the most haunting and high-profile true crime cases of the last decade: the disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito.From the outside, Gabby’s story looked like a dream life shared through van-life vlogs and Instagram-perfect snapshots. But as Brian and Dani dig deeper into the case file, they expose the far more disturbing truth beneath the curated lens of social media.
What begins as a chronological walk-through of Gabby and Brian Laundrie’s cross-country trip quickly turns into a sobering examination of the red flags, missed intervention opportunities, and systemic failures that paved the way to tragedy.Brian brings his procedural lens to the infamous Moab police stop, offering a critical look at how law enforcement misread clear signs of domestic violence—and how that single decision might have changed the entire outcome.
Dani, on the other hand, peels back the psychological layers of coercive control and emotional abuse, showing just how often the warning signs are hidden in plain sight, if only we’re willing to look.Together, they reflect on the media frenzy that surrounded the case—how internet sleuths, true crime TikTok, and mainstream outlets turned Gabby’s disappearance into a national obsession. They ask hard questions about who gets attention when they go missing, and who’s left in silence.
This episode isn’t just about Gabby’s death—it’s about the systems that failed her, the warning signs society ignores, and the echo chamber that sometimes does more harm than good. It’s about what it means to truly see someone who’s crying out for help in all the ways she can, without ever raising her voice.For Brian, it’s a case that exemplifies everything wrong with how we handle domestic calls in the field. For Dani, it’s a devastating reminder of how normalized emotional abuse has become, and how easily it gets dismissed until it’s too late. Listeners are reminded that this episode contains sensitive content, including discussion of domestic violence and intimate partner homicide.
Stay until the end for an exclusive teaser of the Behind the Badge bonus segment on Patreon, where Brian and Dani share their own personal stories of domestic calls that still haunt them to this day.
What begins as a chronological walk-through of Gabby and Brian Laundrie’s cross-country trip quickly turns into a sobering examination of the red flags, missed intervention opportunities, and systemic failures that paved the way to tragedy.Brian brings his procedural lens to the infamous Moab police stop, offering a critical look at how law enforcement misread clear signs of domestic violence—and how that single decision might have changed the entire outcome.
Dani, on the other hand, peels back the psychological layers of coercive control and emotional abuse, showing just how often the warning signs are hidden in plain sight, if only we’re willing to look.Together, they reflect on the media frenzy that surrounded the case—how internet sleuths, true crime TikTok, and mainstream outlets turned Gabby’s disappearance into a national obsession. They ask hard questions about who gets attention when they go missing, and who’s left in silence.
This episode isn’t just about Gabby’s death—it’s about the systems that failed her, the warning signs society ignores, and the echo chamber that sometimes does more harm than good. It’s about what it means to truly see someone who’s crying out for help in all the ways she can, without ever raising her voice.For Brian, it’s a case that exemplifies everything wrong with how we handle domestic calls in the field. For Dani, it’s a devastating reminder of how normalized emotional abuse has become, and how easily it gets dismissed until it’s too late. Listeners are reminded that this episode contains sensitive content, including discussion of domestic violence and intimate partner homicide.
Stay until the end for an exclusive teaser of the Behind the Badge bonus segment on Patreon, where Brian and Dani share their own personal stories of domestic calls that still haunt them to this day.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Welcome to The Guilty Files, a podcast that rips the
story open, one crime, two hosts, and truths that don't
fit neatly into the box. It's messy, it's real, and
it's all on the table. Now let's open this week's file.
(00:50):
Welcome back to the Guilty Files Revisited, where we don't
just tell true crime stories. We take them apart, We
wrestle with them, and we dig into every uncomfortable angle
most shows won't touch. If you're tuning in right now,
you're already a part of the anthology. And trust me,
this week's case file is one hell of a ride.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You said it, partner. And if you've already listened to
the Guilty Files Uncovered earlier this week, well, frankly two
weeks ago you heard Brian lay down the full case file,
all the facts, all the timelines, all the investigative groundwork
that sets the stage for where we're headed today.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And if you haven't caught Uncovered yet, don't worry. You
can pause right now and go listen to it, or
stay right here and catch up after. Either way, you're
not gonna want to miss the deep dive we did
on the full investigative timeline. We laid out every critical
piece of the Gabby Potito case start to finish, and.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Then earlier this week on The Guilty Files rewired well again.
Two weeks ago, I took you inside the emotional core
of the case. We peeled back the layers coerceive control, trauma, bonding,
and how intimate part nor violence can trap victims long
before a single punch is ever thrown.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And now you're here. This is revisited, the final piece
of this week's trilogy, where Danny and I sit down together,
bring both sides of the experience to the table and
have the real conversations that most shows don't dare touch.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Brian brings the policy, the history, the system level of failures,
and I bring the psych the emotion, the street level perspective,
and somewhere in the middle we fight it out, laugh
a little, and we hopefully make you see these cases
in a way you've never heard before.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's the beauty of the Guilty Files, one story told
from every angle, and trust me, this week's case, Gabby
Patito's file, is the kind of case that demands it.
It's complex, emotional, infuriating, and sadly far too familiar for
anyone who's ever worked these kinds of calls for.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Real and whether you'll hear because you'll fascinated by true crime,
passionate about criminal justice, or just want to understand these
cases deeper than surface level headlines, you'll definitely in the
right place.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
All right, let's get to work. This is the Guilty
Files revisited. Gabby, Petito, Danny, Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I was born ready. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
All right, folks, before we crack open this week's case file,
and believe me, you're gonna want to buckle up for
this one. We're kicking things off like we always do,
with a little bit of reckless honesty.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
We call crime confessions, because.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Why waste thousands on therapy when you can overshare with
a global audience?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Am I right exactly?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
In Look, since this week's case file revolves around van life,
road trips and everything that can go horribly wrong inside
of a vehicle, I've got a confession that's almost fitting.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I am a self.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Taught, YouTube certified backyard mechanic. At this point, I've rebuilt
the head gasket on an old Toyota pickup truck twice
true story and fully torn down and rebuilt the engine
of a Volkswagen camper Bus I bought off some hippie
in California. You name it, timing chains.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Valve covers, carburetors. I've watched every poorly lit how to
video that's ever been made.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
But let's say that the learning curve did involve a
few incorrect installations, or, as I like to call them,
valuable troubleshooting opportunities. I may or may not have returned
several slightly damaged parts to the store, sorry Advance Autoparts,
claiming manufacturer defects when it was actually the installer defect
(04:49):
sitting in my garage holding the wrench.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So basically that guy who kept autoson in business for
three years straight while pretending it was the sparkplug's fault,
not yours.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Hey, knowledge isn't free, Danny. Sometimes it cost you a
little pride and a few return receipts.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Which we all know. I keep up with the paperwork.
So all right, my turn. I was full on van
life obsessed, like I lived that Instagram dream for real.
We tracked down a vintage Volkswagen camper Bus sage green,
had it shipped all the way from California and drove
that thing up and down the East Coast like I
(05:29):
was living my best granola crunching crystal charging fantasy. While
being honest, Brian drove and I just enjoyed the breeze
coming through the windows. But yes, it broke down constantly. Thankfully,
Brian carried an entire mobile repair kit in the back.
I always packed like the safety cones and all the
like flares and yeah, emergency equipment, I guess just for
(05:51):
the fun of it. Definitely had my mechanic on its
speed dial again insert Brian. But my real guilty pleasure
anytime Brian and I would road trip, I one hundred
percent would use the camp or bus sync to p
in while Brian was driving down the road. Old cop habits.
I guess, why waste time pulling over at a rest
(06:12):
stop when you spent years peeing into gatorade bottles between
nine one one calls.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
You're literally violating multiple health codes in my passenger seat
while I'm navigating seventy miles per hour down I ninety five.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Efficiency, My friend, some of us adapt to our environment.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I call it survival, and that, folks, is why we
make such a great team. One of US rebuilds engines,
the other one commits minor hygiene crimes and vintage volkswagons.
But together, we're about to break down one of the
most heartbreaking and complicated true crime stories of the last decade.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Gabby Potito. The case everyone thought they knew, but trust me,
you haven't heard it like this.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yes, Gabby Potito's disappearance grip the nation in August of
twenty twenty one, not just because she was a young
woman gone missing, but because we were watching the story
unfold in real time. Social media had a front row seat.
The FBI had to triage tips from TikTok, and law
enforcement across multiple states had to piece together a case
(07:16):
that spanned thousands of miles, a camera roll of curated memories,
and a toxic relationship hiding in plane sight. This wasn't
just a missing person's case. It was a procedural storm.
And as someone who spent years inside that system, I
can tell you the signs were there. The system just
didn't listen loud enough. This case exposed gaps in training
(07:39):
and domestic violence protocols and interstate cooperation. It also forced
a national reckoning on how we treat emotional abuse and
coercive control. The nine one one call, the MOAB traffic stop,
the digital footprint, the manhunt. Every step left a trail
of procedural breadcrumbs in every missed opportunity, felt heavier with hindsight.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And yet for all the policy breakdowns, the real tragedy
in this is that Gabby was so much more than
a hashtag. She was a vibrant, creative, funny, adventurous, and
deeply vulnerable and weighs most people never saw the world
fell in love with her filtered van life. But underneath
(08:23):
the beautiful posts were power and balances, red flags, and
emotional wounds that never made it to Instagram. This wasn't
just a relationship gone bad. It was a textbook case
of slow, quiet erosion where love becomes fear and freedom
becomes control. And that's what hits so hard. It could
(08:45):
be your sister, your best friend, or even your daughter.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And I'll say this, the hardest part of this case
from a former law enforcement perspective, isn't what happened at
the end. It was what happened before. How many trained
professionals saw the sign and still couldn't stop it. How
many procedural checkboxes were ticked while the bigger picture was missed.
We're going to break that down today, not to assign blame,
(09:10):
but to understand how to fix it.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We'll also going to talk about the parts of this
story that don't make the headlines, how coercive control works,
why victims stay, and how social media has created this
warped space where curated perfection and private pain lives side
by side and the line between the two is razor thin.
(09:33):
I want to ask why didn't we see her pain
for what it was and what does that say about
all of us?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
So today we'll revisit the case from two sides, the
system I know from the inside, and the emotional truths
we often overlook.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
This is not just about Gabby. This is about every
woman who was told you'll overreacting, every nine on one
call that didn't go far enough, and every time we
saw control dressed up as love.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
We're not here to sensationalize the case. We're here to
study it, to feel it, to learn from.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It, to honor her and the hard truths her story
leaves behind.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Coming up, we're going to start where the media did
the national obsession why Gabby became America's daughter and what
her coverage tells us about who we choose to fight
for and who gets left behind.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Brace yourselves will calling out some uncomfortable truths.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Gabby's case went viral for all the wrong reasons because
she fit the media mold, white, young, pretty relatable. This
wasn't the first time we saw it, with the Lacy
Peterson case, Natalie Holloway, and countless others. The real issue
that media attention can shift investigative priorities, not because of urgency,
(10:50):
but optics.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
The pressure law.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Enforcement faced here wasn't necessarily from the FBI, it was
from Instagram.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
And meanwhile, black, brown, and LGBTQ victims are vanishing without
a whisper. I worked neighborhoods where girls disappeared and didn't
even get a flyer. Gabby's story became a cultural mirror.
