Banner image: Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Gabby Petito’s heartbreaking story captivated the world. The 22-year-old American blogger went missing during a road trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, 23, in July 2021, sparking a nationwide search effort to find her.
Earlier this year, the events that led to Gabby’s tragic disappearance were laid out in Netflix’s American Murder documentary series, from the couple being pulled over by police after a domestic dispute to Gabby’s body eventually being recovered in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest.
While the details of what happened to Gabby are devastating, her death also shone an incredibly bright, often uncomfortable light, on domestic abuse. For many, this young woman’s story became a stark lesson in seeing the signs – even when they’re hidden in plain sight.
Trigger warning – This article contains themes of domestic abuse, extreme violence, and murder. Reader discretion is advised, and our thoughts are with anyone who may have been affected by any of the tragic events mentioned here.
Who was Gabby Petito?
Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Born in 1999, Gabby was raised in Blue Point, Long Island, by her parents, Joe Petitio and Nichole Schmidt. Although they split when she was young and moved on to marry other people, both remained a constant in her life.
According to the Gabby Petito Foundation website, set up by her parents, Gabby was a “free spirit who loved art, travel, and nature”. Her family also wrote, “Her smile could fill a room, she loved movies, music, healthy food, and created amazing works of art. Gabby was a wonderful big sister, the oldest of six, they looked up to her and adored her.”
In July 2021, Gabby set off on a ‘van life’ road trip (living out of a converted van) with Brian Laundrie. An aspiring travel blogger, Gabby planned to chronicle their adventure by posting videos to her YouTube channel, Nomadic Statik. In August 2021, she posted her first and only video entitled: VAN LIFE | Beginning Our Van Life Journey, offering a glimpse into their adventures across different national parks in the American West.
Gabby’s social media accounts portrayed her as a bubbly young woman, full of life, and she and Brian were often seen laughing, smiling, and kissing. It was this seemingly picture-perfect presentation of their lives and relationship that made the events that unfolded later feel all the more shocking
How did Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie meet?
Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
According to American Murder, Gabby and Brian met at Bayport-Blue High School in New York. They graduated in 2017 but didn’t begin dating until 2019, and Gabby quickly moved to North Point, Florida, to live with Brian and his family. She then announced her engagement to Brian on social media in July 2020.
The couple planned to travel, and Gabby worked various jobs to save up, including as a pharmacy technician at Publix (where Brian also worked in the grocery department), a nutritionist, and at Taco Bell.
Then, in December 2020, she purchased a white Ford Transit Connect van – which the couple converted into a camper – before embarking on a cross-country road trip the following summer.
What happened to Gabby Petito?
Despite the idyllic narrative portrayed by Gabby and Brian on social media, police bodycam footage from 12th August 2021, scratched beneath the surface.
Police stopped the couple in the southern Utah town of Moab following reports of a domestic violence incident. One witness said they saw a man slap his girlfriend twice and drive off in the van, while another said they saw a woman punch a man in the arm.
The bodycam footage is featured in American Murder and shows a visibly distressed Gabby telling officers, “[…]I just now quit my job to travel across the country, and I’m trying to start a blog. I have a blog. So I’ve been building my website. I’ve been really stressed and he doesn’t really believe that I could do any of it, so, we’ve just been fighting all morning and he wouldn’t let me in the car before.”
Both Gabby and Brian confirm that Brian didn’t hit Gabby – though Gabby says Brian grabbed her. And when officers ask about the marks on Brian’s face, neck, and arm, he says it was Gabby who hit him and that he’d tried to “keep her away”.
Police officers determine that Gabby is the perpetrator and consider charging her. But, instead, they separate the couple for the night, arranging a hotel for Brian and telling Gabby to take the van.
Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Gabby and Brian’s trip was intended to last four months, but Brian returned home to Florida alone on 1st September in their shared van. And, after Gabby’s family became increasingly worried that they couldn’t reach her – and got no answers from Brian or his parents – they reported Gabby missing on 11th September.
