Gabby Petito’s mom has spoken out about Brian Laundrie’s notebook confession.

Laundrie admitted he murdered his fiancée Petito in the notebook, claiming he did it in order to “take away” her pain.

Now, in an interview with NBC News, Petito’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, has said that the claim was “ridiculous”.

“That was his character, even in his last moments,” she told the outlet. “He wanted to make sure he looked like the good guy. That’s ridiculous. We know how she died.”

Schmidt’s comments come after the family’s lawyer, Steven Bertolino, released photographs of the killer’s notebook. Laundrie, 23, was the subject of a nationwide manhunt after the remains of his fiancée, 22-year-old blogger Petito, were found in Grand Teton National Park on September 19, 2021. Coroners ruled that she had died by strangulation.

The pair had been on a road trip when they first went missing. After several weeks of searching for the suspected killer, authorities discovered Laundrie’s remains on October 21 2021.

His death was ruled by suicide in November 2021.

In the notebook, he claimed Petito had injured herself in a creek. “I don’t know the extent of Gabby’s injurys (sic). Only that she was in extreme pain,” he wrote, before confessing to her murder.

“I ended her life. I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made,” the notebook read.

“I panicked. I was in shock. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldn’t go on without her,” the killer continued.

Travel blogger Petito was first reported missing in September 2021, after her family stopped receiving communication from her.

Several weeks later, the 22-year-old’s remains were found on a campsite in Teton County, Wyoming. The coroner ruled that she died by strangulation.

Laundrie had returned to the couple’s home on September 1 without his fiancée. A few weeks later he disappeared. After a warrant was put out for his arrest, a nationwide manhunt ensued.

But Laundrie was never taken into custody; a few weeks later, his remains were found in a Florida nature preserve beside his backpack and a notebook containing his confession. A medical examiner later ruled he died by suicide.

This is not the first time that Petito’s mother has spoken out about Laundrie’s notebook confession. After Bertolino released the pages last month, the grieving mother took to Twitter and appeared to brand him a “narcissist”.

“Narcissists rewrite history to escape accountability,” she tweeted.

Source Credit: Carina Murphy, VT.CO. Link to original article. 

California Senate now has bill that will dramatically change how crimes are reported

July 28, 2022 (San Diego) – The crime statistics don’t lie, not when it comes to domestic violence.  It remains a “top of the list” top-of-mind crime of concern in California.

Against that backdrop, proposed state legislation that promises a better way to deal with abuse victims has created a chasm between advocates and law enforcement in how to best handle victims’ cases. The bill, AB2790, has already been approved by the state Assembly and is due to be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee August 1st.

Both sides on the debate agree on what the statistics reveal — the ugly impact of domestic violence.  But where they disagree is on best practices for addressing the issue. In San Diego domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women — more than muggings, rapes and car accidents combined.  Across the country, three women are murdered every day by their intimate partners, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Advocates for the new bill, AB2790, say the existing requirement that medical professionals alert the police when they have a patient they suspect is a victim of domestic violence “can have a chilling effect of preventing domestic and sexual violence survivors from seeking medical care.”  The bill would drop that mandated reporting.    Supporters say research has show what results is“health providers being reluctant to address domestic and sexual violence with their patients.”

The bill’s co-sponsor, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D- Oakland, notes in the bill’s language that  “studies have shown that medical mandatory reporting of adult domestic and sexual violence may increase patient danger and insecurity.”

San Diegans involved in the care and protection of domestic violence victims say the legislation is regressive, likely to increase danger and lethality mortality for victims of domestic violence.

San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliot and San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan oppose the bill as written. Stephan recently spoke to the legislature about her opposition.

Elliot argues that victims are more likely “subject to retaliation from their abuser if they make the police report, as opposed to it coming from a mandated health care professional. By putting the onus of reporting on survivors, AB 2790 puts them in even greater danger.”

Stephan argues that bill benefits abusers while harming victims.

“It allows abusers to continue to harm their victims and potentially lead to their death by silencing the health care professionals who often serve as the first step in the reporting process to support victims of domestic violence and hold abusers accountable,” she said.

Elliott’s office oversees the Family Justice Center, created by a predecessor of hers, Casey Gwinn. It was Gwinn who was responsible for the first domestic violence center in the country, which provides all the services victims need under one roof, That concept has since expanded to 43 states and 25 countries.