People projected their own relationships, their own trauma, and even
their own fears onto her. She was a symbol and
(11:18):
that's a heavy burden for a real person to carry.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
So why her?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Because she was the right kind of missing, and that's
a tough pill to swallow.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
And while the public was glued to their screens dissecting
every photo and headline. Law enforcement was out there making
real time decisions under a microscope. But all that attention
doesn't always lead to clarity.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Nope, Sometimes it leads to tunnel vision and the biggest
cries for help get lost in plain sight. So let's
go back to the Moab traffic stop, the moment that
could have changed everything if only someone had seen it
for what it truly was.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
August twelfth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Police bodycam footage ships Gabby crying, apologizing, downplaying what just happened,
Brian laundry, calm, collected, almost amused. Officers separate them, try
to assess the situation. Ultimately no arrests. They even let
Gabby take the van while Brian gets a hotel room
for the night. And on paper, they followed protocol. They
(12:21):
de escalated. Nobody was physically injured. Gabby was marked as
the aggressor based on Brian's scratches and her own tearful confession.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
That's what the law saw.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
But what they missed, what so many officers across the
country miss is the emotional subtext, the power imbalance, the
fear that doesn't leave bruises. This wasn't a procedural failure
in the strictest sense. It was a failure of perception,
and our system isn't built to reward perception.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I watched that footage Brian, probably like everyone else who's
been in a relationship like Gabby's, and my stomach just sink.
She's laughing, nervously, crying, uncontrollably, blaming herself. That's not a
girl who's angry. That's a girl who's scared of doing
anything wrong. She's apologizing for being upset, she's minimizing. That's
(13:14):
textbook coercive control. And here's the part that breaks me.
I've seen that face before in real life on cause
I answered. It's the face of someone trying not to
escalate something that's already quietly killing them.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
She was trying to protect him even when she needed
protecting exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
That's what trauma bonding looks like in the wild. But
how many departments teach that. How many officers are trained
to look beyond who has the scratches and instead ask
who's surviving, not who's winning the fight.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And that's where our.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Own part of the problem. When I started in this job,
nobody taught us how to see emotional abuse.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
We were taught to.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Follow the evidence, physical verifiable DOCUS minute. That's what holds
up in court. You can't file charges based on the
gut feeling. But here's what I've learned since Sometimes that
gut feeling is the most accurate tool we have. We
just don't train cops how to use it or trust
it because we're terrified of being wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, I get that I've made the wrong call too.
You're trying to do the right thing, but the tools
just aren't there. So let's talk solutions. What if we
started including emotional profiling and domestic violence training. What if
cops were trained by trauma therapists, just like we train
in tactical defense or use of force protocols.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
What if we had.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Access to real time mental health consults in DV situations,
like dispatchable clinicians or embedded social workers. Let's get some
behavioral experts riding along with patrol. Not every DV call
needs to end with handcuffs. Some just need a mirror
held up to the dynamic.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Or even a second set of eyes. Because I promise
you if a t fined domestic violence advocate had been
sitting in that cruiser during Gabby's stop, they would have
seen everything.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, that's the tragedy because once you know what to
look for, once you've seen it once, you can't unsee it.
But in MOAP, those officers had no framework for what
they were witnessing. They were playing checkers in a chess match,
and Gabby paid the price.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And it wasn't just the police who missed it. So
did the public. The Internet watched that video and debated
who was telling the truth, not who was in danger.
We are so trained and conditioned to look for bruises,
physical bruises, that we forget to listen for silence, and
Gabby's silence, her shrinking, her deflections, her tears, that was
(15:53):
the abuse.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I keep thinking about how many traffic stops just like
that I've been a part of where I followed the policy,
wrote the report, cleared the scene, and never once asked
was she safe?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Not was she the aggressor? But was she safe?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
And you can't ask that question if you don't even
know what safety looks like in those moments exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So maybe it's time that we change what we teach,
because Gabby didn't need a report number, She needed someone
to see pass the surface and.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Realize she was already disappearing.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Gabby was never the threat in that van. She was
the one apologizing, shrinking, and disappearing. But the system doesn't
know how to see that when there are no physical bruises.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
And until we start treating emotional abuse like the warning
sign that it is, we're going to keep missing the
storm while we're measuring the rain drops. So let's dig
deeper into that pattern, the psychology, the conditioning, and the
invisible chain that kept Gabby from walking away. Domestic violence
calls are a mine field, and without physical proof, police
(17:00):
hands are often tied. You can't arrest someone for being manipulative.
That's a massive gap in the system in cases like
Gabby's are the consequence.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
This wasn't just toxic, It was a psychological hostage situation, trauma, bonding,
gas lighting, isolation. She wasn't just scared of Brian, she
was scared for him. That's why she apologized in that
traffic stop. That's why she stayed because love can often
become a trap.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
But we don't have laws for emotional captivity.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Not yet, but we better sure as hell figure it out.
And speaking of captivity, let's talk about the romantic prison
that Van Life became.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
You know, the danger wasn't just in brian laundry, It
was in the environment, the van, the isolation, and ultimately
the silence.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, because when your entire world is four wheels and
the wrong person in the driver's seat, the illusion of
freedom itself can become the per trap. And trust me,
Brian and I learned that one the hard way. There's
a reason Gabby's story hits people and the guts because
she wasn't just living her dream, she was living our dream.
(18:13):
The open road, the minimalism, the freedom to go wherever, whenever.
But here's what Van life influencers rarely show you. That
kind of freedom can also make you extremely vulnerable. You'll transient, untethered,
You'll outside the system. There's no lease, no neighborhood, no
community to lean on, and when things start to go bad,
(18:36):
you'll out there just you, the person you'll with, and
miles of nowhere and nothing in sight.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
And that part that vulnerability, Benny and I have lived it.
A few years back, we were wolfing together, volunteering on
organic farms in exchange for room and board. We stayed
on farms across Georgia the Carolinas, chasing something simple, quiet
and meaningful, and for the most part it was exactly that.
But then we landed on this one farm, remote, beautiful
(19:05):
and ran by a couple whose relationship was explosive, controlling, volatile.
One minute they were sweet talking to us over homemadekimbucha,
and the next they were hurling insults across the garden
in front of us and the goats.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, we were living in their backyard, working their fields,
and basically becoming the emotional ping pong balls and what
turned out to be a deeply toxic love triangle. The
male host would vent to me about how she was
manipulating him, and she'd pull Brian aside and whisper about
how she thought he was planning something. We weren't volunteers anymore.
(19:41):
We were unwilling participants and their psychological tug of war.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
And when you're living in a van on their land
and relying on.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Them for food and shelter, you feel trapped. I remember
standing out there in the rows of kale, thinking we've
got no backup, no neighbor's door, to knock on no
cell reception, literally no plan be.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And it got worse. Accusations started flying. It involved a
naked hot tub event one evening, and they started tracking
our movements, changing the locks on the tool shed. One morning,
the female host told me, dead ass serious, if he
tries something, I'll make sure I get to him before
(20:22):
the police do. And I realized we were in a
powder keg and we were the.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Kindling, So we made a plan.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
We waited until they went to bed, We packed our
gear in the dark, We rolled the van down the
hill in freaking neutral, headlights off, hearts pounding, and once
we were far enough from the house, I cranked the
ignition and drove until daylight broke.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
That experience never left me because it showed me how
quickly freedom can become a trap, how a beautiful backdrop
can hide an ugly truth, and how being reliant, isolated
and powerless it's not just uncomfortable, it's damn dangerous.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
And that's what Gabby was living.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
She wasn't on a road trip, she was in survival mode.
Only her abuser wasn't a host, he was her partner,
and she had nowhere to go, no one to call,
that Van was her entire world.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
And it's no coincidence that she kept trying to make
it look beautiful online. She was curating peace because she
didn't have it in the real world. That kind of
forced optimism. Look how happy we are. It's so common
in these relationships because the truth would terrify the people watching,
and sometimes it terrifies you.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
That Van was supposed to be her escape. Instead it
became her cage. And I think the real tragedy is
by the time the world saw past the filters, she
was already gone.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
That's the difference between Van Life as a fantasy and
van Life as reality. One sells you the dream while
the other makes you live through a nightmare. And while
Gabby was unraveling inside that Vane had to know, someone
had to see the storm forming someone close.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Which brings us to the laundries. Because silence may be legal,
but that doesn't mean it's not a choice. From a
constitutional standpoint, the laundries did nothing wrong. They had the
right to remain silent, they had the right to an attorney.
Their behavior was protected by law.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, but morally, they watched the world fall apart and
they said nothing. They went gardening while Gabby's parents were
searching for her body. That's not just silence, that's cruelty.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
They weren't on trial, but they were judged publicly.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And honestly, I don't feel bad about that.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
They didn't talk, but the data did, the cameras, the gpspings,
the van parked beneath the trees, the trail didn't vanish.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
It just needed the right eyes.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
And in this case, those eyes weren't just cops. They
were civilians, tech savvy, obsessive, determined. Let's talk about how
new tools and old instincts came together to bring Gabby
a home. Let's shift to the tools law enforcement did
use and how they finally found her.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Gabby's remains were found on September nineteenth, twenty twenty one,
in the Spread Creek dispersed camping area of Wyoming. That
discovery didn't happen by accident. It happened because of a
coordinated multi agency effort combining old schools, search grids, drone technology,
digital forensics, and one key video posted by a couple
(23:34):
who just happened to pass her van on the side
of the road.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
This is what.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Modern law enforcement looks like when it works methodical, connected, responsive,
and yet it took the convergence of traditional search methods
and crowdsourced digital data to bring her home.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
And that's what makes this case so surreal, because for once,
the digital breadcrumbs actually let somewhere, a couple hosts, a
go pro clip, a thousand people freeze frameman, law enforcement
pinpoints the area, and suddenly Gabby isn't just an idea anymore.
She's real. She's found her family finally knows. This is powerful,
(24:15):
but it's also heartbreaking because we needed all of that,
every tool, every eye on the case to do what
should have happened long before find her.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I think people underestimate how hard that terrain is. That
part of Wyoming is vast, wild and largely untouched. Dispersed
camping means no markers, no ranger check ins, no paper trail.
You can disappear out there and it could be days, weeks,
or even months before anyone notices. That's where search and
rescue still run on boots.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Not bandwidth.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
You grid the land, you mark the lines, You rely
on train dogs, aerial maps and pure physical labor.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And yet it wasn't just the boots on the ground
this time. It was digital breadcrumbs that narrowed the scope.
It was citizen footage, GPS data, Instagram timestamps, even TikTok theories,
some of which were bizarre. Yes, helped keep pressure on
law enforcement to act fast. That's what's fascinating about this case,
(25:19):
the way the public became part of the process itself,
and for better or worse, that changes the way we
look at modern investigations.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
You're definitely right, and from someone who's been inside that system,
I'll admit sometimes the public sees things we don't because
we're looking at policy, procedure and liability. They're looking at
every frame, every shadow, and every clue.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
And you know, some of them had CIA level spreadsheets
tracking Brian Laundry's stock patterns.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, some of them probably missed a few workshifts, honestly.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I'll give you that.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
But in this case they made a difference. That van
spotted on camera. It wasn't just viral content. It became
the very turning point in this case, and it reminds
us surveillance isn't just the state anymore.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
We'll all watch it and that creates attention We've never
fully resolved because public participation is powerful but it's also messy.
