Gabby Petito: Her Parents Speak Out

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Speaker 6 You said Brian's home, the van's home. Gabby's nowhere to be found.

Speaker 7 Gabby loved that van.

Speaker 8 Oh, yeah. She wouldn't have given that van up.

Speaker 9 Your heart sinks.

Speaker 8 It's an undescribable feeling in your body. And you don't sleep, you don't eat.
From that moment on, it's nonstop.

Speaker 7 The interview, you'll only see here. All four of Gabby's parents together speaking out.

Speaker 10 I said, I'm going to bring our daughter home no matter what. I'm not leaving there until I have her.

Speaker 11 Two people went on this vacation.

Speaker 12 You can't keep chocolate in Utah.

Speaker 11 And only one returned.

Speaker 13 Everybody wanted to find Gabby Petito.

Speaker 14 The whole world was looking for her. Yes.

Speaker 7 It was everywhere.

Speaker 15 We've gotten leads from 30 countries.

Speaker 16 Spottings throughout Florida, as far north as the Appalachian Trail.

Speaker 17 This urgent search for Gabby Petito.

Speaker 7 The text messages you haven't seen, what do they reveal?

Speaker 8 And I looked at Brian and I said, you better keep her safe. And he was like, I will.

Speaker 21 Were there any red flags that this was coming?

Speaker 22 Get my phone tight for my mom.

Speaker 14 I didn't get that phone call.

Speaker 8 I think she even realized, I need to get the hell out of this.

Speaker 6 We believe if a proper lethality assessment was done.

Speaker 25 Gabby would be alive today.

Speaker 11 Gabby Petito never goes outside.

Speaker 27 Hello, hello, and good morning.

Speaker 17 Now to a case-making national headlines tonight, this urgent search for Gabby Petito.

Speaker 24 Gabby Petito.

Speaker 19 Search for a missing woman, Gabby's appearance.

Speaker 17 Gabby Petito.

Speaker 24 The 22-year-old who vanished on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend.

Speaker 31 Gabby's family and those in the community who know and care for her are hoping for answers about her whereabouts.

Speaker 15 The family is devastated. Every day that this goes on, they get more and more desperate.

Speaker 31 Whatever you can do to make sure my daughter comes home, I'm asking for that help. There is nothing else that matters to me now.

Speaker 33 If anybody just has any information, any information out there, this girl right here, this is what matters.

Speaker 31 That is it.

Speaker 7 It's a story that captivated the nation.

Speaker 35 Wow, on this Gabby Petito case.

Speaker 7 Dominating social media and news coverage, now the subject of new headlines with a just-released docuseries. American Murder Gabby Petito is now streaming on Netflix.

Speaker 37 You know what is my absolute favorite part about the van?

Speaker 7 Gabby Petito's parents and their spouses, who raised her as a unit for for so many years, sitting down together as a blended family.

Speaker 10 Marketing,

Speaker 14 the whole world was looking for her.

Speaker 8 We would have went to the edge of the earth to find her.

Speaker 6 We really had hope. We really did.
Because there's a million different scenarios that could play out just the same. Hurt in the wilderness, bad reception, you know, all that stuff.

Speaker 7 But it would all end in tragedy.

Speaker 14 We're not the same people we were before this happened.

Speaker 8 There was life before and life after.

Speaker 7 Everyone knows this story. When people hear her name, what is it that you want them to think about?

Speaker 25 That she wasn't just a victim, she was a person.

Speaker 25 She was an artist. She loved life.
She loved adventure.

Speaker 6 Gabby was a really good person. She really tried to get the best or see the best in people.

Speaker 7 Gabby's parents told me reliving these horrific days is hard.

Speaker 6 We share it to help others. We do it because the more we do it, the more people send us emails.
And it's Gabby's story that touched us. Thank you for doing what you do.

Speaker 25 Gabby gave us a platform. We could

Speaker 25 go cry all day. What is that going to do? So we're going to use it to try to help others as much as possible.

Speaker 7 Gabby Petito was raised with so much love. Her mom, Nicole, and dad, Joe, split up when she was just a baby, and they both remarried.

Speaker 7 Their spouses, Tara and Jim, become part of the parental unit, all raising her together.

Speaker 6 It was always about her first, and we'll figure out the rest.

Speaker 8 We worked together as a team, and now we're even closer than ever.

Speaker 10 If it wasn't for her, I don't think we would be where we are today. We all have different strengths, we all have weak moments.

Speaker 6 If I'm down, Jim will call me up, Tara to sit by my side, Nikki, you know, she'll call us up, and we pick each other up.

Speaker 7 Let's talk about Gabby. What was she like as a little girl?

Speaker 6 She was easy in terms of just going with the flow. She was always up for whatever we were going to do.
So in that respect, it was easy. Sometimes she'd get in trouble.
It didn't happen.