Police visited the Laundrie family home to speak to Brian about Gabby’s disappearance. But his parents turned them away, directing them to Brian’s attorney, whom they allegedly sent a $25,000 retainer to around the same day Brian arrived home. Reports also say that, on August 29th, 2021, nine days before Gabby was reported missing, Brian had a 55-minute call with his parents, during which he said Gabby was “gone” and he needed a lawyer.
With Gabby still missing and the Laundries refusing to offer up any information, police asked the public for help. They received thousands of tips and, on September 19th, in Wyoming’s Teton National Park, their search came to an end. Gabby’s body was found, and her death was ruled a homicide. An autopsy confirmed she was killed by blunt force injuries to her head and neck, and manual strangulation.
Four days later, on 23rd September, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Brian Laundrie. He was charged with making more than $1,000 worth of unauthorised withdrawals and charges using Gabby’s debit card and personal identification number after she went missing. Later, it was also revealed that he sent messages between his and Gabby’s phones after she was murdered, attempting to make it look like she was still alive.
What happened to Brian Laundrie after Gabby was found?
Police never got to arrest Brian Laundrie and question him about Gabby’s murder. On 17th September, two days before she was found, police received a tip-off that something odd was happening at the Laundries’ home. When they arrived, Brian’s parents said their son had been missing for days after heading out on a hike alone in nearby Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.
Police searched for Brian for almost a month until, on 20th October, they opened the park to the public. His family conducted their own search that day, finding Brian’s waterproof bag within an hour of arriving. Forty-five minutes later, Brian’s remains were found in the Carlton Reserve, an area that was previously underwater. Authorities determined that he’d died by suicide from a single bullet wound to the head.
A letter recovered from a backpack found near Brian’s body, and labelled “Burn after reading”, was released to Gabby’s family in May 2023. In it, his mother, Roberta, wrote: “If you’re in jail I will bake a cake and put a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body. I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.”
“If you fly to the moon, I will be watching the skies for your re-entry. If you say you hate my guts, I’ll get new guts.”
Despite Roberta claiming that the letter was written before Gabby and Brian’s trip and her attorneys releasing a statement which said the letter was “in no way related to Gabby”, it’s been the subject of much media attention and legal scrutiny.
Also in Brian’s backpack was a notebook containing a confession letter. In it, he claims that Gabby’s death was a mercy killing after she sustained injuries during a fall. He also said he couldn’t go on without her.
Despite speculation that Brian’s parents knew about Gabby’s death and took steps to conceal their son, they’ve never been charged with a crime.
Gabby and Brian’s relationship – what were the red flags?
Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
The American Murder series details how Gabby felt the universe wanted her and Brian to be together, and said being together was like “living a dream”.
The couple’s social media updates also showed them perpetually laughing, smiling, and having fun, which on the surface might have made it difficult for onlookers to spot that anything was wrong between them.
However, a closer look at Gabby’s life revealed something different. Gabby’s friend, Rose Davis, who appears in the docuseries, shared that Gabby was late to meet her one day because Brian stole her wallet and ID. Texts between Gabby and Brian also revealed how he felt about her working at Taco Bell…
Brian: “I’ll be happy when I see you but I’ll so pissed right now. I fucking hate that you worked at Taco Bell with all those lowlifes.”
Gabby: “Okay…well I know sorry.”
Brian: “I don’t know why you had to turn into one of them. Fucking disgusting”
Gabby’s mum, Nicole, also expressed concerns about the speed at which Gabby moved to Florida with Brian, with Gabby mentioning it one day and being gone the next.
And in the full bodycam footage from Gabby and Brian’s police incident in Moab, Brian labels Gabby “crazy” and laughs with officers while she cries. He also mentions her OCD and anxiety, painting her as unstable.
