I have a theory.
Suppose that Brian Laundrie is delusional.
I don’t mean that in a casual sense. I mean that in the very specific psychiatric sense of the word.
Suppose he’s truly experiencing a psychotic crisis.
If so, he needs help.
Perhaps Gabby Petito was starting to realize that before Brian killed her.
Brian Laundrie’s actions make little sense to a rational person.
Rational people don’t do the things that he did.
Not even rational people who kill their spouses for money make these kinds of mistakes.
Let’s proceed with this theory and pretend that Brian is delusional.
If you took a trip with your spouse to Wyoming and then killed her there, would you drive your car back to your parent’s house in her car?
Most people wouldn’t do that.
Most people would come up with a better plan.
Since he didn’t, it’s logical that he lied to his parents when he arrived back home. That approach would be more consistent with a compromised mind.
I doubt seriously that he said: Hey mom, hey dad, I’m mentally ill and I killed Gabby. Can you help me?
He might have told his parents when they asked where Gabby was that he dropped her off at a friends house in, say, Illinois. Or Missouri. He may have added to the lie by telling them that she was planning to spend a few days there before visiting her parents in New York.
Operating under the current assumption that his parents are helping him, had Brian, sane or insane, told his parents the truth, being rational parents, they probably would have told him to ditch the van.
That the car wasn’t ditched loans support to the idea that Brian lied to them.
That they did not suspect that he was lying loans support to the idea that Brian was truly delusional.
Delusional people are remarkably effective at convincing people.
Occasional liars aren’t skilled enough and often reveal their lies through body language. Or they become tripped up by offering an inconsistent or implausible story upon repeated questioning.
It’s safe to say that his parents asked him where Gabby was.
His sister, Cassie, was thoroughly convinced that nothing was amiss. She met with Brian and her parents for six hours on September 6th and never suspected a thing.
Brian apparently was acting quite normally. He was interacting with Cassie’s children as if nothing had happened.
We have a picture of Brian and Cassie’s kids at Fort De Soto. So effective was Brian’s delusion that Cassie’s husband suspected nothing as well.
If Cassie had suspected that something was wrong, if she knew or felt that Brian had harmed Gabby, would she seriously allow her brother to play with her children?
Brian’s demeanor at Fort DeSoto was nothing short of creepy. Clearly something is wrong here. Brian has not heard from his girlfriend for nine days (because he most likely killed her on 8/28/21), and he is acting as if it’s another day in the park.
We know this because the people closest to him, the people who know him, suspect that nothing is amiss.
They don’t suspect anything because Brian in his delusional mind has convinced himself that Gabby is not dead. When you are selling a story to someone, you first have to sell yourself.
(As a quick aside, didn’t Dennis Davis tell us that the man in Appalachia, who he thought was Brian, was trying to get to his girlfriend in California?)
Had Brian been of sane mind, the stress of killing Gabby would have manifested itself through his body language in ways that would make people suspect that something was wrong.
But he was not of healthy mind.
Brian‘s delusional behavior didn’t begin the minute he killed Gabby; his delusional behavior was apparent weeks before.
On August 17th Brian flew back to Florida from Salt Lake City in order to retrieve some items from his storage shed because ostensibly he and Gabby were planning to prolong their trip.
For five days from August 17 to August 22, Brian was in Florida while Gabby remained in Utah.
This is strange behavior reflective of unclear thinking. The airline ticket will cost approximately $500; to house Gabby in a motel for five days will cost at least another $500. A clear and rational person would understand that it’s cheaper to purchase the items in a local Walmart then it is to go home to Florida to retrieve items.
And what items could possibly be retrieved that would make the trip back to Florida essential?
A kayak? Please.
A gun? Drugs?
Only an irrational person would try to sneak drugs and a gun through airport security.
At this point, Gabby must have begun to realize that something was seriously wrong with Brian.
When he returned, his irrational behavior continued when he got into the argument at the Merry Piglets restaurant.
For Gabby to come back into the restaurant and apologize, the argument must have been unworldly.
Nina Angelo, a diner in the restaurant, stated that Brian’s behavior “freaked her out.”
Most likely this was the straw that broke the camel’s back in Brian’s mind. Brian, in a delusional and paranoid state of mind, viewed Gabby as a traitor, killed her, dumped her body, then drove back to Florida as if nothing had happened. Then, in the ensuing days, convinced himself within the twisted thinking of a psychotic state that Gabby was not dead.
When he arrived at his parents house, he didn’t run. He carried on with his life as if everything was normal. This is not what normal people do when they kill their spouse or fiancé.
Brian in his delusional mind had convinced himself that Gabby was alive.
Or he seriously thought he was in the clear.
Did he seriously believe that Gabby’s family would sit back and do nothing? Apparently he must have. Why not? In his mind Gabby was not dead.
When Dennis Davis ran across a man who resembled Brian just a few days ago on the Appalachian Trail, he confirmed Brian’s delusional status, assuming that this was Brian, by stating that he was “talking wild” and “acting funny.”
Dennis Davis stated that the man wanted to take the back roads to California in order to meet up with his girlfriend. Of course, that is laughably absurd. There are no back roads to California.
It would be equally absurd for him to get back to Gabby who is dead.
This is indicative of a person who is mentally imbalanced in a true medical sense.
Also indicative of a man in psychiatric crisis, assuming that this was Brian, is that Brian only got as far as Tennessee in a two-week period of time. This is reflective of a person with disorganized thinking.
If this is the case, and Brian is delusional, then he is extremely dangerous. Most likely he is hearing voices. And those voices will tell him to kill again just as those voices may have told him to kill Gabby.
I suspect he is experiencing a true psychiatric crisis.
What could have triggered this? It’s difficult to say, but it would certainly be helpful to know Brian‘s past psychological history.
Was he ever admitted to a behavioral health center? Has he ever seen a psychologist or a psychiatrist? Were there any warning signs in his early life of a troubled personality? Did he ever attempt to inflict harm on small animals? What is his criminal record? What do his friends from grade school say about his personality? What about his work life? Was he able to hold down a job? Did he have a job? Was he taking medications currently or in the past? Was he displaying any symptoms indicative of a neurological disease? What is his past medical history? Was he an abuser of drugs? Since they were traveling in peyote country, had they picked up peyote along the way? How about ayahuasca?
Given that both Brian and Gabby were neo-hippies (outdoorsy, organic, nature type people), is it possible that Brian was ingesting seeds that he thought were safe but were instead toxic? Is it possible that he was unwittingly ingesting jimsonweed which can cause anxiety, agitation, paranoia, hallucinations and psychotic episodes?
These are important questions to answer because Brian Laundrie’s choices don’t seem consistent with a rational mind as we know it.
Sincerely,
Archer Crosley
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