Speaker 40 You know, she was a kid after all.

Speaker 10 I still remember the first time I saw her. I could tell you exactly what she was wearing.

Speaker 10 She had these pigtails and she comes like bouncing out and it was the brightest blue eyes, the biggest smile you've ever seen. And that was the way she was ever since she was little all the way on up.

Speaker 10 larger than life.

Speaker 8 She was just always happy and just physically tiny.

Speaker 25 She was an amazing artist. We had had a large kitchen island and she would spread her artwork all over the island and just make masterpieces.

Speaker 7 Gabby is the oldest of six, a loving older sister to her siblings from both sets of parents.

Speaker 8 She was a great pig sister.

Speaker 6 Yeah, she was. 26.

Speaker 7 It's a lot of siblings.

Speaker 6 A lot of siblings.

Speaker 7 Gabby and her family live in Blue Point on Long Island, just outside of New York City. By high school, Gabby has a big circle of friends.
One of of them is a boy named Brian Laundrie.

Speaker 7 Do you remember the moment she first started talking about Brian?

Speaker 8 They had known each other in high school as friends.

Speaker 10 He was a year older, so he had graduated and gone on, and then Gabby continued through, and it wasn't until after she graduated that they reconnected.

Speaker 10 And that's when we started to hear more about Brian and kind of came to the realization that they were going to be more than just friends. Yeah.

Speaker 7 That's a weird feeling, I'm sure, for dads.

Speaker 6 Well, I never liked anyone that wanted to date my daughter because no one was really good enough for her, in my opinion.

Speaker 7 Do you like him? What do you think of him when you realize that they were romantically involved?

Speaker 27 I

Speaker 8 liked Brian. I thought he was interesting.

Speaker 8 He was very soft-spoken. He would sit and do art with Gabby's younger sisters.
He got along with TJ, her brother, and he just seemed like a nice person.

Speaker 40 I mean, respectful, always came in, shook your hand,

Speaker 10 was nice, but just quiet. He was just quiet.
He was very quiet. Quiet person.

Speaker 7 After high school, Gabby and Brian start dating. When things get more serious, they eventually make the decision to move to Florida to be closer to Brian's family.
They move in with Brian's parents.

Speaker 7 When she mentioned she wanted to move to Florida, What did you guys think of that?

Speaker 6 She wanted she was old and I was over 18. You can't stop them from doing something like that, right?

Speaker 8 I said to her, do it if you think you feel like you want to, but you can always come home. At that point, she was almost 20,

Speaker 8 so I couldn't tell her no, but she was looking for my advice. I think she asked all of us.

Speaker 25 I wasn't against her going. I just was like, make sure you take care of you.
You are number one. You are the most important.
Don't rely on somebody else. Make sure you just take care of you.

Speaker 8 Yeah, we wanted her to be independent, you know, make sure you get yourself a job, that you can pay for things.

Speaker 7 And I'm curious kind of what your relationship with Brian was like at this point.

Speaker 8 When they were in New York still, I would see him and talk to him quite often. But once they got down to Florida, that relationship was very limited.

Speaker 8 It was, I was talking to Gabby almost every day, but not Brian.

Speaker 25 Same for us.

Speaker 7 But soon Gabby and Brian take a big step.

Speaker 8 I thought it was weird that she didn't want to tell us right away.

Speaker 6 We found out on Facebook.

Speaker 14 She loved Halloween.

Speaker 6 It's one of her favorites.

Speaker 8 Remember the Halloween she painted her face?

Speaker 43 She painted her own makeup.

Speaker 25 We're lucky we have a lot of memories.

Speaker 25 We're lucky we have so many pictures of her.

Speaker 25 I'm so happy that she took as many as she did

Speaker 25 because that's what we have. That's what we have now.

Speaker 10 This is the Outer Banks, I think.

Speaker 8 Yeah, I took that in the Outer Banks. Isn't that the best picture?

Speaker 8 She was a ham for the camera, that's for sure.

Speaker 25 Oh, she never took a bad picture.

Speaker 24 And this is why photos are so important.

Speaker 6 Annoy the kids, annoy the friends, annoy the family. Take the photos, because you never know then when that's all you're going to have.

Speaker 7 Gabby and Brian are now living in Northport, Florida with Brian's parents.

Speaker 7 Did she say anything about that relationship?

Speaker 8 There were a few incidents.

Speaker 8 Never anything with Brian. It was always like she always felt weird around the parents.
I thought about that a lot. I was like, I wonder what's going on with the parents.

Speaker 8 Like what's the relationship like? But she would always assure me that it was fine.

Speaker 7 Gabby makes a new friend in Florida who shares her first impression of Brian in the Netflix docuseries.

Speaker 44 Hey little birds.