Of course, hindsight generally makes it easier to spot red flags and warning signs – something which is highlighted in the continuous stream of comments posted under Gabby’s first and only YouTube video. To date, the video has racked up 11 million views, with commenters expressing disbelief about how something so dark was lurking beneath the sweet, romantic image portrayed.
One person said, “What’s crazy is that if you were to watch this without knowing what happened, you would think that this couple is ‘goals.’ This is a great example of how social media can be so deceiving. You never know what’s really going on in people’s lives.”
What can we learn from Gabby’s story?
After Gabby’s murder, her parents set up the Gabby Petito Foundation to continue their daughter’s legacy, advocate for the prevention of domestic violence, and support organisations that assist in locating missing persons.
The foundation is also working to equalise the media attention for missing people, regardless of race. This came after Gabby’s case highlighted that white women and girls are typically placed under a heavier spotlight when they disappear, compared to black, brown, and indigenous women.
In an interview with Netflix, Joe Petito said, “Over 600,000 people go missing in the US each year, and nearly half of them are Black or people of color. So why don’t you see those stories in the mainstream media? You always see women like Gabby, Natalee Holloway, or Elizabeth Smart. They all tend to look the same.”
Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
Gabby’s story has also shone a light on how domestic abuse – especially coercive control, manipulation, and emotional abuse – can often go undetected, with victims becoming adept at smiling through the pain. It’s also a reminder that there are numerous reasons why a victim may find it difficult to leave a perpetrator, even if they know they shouldn’t stay.
On August 22nd, days before she was killed, Gabby reached out to her ex-boyfriend, Jackson, and they talked on the phone for hours. In the Netflix series, he said, “I feel like the phone call was a cry for help. I think she wanted to get away but just didn’t know how to do it. I think she wasn’t sure what he would do, or what he could do.” Jackson said that Gabby told her she had a plan to leave, and he received a missed call from her on the day she was killed.
Though this revelation is heartbreaking, Gabby’s family have shared how her story has encouraged many people to leave abusive relationships. This is also the aim of the Foundation – to empower people to leave abusive settings by connecting them with the resources they need to make this possible.
In addition, Gabby’s parents have worked together to change the way domestic violence situations are handled in the US. For example, they helped pass S.B. 117, the Domestic Violence Amendments bill that reformed lethality assessments in Utah – meaning a series of questions are asked to potential victims to assess whether they’re at risk of being murdered. This legislation was then brought to Florida, where Gabby and Brian were living.
Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
When asked what she wanted people to know about Gabby and take away from the docuseries about her murder, Gabby’s mum Nichole told Netflix: “Take Gabby’s light — the Gabby that you see laughing and dancing and fearless — and take that as inspiration on how to live your life. There’s a quote I love that says, “Be the things you loved most about the people who are gone.”
“When you’re watching a documentary like this, remember that it’s not just a story. It’s not just entertainment for you; it’s not just ‘true crime.’ Remember that there are always real lives involved and that these things can happen to anyone. So choose empathy and kindness every day, because everybody’s going through something. That’s how Gabby lived her life.”
Final thoughts…
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, it’s important to reach out for help.
If you’re in immediate danger, call 999. Or, if you’re unable to speak, dial 999 followed by 55 on a mobile to silently transfer your call to the police. If it’s not an emergency but you’d like support or advice from the police, you can call 101.
The following UK services will also be able to offer you support.
Domestic abuse support services
England
Refuge runs a free, 24/7 National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247. Or join a live chat online (available Monday to Friday, 10am to 10pm).
Northern Ireland
You can call the Domestic and Sexual Abuse Helpline on 0808 802 1414 or join a live chat online 24/7. You can also email [email protected].
Scotland
Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline has a 24/7 helpline on 0800 027 1234 or join a live chat online. You can also email [email protected] or text/WhatsApp 07401288595.
Wales
You can call Live Fear Free’s helpline on 0808 8010 800 or join a live chat online. You can also email [email protected] or text 07860077333.