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The Gabby Petito-Brian-Laundrie Case, Explained
Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie embarked on what looked like a picture-perfect cross country adventure in the summer of 2021—but only one would return.
In the summer of 2021, Gabby Petito and her fiancé Brian Laundrie embarked on what they believed would be a cross-country adventure of a lifetime.
In a decked out sprinter van, the young couple set out to visit the country’s national parks, chronicling their journey along the way on social media as they captured one breathtaking image after another.
But less than two months into the journey, the idyllic trip would take a tragic turn when Gabby suddenly vanished and Brian returned home to Florida in the van alone, sparking a massive nationwide search effort to find the missing 22-year-old travel blogger.
The investigation that followed, chronicled in Peacock’s The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies and Social Media, would reveal dark truths about their relationship and uncover a heartbreaking encounter with police just weeks before Gabby disappeared that may have foretold the trip’s tragic end.
Who is Gabby Petito?
Growing up in Blue Point, Long Island in New York, Gabby was described by her parents Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt as a bubbly, artistic and loving child.
“She was just awesome to be around, you know her smile, her eyes and I just remember melting. She’d have me wrapped around her finger, quick,” Joe recalled in the Peacock documentary.
Although her parents split when she was young, and both later married other people, they each remained a constant figure in her life.
“She was a spitfire,” Nichole recalled. “She had goals and she did what she could to get there.”
In high school, Gabby crossed paths with fellow student Brian Laundrie and it seemed—at least from the outside— like an ideal match.
“He was very polite, very kind,” Nichole said. “I didn’t see anything in him that would worry me at all.”
After high school, when Brian’s parents Roberta and Chris Laundrie moved to Florida, Gabby and Brian tagged along, moving into the family’s home and getting part-time jobs as they settled into life in the Sunshine state.
The couple got engaged in July of 2020.
“Brian asked me to marry him and I said yes!,” Gabby wrote on Instagram at the time alongside a photo of the pair on their first date. “You make life feel unreal, and everyday is such a dream with you.”
By the next year, with money now saved up, the couple decided to pursue their dream of traveling across the country and documenting their travels along the way.
They took off on the journey from Blue Point, New York on July 2, 2021, with Gabby’s mom Nichole seeing them off.
“I have so many good memories over the years, but the one thing I hold close to me is the hug that we had before she left for the trip, in the driveway,” Nichole shared through tears in the documentary. “I squeezed her so tight and I said, ‘I love you, please be careful.’”
When did Gabby Petito disappear?
Gabby documented the journey with breathtaking photos on Instagram and a lengthy video on YouTube that showed the pair running on the beach, happily embracing and sharing their secrets of life on the road.
Nichole told ABC News she last spoke to her daughter on Aug. 25, 2021 while the couple was in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and that she “sounded good" and seemed to be enjoying the adventure.
But just days later, according to a North Port Police search warrant, she got an “odd text” from Gabby’s phone.
“Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls,” it read.
The message was referring to Gabby’s grandfather, but her mother said she wouldn’t normally refer to him as Stan.
As days passed without any further word from her daughter, Nichole reached out to Brian and his parents, but got no response. She officially reported her daughter missing on Sept. 11, 2021.
She was shocked to learn from police just hours later that Brian had returned to Florida in the van on Sept. 1, without Gabby.
“I knew the night the detective came to my door to tell me the van was in Florida, I knew,” Nichole said in the Peacock special of the devastating development. “I knew she was gone that night.”
Brian and his family refused to speak to the media or police and referred all questions to their lawyer Steven P. Bertolino.
“On behalf of the Laundrie family, it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family,” Bertolino said in a statement to Oxygen.com at the time. “On the advice of counsel, the Laundrie family is remaining in the background at this juncture and will have no further comment.”
Why did Moab police stop Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie?
As the investigation into Gabby’s disappearance got underway, disturbing cracks began to emerge in the couple’s relationship.
Authorities learned that just weeks before Gabby disappeared, Moab Police stopped the couple on Aug. 12, 2021 outside Arches National Park in Utah after a 911 caller reported seeing a man “slapping the girl” outside the Moonflower Community Cooperative.
When Moab Police pulled the couple over a few minutes later, they found Brian sitting behind the wheel of the couple’s white van and Gabby crying hysterically in the passenger seat, according to body camera footage released by the department and later obtained by Oxygen.com.
“We’ve just been fighting all morning and he wouldn’t let me in the car before,” Gabby said after they were separated by officers.
A visibly distraught Gabby insisted that she had slapped Brian first after he threatened to leave her in Moab, later reluctantly revealing that he had “grabbed my face” in the heated exchange.
Police determined that Gabby was the “primary aggressor” and instead of making any arrests, they opted to separate the two for the night, sending Brian to a hotel after Police Chief Bret Edge told Oxygen.com that they lacked enough evidence to “justify criminal charges.”
The stop would later come under scrutiny after Gabby’s family filed a lawsuit against the department in 2022, alleging that officers failed to recognize signs of domestic violence and did not “protect” Gabby, according to The Associated Press.
Brian Laundrie disappears
The case took another shocking turn on September 17 when Chris and Roberta reported their son missing to North Port Police. According to the Laundries, Brian disappeared several days earlier after telling them that he planned to go for a hike in Sarasota County’s Carlton Reserve, a massive 25,000 acre nature preserve.
With no sign of Brian or Gabby, the media attention surrounding the case soon reached a fever pitch, with reporters camping out outside the Laundrie home and social media sleuths scouring over video and information on possible sightings.
Gabby Petito is found dead
Just two days after Brian was officially reported missing, the case took a tragic turn when Gabby’s remains were discovered in a remote area of the Grand Teton National Park and Brian was declared a “person of interest,” in the case, according to a statement from the FBI.
Dr. Brent Blue, the Teton County coroner, would later determine the 22-year-old was strangled to death in what was determined to be a homicide. The body appeared to have been in the wilderness for about three to four weeks before it was discovered.
“It’s still unbelievable,” Nichole said in The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies and Social Media. “I don’t understand it.”
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What happened to Brian Laundrie?
Just days after Gabby’s remains were discovered, the FBI issued an arrest warrant for Brian for fraud for allegedly using Gabby’s bank cards—but the challenge would be finding him.
Investigators continued to scour the vast Carlton Reserve for weeks as others reported supposed sightings of Brian across the country.
The search would finally come to an end on Oct. 20, 2021, when Chris and Roberta arrived at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, which connects to the Carlton Reserve, to help search for their missing son. Brian’s remains, along with his backpack and a notebook, were found near a trail inside the park.
Authorities later determined that Brian died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Although, according to the FBI, Brian claimed “responsibility for Ms. Petito’s death” in writings inside the notebook, questions still remain about what led to the couple's tragic end.
Gabby Petito’s parents launch foundation
Gabby may be gone, but her parents have kept her legacy alive in the aftermath of the tragedy, using the attention the case received to help others.
In 2021, they established The Gabby Petito Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at supporting the search for other missing persons and helping victims of domestic violence.
“You see how much the planet has come together for Gabby so we should do that for others too because everybody deserves to feel safe at home,” Joe reflected in the documentary. “Everybody deserves to be found that is missing. Everyone.”
The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies and Social Media is available now on Peacock.