He argues that his creation, the  Family Justice Center, has a long documented record showing the value of police involvement during intake process.  He suggests the legislation as a broad overreach, a mistake he says.  “It is an anti-law enforcement initiative. They have a few anecdotes but have no data to back up their claim that women don’t seek medical help after violence for fear that it will be reported to police.”    

In support of the legislation are Futures Without Violence, The Alliance of Boys and Men of Color and Professor Jane Stover of the UC Irvine Domestic Law Clinic.  She says the legislation is badly needed, given her experience running a domestic violence clinic for low-income abuse survivors.

“I see clients afraid of seeking healthcare,” she said, “because of California’s medical mandatory reporting to police of adult domestic violence. For my clients who do seek medical care, they often don’t disclose the cause of harm due to fear of unwanted police contact.”

https://www.law.uci.edu/academics/real-life-learning/clinics/domestic-violence.htm.

This legislation is one of the developments arising from an effort to shift emergency response calls from law enforcement to community-based organizations. In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 118, known as the CRISES Act.  AB2790 follows that path, removing law enforcement notification as a mandate for doctors and other medical professionals.

Gwinn, San Diego’s former city attorney, remains active in domestic violence issues as president of Alliance for Hope.

https://www.allianceforhope.com/

Gwinn disputes claims that in severe violence cases, further reporting endangers victims.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “California, and particularly counties with dynamic Family Justice Centers, has one of the lowest domestic violence homicide rates in the country because, historically, we have intervened before violence has escalated.”

Stover counters that “when survivors are able to openly disclose abuse without fear of police involvement and to have trauma-informed conversations with medical providers, abuse survivors are four times more likely to utilize domestic violence resources and agencies.”   She believes, as the bill specifies, a doctor should only have to alert “survivor services” to the victim’s condition.

Joyce Bilyeu is Director of Client Services at the Sacramento Regional Family Justice Center, similar to San Diego’s victims center.  She said “Since working with survivors for 40 years now as a professional, I have never once encountered a victim not wanting to get the medical treatment they needed out of fear of a report being made to law enforcement.”

Professor Stover says current law criminalizing medical professions for not reporting domestic violence “is contrary to current research showing that mandatory reporting of adult domestic violence doesn’t reduce homicide or assaults, and instead creates barriers to healthcare access for survivors She says current law has a “chilling effect of preventing survivors from seeking medical care, decreasing patient autonomy and trust, and resulting in health providers being reluctant to address domestic violence with their patients.”

Detractors say the “current research” referred to by supporters for the proposed law, are not as advertised.  For instance, the supporters reference the 2020 Lippy Study as proof of the need but in reviewing the study we note is not directed specifically at mandated reporting.    It’s a study of chat on the National Domestic Violence Hotline for survivors.  We also learned that initially the claim was based on 2,322 participants.  Later thisfigure was retracted, it was 168 participants.

However the Professor argues that the information is still valid.

Source Credit: J.W. August, East County Magazine. Link to original story. 

Three children and their mother were found dead at a home on Whaley Street in Danbury Wednesday night. The official results of the autopsy are pending, but police said it appears that the mother strangled her three children, then took her own life. Police have identified the children as 5-year-old Jonael Panjon, 10-year-old Joselyn Panjon and 12-year-old Junior Panjon and the mother as 36-year-old Sonia Loja. Police said the children all appear to have died by strangulation and the mother’s suspected cause of death is asphyxia by hanging. “Pending an official autopsy, preliminary findings indicate that Ms. Loja strangled her three children before killing herself. However, this is still an active investigation,” police said in a news release. Police officers responded to the Whaley Street home around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday after receiving a call from someone who was distraught and crying and found the three children dead inside. Loja was found dead in the shed outside the home, according to police.

Investigators learned that the mother and children lived at the residence with two other adults who were not home when the police arrived, police said. Those family members, as well as extended family members, have been contacted. Police said the mayor’s office and the city’s police, fire, health, education, emergency management, and health departments, along with Nuvance Health have coordinated efforts to provide services to the family and friends. They added that this is also an emotionally damaging incident for first responders and services have been extended to public safety personnel who responded to the scene.

An autopsy is scheduled for this morning at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Farmington.

“A truly horrible event occurred in our city yesterday and we mourn the tragic loss of life. In the coming days, mental health and counseling services will be provided through collaboration with the Danbury Public Schools and the City of Danbury. Our community grieves for the innocent lives taken from us. We will get through this together,” Mayor Dean Esposito said in a statement.

