Cassie Laundrie: did she lie?

Her words say a lot

I have been asked to take a look at part of an interview that Cassie Laundrie gave at the start of the investigation into the (at that time) disappearance of Gabby Petito. Cassie is Brian Laundrie’s sister and it has now emerged that she may not have been truthful during this part of the interview.

Katie Joy @woacbofficial

Cassie Laundrie told Good Morning America that she hadn’t been able to talk to #brianlaundrie since he returned home from the trip. She said the attorney advised him not to talk to anyone…

That I haven’t been able to talk to him. I wish I could talk to him.

(Inaudible question)

I..I.. know it’s all because the lawyers advising them not to say anything..I… I… (shrugs shoulders)

I’ve cooperated in every way that I can. I wish I had information or I would give more, I h.... I.. this is all I have this … I…I… gave to police.

Q: have you talked to Gabby’s family?

No one’s reached out to me and I don’t know if it’s appropriate for me to reach out to them when everything.. with everything going on.

Let’s break it down

Firstly, Cassie is under a lot of stress here. It is a big news story and she’s speaking on national TV. Throughout, she is picking her words very carefully and pausing a lot to consider what to say. This is helpful as what follows her pauses and stutters are the matters that cause her most stress.

The allegation is that she lied in this interview by saying she hadn’t talked to Brian since he returned to Florida but it now appears that she spent time with him.

Did she lie? Look at her words:

That I haven’t been able to talk to him. I wish I could talk to him.

We don’t know the question that this is an answer to which would help but two things stand out in this reply.

People hate to tell outright lies so they’ll go to linguistic loopholes to say something that is truthful to them but can be deceptive to the listener.

Here, Cassie repeats the word “talk”. Repeated words are an indication that it’s an important concept for the speaker. That she hasn’t talked with Brian only rules out one form of communication. They could have texted, emailed or spoken through a third party.

Or Cassie could be thinking that a talk is a formal sit down conversation where there are frank questions and answers. The kind of talk you have when you say “we’ll talk about this later”.

Next, Cassie gives no time frame for how long she hasn’t been able to talk to him. Three months? A couple of days? Today?

Did she lie? No. She told the truth according to her internal processes. Is it possible she deceived? Totally.

What else?

I..I.. know it’s all because the lawyers advising them not to say anything..I… I… (shrugs shoulders)

There are two stutters here indicting these lawyers and their orders are a source of stress for Cassie. Note also it’s THEM the lawyers are advising. This indicates Cassie feels apart from what is happening, the lawyers haven’t advised “me” or “us”.

I’ve cooperated in every way that I can. I wish I had information or I would give more, I h.... I.. this is all I have this … I…I… gave to police.

This one is fascinating. First up she’s cooperated “in every way I can”, not fully or been able to help in every way she has been asked to, only every way she can.

Now watch how much information she says she has. “I wish I had information”  implies there is none. “Or I would give more” implies there is some information in order for there to be more. “This is all I have this.. I .. I gave to police”, she now says all the information she had has been given to police. From no information to all information in one sentence.

There are a lot of stutters and abandoned words too. The concept of information or what she knows is causing Cassie lots of stress.

On these words alone we can say she is being deceptive about information.

When asked about if she’s talked to Gabby’s family she doesn’t answer the question firmly:

No one’s reached out to me and I don’t know if it’s appropriate for me to reach out to them when everything with everything going on.

That’s not a yes or no answer. And she puts the blame on Gabby’s family for any lack of contact. It’s the first thing she says “no one’s reached out to me”. We’ve seen elsewhere that her brother was adept at putting blame on others and minimising his own part. This feels very similar.

Cassie only says she’s doesn’t know if it’s appropriate to reach out to Gabby’s family. Not that it ISN’T appropriate. The suggests to me that she knows she should reach out to them but, for some reason, she hasn’t.

Wishing

One last point is that Cassie twice “wishes” for things. She wishes she could talk to Brian and she wishes she had more information.  Wishes seem to be her go to word to convince she’s being honest.

Conclusions

Cassie is choosing her words carefully and thanks to that we can see the loopholes she’s working with in her head. She’s extremely limited in what she’s saying suggesting things are being hidden.

What I found most alarming was her blaming the Petito family for the fact there had been no communication.

A final note; I based all my conclusions on the video I was sent but I’ve also watched the full interview which was recorded when Gabby was missing but before she was found dead. In it, Cassie refers to Gabby in the present tense consistently suggesting she did not know Gabby was dead at the time.

UPDATE: I’ve managed to answer a couple of questions I asked in this article, you can read that update here.

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