Speaker 7 We were all going to the beach together and he kind of just sat back there and read his book while Gabby and I hung out. It felt like a parent was watching us on a play date.

Speaker 45 It was very weird, but he was very nice.

Speaker 46 I do remember coming home and saying to my mom, she's like, well, how was it?

Speaker 48 How was her boyfriend? And I was like, he's a really nice guy, but there is something off about him.

Speaker 7 But in July 2020, after dating a little over a year, Gabby and Brian go on a camping trip and get engaged.

Speaker 49 Brian asked me to marry him and I said yes.

Speaker 49 You make life feel unreal and every day is such a dream with you.

Speaker 7 Her parents say they found out when someone congratulated the couple on Facebook.

Speaker 6 I'm an old school person

Speaker 6 and as an old school person the one thing you do is you go up to the father of the person you want to marry and you ask him for their hand in marriage or parent asked them for their hand in marriage.

Speaker 6 That didn't happen. We found out on Facebook.

Speaker 40 All of us, we did.

Speaker 8 Are you surprised? I thought it was weird. Now looking back, I thought it was weird that she didn't want to tell us right away.
Like that's something you get excited about.

Speaker 20 She wasn't.

Speaker 25 Yeah, maybe she wasn't.

Speaker 10 She was, but she wasn't.

Speaker 8 Yeah, she was excited about the planning. I feel like she was like, yay, I can plan this wedding, pick out dresses.

Speaker 8 She started a Pinterest page.

Speaker 10 She wanted to do a beach wedding and all this stuff. And then COVID happened and it kind of stalled all of those plans.
We're like, listen, we're not,

Speaker 10 can't travel, your grandparents aren't going to travel. So she kind of like put it on the back shelf for a while there.

Speaker 7 While the wedding planning seems to be on hold, Gabby and Brian make other big plans. They're going on an adventure, road tripping across the country.

Speaker 7 They get a small van that they were outfitting for the trip.

Speaker 44 I love the van.

Speaker 8 The van looked amazing. Everything looked pretty.

Speaker 6 That van was her pride and joy. Like, she was really, really proud of that van.
And we saw it was it was done really, really well.

Speaker 7 Gabby and Ryan weren't the only ones inspired to take off in a van during the pandemic. At the time, van life, as it's called online, was exploding.

Speaker 47 Van life is exactly what it sounds. It's living in often a restored van or school bus and having this kind of nomadic lifestyle where you can travel all around the country.

Speaker 47 It was growing in popularity largely through Instagram and YouTube.

Speaker 7 As parents, like as she's about to set out on this man life adventure, are you going like how are you going to feed yourself? How are you going to wash?

Speaker 8 Are you thinking about all those details?

Speaker 40 No, yes, 100%

Speaker 10 because it was crazy because we would go camping, we had a small little travel trailer and when she was younger, she hated it. There was bugs,

Speaker 10 there was sand, it was dirt, and she wasn't really big into it. And as she started getting into that type of stuff, I'm like, is this the same person?

Speaker 10 And so when she showed us the setup, you know, we have this cooler cooler that, you know, it plugs in, it's 12 volt, can turn it into a freezer. Here's our portable sink inside.

Speaker 10 This is how the sink works. Here's a portable shower that catches rainwater.

Speaker 20 And I'm like, you're doing all this? Solar power.

Speaker 10 Solar power to heat it and all this crazy stuff. So kind of thought of everything.

Speaker 8 And said that, you know, they had plenty of money saved up for it. You know, she had been working up until right before they left.

Speaker 6 I mean, we kept sending her money too, though.

Speaker 18 Let's just be real in this situation.

Speaker 25 I was not.

Speaker 43 I didn't send her money. Joe.

Speaker 20 Joe joe might have sent her money

Speaker 6 i would apple pay her money and then you would see like what's this apple charge and i'd be like oh i guess i got hacked i'll order a new bank card so like i think it was like four times in a year i had to get a new bank card just to play it off you know before heading out on the cross-country trip they come back to new york to go to her brother tj's high school graduation

Speaker 8 She took him camping as a graduation gift and a birthday graduation gift because it was also his birthday. But her, Brian, and TJ went on a camping trip.
I think it was in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania.

Speaker 8 Then they came back, and not too long after that, they left.

Speaker 8 Beginning of July.

Speaker 7 When they set out on that adventure, what did you say to her before she left? Do you remember?

Speaker 8 I was absolutely the luckiest one. I got to give her a hug goodbye, and it was the most amazing, squeezy hug.
And she was crying.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 I said, Why are you crying? And she was like,

Speaker 14 I don't know.

Speaker 8 And I just was like, Maybe she's just so excited. And then I looked at Brian and I said, You better take good care of her, keep her safe.
And he was like,

Speaker 8 I will. You know, it's just his very soft-spoken, I will.
And I

Speaker 8 cherished that moment. That's that was the last time I had her

Speaker 8 in my arms.