It can pollute investigations, it can misidentify suspects, it can
overwhelm already strained agencies with misinformation. But in Gabby's case,
it truly mattered. It helped, and we need to acknowledge that.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
We also need to talk about the emotional side of
that participation because watching that video, seeing her van parked there,
knowing what we now know, it's haunting because you realize
she was already gone. The camera caught stillness, and that
stillness it was a grave.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
That image will always stay with me because in law
enforcement we're trained to look at a crime scene for evidence.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
But when you've got.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
GPS data, footage, even satellite time stamps, the whole timeline shifts.
You're not just investigating a scene, you're reconstructing the story.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
And in Gabby's case, the story was written in every
Instagram caption, every voicemail, every trail camera, ping technology became
her witness because no one else was there to speak
for her.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
And I think the real lesson here is this, the
tools are there, the tech exists, the public is engaged,
but we still need the systems to keep up because
when we combine the old ways with the new. When
we let the boots and the bandwidth work together, that's
when we truly get justice.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, that's when we bring people home. Even if it's
too late to save them. At least we can still
say we saw you, we found you. Ultimately we cared.
It took a village, a digital village, to fill in
the blanks. But crowdsourced justice it's a double edged sword.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
You've got good intentions mixed with bad leads, and suddenly
every TikToker thinks they're lead detective. So let's talk about
the rise of internet saluts and whether they're helping the
case or hurting it. Crowdsourcing tips is a double edged sword.
For every useful lead, you get a hundred rabbit holes,
(28:15):
false accusations.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Dosing. It muddies the waters.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But sometimes the waters, frankly need to be stirred. Public
pressure kept this case from going cold, and let's be honest,
the online community treated Gabby like someone worth finding.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Just don't confuse engagement with evidence.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Fair, but maybe we need both.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Because while the Internet was hunting Brian Laundry with hashtags
and timelines, real cops were burning out behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And the public. They rarely see what that burnout looks like,
but we do because we've lived it. So let's talk
about what this job does to the people who wear
the badge, and how we barely hold it together. Sometimes.
This case took a toll on more than just the families.
It forced a reckoning inside law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
We talk about justice, about victims, about what's broken in
the system, But what we don't talk about enough, even
amongst ourselves, is what the job takes from you, not
just in hours or sleep or physical safety, but what
it steals quietly from your emotional bandwidth. We're taught to compartmentalize,
to push everything down and keep moving, but that only
(29:27):
works until it doesn't. And for me, the breaking point
started with a kid, a juvenile offender, fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Old, quiet reserved.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
He came into the youth detention facility after killing both
of his parents and their sleep. No signs of prior violence,
no gang ties, no drugs, just silence, cold, controlled, calculated.
I remember walking into the room that first night and thinking,
how does someone that young become this detached from reality?
(29:56):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files will be
right back. After these messages we had therapist on call.
We had protocols, but nobody had a manual for how
we the staff, were supposed to process that. We fed
in breakfast the next morning like nothing happened. You do
perimeter checks, you review his behavior charts, and inside you're
(30:19):
just sitting with this ache because you're not just managing
a kid who killed. You're managing the fact that you
still see a kid, and that moral dissonance, that emotional whiplash,
It builds, It seeps in slow, you don't notice it
until everything feels numb.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
That numbness is real. I didn't work in detention, but
patrol that's a different beast. Constant adrenaline, constant unknowns, and
sometimes the job finds you even when you're off duty.
I'll never forget this. One night I was driving home,
finally off shift.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
My radio was on.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
I'm zoning out, just trying to come down off my
shift and decom press, and then I hear my classmate's
name shot multiple times, point blank. He was sitting in
his car eating dinner outside a warehouse where he worked,
and the suspects still at large. The chase was unfolding
in real time. I pulled over and just sat there,
(31:18):
parked on the side of the road, listening to the
manhunt for someone I'd gone through the academy with, and
suddenly it wasn't just another incident report. It was someone
that I knew, someone that I laughed with in class,
almost dead, And all I could think was how many
people are we losing to violence while the rest of
us just keep driving. It broke something open in me
(31:41):
because that thin blue line, it's thinner than we think,
and sometimes it's just a song on the radio away
from unraveling.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, the hardest part of this job isn't what we see.
It's what you're forced to carry after you see it,
and we're expected to carry it like it's nothing. We
don't grieve, we don't we don't cry. We just write
the report, clear the call clock out. But inside it's
rotting and you wake up one day and you're staring
at the ceiling thinking when did I stop feeling things?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, that's why I started hiking, why I started therapy,
why I started talking, Because I could feel it, that weight,
that burden, the emotional callouses building up, and I knew
if I didn't do something, I'd lose the parts of
me that made me human in the first place, the empathy,
the compassion, the reason I became a cop to begin with.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
We both come from different sides of the system, but
we landed in the same place. You can't do this
work and come out untouched, and if you think you did,
you're lying to yourself.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
And the system isn't built to support us either. There's
no emotional after action report, no debriefing for your soul,
just to badge a gun and a list of calls
waiting to be answered.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
What we need, what departments should be building, is real
proactive mental health infrastructure, not just to check in with
a shrink after a critical incident policy, but embedded wellness
for officers, peer support, routine therapy, normalize the maintenance, not
just the recovery.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Because if we don't protect the mental health of the
people inside the system, how can we ever expect them
to protect anyone else.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
And let's be clear, this isn't about weakness. This is
about survival, emotional survival, because.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
The day we stop feeling is the day we stop seeing.
And if we're not seeing people, not victims, not suspects,
not each other, then we'll just another part of that
machine that breaks them. And maybe the hardest part of
the job is learning how to feel again, especially when
you've spent years being trained not to feel.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Because the things we were never taught to feel are
often the very things we're.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Supposed to see.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Let's get into the coercive control, what it looks like,
why we miss it, and why it matters just as
much as a punch. We don't have legal language for
emotional abuse, not in a way that holds up in court.
If she's not locked in a room and bleeding, it's
not actionable.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
That's the gap.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, and abusers know that they don't need fists. They
use shame, silence control. Gabby wasn't just afraid of Brian,
she was afraid without him.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
So what do we do?
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Do we criminalize manipulation maybe, or at least we should
start talking about it like it's real, because it is.
The legal system wants proof, physical evidence, something that can
hold up in court. But what happens when the most
dangerous thing in a relationship is the invisible part.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
We'll starting to talk about it more, We'll starting to
name it. But the question is have we actually changed.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Let's talk about what came next and whether Gabby's story
changed anything at all. Let's wrap this segment by asking
have we learned anything Gabby Potito's story did you can
just end with a recovery and a funeral. It triggered
a national dialogue about domestic violence, media bias, law enforcement response,
(35:08):
and the influence of social media on modern investigations. But
here's the question I keep asking, what actually changed. There
were press conferences, task forces, hashtags, even a proposed piece
of legislation, the Gabby Patito Foundation Act, aimed at improving
law enforcement resources for missing adults. And I'm not saying
(35:29):
that's nothing. It's definitely something. But systematic change, the kind
that saves the next Gabby before it's too late. That's
slower and messier, and honestly still hasn't happened at scale.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, we love a headline, we love a name, we
can rally around. But once the coverage fades, once the
trial ends, once the last podcast episode wraps that momentum,
it gets quiet and we go back to business as usual.
The truth is, course of control still isn't a clearly
prosecutable offense in most states. There's still no national standard
(36:06):
for domestic violence training that teaches officers how to read
psychological abuse, not just the physical marks, and victims, especially
women of color, trans women, and those living in poverty,
are still disappearing without the cameras, without the hashtags, without
the digital armies.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
And the system still operates with outdated tools. We can
put drones in the sky and AI in our evidence rooms,
but if the officer at the traffic stop doesn't know
how to spot emotional distress, or the prosecutor doesn't believe
a victim who froze instead of fault, then what are
we really solved exactly?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
And I think what hits me the hardest is that
Gabby almost got help. She was this close, seen on camera,
heard crying, and still she was left to drive away
into her own silence and isolation. That's the part that
stays with you, the nearness of prevention. You know, sometimes
(37:01):
justice doesn't come in a courtroom. It comes from a
cultural shift. And maybe that's what we're in the middle of,
painfully slowly, a shift in how we define abuse, how
we believe victims, how we hold people and systems accountable
not for just what they do, but what they fail
to see. And from a psychological lens, that shift starts
(37:23):
with language if you can name something, then you can
fight it. And now that we're hearing terms like coercive
control more often, we're hearing trauma, bonding and gaslighting in
survival response. And while that might sound like buzzwords to some,
to survivors, it's a lifeline. It's the very vocabulary of recognition.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
But recognition without reform is just noise.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
And reform without accountability is just pr.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
So here's the takeaway.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
The Gabby Patito case wasn't just one of a young
woman and one bad man. It was about how we
fail to protect the people who smile through the pain,
who say I'm fine when they're dying inside. It was
about the moments when our system worked and the moments
when they didn't, and how we decide what justice looks
like when it's already too late.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
And for me, my takeaway, Gabby's story is about the
hope that we still carry that if we listen better,
train better, and believe sooner, maybe the next girl with
the camera and the big dreams and the open road
doesn't end up a missing person's final Maybe she makes
it home and maybe we finally learn.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
And maybe we never let her name be forgotten.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
All right time for our favorite mid show derailments that
we call killer instinct.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
What would you do?
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Also known as how we make bad decisions and fake
situations that somehow still say a lot about who we are.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
This week's scenario, we'll leaving behind traffic stops and search
grids and while heading deep into influencer hell. All right,
this scenario, You've been cast on a new reality show,
Van Life, Love Island, National Park Edition. You and nine
other free spiritive creatives must live in vans, travel together,
(39:21):
and build couple clout on social media, all while being
secretly evaluated by producers on who's the most emotionally authentic.
But here's your catch, Brian, one of your fellow van
fluencers is secretly a manipulative control freak, sabotaging your solar panels,
(39:41):
stealing your gas money, and spreading rumors in the group chat. Meanwhile,
the show's producers they love it. They think it's a
great drama. The audience loves you. You're the fan favorite,
but your toxic partner is getting all the brand deals,
and the longer you stay, the more dangerous the situation
becomes emotionally and possibly physically. So here's the question. Do
(40:03):
you expose your toxic partner and risk being kicked off
the show? Or do you play along and outsmart them
from the inside. Or do you fake an injury and
hit your ride with the crew while no one's looking?
Speaker 3 (40:17):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (40:19):
All?
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Right?
Speaker 1 (40:19):
First of all, I would never get cast on the show,
because the second I started talking about county ordinances entire pressure,
I'd be edited out of the trailer.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Yeah, you'd be the grizzled mechanic mentor that shows up
once a season to fix everyone's alternator exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
But hypothetically, if I was stuck in a van with
a manipulative socio path getting brand deals for being emotionally unstable,
I'd play along.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Let the sabotage build up.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Meanwhile ID document everything, timestamps, GPS data, stolen Kombuch accounts.
