Who Killed Gabby Petito? Revisiting the Travel Vlogger's Shocking Murder — and the Warning Signs Her Family Claims Went Unnoticed

Mar. 15, 2025

Investigators later learned that Laundrie had returned home to Florida 10 days before his fiancée was reported missing. He was officiallydeclared a person of intereston Sept. 15 butwent missingtwo days later.

Petito’s body was found in a camping area just outside of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on Sept. 19. Her cause of death was strangulation. Nearly a month later, Laundrie’s parents helped police locate his remains and a written confession in a park in North Port, Fla. His death was ruled a suicide.

After getting engaged to Brian Laundrie in July 2020, she started documenting their cross-country road trip on YouTube with the hope of launching a vlogging career. Petito’s parents described her as a “bright light” who “loved adventure.”

“That’s why she went on this trip,” her stepmom Tara Petito toldTudumin February 2025. “She was an artist. She was a great big sister. Her brothers and sisters adored her, and she adored them. We miss her and love her so much.”

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The exact day of Petito’s murder is unknown, butwitnesses saw the coupleget into an argument at a restaurant in Jackson, Wyo., on Aug. 27, 2021. A graphic designer namedJessica Schultzalso told theSan Francisco Chroniclethat she saw a “generic” young White man “acting weird” in the same camping area where Petito’s body was later found.

Schultz supplied the information to the FBI and noted that she didn’t see anyone with the man, whom she believed to be Laundrie.

Brian Laundrie.Instagram

Laundrie claimed responsibility for Petito’s death ina written confessioninvestigators found with his remains, per FBI Denver.

In it, he claimed that his fiancée was injured while trying to cross a stream and had a “small bump on her forehead that eventually got larger.” He wrote that Petito was “begging for an end to her pain.”

“I ended her life,” the confession read. “I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked. I was in shock. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldn’t go on without her."

A lawyer for Petito’s family told PEOPLE in June 2022 that Laundrie’s version of what happened was “nonsense.”

Grand Teton National Park entry point north of Jackson Wyoming on US Highway 89.Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty

Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty

Petito’s body was discovered at Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area just outside of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, on Sept. 19, 2021.

According to theAmerican Murderdocuseries, Laundrie left the area and went to Colter Bay Village, Wyo., on Aug. 28. There, he hitchhiked back to Spread Creek with a woman namedNorma Jean Jalovec, who said there wasn’t anything “extraordinary” about him — until they approached the site.

“He was antsy and just wanted to get out at the gate,” she told PEOPLE in September 2021. “I said, ‘Oh, you don’t want your fiancée to see you being dropped off out of an SUV. You want her to think you hiked all the way back.’ But now we all know, obviously, there was a reason why he probably didn’t want me to go down that road."

In June 2024, the FBI released hundreds of documents related to Petito’s murder investigation — includingan undated letterfrom her addressed to Laundrie.

In it, the young vlogger expressed her frustration that she couldn’t do more to help her fiancé when he was in pain and that she loved him “too much.”

“You know how much I love you,” the letter read. “Just please stop crying and stop calling me names because we’re a team and I’m here with you.”

Though Laundrie claimed he killed Petito in a merciful effort to relieve her pain following an injury, parents and friends of the late vlogger believe that she was a victim of domestic abuse.

Petito’s best friend,Rose Davis, described the couple’s relationship as “very toxic” and said Laundrie had “a jealousy problem.”

“I tried not to judge their relationship, but I knew something was off,” Davis told PEOPLE in September 2021. “I just, I didn’t expect this, obviously. I just thought he was just controlling.”

Two weeks before Petito went missing, police pulled the couple over in Moab, Utah, after a manwitnessed them arguingoutside of a food cooperative. The caller told the dispatcher that “the gentleman was slapping the girl.”

Police later released body camera footage of Laundrie and Petito, who they separated for the evening, and reported the incident as “disorderly conduct.” In November 2022, Petito’s parents fileda $50 million wrongful death lawsuitagainst the city of Moab alleging that the officers overlooked key warning signs of domestic violence.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

source: people.com