Speaker 7 Did you trust that they would be okay together?

Speaker 43 I did.

Speaker 14 I did.

Speaker 42 I

Speaker 8 didn't want to worry. I knew she'd be okay.

Speaker 8 And,

Speaker 8 I mean, as a mom, I was worried a little bit. I said, you're going to be out on the road, the two of you alone.
Just be careful. Be safe.
Don't talk to strangers, all that stuff.

Speaker 7 Gabby and Brian set off on their adventure with big dreams. She wants to be a vlogger and begins to document her trip on social media.

Speaker 31 So, we are right outside outside Capital During right now

Speaker 12 because

Speaker 12 you can't keep chocolate in Utah.

Speaker 22 Not in July.

Speaker 47 The way to live a sustainable life as a van lifer is to have millions of followers online. That's how you make money.
So Gabby definitely wanted to be part of this community.

Speaker 47 She and Brian were posting it on Instagram, on YouTube, and they were documenting this journey for people on the internet to essentially engage with.

Speaker 7 Was that like what she wanted to do for her career? Was this sort of like her dream?

Speaker 8 She was living in the moment, I would say.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I think it's something she wanted to do. I think she was looking at it more as a hobby at the moment and see where it can go from there.

Speaker 25 And she always had that creative eye. I mean, she always enjoyed taking the photos and the pictures.
And we would go on vacation and

Speaker 25 she had our GoPro and she would take videos of us doing things. So I think that's something that she always really enjoyed to do.
So why not try to make it as a career?

Speaker 8 She had asked if we could get her a a drone so her grandpa Stan and I kind of split that we bought her the drone and that made that video like so much better and she she was like a natural at that stuff.

Speaker 7 Brian stretching, doing some

Speaker 26 morning yoga.

Speaker 50 When I look at Gabby's Instagram I see her building her brand. She followed a lot of people who also were doing the van life thing too.

Speaker 50 So it looks like she was following the formula for how how to get successful there.

Speaker 47 Living in a van is a struggle. It is not the beautiful, picturesque life that a lot of internet creators painted out to be.

Speaker 50 And Gabby and Brian were in a smaller van than I usually see people in.

Speaker 41 I imagine that's a lot of pressure.

Speaker 50 Any relationship has fights, but now you're in this tiny van, there's no place else to go.

Speaker 7 I don't know what you're supposed to do when you're in that kind of an environment.

Speaker 54 Life on the road is difficult. You have to pivot a lot.
It changes in a millisecond and you have to be ready for that.

Speaker 32 I'd like to report a domestic dispute.

Speaker 26 Hey, we got a call about a male hitting a female and the two of them getting in this vehicle and taking off.

Speaker 7 When did you see the video of her?

Speaker 30 Let's go ahead and get you to step out of the vehicle.

Speaker 30 Well, we can real tight.

Speaker 7 Gabby and Brian are on the road. The photos flooding Gabby's social media accounts paint a picture of a couple blissfully in love.

Speaker 7 But in reality, it seems van life isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Speaker 21 Behind the scenes, Gabby and Brian would get into arguments.

Speaker 57 No, turn in.

Speaker 47 They were struggling. They were not the cream of the crop van life creators.
They were not going viral. You know, they were really living hand to mouth.

Speaker 47 And so there was a lot of tension, you could tell, around that, it seemed.

Speaker 8 I was texting her a lot more, like, things like, are you and Brian okay? Because I was worried about that dynamic being stuck in the van together 24 hours a day.

Speaker 37 You know what is my absolute favorite part about the van?

Speaker 38 What's that?

Speaker 36 The fact that we have this nice big open floor for you to keep your dirty feet on.

Speaker 8 In those videos where he rolls his eyes, I never noticed that before.

Speaker 8 Seeing that really hit me. I was like, wow, that's who he really is.
He showed his true colors.

Speaker 7 But life in the van is about to go from minor annoyances to some far more serious problems.

Speaker 13 They've been on this trip over a month.

Speaker 13 And then on August 12th,

Speaker 13 there is a phone call. It plays to 911.

Speaker 7 A witness calls 911 to report a man with a beard slapping a young woman near a local grocery store.

Speaker 56 Hi, can you hear me, sir? Yeah, I can hear you.

Speaker 20 Hi, I'm calling.

Speaker 32 I'm right on the corner of Main Street by Moonflower, and we're driving by, and I'd like to report a domestic dispute in Florida with a white van.

Speaker 9 Essentially, when police respond to domestic violence calls, it is typically messy, where you might have a witness who sees a piece of it.

Speaker 17 What were they doing?

Speaker 32 We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl. He was slapping her? Yes, and then we stopped.
They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car, and they drove off.

Speaker 7 Within minutes, one of the responding officers spots Gabby's white van with its distinctive black ladder.