Then I'd drop a fully produced YouTube expose titled Van
life is a Lie. Here's what they didn't show you, Boo.
I'm out with three million views, a book deal, and
a ted talk called Boundaries and burnouts finding yourself in
(41:06):
a van with a sociopath.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
God, you're terrifyingly good at all of that. Okay, So
here's what I would do first, I'd go full Scorpio.
I'd lean in hard, let them think they're winning. I'd
give them the tears, the confessions, the fake vulnerability. Meanwhile,
I'm secretly building a separate Instagram with behind the scenes footage.
(41:30):
I'm talking diary injuries, a ten part real series called
Gaslight Gatekeeping girl Boss. The van life chronicles. When the
moment's right, I'd drop it all, but not just for
the revenge for the Catharsis. And then I'd exit the
show in a haze of sage smoke and a personal
healing journey playlist sponsored by Spotify.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
So what you're saying is you'd survive the toxic van
relationship and come.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
Out with a mood board.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Absolutely you think I'm getting emotionally destroyed on a national
streaming television show without turning it into a brand.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
All right, listeners, this is your moment. You're stuck in
a van with a gaslighting influencer, a boom mic in
your face, and a production team that wants blood.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Do you stay in scheme? Do you ghost in the night,
or do you light a sage bundle and manifest your
way into a four season Netflix steal?
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Let us know tag us with the hashtag Van Life
survival Plan and don't.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Worry, we will not judge you, because if I'm being honest,
this entire segment was built out of some of Brian's
secret reality love show obsessions.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Then we absolutely judge.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
You, all right. Coming up next, we drop the games
and get into the realist part of the show.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
This is the part where we stop performing and start
telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So let's just dive right in to segment five and
let's look at some modern parallels and the relevance of
this week's case file in today's world.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
We've told you Gabby's story, we've broken down the signs,
the system, the silence. But we'd be missing something big
if we didn't talk about where this case fits into
the now, because the world has changed and how we investigate,
how we connect, how we miss or find danger, and
so has the way we fail.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
And the way we perceive that danger. Because predators don't
always wear masks anymore. Sometimes they are photogenic, articulates, well traveled.
They smile for the camera, tag you and selfies and
convinced the world that everything's fine until it's not.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
From a tech standpoint, we are living in a surveillance age, BODYCMS,
doorbell cameras, GPS tags, drone footage. In Gabby's case, the
tech didn't prevent the crime, but it absolutely helped solve it.
Her van was identified by time stamped travel blogs, her
location triangulated from Instagram post and GPS metadata. That's modern
(43:59):
digital forends at work. But the same tech raises ethical
questions how much surveillance is too much? And do we
only celebrate it when it helps but ignore it when
it hurts?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
And meanwhile, predators are using those very same tools to monitor,
to control, to manipulate. They read your texts, they know
your passwords, they track your phone. Control doesn't need fists
when it has your location settings exactly, and that's where
policy lags. We've got technology capable of predicting behavioral patterns,
(44:35):
risk mapping, preemptive threat modeling, but we don't fund it,
we don't train for it, and we sure as hell
don't share it across departments the way that we should.
What GAVI's case exposed, and painfully so, is how much
we'll still trained to trust appearances. Brian Laundry wasn't a
(44:55):
guy with a criminal record. He was quiet, polite, outdoorsy.
He matched the algorithm of that safe male partner. And
that's the problem, because predators like him know exactly how
to perform safety. They groom us, not just they're victims.
They know what to say to police, they know what
to post online. They even know how to create a
(45:18):
version of themselves that the world wants to believe in
and cheer on. And if the world already sees them
as normal, then the victim is the one who must
be hysterical, who must be overreacting and unstable.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages. That right there, that's the
dangerous narrative, the one that turns a sobbing woman in
a van into the aggressor and the calm, quiet guy
next to her into a misunderstood boyfriend. Because calm isn't innocence,
(45:53):
it's just good acting.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
And this happens everywhere. Abuse doesn't discriminate by gender or
class or age, but society does, and that means survivors
and marginalized communities, especially people of color, people in the
queer community, disabled, they get ignored, misidentified, or blamed constantly.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Let's talk about one of the biggest missed opportunities in
this case and in so many others just like it.
Inner agency communication. You have the Moab Police Department, Florida Police,
the FBI, multiple states, multiple jurisdictions, but no unified thread
tying it all together in real time. If we had
(46:37):
centralized communication protocols between local and federal agencies, if bodycam
footage from Utah had been flagged and shared across departments,
maybe the investigation would have accelerated. Maybe someone would have
seen what Gabby couldn't say out loud.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
You mean, maybe someone would have believed her without needing
a body to prove it exacts. This case didn't just
break hearts, It broke the internet. And I think that
tells us something about us as a culture. We don't
just consume true crime anymore. We participate in it. We
follow it like a season of reality television, trauma packaged
(47:17):
as content. And while yes, that attention helped solve parts
of Gabby's case, it also turned her into a symbol
more than a person. We loved her because she was relatable,
and we feared her fate because it felt so close
to home. But what about the women who don't look
like her, who don't have followers, who disappear and don't trend,
(47:41):
where's their justice?
Speaker 1 (47:43):
You're definitely asking the right question, and I don't have
the perfect answer, but I do know this. Law enforcement
can't do it alone.
Speaker 3 (47:51):
We need better tools, better.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Communication, and a hell of a lot more training to
see what's really happening beneath the surface.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
And culturally, we've got to stop mistaking curated calm for
real connection. Predators aren't just hiding in back alleys. They're
in our selfies, they're in our comment sections, they're sitting
at our kitchen tables.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
And if we want to stop them, if we want
to save the next Gabby, we have to do more
than watch. We have to listen, believe, and act.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
You know, as we sit here wrapping up this episode,
I keep thinking about the number of times people saw
Gabby but didn't actually see her. They heard her words,
but they missed the emotional storm underneath. And it's not
because they didn't care. It's because we've been taught to
trust the surface, to look at someone smiling and assume
(48:48):
they're okay, to see bruises and think that's real, but
to ignore the slow erosion that comes from being gas lit,
controlled and manipulated.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
And to see the calmness and the assume that safety.
We're not trained in policing or in life to recognize
the subtler forms of danger.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
We're reactive.
Speaker 1 (49:08):
We wait until the worst happens, and then we try
to clean it up. But what this case teaches us
is that prevention starts in those gray areas. It starts
with seeing patterns, not just outcomes. Why didn't our systems
intervene earlier? What tools were missing, what protocols weren't followed
or never existed in the first place.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
And I'll add what cultural scripts were playing in the background,
ones like don't be dramatic, you're just emotional. He seems
like a nice guy. Those are phrases that kill. They
kill slowly and quietly by eroding credibility. Gabby's pain wasn't invisible.
(49:49):
It was just inconvenient for others to believe in.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
You know, something we didn't talk about earlier, but it's
been on my mind is the way that departments respond
to missing adults. There's this bureaucratic loophole that says, well,
she's over eighteen, she left voluntarily, there's no crime here.
But that's a policy failure because by the time it
becomes a crime, it's often too late. We need missing
persons protocols that recognize behavioral context, not just hard data.
(50:18):
And we need inner jurisdictional agreements that allow departments to
share red flags, not just case files totally.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
And on the cultural side, the influencer world plays a
part two. We've created this digital economy where curated perfection
is rewarded and vulnerability is either punished or commodified. So
victims don't just have to survive abuse, they have to
fight against their own image to even be believed.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
You said something a while back about how abuse doesn't
always look like evidence. Sometimes it looks like a perfectly
planned road trip, a healthy Instagram, a couple's YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
It's like a van in the desert, one person behind
the wheel and one person slowly disappearing, not all at once,
but peace by peace.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
So maybe the takeaway.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Here for all of us is this prevention doesn't always
look like a swat team. Sometimes it's a shift in
our mindset, it's a policy adjustment. It's a beat cop
who slows things down. It's a neighbor who notices. It's
a friend who asks the hard question, maybe even twice.
And for law enforcement, we've got to retrain, reevaluate, and
(51:33):
reinvent not just how we solve crimes, but how we
sense it before it happens.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
And for the rest of us, we've got to stop
waiting for physical bruises to believe people. We've got to
normalize checking in not just asking are you okay, but
asking are you being treated the way you deserve? So
here's our question for you, our listeners. When's the last
(51:59):
time you trusted your gut even when the facts didn't
quite line up. What would it take for you to
believe someone's story even when the narrative seems too polished
to question?
Speaker 1 (52:13):
And what changes in policing, in policy and our communities
do you think it would have made a difference in
this case.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
We want to hear your voice and your opinions, So
head over to the socials I'm talking Instagram, TikTok, or
even our website. Drop a comment, share a story, be
part of the conversation, because being a true crime fan
should also mean being part of the solution.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
You've just spent time with us revisiting the case of
Gabby Patito, a name that echoes, not just because of
the headlines, but because of the questions it leaves behind,
questions about trust, about systems, and what gets seen and
what gets missed.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
This wasn't just about crime. It was about culture, about
the ways we romanticize relationships. While ignoring the red flags
waving from the passenger seat, Gabby's story deserves more than
passive consumption. It deserves action and awareness and memory.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
If this episode made you think, if it made you pause,
then we've certainly done our jobs, because The Guilty Files
isn't about shock value. It's about bringing to light the
shadows of real people, real systems, and real stories.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
And if you missed the other two parts of this
case file, which happened two weeks ago side note, thanks
for everyone's understanding with a slight adjustment in our production
schedule and approach this week, go back and check them out.
And Uncovered Brian dropped the facts methodical, sharp, with no fluff,
and I followed it up with my rewired narrative, diving
(53:49):
into psychology, trauma and what it all means. So if
you want the full picture, you need the full trilogy.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
If today's conversation struck a chord, do us and Gabby
a favor, Share this episode, rate the show, tell a.
Speaker 3 (54:04):
Friend who needs to hear.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
It, and if you're feeling bold, go ahead and join
us on Patreon. We go behind the badge, inside the mind,
and deep into the redacted Reports, our three exclusive segments
where we say the things we couldn't when we wore
the badge.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
And that wraps up this week's revisited case file. But
if you think we're done digging, you obviously don't know
us very well.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
Nope, We've still got more layers to peel back, more
questions to ask, and honestly, more secrets to spill. But
those you'll only get behind the paywall.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
If you want to hear the parts of the story
we couldn't include here, I'm talking about the redacted detail,
the off the record truths, and the raw behind the
scenes stuff from our time on the job, then you'll
want to check out our exclusive bonus content.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
That's right, We've got a full bonus drop available right
now for our Apple podcast subscribers. It's all ad free
as always, but you'll also unlock access to three exclusive
series that go way beyond the main episode, The.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
Redacted Report, where I walk you through the overlooked case facts,
the hidden threads, and the forensic rabbit holes that didn't
make the news.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
And Inside the Mind, my deep dive into the emotional, psychological,
and behavioral layers of the case.