SUICIDE PREVENTION HELP: Here is information on suicide prevention from the National Institute of Mental Health. If you are in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting ‘Home’ to 741741.

Source Credit: NBC Connecticut, Link to original article.

ABUSERS who inflict non-fatal strangulation on their victim will face up to five years in prison following a change in the law.

The offence, created as part of landmark domestic abuse legislation, came into force in England and Wales today. It applies to perpetrators who strangle or intentionally affect their victim’s ability to breathe so as to control or intimidate them. The reform follows concerns that abusers were avoiding punishment because non-fatal strangulation does not always leave visible signs of injury.

Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs welcomed the change but said she is worried that it will not be used as widely as it should be without a more coordinated approach from the government. In the absence of clear training and guidance, police officers, front-line workers and others may be unaware of the new offence, she said, meaning that it could be under-charged as “common assault” or not investigated or prosecuted at all. Crown Prosecution Service lead for domestic abuse Kate Brown said: “We are developing training for prosecutors to ensure the offences are properly identified from the outset.”

Source Credit: Morningstaronline.uk. Link to original article. 

A 29-year-old man is now in custody on 20 charges, including aggravated assault, after he allegedly choked and hit a woman because she didn’t make him a sandwich. The suspect, Austin Lowe, was apprehended after an officer pulled his weapon on him while attempting to run back inside the victim’s home.

According to a Douglas Police Department incident report, on June 16, around 11:01 a.m., an officer with the department was dispatched to a residence on North McDonald Street where a possible aggravated assault occurred. When the officer arrived, he spoke to the victim, who reported that Lowe “hit her in the face and choked her.”

The officer observed marks on the victim’s neck “that appeared as if they were from someone choking her.” According to the report, the victim also had swelling near her right eye and “more red marks consistent with someone hit in the face.” She also told the officer that the alleged assault occurred in front of her five-year-old son.

When the officer asked the victim how the dispute was started, she told him it stemmed from her not making him a sandwich.

As the officer arrived at the scene, he reported seeing Lowe in an SUV stopped at the sign of McDonald Avenue, where he then made a right-hand turn. Another officer at the home left to search for the SUV, and a BOLO was immediately released for the vehicle.

The officer searching for Lowe reported that when he was at the intersection of Bowens Mill Road Southeast and Old Axson Road around 11:30 a.m., he saw the vehicle and began traveling toward him north on McDonald Road.

According to the report, before the officer activated his lights or sirens, Lowe began to speed away. The officer then turned on his lights at the intersection of McDonald Road and Pine Street, and Lowe continued to flee. Then, Lowe “snatched” off the road into a ditch to pass a vehicle in front of him, continuing north. He veered into the opposite lane on McDonald Road and continued to lead the officer on a pursuit.

Lowe cut across the In-N-Out parking lot, ran a stop sign, “nearly crashing into traffic,” the officer reported, and continued on East Baker Highway, driving in the wrong lane. Lowe continued to run stop signs and travel in the wrong lane on several streets until he turned onto North McDonald Avenue, where the victim resides.

The officer reported that Lowe pulled off the side of North McDonald Avenue, got out of his vehicle, and began running towards the victim’s home. As a result, the officer ran after him and “pulled his duty weapon on him, commanding him to get on the ground.” Lowe then got on his knees, and the officer said he holstered his weapon.

The reporting officer and an assisting officer also reported witnessing Lowe attempt to enter the victim’s home and see the officer draw his weapon.

Lowe was transported to the Coffee County Jail and charged with aggravated assault, cruelty to children in the 3rd degree, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, driving with a suspended or revoked license, three counts of driving on the wrong side of the roadway, five counts of failure to maintain lane, failure to signal when turning or changing lanes, two counts of failure to stop at a stop sign, two counts of failure to yield when entering or crossing the roadway, no insurance, reckless driving, and use of safety belt in passenger vehicles.

On Thursday, June 23, Lowe was granted a bond of $25,000, which his counsel from the public defender’s office argued was “excessive.” The attorney filed a motion on the same day, seeking a bond reduction. Currently, a judge has not ruled on the motion, and Lowe is still being held in the Coffee County Jail.

Source Credit: Kristen Kitchens, Douglasnow.com. Link to original article.