Speaker 59 Driver is showing some obscure driving, possibly intoxicated. Currently doing 45 miles an hour.
Zone through here is 25. Oh, subject says to hit the curb.

Speaker 9 Body cameras warned by the Moab police capture a traffic stop that will eventually go viral, but only after she went missing.

Speaker 60 Developing tonight in Utah, a new glimpse of 22-year-old Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie.

Speaker 7 Now there's body cam video that shows the moments after police were called.

Speaker 24 That video is out.

Speaker 40 Here it is.

Speaker 7 What's your guys' names? Gabby.

Speaker 14 Gabby, Brian. Okay.

Speaker 26 What's going on? How can we crying?

Speaker 12 I've been crying. We've just been fighting this morning.

Speaker 18 Some personal issues.

Speaker 59 He's alone, David. We were camping yesterday and camping

Speaker 61 out of supplies and stuff.

Speaker 52 I'm sorry. I'm sorry I I hit the bunk there.

Speaker 62 I was distracting him from driving, I'm sorry.

Speaker 56 Can I get you to step out of the vehicle for me now? Yeah.

Speaker 8 The August 12th incident when they got pulled over.

Speaker 8 That day was a pivotal moment in that relationship.

Speaker 25 We didn't have all the facts. We had no idea how it really played out.

Speaker 7 Gabby's family was stunned to see these images of her. They were released without any warning.

Speaker 10 I was in Wyoming out there looking for her, and there was a news reporter who had said, hey, just an FYI, there's some camera footage coming out of Moab

Speaker 10 from when they were there. And so I remember texting back home, not knowing fully what it was.

Speaker 7 When did you see the video of her?

Speaker 25 When everybody else did. We were glued to the television watching it.

Speaker 6 I haven't.

Speaker 7 You haven't watched it?

Speaker 6 I won't watch it. I read the transcript.
I won't watch it.

Speaker 6 You want to talk about Tom?

Speaker 6 I really bad OCD.

Speaker 20 And I just...

Speaker 63 I was just cleaning when he's waiting up back at the end of the floor, and I was apologizing to him and saying, I'm sorry that I'm so mean because sometimes I have OCD and sometimes I can get really frustrated.

Speaker 63 I'm not like mean and foreign to him.

Speaker 7 I just like

Speaker 7 I guess

Speaker 7 my vibe is like I really tire when you like in a bad mood.

Speaker 57 Why wouldn't you let me in the car?

Speaker 18 Because Toby I need to

Speaker 18 calm down. Yeah.

Speaker 18 But I'm perfectly calm.

Speaker 26 I'm calm all the time and he really stresses me out and I just

Speaker 18 This is a rough morning.

Speaker 9 When questioned by officers at the scene Brian downplays the incident and chalks it up to a disagreement.

Speaker 65 So tell me what's going on.

Speaker 52 The series just gets worked up sometimes, and I try and really distance myself from her. So, like, I locked the car and I walked away from her.

Speaker 52 I think that our little squabble started because you're hanging out at the coffee shop, and when I got back to the building, there was some drinking and stuff again.

Speaker 17 And I moved our food around.

Speaker 52 I wouldn't even call a disagreement.

Speaker 56 There's a few little things, just little relationships.

Speaker 52 I didn't get a relationship, and actually I've been married for over five years now.

Speaker 18 There's a lot of little things that

Speaker 66 the interesting dynamic is that Brian Laundrie is really calm, and there's such a discrepancy that it's almost an intentional way to discredit her experience.

Speaker 63 I was just saying, I'm sorry if I'm in a bad mood.

Speaker 64 I've just been really stressed.

Speaker 15 I had so much work I was doing on my computer this morning.

Speaker 63 So I've been building my website.

Speaker 64 So I've just been really stressed and he doesn't really believe that I could do any of it. So that's kind of been like a,

Speaker 7 I don't know, he's like,

Speaker 22 I don't know, we've been fighting all morning and.

Speaker 7 For about an hour, police questioned Brian and Gabby in an attempt to figure out what was really going on Remember the 911 caller reported seeing a man with a beard slapping a woman

Speaker 26 So there's two people that came to us and told us that they saw him hit you.

Speaker 25 Well to be honest I doesn't want you first

Speaker 26 Where'd you hit him?

Speaker 8 I slapped him

Speaker 26 You slapped him first?

Speaker 52 Maybe they shut up. How many times did you slapping him?

Speaker 64 Just a couple of weeks he got really frustrated with me and he locked me out of of the car and told me to go take a breather, but I didn't want to take a breather.

Speaker 7 When questioning Brian, police noticed minor injuries on his face.

Speaker 52 You want to tell me about those scratches on your face? She had a cell phone in her hand. That's why I was pushing her away.
I said, let's just take a breather and let's not go anywhere.

