The perfect couple drives across country to national parks, but only one comes home. Gabby Petito and fiancé Brian Laundrie started their cross-country trip June of 2021. Petito, 22 was posting almost every day on social media about where they were.
All of that changed, on September 1st when Laundrie came back to his parents’ home in North Port Florida, in their 2012 Ford Transit, without Petito.
According to multiple sources, Petito’s family had started to lose contact with her around the end of August. Her mother told sources that their last message to each other was just “odd”. The message said, “Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls.” The Stan in question is Petito’s grandfather, and her mother knew she never referred to him by his real name. On September 11th, Petito’s parents officially reporting her missing.
Sunday, September 19, 2021, there was a body found very closely following her description in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest on the eastern edge of Grand Teton National Park. According to CBS News, on Tuesday, a coroner will be expected to post the results of the autopsy.
Laundrie and his parents have not spoken a word throughout this investigation. Until September 20th when the FBI escorted the family out of the home and told the FBI that Laundrie has been missing since September 14th. The parents told them that he was going to the Carlton reserve. From the home they a took a great amount of evidence, and his Ford Mustang convertible.
More evidence came to light, from August 12th a Moab Police bodycam was released after the couple was pulled over. Petito was in distraught after blaming her emotions on her obsessive-compulsive disorder. The couple decided to not press charges against each other.
Not long after, new audio of the 911 call was released that led to that bodycam video. The caller told police, “That he was slapping the girl. We stopped. They ran up and down the sidewalk, he proceeded to hit her”. According to the police report, police contacted the caller again to get more detail about what was going on. The caller the told police, “That he feared the worst”.
At first the FBI came to believe that they have “exhausted all avenues”, but as of Tuesday they are back searching for Laundrie in the Carlton reserve.
*Update: As of 9/28/21, The remains found in Wyoming’ Bridger-Teton National Forest were confirmed to be Gabby Petito by FBI autopsy. The search for Brian Laundrie is still on, he is said to be the main suspect in the case.*
