Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: US News, News, Crime, True Crime, Netflix, Documentaries
Rhianna Benson
Topics: US News, News, Crime, True Crime, Netflix, Documentaries
In the hours after murdering his 22-year-old fiancée Gabby Petito and abandoning her body in the Wyoming wilderness, Brian Laundrie immediately began attempting to cover his tracks.
Whilst doing so, however, he inadvertently began accumulating incriminating photographic evidence with his professional camera.
On 11 September 2021, Gabby Petito's mother filed a missing person case when she failed to hear back from her daughter for several weeks, after she and Brian set off on a road-trip of the US.
Despite unsuccessfully appealing to Brian's family for help in finding the pair, the Petitos later discovered that Brian had actually returned home to Florida in the van at the end of August - without Gabby.
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Brian refused to talk to police and his family hired an attorney.
As suspicions about Brian intensified and he was named as a person of interest in his fiancée's disappearance, Brian also went missing.
On 19 September, Gabby’s body was found near Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.
An autopsy later revealed she'd had been strangled to death, and the following month Brian’s body was found at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.
He'd died by suicide, with a notebook found near the body containing a false story about Gabby having gotten injured during the trip, and an eerie confession. "I ended her life, I thought it was merciful," he'd written.
Whilst attempting to craft an alibi immediately after Gabby's murder, Brian spent several days hitchhiking from the crime scene in Grand Teton National Park back to where their van was parked - in a Spread Creek camping area.
Prior to setting off, he texted Gabby's phone - which had been left in the vehicle - with a message that read: "Hey Hunny, just calling to let you know I made it to Colter Bay!
"I think the campground is still a little ways up the road, I’m gonna go check it out! LMK when your[sic] on your way, no rush:)."
Whilst on this journey, however, Brian took a series of photographs of the Wyoming wilderness - many of which captured gory details from the landscape.
After police obtained the device, they found a plethora of photos taken of dead animals, many of which included their skulls and skeletons.
These images were taken on 28 August, just hours after Gabby was murdered.
An FBI agent said of the collection in the eerie new documentary: "On the 28th, Brian had left from the Spread Creek area and had hiked up north towards the Colter Bay camping area. Along the way, he was taking photos.
“Some of them were scenic but he was also taking a lot of pictures of bones, of animals that were deceased."
It's believed that Brian responded to his own message using Gabby's phone when he returned to the van.
"Yeah sure baby," the message from Gabby's phone read. "We’ll do one more night of dispersed and then we’ve got our site at Colter Bay for TWO NIGHTS!!"
Speaking in the documentary about the exchange, FBI Special Agent Loretta Bush tells viewers: "The activity between the two phone was almost instantaneous.
"Brian was holding both phones and talking directly to himself. It was an apparent that he was trying to create an alibi."
Following the discovery of Brian's body, however, FBI Denver Division later stated: "The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito.
"The FBI's primary focus throughout the investigation was to bring justice to Gabby and her family."