Speaker 52 Let's just halve down for a minute.

Speaker 52 We'll see if she got here.

Speaker 52 Can I see her hand?

Speaker 7 Gabby admits she hit Brian first.

Speaker 7 Police now have a critical decision to make.

Speaker 61 Gabby, this is a very, very important question.

Speaker 52 How you answer this question is going to determine what happens next.

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Speaker 7 Sitting in the back of that Utah police car, Gabby Petito is visibly anxious and upset.

Speaker 9 According to both Gabby Petito and Brian Laundry, it was Gabby and not Brian who was the initial aggressor.

Speaker 52 I don't want to try and defend myself by saying anything here, but I pushed her away.

Speaker 61 She gets really worked up.

Speaker 13 There are relationships in which women are aggressively violent toward men. But in the vast majority of domestic violence situations, the men are the aggressors.

Speaker 13 And the women in public when questioned about it, especially by law enforcement, will often take responsibility for it out of fear that the aggressor, the man in their relationship, will be more angry if they don't.

Speaker 20 Tell him what happened, Winnie.

Speaker 14 Tell them if you don't mind.

Speaker 7 As police continue to question Brian, he describes how he says Gabby hit him.

Speaker 30 So you pushed her and she hit you.

Speaker 72 She was.

Speaker 52 I wasn't, it wasn't like a push, and she jumped on me. She was, she was already

Speaker 52 she was already I don't know what to say she's already swinging and I was

Speaker 59 in your neck you got one on your left side of your neck

Speaker 52 got one in your face here and you got more blue

Speaker 7 while Brian is speaking to police and anxious Gabby is in the back seat of that police car yeah again I believe that was the pivotal moment I think that was the moment when she even realized

Speaker 8 I need to get the hell out of this how can I do it on my own she didn't She didn't want to ask us for help.

Speaker 7 But she asked for her mom, like in that, you see that in the video.

Speaker 8 There's a spot in the documentary, and

Speaker 43 she says, can I have my phone so I can call my mom?

Speaker 23 And my phone's like, bye, mom.

Speaker 18 And I didn't get that phone call.

Speaker 8 Because maybe at that moment, maybe she would have told me what was going on.

Speaker 7 While Gabby did not speak to Nicole during the stop, she did speak to her dad, Joe.

Speaker 6 She called me during the traffic stop.

Speaker 7 What did she say?

Speaker 6 It was her fault. And that was, we told her, it's fine.
I'm going to be on the next plane to come get you. And she's like, no, no, no,

Speaker 6 it's my fault. We didn't have the information.

Speaker 20 We didn't have all the other information.

Speaker 6 She was being slapped and all this other stuff prior. We didn't have any other information.
What happened to her?

Speaker 7 She never told me about their fight in Moab, but I've seen her that upset before

Speaker 5 because of him.

Speaker 9 now police on the scene have a decision to make Ryan.

Speaker 52 Unfortunately in the state of Utah, the state legislature doesn't give us discretion on those charges when it comes to domestic assault and your own

Speaker 52 companion have made it clear that she was the primary aggressor and that she was striking you and you just received injuries.

Speaker 52 So at this point, you're the victim of domestic assault and that you can go on that. Even if you didn't want to pursue this, you don't have a choice.

Speaker 52 Now the problem with her being the primary cancer is in an incidence of domestic assault, be it a male or be it a female, we shall arrest.

Speaker 13 She appeared to be the aggressor and she said she was the aggressor. Now, do I believe that?

Speaker 43 No.

Speaker 13 But the police can only go on the evidence they are given.

Speaker 7 After discussing the situation, one of the officers goes over to speak with Gabby.

Speaker 9 So when you watch this video, what I saw was a bunch of police officers trying to sort this out and they appeared to be compassionate towards both parties.

Speaker 13 So look,

Speaker 30 I'm going to speak to you frankly.

Speaker 6 I have a daughter almost your age and I'm looking at you not so much like a suspect,

Speaker 26 but also as kind of a victim in the sense that stuff you did today that contributed to this, because you both contributed to this,

Speaker 72 is as a result of your inability to cope with the anxiety and the stress that you're having.

Speaker 26 Normally we take people to jail, but he's trying to work it so you can just have the van.

Speaker 22 I don't want to be separated.

Speaker 26 You can have anxiety?

Speaker 67 Yeah, no, we're a team, please.

Speaker 20 There's no other one of them?

Speaker 67 No, like, where is he? Please, man. He's going to give me so much anxiety.
Can we just have me like a driving thing?

Speaker 72 The very best thing I can do is call my supervisor and see if I'm missing something here.

Speaker 17 Gabby admitted punching him first.

Speaker 9 The technical requirement under Utah law is that this be done with an intent to cause some sort of harm or inflict pain.

Speaker 9 So as they examine the evidence in the case, they asked that specific question when she's in the back of the police car.

