Picture of Brian Laundrie (Left) and Gabby Petito (Right) posted on her instagram account on July 7, 2021. (Credit: @gabspetito / Instagram)
Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old woman from North Port, Florida, went missing after she went on a cross-country road trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie.
Her fiance returned back to his family home in Florida without Petito and didn’t report her missing. After the police visited his home a few times, Laundrie was nowhere to be found.
Petito and Laundrie were living in New York when they decided to start their cross-country road trip together. As they started this road trip, Petito began vlogging their adventures and posting onto their youtube channel.
During their trip, the couple came across an altercation with the police in Moab, Utah. The cops had been called on the couple after other drivers witnessed them fighting. When the police confronted them about the witness calls, they were separated to get their statements about what occurred. Petito stated that she had a cut on her face due to Laundrie grabbing her and scratching her with his nail. However, she did admit to hitting him first, which resulted in Laundrie hitting back. The police proceeded to separate the couple for the night to give each other some space after the incident.
Later on August 30th, Petito is assumed to have sent her last message reading, “No service in Yosemite”, to her family before disappearing. However, her family did not believe it was Gabby sending that message. Later on September 1st, Laundrie returned back to North Port, Florida without Petito.
Petito’s family was unable to get in touch with her and on September 11th, she was finally reported missing. Police attempted to speak with Laundrie but were unable to as they were instead handed the information from his attorney. An investigation in the search for Petito went forward and Laundrie disappeared.
Multiple searches for the couple were conducted individually and on September 19th, human remains were found in Teton County, which was claimed to be consistent with Petito’s appearance. These remains were later to be confirmed as Gabby Petito.
About a month later, Gabby’s autopsy results concluded that her death was by strangulation and ruled a homicide. It was also discovered that Petito had been deceased 3-4 weeks before being found. This immediately brought to question, who was the last person to text Gabby’s family?
On October 22, 2021, Brian Laundries’s remains had been found at the Carlton Reserve in North Port, Florida. A backpack and a notebook were found by his deceased body.
However, questions have arisen since Brian’s body was found shortly after his family started helping the FBI. How did Brian’s family find the body faster than the authorities people have asked? No more information has been revealed about the finding of Brians’s remains as it is an active investigation.
By Marlene Orozco-Vazquez, Staff Writer