Speaker 3 (55:20):
This week we.
Speaker 2 (55:20):
Explore trauma, bonding, identity collapse, and predator psychology.
Speaker 1 (55:25):
And then there's Behind the Badge, our most unfiltered segment.
It's where Danny and I throw the rule book out
the window and get the real deal about our time
and our stories from being on the job, the wild,
the brutal, the ones that changed us. No badge, no filter,
just the truth.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
All you have to do is head over to Apple
Podcasts and subscribe to the Guilty Files. No tears, no confusion,
Just tap that subscribe button, join us and unlock the
entire vault of bonus content.
Speaker 1 (55:54):
And hey, if you're already subscribed, thank you. You're fueling
this work and helping us take true crime storytelling to
places no one else days.
Speaker 2 (56:03):
We'll see you next week with a brand new case file,
And for those of you going deeper with us behind
the tape.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
We'll see you inside the mind and behind the badge.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
And before we go, here's what we want to know
from you this week. When was a time you trusted
your guts and were you glad you did?
Speaker 1 (56:22):
Or when was the time the system missed it and
someone paid the price.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Send us your voice notes, DMS, story tags. We see
them all and they help keep this conversation real.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
I'm Brian, former cop, former policy nerd, and trying to
make sense of how systems fail us and how we
can fix them.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
And I'm Danny, your favorite crime nerd spiritualist with a
sociology degree, a questionable fan life habit, and a mission
to make true crime mean something.
Speaker 4 (56:49):
This is the Guilty Files revisited
Speaker 2 (57:07):
It It
Welcome to The Guilty Files, a podcast that rips the
story open, one crime, two hosts, and truths that don't
fit neatly into the box. It's messy, it's real, and
it's all on the table. Now let's open this week's file.
(00:50):
Welcome back to the Guilty Files Revisited, where we don't
just tell true crime stories. We take them apart, We
wrestle with them, and we dig into every uncomfortable angle
most shows won't touch. If you're tuning in right now,
you're already a part of the anthology. And trust me,
this week's case file is one hell of a ride.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
You said it, partner. And if you've already listened to
the Guilty Files Uncovered earlier this week, well, frankly two
weeks ago you heard Brian lay down the full case file,
all the facts, all the timelines, all the investigative groundwork
that sets the stage for where we're headed today.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And if you haven't caught Uncovered yet, don't worry. You
can pause right now and go listen to it, or
stay right here and catch up after. Either way, you're
not gonna want to miss the deep dive we did
on the full investigative timeline. We laid out every critical
piece of the Gabby Potito case start to finish, and.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Then earlier this week on The Guilty Files rewired well again.
Two weeks ago, I took you inside the emotional core
of the case. We peeled back the layers coerceive control, trauma, bonding,
and how intimate part nor violence can trap victims long
before a single punch is ever thrown.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And now you're here. This is revisited, the final piece
of this week's trilogy, where Danny and I sit down together,
bring both sides of the experience to the table and
have the real conversations that most shows don't dare touch.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Brian brings the policy, the history, the system level of failures,
and I bring the psych the emotion, the street level perspective,
and somewhere in the middle we fight it out, laugh
a little, and we hopefully make you see these cases
in a way you've never heard before.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's the beauty of the Guilty Files, one story told
from every angle, and trust me, this week's case, Gabby
Patito's file, is the kind of case that demands it.
It's complex, emotional, infuriating, and sadly far too familiar for
anyone who's ever worked these kinds of calls for.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Real and whether you'll hear because you'll fascinated by true crime,
passionate about criminal justice, or just want to understand these
cases deeper than surface level headlines, you'll definitely in the
right place.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
All right, let's get to work. This is the Guilty
Files revisited. Gabby, Petito, Danny, Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I was born ready. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
All right, folks, before we crack open this week's case file,
and believe me, you're gonna want to buckle up for
this one. We're kicking things off like we always do,
with a little bit of reckless honesty.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
We call crime confessions, because.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Why waste thousands on therapy when you can overshare with
a global audience?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Am I right exactly?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
In Look, since this week's case file revolves around van life,
road trips and everything that can go horribly wrong inside
of a vehicle, I've got a confession that's almost fitting.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I am a self.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Taught, YouTube certified backyard mechanic. At this point, I've rebuilt
the head gasket on an old Toyota pickup truck twice
true story and fully torn down and rebuilt the engine
of a Volkswagen camper Bus I bought off some hippie
in California. You name it, timing chains.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Valve covers, carburetors. I've watched every poorly lit how to
video that's ever been made.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
But let's say that the learning curve did involve a
few incorrect installations, or, as I like to call them,
valuable troubleshooting opportunities. I may or may not have returned
several slightly damaged parts to the store, sorry Advance Autoparts,
claiming manufacturer defects when it was actually the installer defect
(04:49):
sitting in my garage holding the wrench.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
So basically that guy who kept autoson in business for
three years straight while pretending it was the sparkplug's fault,
not yours.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Hey, knowledge isn't free, Danny. Sometimes it cost you a
little pride and a few return receipts.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Which we all know. I keep up with the paperwork.
So all right, my turn. I was full on van
life obsessed, like I lived that Instagram dream for real.
We tracked down a vintage Volkswagen camper Bus sage green,
had it shipped all the way from California and drove
that thing up and down the East Coast like I
(05:29):
was living my best granola crunching crystal charging fantasy. While
being honest, Brian drove and I just enjoyed the breeze
coming through the windows. But yes, it broke down constantly. Thankfully,
Brian carried an entire mobile repair kit in the back.
I always packed like the safety cones and all the
like flares and yeah, emergency equipment, I guess just for
(05:51):
the fun of it. Definitely had my mechanic on its
speed dial again insert Brian. But my real guilty pleasure
anytime Brian and I would road trip, I one hundred
percent would use the camp or bus sync to p
in while Brian was driving down the road. Old cop habits.
I guess, why waste time pulling over at a rest
(06:12):
stop when you spent years peeing into gatorade bottles between
nine one one calls.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
You're literally violating multiple health codes in my passenger seat
while I'm navigating seventy miles per hour down I ninety five.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Efficiency, My friend, some of us adapt to our environment.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I call it survival, and that, folks, is why we
make such a great team. One of US rebuilds engines,
the other one commits minor hygiene crimes and vintage volkswagons.
But together, we're about to break down one of the
most heartbreaking and complicated true crime stories of the last decade.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Gabby Potito. The case everyone thought they knew, but trust me,
you haven't heard it like this.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yes, Gabby Potito's disappearance grip the nation in August of
twenty twenty one, not just because she was a young
woman gone missing, but because we were watching the story
unfold in real time. Social media had a front row seat.
The FBI had to triage tips from TikTok, and law
enforcement across multiple states had to piece together a case
(07:16):
that spanned thousands of miles, a camera roll of curated memories,
and a toxic relationship hiding in plane sight. This wasn't
just a missing person's case. It was a procedural storm.
And as someone who spent years inside that system, I
can tell you the signs were there. The system just
didn't listen loud enough. This case exposed gaps in training
(07:39):
and domestic violence protocols and interstate cooperation. It also forced
a national reckoning on how we treat emotional abuse and
coercive control. The nine one one call, the MOAB traffic stop,
the digital footprint, the manhunt. Every step left a trail
of procedural breadcrumbs in every missed opportunity, felt heavier with hindsight.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And yet for all the policy breakdowns, the real tragedy
in this is that Gabby was so much more than
a hashtag. She was a vibrant, creative, funny, adventurous, and
deeply vulnerable and weighs most people never saw the world
fell in love with her filtered van life. But underneath
(08:23):
the beautiful posts were power and balances, red flags, and
emotional wounds that never made it to Instagram. This wasn't
just a relationship gone bad. It was a textbook case
of slow, quiet erosion where love becomes fear and freedom
becomes control. And that's what hits so hard. It could
(08:45):
be your sister, your best friend, or even your daughter.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And I'll say this, the hardest part of this case
from a former law enforcement perspective, isn't what happened at
the end. It was what happened before. How many trained
professionals saw the sign and still couldn't stop it. How
many procedural checkboxes were ticked while the bigger picture was missed.
We're going to break that down today, not to assign blame,
(09:10):
but to understand how to fix it.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We'll also going to talk about the parts of this
story that don't make the headlines, how coercive control works,
why victims stay, and how social media has created this
warped space where curated perfection and private pain lives side
by side and the line between the two is razor thin.
(09:33):
I want to ask why didn't we see her pain
for what it was and what does that say about
all of us?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
So today we'll revisit the case from two sides, the
system I know from the inside, and the emotional truths
we often overlook.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
This is not just about Gabby. This is about every
woman who was told you'll overreacting, every nine on one
call that didn't go far enough, and every time we
saw control dressed up as love.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
We're not here to sensationalize the case. We're here to
study it, to feel it, to learn from.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It, to honor her and the hard truths her story
leaves behind.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Coming up, we're going to start where the media did
the national obsession why Gabby became America's daughter and what
her coverage tells us about who we choose to fight
for and who gets left behind.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Brace yourselves will calling out some uncomfortable truths.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Gabby's case went viral for all the wrong reasons because
she fit the media mold, white, young, pretty relatable. This
wasn't the first time we saw it, with the Lacy
Peterson case, Natalie Holloway, and countless others. The real issue
that media attention can shift investigative priorities, not because of urgency,
(10:50):
but optics.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
The pressure law.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Enforcement faced here wasn't necessarily from the FBI, it was
from Instagram.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
And meanwhile, black, brown, and LGBTQ victims are vanishing without
a whisper. I worked neighborhoods where girls disappeared and didn't
even get a flyer. Gabby's story became a cultural mirror.
People projected their own relationships, their own trauma, and even
their own fears onto her. She was a symbol and
(11:18):
that's a heavy burden for a real person to carry.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
So why her?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Because she was the right kind of missing, and that's
a tough pill to swallow.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
And while the public was glued to their screens dissecting
every photo and headline. Law enforcement was out there making
real time decisions under a microscope. But all that attention
doesn't always lead to clarity.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Nope, Sometimes it leads to tunnel vision and the biggest
cries for help get lost in plain sight. So let's
go back to the Moab traffic stop, the moment that
could have changed everything if only someone had seen it
for what it truly was.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
August twelfth, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Police bodycam footage ships Gabby crying, apologizing, downplaying what just happened,
Brian laundry, calm, collected, almost amused. Officers separate them, try
to assess the situation. Ultimately no arrests. They even let
Gabby take the van while Brian gets a hotel room
for the night. And on paper, they followed protocol. They
(12:21):
de escalated. Nobody was physically injured. Gabby was marked as
the aggressor based on Brian's scratches and her own tearful confession.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
That's what the law saw.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
But what they missed, what so many officers across the
country miss is the emotional subtext, the power imbalance, the
fear that doesn't leave bruises. This wasn't a procedural failure
in the strictest sense. It was a failure of perception,
and our system isn't built to reward perception.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I watched that footage Brian, probably like everyone else who's
been in a relationship like Gabby's, and my stomach just sink.
