Amy Love

Business & Science Editor

aml7458@psu.edu

According to authorities, on September 1st Brain Laundrie returned home to North Port, Florida after undertaking a cross-country van trip with fiance Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito. Strangely enough, Laundrie returned home alone without sharing the whereabouts of Petito, causing her parents to later report her missing on September 11th. 

Petito was documenting this voyage on Youtube and Instagram, @gabspetito, and she has been an active user of the site since 2014. On her feed, viewers can generally see photos of her while on the trip, as well as photos with Laundrie. To those scrolling through the feed, they pose as a healthy and happy couple.

The last confirmed sighting of Petito was August 24th and she was seen at a Fairfield Inn and Suites in Salt Lake City, Utah.​​ This sighting is 12 days after a witness called police due to a possible domestic violence situation involving Petito and Laundrie. 

The witness called because they believed they saw Laundrie slap Petito, however that was not mentioned in the body-camera footage released by the police department in Moab, Utah. In the footage, it can be seen that Petito and Laundrie were separated. It can be visibly seen that Petito is distraught and wiping tears off her face and was saying that they have “been fighting all morning. Just some personal issues.” Laundrie seemed okay and was explaining how Petito scratched his face with her phone when she tried to get the keys. 

She also informed the police that she suffers from high anxiety, leading to the police to label in their report of the altercation as a “mental/emotional break” in place of domestic assault.

While Petito was at the hotel, her mother states that was the last time her daughter was in contact. The mother, Nichole Schmidt, has informed the media that her daughter is usually keeping in touch, so the radio silence from her daughter was peculiar. 

Schmidt also said that she did receive texts from Petito’s phone, however she does not believe that they were from her daughter. Police were able to get a search warrant to achieve a hard-drive of Laundrie’s, revealing that final text. The text consisted of the following: “Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls.” 

Stan was apparently the name of Laundrie’s grandfather, and Schmidt informed authorities that Petito never referred to him as Stan. Soon after this text was sent, Petito’s phone was turned off. 

A Youtube channel, Red White & Bethune, happened to be editing a video they took on August 27th from 6:00-6:30pm in Spread Creek Dispersed Camping. In their footage, they realized they passed a white van with Florida plates. They had intentions to stop by and greet them, however the van seemed like nobody was there so they left. 

On September 19th, the FBI reported finding a body that had fit the description of Petito. On September 21st, a scheduled autopsy was performed and it was later announced the body was confirmed to be Petito’s. 

Laundrie is still reported to be missing. The FBI has recently obtained a search warrant for his home and his parents have released the information that Laundrie informed them that he was going to Carlton Reserve, which is a 25,000 acre lot. Authorities have been searching the area with search dogs, however it is posing issues and they are looking at other ways. Authorities also claim that it is hard to tell the distance Laundrie has traveled so far. 

Social media has played a major part in help solving the case. This case took a storm to social medias, such as on TikTok the #gabbypetito has been viewed more than 212 million times, according to the Washington Post. 

Michael Alcazar, who is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, as well as a retired New York Police Department, commented the following on people sending their tips and theories: “Most agencies don’t have that many detectives to canvas for witnesses, to canvas for any kind of evidence. Now we have so many eyes out there, millions of civilian investigators because now they’re on the lookout. It’s kind of like an Amber Alert, but more effective.” 

With so many eyes searching for details on the case, a lot has been completed. Many feel as if this energy was used for other missing person cases, many individuals would have been found.