The Case of Gabby Petito

By Isabella Olvera and Lorene Tingler

November 3rd, 2021

Gabby’s Last Instagram Post (Photo: Instagram)

The notorious case of Gabby Petito has true crime sleuths on the edge of their seat. In June, Gabby and her fiance, Brian Laundrie, decided to pack up their belongings and go on a trip across the country in their 2012 white Ford Transit van. However, on August 24th, Gabby called her mother for the last time. What could have happened to make Gabby disappear into thin air?

Gabby and Brian started dating when she was a sophomore and he was a junior. Friends and family stated that it was hard to know whether or not they were together, because they broke up and got back together so often. “They had very high highs and low lows,” Alyssa Chen, their friend, said in a People interview. “But she always said he was a good boyfriend.”

Brian was allegedly prone to “episodes”, Rose Davis, a friend of Gabby’s said. One night, Brian stole Petito’s ID when she was supposed to go out with her friends. Gabby would often stay at Davis’ house, trying to avoid Brian because he was “hearing voices and seeing things”. Additionally, Davis and Gabby shared their phone locations with each other to make sure the other was safe, but when Brian found out about this, he forced Gabby to delete the app.

On August 12th, 2021, a witness reported to police that they had seen “an altercation” between the couple. The couple had reportedly gotten into a physical fight after one of their arguments. The witness stated, “[Gabby] was punching [Brian] in the arm… and the gentleman was slapping the girl.” Brian had also suffered wounds presumably due to Gabby’s self defense. It’s unclear what started the fight, but this was surely a sign that their relationship had turned toxic.

On August 25th, Gabby posted her final Instagram post. Evidence suggests that Brian posted this, as she was suspected to have been deceased at the time of this post. The comment section on her last post is flooded with support, everyone leaving prayers or supportive statements. In her last two posts, her location was not stated, which was suspicious as all of her other posts had her location on them. Her second to last post was also using photos she had already posted weeks prior.

On September 1st, Brian returned to Florida; without Gabby. After returning home, he went camping with his family at Fort de Soto campground until September 6th. Brian announced that he was going hiking on September 14th, three days before he was reported missing.

About three days after Gabby’s body was found, on September 21, they did an autopsy. Dr. Brent Blue, who performed the autopsy, announced that her cause of death was homicide by strangulation, after it was discovered that her body was covered in multiple bruises. Blue additionally claimed that her body was left in the woods three to four weeks before finally being discovered. When her body was discovered, Blue didn’t comment on her appearance and didn’t mention if her body was buried or exposed. He said that the FBI would have to give that answer, due to the Wyoming State Law which says he can’t legally say any more to the public about her trauma.

On September 30th, ABC News obtained pages of records from North Port police. There were 46 pages of records for “calls of service”. Each of them came from the Laundrie household between the dates Sept. 10 - Sept. 27. They said they were not initially 911 calls, but apparently, some of them were initiated by police officers. Two calls were made on September 10th, a day before her parents reported her missing. Three calls were then made on September 11th, the day she was reported missing. At the moment, there is no released information as to why these calls were made.

On October 1st, new body cam footage was released of Gabby. “‘Did he hit you?’ The cop asked. ‘Well, like, he grabbed me with his nail’, Gabby replied”. Gabby was crying and emotionally distraught. She reported that Brian had grabbed her face, and admitted they had hit each other. A common trait of abuse victims is blaming themselves for their abusers actions, Gabby justified Brian’s behavior by stating she had started it. The police are being investigated to check whether or not they handled the situation correctly.

In an interview with GHHS student Daria Shirazi, she states, “I don’t know that there’s much more that the cops could have done.” When asked if they think Brian murdered Gabby, they responded, “I think that it’s possible.” Many citizens think that Brian was at fault for Gabby’s murder, and found that it was suspicious he went on the run after returning home.

Gabby’s family had recently joined twitter this Saturday to post tributes and emotional messages about their daughter on October 5. A lot of the Twitter community stood behind Gabby’s family, and they also expressed anger towards Gabby’s fiance, telling him to turn himself in and come out of hiding. Nichole Schmidt, Gabby’s mother, posted on Twitter saying, “Mama bear is getting angry, turn yourself in!”

As of October 20th, while police and parents were searching for Brian, they found some of his belongings, as well as human remains. The items found near the remains were Brian’s backpack and notebook. The FBI confirmed that the remains found were indeed those of Brian Laundrie’s. His father, Chris Laundrie, is the person who found his son’s belongings, which led to the discovery of his remains.

What happened to this couple is an eerie series of events. Hopefully, as more information gets released to the public, what exactly went down will become more evident. Despite how active Gabby and Brian were in the public eye, nobody truly could have known what was going on behind the scenes, or predicted the nasty series of events that caused both of them to reach the fate they both met.

Gabby Petito Timeline: July 2nd-September 23rd (Photo: Lorene Tingler)