Speaker 61 Gabby, this is a very, very important question.

Speaker 52 How you answer this question is going to determine what happens next.

Speaker 18 When you slapped him those times,

Speaker 52 Were you attempting to cause him physical pain or physical impairment?

Speaker 30 Was that what you were attempting to do to him?

Speaker 65 No, I was trying to get him because I was going to be hungry.

Speaker 52 Well, it doesn't sound to me like she attempted to injure him.

Speaker 24 Those officers were heading down the path of making an arrest, and they changed direction.

Speaker 7 Remember, while Gabby was unable to contact her mom, Nicole, she did speak to her dad during that traffic stop.

Speaker 6 She talked to the officer and says, he's going to let me go. It's, you know, it's fine.

Speaker 6 it was just a big misunderstanding and that was that and again I didn't have the video and I didn't talk to the police or anything and I had to take her word for it and I'm like all right you know listen I understand misunderstandings happen you know

Speaker 6 especially when you're you're in a small confined space I I get it how a disagreement can can come about

Speaker 52 all righty Gabrielle you want to step out for me

Speaker 7 Police decide not to arrest Gabby. Instead, they separate the couple for the night.

Speaker 9 Gabby gets to leave in the van while Brian, seen by the police as a domestic violence victim, is taken to a hotel for the night.

Speaker 74 I'm giving him a ride over to the hotel, okay?

Speaker 24 So

Speaker 74 everything's gonna be okay.

Speaker 64 Will it be a far drive for me to get him in the morning?

Speaker 21 I'm just curious.

Speaker 30 I'm not gonna tell you where he's gonna be at tonight.

Speaker 56 Like I said, I want you guys to be separated.

Speaker 8 If I had had that opportunity at that moment to speak to her, I think because she was in the back of the police car, she would have said more to me.

Speaker 8 Then after thinking about it too long, later on calling me and telling me it was just a bad day. I just had a rough day.

Speaker 35 I was stressed out.

Speaker 8 Brian and I are fine.

Speaker 8 Now that video is the truth.

Speaker 35 We have the truth.

Speaker 9 Brian and Gabby were told to stay away from each other for 24 hours.

Speaker 26 Too many times women who are at risk want to go back to their abuser and then they end up getting killed.

Speaker 7 The very next day, the couple is back on the road. And what happens next will spark a nationwide search.

Speaker 24 Developments tonight

Speaker 71 desperate for answers.

Speaker 10 She predicted the outcome.

Speaker 7 The video shows an idyllic cross-country trip. Gabby Petito launches her vlog, Nomad Ecstatic.

Speaker 12 All the chocolate mounted.

Speaker 10 It's a river of chocolate.

Speaker 12 You can't keep chocolate in Utah.

Speaker 22 Not in July.

Speaker 6 But she showed us the video, like it was an awesome video. Like we, I enjoyed it.
We all enjoyed it. I couldn't believe she made something like that.

Speaker 27 I think our plan for today is to just hang out here in the tent.

Speaker 8 She seemed a little stressed, but other than that, she was loving every moment. visiting all the national parks and doing things that I've never done.

Speaker 6 Surfing the Sand Dunes in Colorado. Like, that's cool, man, you know?

Speaker 9 On the other side of the video camera, things seem to be melting down.

Speaker 16 I've been covering the Gabby Petito case since day one.

Speaker 16 We do know that on August 27th,

Speaker 16 At Mary Piglet's restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming, witnesses reported a lot of screaming, him yelling at the restaurant staff, going in and out of the restaurant.

Speaker 53 He was really angry.

Speaker 41 That's the best I can describe it.

Speaker 53 He was just very visibly angry.

Speaker 53 And in that moment, Gabby reminded me a lot of how she seemed in that body cam video of the cop. She just seemed distraught.
She seemed really upset.

Speaker 25 She was emotional. She was crying.

Speaker 67 Please, man, this is going to give me so much anxiety.

Speaker 16 And then people saw them get into this van and leave.

Speaker 7 The last time Gabby was seen was August 27th on the surveillance tapes at a Whole Foods grocery. Her parents didn't see it till much

Speaker 8 I was watching the body language in that video and it just didn't look right. He slams the door to the van, they walk in, she's got her arms crossed.

Speaker 6 I think just her body movements and not being close together, stuff like that. You can see the differences.

Speaker 6 It screams confrontation.

Speaker 7 Looking back, Gabby's posts that last week of August seem a little off.

Speaker 7 Later, internet sleuths comb through every post, offering opinions and coming up with theories about what happened.

Speaker 7 I do believe that going forward, these massive cases will

Speaker 39 find

Speaker 39 more ground on social media.

Speaker 42 They want to solve these cases.

Speaker 39 Gabby in the photo has perfect hair after being on a trip for two months in a van.