She's laughing, nervously, crying, uncontrollably, blaming herself. That's not a
girl who's angry. That's a girl who's scared of doing
anything wrong. She's apologizing for being upset, she's minimizing. That's
(13:14):
textbook coercive control. And here's the part that breaks me.
I've seen that face before in real life on cause
I answered. It's the face of someone trying not to
escalate something that's already quietly killing them.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
She was trying to protect him even when she needed
protecting exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
That's what trauma bonding looks like in the wild. But
how many departments teach that. How many officers are trained
to look beyond who has the scratches and instead ask
who's surviving, not who's winning the fight.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And that's where our.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Own part of the problem. When I started in this job,
nobody taught us how to see emotional abuse.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
We were taught to.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Follow the evidence, physical verifiable DOCUS minute. That's what holds
up in court. You can't file charges based on the
gut feeling. But here's what I've learned since Sometimes that
gut feeling is the most accurate tool we have. We
just don't train cops how to use it or trust
it because we're terrified of being wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, I get that I've made the wrong call too.
You're trying to do the right thing, but the tools
just aren't there. So let's talk solutions. What if we
started including emotional profiling and domestic violence training. What if
cops were trained by trauma therapists, just like we train
in tactical defense or use of force protocols.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
What if we had.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Access to real time mental health consults in DV situations,
like dispatchable clinicians or embedded social workers. Let's get some
behavioral experts riding along with patrol. Not every DV call
needs to end with handcuffs. Some just need a mirror
held up to the dynamic.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Or even a second set of eyes. Because I promise
you if a t fined domestic violence advocate had been
sitting in that cruiser during Gabby's stop, they would have
seen everything.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, that's the tragedy because once you know what to
look for, once you've seen it once, you can't unsee it.
But in MOAP, those officers had no framework for what
they were witnessing. They were playing checkers in a chess match,
and Gabby paid the price.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And it wasn't just the police who missed it. So
did the public. The Internet watched that video and debated
who was telling the truth, not who was in danger.
We are so trained and conditioned to look for bruises,
physical bruises, that we forget to listen for silence, and
Gabby's silence, her shrinking, her deflections, her tears, that was
(15:53):
the abuse.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I keep thinking about how many traffic stops just like
that I've been a part of where I followed the policy,
wrote the report, cleared the scene, and never once asked
was she safe?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Not was she the aggressor? But was she safe?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
And you can't ask that question if you don't even
know what safety looks like in those moments exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So maybe it's time that we change what we teach,
because Gabby didn't need a report number, She needed someone
to see pass the surface and.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Realize she was already disappearing.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Gabby was never the threat in that van. She was
the one apologizing, shrinking, and disappearing. But the system doesn't
know how to see that when there are no physical bruises.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
And until we start treating emotional abuse like the warning
sign that it is, we're going to keep missing the
storm while we're measuring the rain drops. So let's dig
deeper into that pattern, the psychology, the conditioning, and the
invisible chain that kept Gabby from walking away. Domestic violence
calls are a mine field, and without physical proof, police
(17:00):
hands are often tied. You can't arrest someone for being manipulative.
That's a massive gap in the system in cases like
Gabby's are the consequence.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
This wasn't just toxic, It was a psychological hostage situation, trauma, bonding,
gas lighting, isolation. She wasn't just scared of Brian, she
was scared for him. That's why she apologized in that
traffic stop. That's why she stayed because love can often
become a trap.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
But we don't have laws for emotional captivity.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Not yet, but we better sure as hell figure it out.
And speaking of captivity, let's talk about the romantic prison
that Van Life became.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
You know, the danger wasn't just in brian laundry, It
was in the environment, the van, the isolation, and ultimately
the silence.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, because when your entire world is four wheels and
the wrong person in the driver's seat, the illusion of
freedom itself can become the per trap. And trust me,
Brian and I learned that one the hard way. There's
a reason Gabby's story hits people and the guts because
she wasn't just living her dream, she was living our dream.
(18:13):
The open road, the minimalism, the freedom to go wherever, whenever.
But here's what Van life influencers rarely show you. That
kind of freedom can also make you extremely vulnerable. You'll transient, untethered,
You'll outside the system. There's no lease, no neighborhood, no
community to lean on, and when things start to go bad,
(18:36):
you'll out there just you, the person you'll with, and
miles of nowhere and nothing in sight.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
And that part that vulnerability, Benny and I have lived it.
A few years back, we were wolfing together, volunteering on
organic farms in exchange for room and board. We stayed
on farms across Georgia the Carolinas, chasing something simple, quiet
and meaningful, and for the most part it was exactly that.
But then we landed on this one farm, remote, beautiful
(19:05):
and ran by a couple whose relationship was explosive, controlling, volatile.
One minute they were sweet talking to us over homemadekimbucha,
and the next they were hurling insults across the garden
in front of us and the goats.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, we were living in their backyard, working their fields,
and basically becoming the emotional ping pong balls and what
turned out to be a deeply toxic love triangle. The
male host would vent to me about how she was
manipulating him, and she'd pull Brian aside and whisper about
how she thought he was planning something. We weren't volunteers anymore.
(19:41):
We were unwilling participants and their psychological tug of war.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
And when you're living in a van on their land
and relying on.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Them for food and shelter, you feel trapped. I remember
standing out there in the rows of kale, thinking we've
got no backup, no neighbor's door, to knock on no
cell reception, literally no plan be.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
And it got worse. Accusations started flying. It involved a
naked hot tub event one evening, and they started tracking
our movements, changing the locks on the tool shed. One morning,
the female host told me, dead ass serious, if he
tries something, I'll make sure I get to him before
(20:22):
the police do. And I realized we were in a
powder keg and we were the.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Kindling, So we made a plan.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
We waited until they went to bed, We packed our
gear in the dark, We rolled the van down the
hill in freaking neutral, headlights off, hearts pounding, and once
we were far enough from the house, I cranked the
ignition and drove until daylight broke.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
That experience never left me because it showed me how
quickly freedom can become a trap, how a beautiful backdrop
can hide an ugly truth, and how being reliant, isolated
and powerless it's not just uncomfortable, it's damn dangerous.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
And that's what Gabby was living.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
She wasn't on a road trip, she was in survival mode.
Only her abuser wasn't a host, he was her partner,
and she had nowhere to go, no one to call,
that Van was her entire world.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
And it's no coincidence that she kept trying to make
it look beautiful online. She was curating peace because she
didn't have it in the real world. That kind of
forced optimism. Look how happy we are. It's so common
in these relationships because the truth would terrify the people watching,
and sometimes it terrifies you.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
That Van was supposed to be her escape. Instead it
became her cage. And I think the real tragedy is
by the time the world saw past the filters, she
was already gone.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
That's the difference between Van Life as a fantasy and
van Life as reality. One sells you the dream while
the other makes you live through a nightmare. And while
Gabby was unraveling inside that Vane had to know, someone
had to see the storm forming someone close.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Which brings us to the laundries. Because silence may be legal,
but that doesn't mean it's not a choice. From a
constitutional standpoint, the laundries did nothing wrong. They had the
right to remain silent, they had the right to an attorney.
Their behavior was protected by law.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, but morally, they watched the world fall apart and
they said nothing. They went gardening while Gabby's parents were
searching for her body. That's not just silence, that's cruelty.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
They weren't on trial, but they were judged publicly.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And honestly, I don't feel bad about that.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
They didn't talk, but the data did, the cameras, the gpspings,
the van parked beneath the trees, the trail didn't vanish.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
It just needed the right eyes.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
And in this case, those eyes weren't just cops. They
were civilians, tech savvy, obsessive, determined. Let's talk about how
new tools and old instincts came together to bring Gabby
a home. Let's shift to the tools law enforcement did
use and how they finally found her.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Gabby's remains were found on September nineteenth, twenty twenty one,
in the Spread Creek dispersed camping area of Wyoming. That
discovery didn't happen by accident. It happened because of a
coordinated multi agency effort combining old schools, search grids, drone technology,
digital forensics, and one key video posted by a couple
(23:34):
who just happened to pass her van on the side
of the road.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
This is what.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Modern law enforcement looks like when it works methodical, connected, responsive,
and yet it took the convergence of traditional search methods
and crowdsourced digital data to bring her home.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
And that's what makes this case so surreal, because for once,
the digital breadcrumbs actually let somewhere, a couple hosts, a
go pro clip, a thousand people freeze frameman, law enforcement
pinpoints the area, and suddenly Gabby isn't just an idea anymore.
She's real. She's found her family finally knows. This is powerful,
(24:15):
but it's also heartbreaking because we needed all of that,
every tool, every eye on the case to do what
should have happened long before find her.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I think people underestimate how hard that terrain is. That
part of Wyoming is vast, wild and largely untouched. Dispersed
camping means no markers, no ranger check ins, no paper trail.
You can disappear out there and it could be days, weeks,
or even months before anyone notices. That's where search and
rescue still run on boots.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Not bandwidth.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
You grid the land, you mark the lines, You rely
on train dogs, aerial maps and pure physical labor.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And yet it wasn't just the boots on the ground
this time. It was digital breadcrumbs that narrowed the scope.
It was citizen footage, GPS data, Instagram timestamps, even TikTok theories,
some of which were bizarre. Yes, helped keep pressure on
law enforcement to act fast. That's what's fascinating about this case,
(25:19):
the way the public became part of the process itself,
and for better or worse, that changes the way we
look at modern investigations.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
You're definitely right, and from someone who's been inside that system,
I'll admit sometimes the public sees things we don't because
we're looking at policy, procedure and liability. They're looking at
every frame, every shadow, and every clue.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
And you know, some of them had CIA level spreadsheets
tracking Brian Laundry's stock patterns.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, some of them probably missed a few workshifts, honestly.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I'll give you that.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
But in this case they made a difference. That van
spotted on camera. It wasn't just viral content. It became
the very turning point in this case, and it reminds
us surveillance isn't just the state anymore.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
We'll all watch it and that creates attention We've never
fully resolved because public participation is powerful but it's also messy.
It can pollute investigations, it can misidentify suspects, it can
overwhelm already strained agencies with misinformation. But in Gabby's case,
it truly mattered. It helped, and we need to acknowledge that.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
We also need to talk about the emotional side of
that participation because watching that video, seeing her van parked there,
knowing what we now know, it's haunting because you realize
she was already gone. The camera caught stillness, and that
stillness it was a grave.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
That image will always stay with me because in law
enforcement we're trained to look at a crime scene for evidence.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
But when you've got.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
GPS data, footage, even satellite time stamps, the whole timeline shifts.
You're not just investigating a scene, you're reconstructing the story.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
And in Gabby's case, the story was written in every
Instagram caption, every voicemail, every trail camera, ping technology became
her witness because no one else was there to speak
for her.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
And I think the real lesson here is this, the
tools are there, the tech exists, the public is engaged,
but we still need the systems to keep up because
when we combine the old ways with the new. When
we let the boots and the bandwidth work together, that's
when we truly get justice.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, that's when we bring people home. Even if it's
too late to save them. At least we can still
say we saw you, we found you. Ultimately we cared.
