Gabby Petito

**Gabrielle "Gabby" Venora Petito** (March 19, 1999 - August 27, 2021) was a 22-year-old travel influencer who was killed by her fiancé, Brian Laundrie during a couples "van life" vacation.

## Events

### Backstory

Gabby Petito was born and raised in Blue Point, New York. She had six younger siblings and half-siblings. In 2017, she graduated from Bayport-Blue Point High School in Bayport, New York, where she met Brian Christopher Laundrie. From September 2017 to January 2019, she lived in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, working as a hostess and in the kitchen of a restaurant in nearby Wilmington. She applied to Cape Fear Community College, but did not attend.

Petito began dating Laundrie in March 2019, and moved in with him and his parents in North Port, Florida. The couple worked at a Publix in North Port, where she was a pharmacy technician and he was in the grocery department. They quit their jobs at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In late 2019 and early 2020, the couple embarked on a cross-country drive from New York to California. Along the way, they visited Las Vegas, Yosemite National Park, Pismo Beach, and other points of interest. In March 2020, Petito celebrated her 21st birthday in Nokomis, Florida. She and Laundrie visited Sope Creek, Georgia, in June 2020, and the two were engaged the following month.

In December 2020, Petito purchased a 2012 Ford Transit Connect van converted into a camper, in which the couple would take their next cross-country trip. To save money for the trip, she began working 50-hour weeks at Taco Bell and as a nutritionist while Laundrie took a job at an organic juice bar. Petito documented her life and travels on social media sites such as YouTube and Instagram, where she described her interests as "art, yoga, and veggies".

### Disappearance

On July 2, 2021 Laundrie and Petito embarked on their "van life" vacation in a Ford Transit Connect van.

On August 12, 2021, a witness called 9-1-1 to report that a couple (later identified as Laundrie and Petito) were fighting in front of the Moonflower Community Cooperative in Moab, Utah. The caller said they saw a man slap a woman, after which the man and woman ran up and down the sidewalk, then the man hit the woman again before they drove off together.

Officers from the Moab City Police Department (MCPD) identified the van driving erratically near the entrance to Arches National Park and conducted a traffic stop. They found Petito crying heavily in the passenger's seat.

Petito first downplayed the physical altercation; after the officer pointed out marks on her arm and face and told her to "just be honest", she said that Laundrie "kept telling [her] to shut up" and "grabbed [her] face" which had caused an injury. Petito told the officer that she hit Laundrie first, and asked the officers to not separate them.

Neither Petito nor Laundrie wanted to press charges as a result of the incident, which was characterized by police as a mental breakdown rather than domestic violence, which would have required an arrest. The police separated the couple, arranging for Laundrie to spend a night at the Bowen Motel in Moab, and for Petito to stay in the van.

Petito's mother said that she last spoke to her daughter on August 25 and had been told that the couple were traveling from Utah to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. On August 25, the final post was made on Petito's Instagram account, which consisted of photos of herself taken in front of a butterfly mural outside a restaurant in Ogden, Utah.

On August 27, a text from Petito's phone was sent to her mother which read, "Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls." The message raised concerns for Petito's mother, who said that Stan was Petito's grandfather and that she never referred to him by his first name.

On September 1, Laundrie returned alone to his parents' North Port home in the Ford Transit Connect.

### Investigation

On September 11, after not hearing from Petito since late August, Petito's mother filed a missing person report. Police surveilled the Laundrie home and saw him leave on September 13. On September 17, Laundrie was reported missing by his parents, who claimed not to have seen him since September 13.

On September 19, human remains matching the description of Petito were found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping area in Wyoming. Her identity was confirmed and an autopsy determined that the manner of death was homicide by "blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation".

On September 23, the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming issued an arrest warrant for Laundrie due to his unauthorized use of Petito's debit card to obtain $1,000 or more between August 30 and September 1.

On October 20, Laundrie's skeletal remains (identified by forensic dentistry) and some of his belongings were found in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, in an area that had recently been underwater due to flooding.

On January 21, 2022, the FBI revealed that Laundrie's notebook, which was found near his remains, contained an entry in which he admitted to killing Petito and deceiving people that she was still alive via text messages. He was officially blamed for Petito's death by authorities.

### Aftermath

The case sparked more public interest and coverage on news and social media than other missing persons and murder cases.

Public involvement in the case included witnesses and others posting their observations and theories on social media, protestors demanding answers outside the Laundrie home, a candlelight vigil for Petito in her hometown, and donations to the Gabby Petito Foundation established by her parents to support searches for other missing persons.

Petito's parents announced plans to sue Laundrie's parents in June 2022, with a Florida judge allowing the suit to proceed. In November 2022, her parents filed a $50 million lawsuit against the Moab police department.

## News

*For news articles on Gabby Petito, see here.*

## External links

* Gabrielle Venora “Gabby” Petito • Find a Grave
* Killing of Gabby Petito • Wikipedia

## In popular media

### Film

* The Gabby Petito Story (1 October 2022)
* The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies and Social Media (17 December 2021)

### Podcast

* Best Case Worst Case - *248 - Missing Gabby Petito* (24 September 2021)
* Beyond the Horizon - *Missing: Gabby Petito* (17 September 2021)
* Crime Junkie - *MISSING: Gabby Petito* (19 September 2021)
* Criminology - *Gabby Petito* (26 September 2021)
* Drapspodden - *Gabby Petito* (24 September 2021)
* The Epstein Chronicles - *Gabby Petito: The Unanswered Questions* (23 October 2021)
* Killer Psyche - *The Case of Gabby Petito* (28 September 2021)
* The Last Podcast - *True Crime: Gabby Petito* (1 December 2021)
* Murder with My Husband - *Gabby Petito - Bonus Episode* (17 September 2021)

### Television

* 48 Hours - *Gabby Petito: The Untold Story* (17 September 2022)
* The Murder of Gabby Petito: What Really Happened (12 October 2022)
* Toxic Love: The Gabby Petito Tragedy (5 November 2022)