Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Gabby Petito, Crime, True Crime, US News, News, Netflix, TV And Film, Documentaries
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Gabby Petito, Crime, True Crime, US News, News, Netflix, TV And Film, Documentaries
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
After a handful of largely-unknown details in the murder case of Gabby Petito were released this week as part a new Netflix docu-series, many viewers have been left with the same question.
American Murder: Gabby Petito landed on the streaming service yesterday (17 Feb), which focuses on the true-crime tale of the 22-year-old aspiring YouTuber, who was killed by her fiancée Brian Laundrie during a road trip through the Wyoming in 2021.
Gabby Petito quit her job and purchased a camper van in August of that year in a bid to kickstart a lifestyle content-creating career, with plans of vlogging her upcoming road trip with her long-term partner, Brian Laundrie.
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After a handful of days on the road, however, her mother Nichole suddenly stopped receiving communications from her daughter, prompting her to get in touch with Brian's parents.
On 10 September, she texted Roberta Laundrie to say she hadn't heard from the couple in around 10 days — a follow-up message possibly indicating that she'd been blocked.
Gabby's father Joe also attempted to contact the Laundrie's - sadly, to no avail, which prompted the family to contact the police.
After launching a missing person's campaign, the Petito family also discovered that the couple had endured a run-in with police during their road trip, with a witness claiming to have seen Brian 'slapping' Gabby.
The Netflix documentary shows body-cam footage of their police apprehension, where the latter could be seen in floods of tears with visible bruises, claiming they'd had a fight.
Police in the footage brand Gabby 'the aggressor', and are seen transferring Brian to a domestic abuse victim hotel and letting Gabby drive away alone in the van, with no arrests being made at the time.
Around the time they made this discovery, they learned that Brian had actually returned home to Florida in the van Gabby had rented without her.
Police were dispatched to the property, with North Port police body-cam footage included in the doc showing his father Chris declaring firstly that they wouldn't be speaking to officers, and secondly that they'd hired an attorney.
On 17 September - amid a nationwide search for Gabby - Chris and Roberta reported Brian missing, claiming he'd failed to return home after a hike in a nearby woods in Florida four days earlier.
The day Brian was reported missing, authorities searched his home for potential evidence, stumbling across a note Roberta had written to her son titled 'Burn After Reading', in which she pledged to help him if he ever need to 'dispose of a body', as per CNN.
During questioning, she insisted that the letter had been penned to Brian prior to his road-trip with Gabby and her disappearance.
Two days later, on 19 September 2021, the FBI discovered human remains in an area of Spread Creek Dispersed Camp, which were later confirmed to be Gabby, and an autopsy determined that she'd died via 'blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation' three to four weeks prior.
One month and one day after Gabby's body was discovered, a police search found Brian's remains in an area of Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park that had previously been underwater due to flooding, with an autopsy later reporting that Brian had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
A waterproof notebook beside his body was found to contain a nine-word claim that was interpreted as his confession to her murder, where he claimed she had become injured after getting caught up in some ice-cold water, leading Brian to 'end her life'. He wrote: "I ended her life, I thought it was merciful."
Following the discovery of Brian's body, FBI Denver Division 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."
In the documentary, however, FBI Special Agent, Loretta Bush admits: "We still don't know the extent of Brian's parents' involvement, but what we do know, is that, on August 29th, Brian made a flurry of calls to his parents."
Brian's parents were never charged with any crime, though in 2022, Gabby's parents filed a lawsuit against the Laundries for at least $100,000 in damages, claiming they'd assisted their son in the cover-up of her murder and knew she was dead - which they denied.
According to the BBC, the case was settled out of court in 2024 as the Petitos said that after 'long day of mediation', all parties had 'reluctantly agreed' to the deal to 'avoid further legal expenses and prolonged personal conflict'.
However, viewers were surprised by this detail, as one person took to X (formerly Twitter) to say: "It boggles my mind that Brian’s parents were never charged?!"
"We all watched the #GABBYPETITO documentary series, right?" another asked. "How were Brian Laundrie's parents NOT charged?"
A third continued: "Watching this documentary and seeing the body cam of the Laundrie family refusing to cooperate makes me so angry that they're not in jail when they helped him!!!!"
Others, however, also seemingly placed blame with the numerous US police departments that were dispatched to handle the case, as someone else called the bodycam footage 'f***king disgraceful'.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, you can talk in confidence 24 hours a day to the national domestic violence helpline Refuge on 0808 2000 247.