It took a village, a digital village, to fill in
the blanks. But crowdsourced justice it's a double edged sword.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
You've got good intentions mixed with bad leads, and suddenly
every TikToker thinks they're lead detective. So let's talk about
the rise of internet saluts and whether they're helping the
case or hurting it. Crowdsourcing tips is a double edged sword.
For every useful lead, you get a hundred rabbit holes,
(28:15):
false accusations.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Dosing. It muddies the waters.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But sometimes the waters, frankly need to be stirred. Public
pressure kept this case from going cold, and let's be honest,
the online community treated Gabby like someone worth finding.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Just don't confuse engagement with evidence.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Fair, but maybe we need both.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Because while the Internet was hunting Brian Laundry with hashtags
and timelines, real cops were burning out behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And the public. They rarely see what that burnout looks like,
but we do because we've lived it. So let's talk
about what this job does to the people who wear
the badge, and how we barely hold it together. Sometimes.
This case took a toll on more than just the families.
It forced a reckoning inside law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
We talk about justice, about victims, about what's broken in
the system, But what we don't talk about enough, even
amongst ourselves, is what the job takes from you, not
just in hours or sleep or physical safety, but what
it steals quietly from your emotional bandwidth. We're taught to compartmentalize,
to push everything down and keep moving, but that only
(29:27):
works until it doesn't. And for me, the breaking point
started with a kid, a juvenile offender, fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Old, quiet reserved.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
He came into the youth detention facility after killing both
of his parents and their sleep. No signs of prior violence,
no gang ties, no drugs, just silence, cold, controlled, calculated.
I remember walking into the room that first night and thinking,
how does someone that young become this detached from reality?
(29:56):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files will be
right back. After these messages we had therapist on call.
We had protocols, but nobody had a manual for how
we the staff, were supposed to process that. We fed
in breakfast the next morning like nothing happened. You do
perimeter checks, you review his behavior charts, and inside you're
(30:19):
just sitting with this ache because you're not just managing
a kid who killed. You're managing the fact that you
still see a kid, and that moral dissonance, that emotional whiplash,
It builds, It seeps in slow, you don't notice it
until everything feels numb.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
That numbness is real. I didn't work in detention, but
patrol that's a different beast. Constant adrenaline, constant unknowns, and
sometimes the job finds you even when you're off duty.
I'll never forget this. One night I was driving home,
finally off shift.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
My radio was on.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
I'm zoning out, just trying to come down off my
shift and decom press, and then I hear my classmate's
name shot multiple times, point blank. He was sitting in
his car eating dinner outside a warehouse where he worked,
and the suspects still at large. The chase was unfolding
in real time. I pulled over and just sat there,
(31:18):
parked on the side of the road, listening to the
manhunt for someone I'd gone through the academy with, and
suddenly it wasn't just another incident report. It was someone
that I knew, someone that I laughed with in class,
almost dead, And all I could think was how many
people are we losing to violence while the rest of
us just keep driving. It broke something open in me
(31:41):
because that thin blue line, it's thinner than we think,
and sometimes it's just a song on the radio away
from unraveling.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, the hardest part of this job isn't what we see.
It's what you're forced to carry after you see it,
and we're expected to carry it like it's nothing. We
don't grieve, we don't we don't cry. We just write
the report, clear the call clock out. But inside it's
rotting and you wake up one day and you're staring
at the ceiling thinking when did I stop feeling things?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, that's why I started hiking, why I started therapy,
why I started talking, Because I could feel it, that weight,
that burden, the emotional callouses building up, and I knew
if I didn't do something, I'd lose the parts of
me that made me human in the first place, the empathy,
the compassion, the reason I became a cop to begin with.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
We both come from different sides of the system, but
we landed in the same place. You can't do this
work and come out untouched, and if you think you did,
you're lying to yourself.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
And the system isn't built to support us either. There's
no emotional after action report, no debriefing for your soul,
just to badge a gun and a list of calls
waiting to be answered.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
What we need, what departments should be building, is real
proactive mental health infrastructure, not just to check in with
a shrink after a critical incident policy, but embedded wellness
for officers, peer support, routine therapy, normalize the maintenance, not
just the recovery.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Because if we don't protect the mental health of the
people inside the system, how can we ever expect them
to protect anyone else.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
And let's be clear, this isn't about weakness. This is
about survival, emotional survival, because.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
The day we stop feeling is the day we stop seeing.
And if we're not seeing people, not victims, not suspects,
not each other, then we'll just another part of that
machine that breaks them. And maybe the hardest part of
the job is learning how to feel again, especially when
you've spent years being trained not to feel.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Because the things we were never taught to feel are
often the very things we're.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Supposed to see.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Let's get into the coercive control, what it looks like,
why we miss it, and why it matters just as
much as a punch. We don't have legal language for
emotional abuse, not in a way that holds up in court.
If she's not locked in a room and bleeding, it's
not actionable.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
That's the gap.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, and abusers know that they don't need fists. They
use shame, silence control. Gabby wasn't just afraid of Brian,
she was afraid without him.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
So what do we do?
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Do we criminalize manipulation maybe, or at least we should
start talking about it like it's real, because it is.
The legal system wants proof, physical evidence, something that can
hold up in court. But what happens when the most
dangerous thing in a relationship is the invisible part.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
We'll starting to talk about it more, We'll starting to
name it. But the question is have we actually changed.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Let's talk about what came next and whether Gabby's story
changed anything at all. Let's wrap this segment by asking
have we learned anything Gabby Potito's story did you can
just end with a recovery and a funeral. It triggered
a national dialogue about domestic violence, media bias, law enforcement response,
(35:08):
and the influence of social media on modern investigations. But
here's the question I keep asking, what actually changed. There
were press conferences, task forces, hashtags, even a proposed piece
of legislation, the Gabby Patito Foundation Act, aimed at improving
law enforcement resources for missing adults. And I'm not saying
(35:29):
that's nothing. It's definitely something. But systematic change, the kind
that saves the next Gabby before it's too late. That's
slower and messier, and honestly still hasn't happened at scale.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, we love a headline, we love a name, we
can rally around. But once the coverage fades, once the
trial ends, once the last podcast episode wraps that momentum,
it gets quiet and we go back to business as usual.
The truth is, course of control still isn't a clearly
prosecutable offense in most states. There's still no national standard
(36:06):
for domestic violence training that teaches officers how to read
psychological abuse, not just the physical marks, and victims, especially
women of color, trans women, and those living in poverty,
are still disappearing without the cameras, without the hashtags, without
the digital armies.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
And the system still operates with outdated tools. We can
put drones in the sky and AI in our evidence rooms,
but if the officer at the traffic stop doesn't know
how to spot emotional distress, or the prosecutor doesn't believe
a victim who froze instead of fault, then what are
we really solved exactly?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
And I think what hits me the hardest is that
Gabby almost got help. She was this close, seen on camera,
heard crying, and still she was left to drive away
into her own silence and isolation. That's the part that
stays with you, the nearness of prevention. You know, sometimes
(37:01):
justice doesn't come in a courtroom. It comes from a
cultural shift. And maybe that's what we're in the middle of,
painfully slowly, a shift in how we define abuse, how
we believe victims, how we hold people and systems accountable
not for just what they do, but what they fail
to see. And from a psychological lens, that shift starts
(37:23):
with language if you can name something, then you can
fight it. And now that we're hearing terms like coercive
control more often, we're hearing trauma, bonding and gaslighting in
survival response. And while that might sound like buzzwords to some,
to survivors, it's a lifeline. It's the very vocabulary of recognition.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
But recognition without reform is just noise.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
And reform without accountability is just pr.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
So here's the takeaway.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
The Gabby Patito case wasn't just one of a young
woman and one bad man. It was about how we
fail to protect the people who smile through the pain,
who say I'm fine when they're dying inside. It was
about the moments when our system worked and the moments
when they didn't, and how we decide what justice looks
like when it's already too late.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
And for me, my takeaway, Gabby's story is about the
hope that we still carry that if we listen better,
train better, and believe sooner, maybe the next girl with
the camera and the big dreams and the open road
doesn't end up a missing person's final Maybe she makes
it home and maybe we finally learn.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
And maybe we never let her name be forgotten.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
All right time for our favorite mid show derailments that
we call killer instinct.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
What would you do?
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Also known as how we make bad decisions and fake
situations that somehow still say a lot about who we are.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
This week's scenario, we'll leaving behind traffic stops and search
grids and while heading deep into influencer hell. All right,
this scenario, You've been cast on a new reality show,
Van Life, Love Island, National Park Edition. You and nine
other free spiritive creatives must live in vans, travel together,
(39:21):
and build couple clout on social media, all while being
secretly evaluated by producers on who's the most emotionally authentic.
But here's your catch, Brian, one of your fellow van
fluencers is secretly a manipulative control freak, sabotaging your solar panels,
(39:41):
stealing your gas money, and spreading rumors in the group chat. Meanwhile,
the show's producers they love it. They think it's a
great drama. The audience loves you. You're the fan favorite,
but your toxic partner is getting all the brand deals,
and the longer you stay, the more dangerous the situation
becomes emotionally and possibly physically. So here's the question. Do
(40:03):
you expose your toxic partner and risk being kicked off
the show? Or do you play along and outsmart them
from the inside. Or do you fake an injury and
hit your ride with the crew while no one's looking?
Speaker 3 (40:17):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (40:19):
All?
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Right?
Speaker 1 (40:19):
First of all, I would never get cast on the show,
because the second I started talking about county ordinances entire pressure,
I'd be edited out of the trailer.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Yeah, you'd be the grizzled mechanic mentor that shows up
once a season to fix everyone's alternator exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
But hypothetically, if I was stuck in a van with
a manipulative socio path getting brand deals for being emotionally unstable,
I'd play along.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Let the sabotage build up.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Meanwhile ID document everything, timestamps, GPS data, stolen Kombuch accounts.
Then I'd drop a fully produced YouTube expose titled Van
life is a Lie. Here's what they didn't show you, Boo.
I'm out with three million views, a book deal, and
a ted talk called Boundaries and burnouts finding yourself in
(41:06):
a van with a sociopath.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
God, you're terrifyingly good at all of that. Okay, So
here's what I would do first, I'd go full Scorpio.
I'd lean in hard, let them think they're winning. I'd
give them the tears, the confessions, the fake vulnerability. Meanwhile,
I'm secretly building a separate Instagram with behind the scenes footage.
(41:30):
I'm talking diary injuries, a ten part real series called
Gaslight Gatekeeping girl Boss. The van life chronicles. When the
moment's right, I'd drop it all, but not just for
the revenge for the Catharsis. And then I'd exit the
show in a haze of sage smoke and a personal
healing journey playlist sponsored by Spotify.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
So what you're saying is you'd survive the toxic van
relationship and come.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
Out with a mood board.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Absolutely you think I'm getting emotionally destroyed on a national
streaming television show without turning it into a brand.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
All right, listeners, this is your moment. You're stuck in
a van with a gaslighting influencer, a boom mic in
your face, and a production team that wants blood.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Do you stay in scheme? Do you ghost in the night,
or do you light a sage bundle and manifest your
way into a four season Netflix steal?
