When a young woman named Gabby Petito went missing in 2021, her name quickly became a fixture of national headlines. In the weeks leading up to her mysterious disappearance, Petito had been documenting her seemingly happy travels with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, on social media as the couple made their way across the United States in a converted camper van. But soon she stopped posting, and her messages to her family seemed off. Then the authorities learned that Laundrie had quietly driven their shared van back to his parents' home in Florida — without Petito. When the police turned up at the Laundries’ to question Brian, his parents advised them to speak to their lawyer instead.
The increasingly odd circumstances surrounding the case made it go viral. Thanks to Petito’s social media presence, casual observers could watch and analyze her dispatches. A slew of armchair detectives attempted to solve the mystery of Petito’s whereabouts in real time.
American Murder: Gabby Petito, a three-part documentary series, goes beyond the media frenzy to let Petito’s family and friends share her story. Illustrated with real text messages, video footage, and excerpts from Petito’s personal journals, the series captures the reality of a young woman enmeshed in an abusive relationship behind closed doors — even as she put on a happy, “Insta-perfect” face for social media.
American Murder: Gabby Petito premiered on Feb. 17 on Netflix.
Born in 1999, Gabrielle Venora Petito grew up in New York and is described by her loved ones as cheerful and artistically inclined. Though she and Brian Laundrie ran in similar circles during high school, they didn’t become romantically involved until after graduation. Once things between them became more serious, Laundrie convinced Petito to move to Florida, where his family lived.
Eventually, he proposed, but their wedding plans fell by the wayside as they instead planned to buy a van and convert it into a camper so they could travel across the country. Though friends and family say they witnessed some concerning behavior from Laundrie regarding his possessiveness and anger, Petito assured them that everything was OK and insisted that their love was destined to be.
“It wasn't just about these beautiful pictures and this and that,” Michael Gasparro said in an interview alongside co-director and co-executive producer Julia Willoughby Nason on the You Can’t Make This Up podcast. “She was a kid trying to find herself and start a life for herself, and behind that — and behind the photos and the social media smiles and all that stuff — there was something that was darker. A struggle.”
On July 2, 2021, Petito and Laundrie embarked on a road trip across the United States while Petito filmed their journey for her new YouTube channel. On Aug. 12, the couple were spotted in the midst of a physical altercation in Moab, Utah, and a witness called 911 to report it. When the police caught up with the couple, they both had marks on them indicating physical violence, but after taking statements from both Laundrie and Petito, law enforcement determined that Petito had been the aggressor. The couple was ordered to spend the night apart but eventually resumed their trip. Watch a clip of the police body camera footage, which is shown in full for the very first time in the docuseries, here.
Petito was last seen alive on Aug. 27, 2021, in Wyoming, and multiple witnesses reported that they gave rides to Laundrie in the days after that, including one woman who drove him to the entrance of a campsite. Texts were sent from Petito’s phone to her mother during this time, but the way they were worded made her wonder if it was actually her daughter who had written them. On Sept. 1, Laundrie returned to his parents’ home in Florida and refused to speak to the authorities, despite Petito’s family’s frantic attempts to figure out what had happened to their daughter.
As media interest swirled around the developing story, many thought that Laundrie, now a person of interest in the case, was holed up at his parents’ house. But on Sept. 17, his parents reported him missing, setting off a manhunt for him in and around Florida — in addition to the search for Petito, already underway in Wyoming.
Read a detailed timeline of events — from when Gabby met Brian all the way through to the aftermath of the investigation into her disappearance — here.
Hear from Gabby’s parents — Joe Petito, Tara Petito, Nichole Schmidt, and Jim Schmidt — as they reflect on the aftermath of the harrowing events and their daughter’s vibrant memory here.
The chilling story unfolds in the trailer at the top of the page.
