Like millions of others, the story of the young engaged couple with the high drama relationship who decided to try the "van life" has captured my imagination. I'm watching YouTube videos and reading dozens of articles following the story.
Terribly, it is also a story of citizen vigilantes, show-stopping grabs for personal notoriety (Duane Chapman - Dog the Bounty Hunter), lots of speculation called fact, lots of name calling (Sorry, John Walsh, but when you started calling the family Dirty Laundry you plunged to the depths of a name calling school yard bully - very unprofessional) and people who never knew Gabby driving hundreds of miles to be part of a spectacle funeral and harassments of the parents at their home including the use of bull horns and drones.
The parents are trying to keep to their daily life as best they can while traumatized and frightened. So what if they went shopping or camping or worked in their garden? They too await some horrible possibilities such as never seeing their son again, or their son being discovered dead, or perhaps never having a private life again.
Each and every one of these harassers should be charged with public mischief and/or disturbing the peace.
The Laundrie family cannot win. All of these harassments and in particular the judgement against Brian's sister - which I will get into in a moment - PROVE THAT THE LAUNDRIE FAMILY WERE RIGHT TO ENGAGE AN ATTORNEY SPOKESPERSON and keep their mouth's shut. If and when they are sworn under oath in a court of law to speak, then they should tell their truth.
ALL OF THESE PEOPLE who have gotten themselves involved HAVE GONE AGAINST A FUNDAMENTAL FACT, that in this UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, an individual is presumed innocent until proven guilty. And so many people are spinning stories on YouTube, on the backs of stories by the supposed experts.
For the Laundrie family is not supposed to be accused, judged, or condemned - not yet. If we cannot individually or collectively give them that space and grace, then we should not expect it either when we are, perhaps, falsely accused.
Instead Brian and his sister and her family have never once, been thought of or reported as stunned, stymied, lied to, or perhaps in their own deep grief. Asking themselves what they did wrong or could do better? The parents, like any parent living a normal life, may be going through confusion and disbelief that their son could ever murder his girlfriend.
Posts showing the couple clearly in love and enjoying themselves are now supposed to help prove not all was well when like many a couple who indulge in drama do in fact love each other deeply. I'm not making an excuse here for abuse or saying that you should stay in such a relationship but I'm saying it's not all black and white. As my mom used to say "It takes two to tango."
Brian and the family are in a situation where the MOB RULES - they are actually in danger.
As for his sister who gave a compassionate statement a week or so ago that she loved Gabby and her children did too, she is being accused of being a liar simply because she said she had not TALKED to Brian. She was not asked if she SAW him. What is the difference?
How many times have you seen a friend around and NOT ACTUALLY TALKED TO THEM?
Saying Hi, hello, how are you, and making chit chat is TALKING but that is a very basic and literal interpretation. Mine is that what she meant was that she had not talked to him about anything particular to the case. That she did not have a heart to heart conversation with him.
I once had a friend who called me and asked if she could come and visit and stay with me.
I agreed and thought we would spend some quality time together and have that heart to heart talk. Days went by as we went to restaurants and otherwise spent time together, but it never happened. In fact at one point we were sitting together watching horses being trained and she seemed to not know I was sitting next to her, so non communicative she was. I felt she needed that superficiality, that she had too much on her mind at that moment, and was not especially offended. I knew she had wanted to visit me to get the hell out of her town where her ex was remarrying and I respected her privacy. I figured if she wanted to talk about it, she would.
Other reportage states that the parents didn't even ask their son where Gabby was. In fact we do not know that.
Frankly, since it seems the couple were off and on for several years - Brian could have come home and said that he and Gabby split, or that she took off and he couldn't find her, or that he decided to drive the van home and wait for her there. As for him using her credit card without her permission, sorry but couples who live together often share credit and pin codes. If he used the card, he had to know the codes. If he charged gasoline to get the vehicle home rather than leave it in the wilderness in another state to be towed as abandoned, then he was actually trying to respect the ownership and value of the vehicle.
I know it looks bad for Brian, but please, consider what American Citizenship is about here and DO NOT HELP TO REMOVE OUR BASIC RIGHT.
It would be more helpful to say a prayer for justice and for the family than to a vigilante judge and jury.
C 2021 Christine Trzyna