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Let us know tag us with the hashtag Van Life
survival Plan and don't.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Worry, we will not judge you, because if I'm being honest,
this entire segment was built out of some of Brian's
secret reality love show obsessions.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
Then we absolutely judge.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
You, all right. Coming up next, we drop the games
and get into the realist part of the show.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
This is the part where we stop performing and start
telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
So let's just dive right in to segment five and
let's look at some modern parallels and the relevance of
this week's case file in today's world.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
We've told you Gabby's story, we've broken down the signs,
the system, the silence. But we'd be missing something big
if we didn't talk about where this case fits into
the now, because the world has changed and how we investigate,
how we connect, how we miss or find danger, and
so has the way we fail.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
And the way we perceive that danger. Because predators don't
always wear masks anymore. Sometimes they are photogenic, articulates, well traveled.
They smile for the camera, tag you and selfies and
convinced the world that everything's fine until it's not.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
From a tech standpoint, we are living in a surveillance age, BODYCMS,
doorbell cameras, GPS tags, drone footage. In Gabby's case, the
tech didn't prevent the crime, but it absolutely helped solve it.
Her van was identified by time stamped travel blogs, her
location triangulated from Instagram post and GPS metadata. That's modern
(43:59):
digital forends at work. But the same tech raises ethical
questions how much surveillance is too much? And do we
only celebrate it when it helps but ignore it when
it hurts?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
And meanwhile, predators are using those very same tools to monitor,
to control, to manipulate. They read your texts, they know
your passwords, they track your phone. Control doesn't need fists
when it has your location settings exactly, and that's where
policy lags. We've got technology capable of predicting behavioral patterns,
(44:35):
risk mapping, preemptive threat modeling, but we don't fund it,
we don't train for it, and we sure as hell
don't share it across departments the way that we should.
What GAVI's case exposed, and painfully so, is how much
we'll still trained to trust appearances. Brian Laundry wasn't a
(44:55):
guy with a criminal record. He was quiet, polite, outdoorsy.
He matched the algorithm of that safe male partner. And
that's the problem, because predators like him know exactly how
to perform safety. They groom us, not just they're victims.
They know what to say to police, they know what
to post online. They even know how to create a
(45:18):
version of themselves that the world wants to believe in
and cheer on. And if the world already sees them
as normal, then the victim is the one who must
be hysterical, who must be overreacting and unstable.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Stay tuned for more of the guilty files. We'll be
right back after these messages. That right there, that's the
dangerous narrative, the one that turns a sobbing woman in
a van into the aggressor and the calm, quiet guy
next to her into a misunderstood boyfriend. Because calm isn't innocence,
(45:53):
it's just good acting.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
And this happens everywhere. Abuse doesn't discriminate by gender or
class or age, but society does, and that means survivors
and marginalized communities, especially people of color, people in the
queer community, disabled, they get ignored, misidentified, or blamed constantly.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Let's talk about one of the biggest missed opportunities in
this case and in so many others just like it.
Inner agency communication. You have the Moab Police Department, Florida Police,
the FBI, multiple states, multiple jurisdictions, but no unified thread
tying it all together in real time. If we had
(46:37):
centralized communication protocols between local and federal agencies, if bodycam
footage from Utah had been flagged and shared across departments,
maybe the investigation would have accelerated. Maybe someone would have
seen what Gabby couldn't say out loud.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
You mean, maybe someone would have believed her without needing
a body to prove it exacts. This case didn't just
break hearts, It broke the internet. And I think that
tells us something about us as a culture. We don't
just consume true crime anymore. We participate in it. We
follow it like a season of reality television, trauma packaged
(47:17):
as content. And while yes, that attention helped solve parts
of Gabby's case, it also turned her into a symbol
more than a person. We loved her because she was relatable,
and we feared her fate because it felt so close
to home. But what about the women who don't look
like her, who don't have followers, who disappear and don't trend,
(47:41):
where's their justice?
Speaker 1 (47:43):
You're definitely asking the right question, and I don't have
the perfect answer, but I do know this. Law enforcement
can't do it alone.
Speaker 3 (47:51):
We need better tools, better.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Communication, and a hell of a lot more training to
see what's really happening beneath the surface.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
And culturally, we've got to stop mistaking curated calm for
real connection. Predators aren't just hiding in back alleys. They're
in our selfies, they're in our comment sections, they're sitting
at our kitchen tables.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
And if we want to stop them, if we want
to save the next Gabby, we have to do more
than watch. We have to listen, believe, and act.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
You know, as we sit here wrapping up this episode,
I keep thinking about the number of times people saw
Gabby but didn't actually see her. They heard her words,
but they missed the emotional storm underneath. And it's not
because they didn't care. It's because we've been taught to
trust the surface, to look at someone smiling and assume
(48:48):
they're okay, to see bruises and think that's real, but
to ignore the slow erosion that comes from being gas lit,
controlled and manipulated.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
And to see the calmness and the assume that safety.
We're not trained in policing or in life to recognize
the subtler forms of danger.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
We're reactive.
Speaker 1 (49:08):
We wait until the worst happens, and then we try
to clean it up. But what this case teaches us
is that prevention starts in those gray areas. It starts
with seeing patterns, not just outcomes. Why didn't our systems
intervene earlier? What tools were missing, what protocols weren't followed
or never existed in the first place.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
And I'll add what cultural scripts were playing in the background,
ones like don't be dramatic, you're just emotional. He seems
like a nice guy. Those are phrases that kill. They
kill slowly and quietly by eroding credibility. Gabby's pain wasn't invisible.
(49:49):
It was just inconvenient for others to believe in.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
You know, something we didn't talk about earlier, but it's
been on my mind is the way that departments respond
to missing adults. There's this bureaucratic loophole that says, well,
she's over eighteen, she left voluntarily, there's no crime here.
But that's a policy failure because by the time it
becomes a crime, it's often too late. We need missing
persons protocols that recognize behavioral context, not just hard data.
(50:18):
And we need inner jurisdictional agreements that allow departments to
share red flags, not just case files totally.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
And on the cultural side, the influencer world plays a
part two. We've created this digital economy where curated perfection
is rewarded and vulnerability is either punished or commodified. So
victims don't just have to survive abuse, they have to
fight against their own image to even be believed.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
You said something a while back about how abuse doesn't
always look like evidence. Sometimes it looks like a perfectly
planned road trip, a healthy Instagram, a couple's YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
It's like a van in the desert, one person behind
the wheel and one person slowly disappearing, not all at once,
but peace by peace.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
So maybe the takeaway.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Here for all of us is this prevention doesn't always
look like a swat team. Sometimes it's a shift in
our mindset, it's a policy adjustment. It's a beat cop
who slows things down. It's a neighbor who notices. It's
a friend who asks the hard question, maybe even twice.
And for law enforcement, we've got to retrain, reevaluate, and
(51:33):
reinvent not just how we solve crimes, but how we
sense it before it happens.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
And for the rest of us, we've got to stop
waiting for physical bruises to believe people. We've got to
normalize checking in not just asking are you okay, but
asking are you being treated the way you deserve? So
here's our question for you, our listeners. When's the last
(51:59):
time you trusted your gut even when the facts didn't
quite line up. What would it take for you to
believe someone's story even when the narrative seems too polished
to question?
Speaker 1 (52:13):
And what changes in policing, in policy and our communities
do you think it would have made a difference in
this case.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
We want to hear your voice and your opinions, So
head over to the socials I'm talking Instagram, TikTok, or
even our website. Drop a comment, share a story, be
part of the conversation, because being a true crime fan
should also mean being part of the solution.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
You've just spent time with us revisiting the case of
Gabby Patito, a name that echoes, not just because of
the headlines, but because of the questions it leaves behind,
questions about trust, about systems, and what gets seen and
what gets missed.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
This wasn't just about crime. It was about culture, about
the ways we romanticize relationships. While ignoring the red flags
waving from the passenger seat, Gabby's story deserves more than
passive consumption. It deserves action and awareness and memory.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
If this episode made you think, if it made you pause,
then we've certainly done our jobs, because The Guilty Files
isn't about shock value. It's about bringing to light the
shadows of real people, real systems, and real stories.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
And if you missed the other two parts of this
case file, which happened two weeks ago side note, thanks
for everyone's understanding with a slight adjustment in our production
schedule and approach this week, go back and check them out.
And Uncovered Brian dropped the facts methodical, sharp, with no fluff,
and I followed it up with my rewired narrative, diving
(53:49):
into psychology, trauma and what it all means. So if
you want the full picture, you need the full trilogy.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
If today's conversation struck a chord, do us and Gabby
a favor, Share this episode, rate the show, tell a.
Speaker 3 (54:04):
Friend who needs to hear.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
It, and if you're feeling bold, go ahead and join
us on Patreon. We go behind the badge, inside the mind,
and deep into the redacted Reports, our three exclusive segments
where we say the things we couldn't when we wore
the badge.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
And that wraps up this week's revisited case file. But
if you think we're done digging, you obviously don't know
us very well.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
Nope, We've still got more layers to peel back, more
questions to ask, and honestly, more secrets to spill. But
those you'll only get behind the paywall.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
If you want to hear the parts of the story
we couldn't include here, I'm talking about the redacted detail,
the off the record truths, and the raw behind the
scenes stuff from our time on the job, then you'll
want to check out our exclusive bonus content.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
That's right, We've got a full bonus drop available right
now for our Apple podcast subscribers. It's all ad free
as always, but you'll also unlock access to three exclusive
series that go way beyond the main episode, The.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
Redacted Report, where I walk you through the overlooked case facts,
the hidden threads, and the forensic rabbit holes that didn't
make the news.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
And Inside the Mind, my deep dive into the emotional, psychological,
and behavioral layers of the case.
Speaker 3 (55:20):
This week we.
Speaker 2 (55:20):
Explore trauma, bonding, identity collapse, and predator psychology.
Speaker 1 (55:25):
And then there's Behind the Badge, our most unfiltered segment.
It's where Danny and I throw the rule book out
the window and get the real deal about our time
and our stories from being on the job, the wild,
the brutal, the ones that changed us. No badge, no filter,
just the truth.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
All you have to do is head over to Apple
Podcasts and subscribe to the Guilty Files. No tears, no confusion,
Just tap that subscribe button, join us and unlock the
entire vault of bonus content.
Speaker 1 (55:54):
And hey, if you're already subscribed, thank you. You're fueling
this work and helping us take true crime storytelling to
places no one else days.
Speaker 2 (56:03):
We'll see you next week with a brand new case file,
And for those of you going deeper with us behind
the tape.
Speaker 3 (56:10):
We'll see you inside the mind and behind the badge.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
And before we go, here's what we want to know
from you this week. When was a time you trusted
your guts and were you glad you did?
Speaker 1 (56:22):
Or when was the time the system missed it and
someone paid the price.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Send us your voice notes, DMS, story tags. We see
them all and they help keep this conversation real.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
I'm Brian, former cop, former policy nerd, and trying to
make sense of how systems fail us and how we
can fix them.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
And I'm Danny, your favorite crime nerd spiritualist with a
sociology degree, a questionable fan life habit, and a mission
to make true crime mean something.
Speaker 4 (56:49):
This is the Guilty Files revisited
Speaker 2 (57:07):
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