Speaker 42 And she is holding a pumpkin and writes, Happy Halloween, which is odd because it was posted on August 25th.

Speaker 74 So in Gabby's latest Instagram post, her roots are not there, especially in comparison to some of them before that.

Speaker 9 Were these posts put online by Gabby? They seem like they aren't new photos.

Speaker 7 Something isn't right. To her mom, Gabby's texts start to sound odd as well, like one about her grandfather.

Speaker 9 The text message to her mom read, can you help Stan? I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls. Stan is her grandfather's name.

Speaker 13 And what's weird about that is that Gabby never called her grandfather by his name, Stan.

Speaker 13 The last contact that Gabby's mother has from her daughter is August 30th. She gets a text that says only

Speaker 13 no service in Yosemite,

Speaker 13 which is strange because it's so brief, but also they weren't going to Yosemite.

Speaker 7 Nicole thinks maybe Gabby and Brian have changed their plans, but it almost sounds like Gabby isn't sending the text herself. Is Brian sending the texts?

Speaker 8 I questioned it, but then I thought there was fires out that way. Maybe they had to reroute.
Maybe Brian did send the text. text, maybe she's driving the van.

Speaker 8 Like I had all these reasons as to why maybe it was from her.

Speaker 8 But that was the last text I received and every day I'm like, Gabby, Gabby, Gabby, and I'm getting nothing. Then I'm like, let me check social media.
There's got to be something.

Speaker 8 Nothing. So I called Joe.
I said, I'm worried. He said he hadn't heard from her.
And...

Speaker 7 So you guys are texting each other, calling each other?

Speaker 6 Oh yeah, we did anyway. I just started calling every hospital and national park I could to see if I could find out out where they are.
Maybe it's just bad signal.

Speaker 7 Were you talking to Brian at this point? Did you reach out to him?

Speaker 6 None of them will talk to us.

Speaker 8 I sent a text to Roberta and Brian, and I got no response from either one. Same.

Speaker 6 I mean, I even went as far as I'm going to call the cops. And usually when you hear, you know, someone's going to call the cops, you wouldn't be like, what are you, let's see what's going on here.

Speaker 6 And nope.

Speaker 7 The Petitos have no way of knowing that. While they are trying to find Gabby, Gabby's Gabby's van is on the move.

Speaker 7 But Brian is the only one in it.

Speaker 9 He has driven it all the way from Wyoming back to Florida. And when the police go to the laundry home.

Speaker 75 Hi, Danny, sir. I apologize.
I have the detective on the phone.

Speaker 7 The Petitos are staggered by what they hear.

Speaker 26 Is Gabriel here?

Speaker 76 No, she's not here. Okay.

Speaker 7 Brian is inside. Gabby has disappeared.

Speaker 8 I said don't talk to strangers. Little did I know it doesn't have to be a stranger that's the evil person.

Speaker 31 Two people went on a trip, one person returned.

Speaker 34 This girl right here, this is what matters.

Speaker 7 The interview you'll only see here all four of Gabby's parents together speaking out.

Speaker 25 We didn't know where she would be. She could be somewhere in a hospital or a shelter.

Speaker 16 Lights, cameras, reporters. We are everywhere.

Speaker 13 Everybody wanted to find this woman. Suddenly we have internet sleuths.

Speaker 8 There's a clue, like, that's probably the last location.

Speaker 40 They didn't have that.

Speaker 10 We're just going to be looking today.

Speaker 11 Protesters started gathering outside the laundry house. The truth always comes out.
Where's Brian? Where's Gabby?

Speaker 8 I said he did something to her. I know it.

Speaker 7 There was a note. It was a letter.
It said, burn after reading.

Speaker 27 Hello, hello, and good morning.

Speaker 26 Brian's stretching, doing some morning yoga.

Speaker 7 The version of ourselves that we show online isn't always the full picture. Gabby Petito has spent weeks crafting her posts.

Speaker 7 She's trying to become a van life influencer, traveling the country with her fiancé, Brian.

Speaker 44 I love the van.

Speaker 7 But in the back of that van, it seems tensions are growing. According to Gabby's friend Rose, who spoke in a just-released docuseries, American Murder, Gabby Petito, now streaming on Netflix.

Speaker 45 I think a big reason Brian didn't want her to do the vlog is because I think he was worried that the truth of everything would be on footage.

Speaker 45 There's that possibility that he says the wrong thing or reacts the wrong way while she's recording.

Speaker 37 You know what is my absolute favorite part about the van?

Speaker 38 What's that?

Speaker 36 The fact that we have this nice big open floor for you to keep your dirty feet.

Speaker 21 Behind the scenes, Gabby and Brian would get into arguments.

Speaker 57 No, turn it back.

Speaker 8 I was texting her, are you and Brian okay? Because I was worried about that dynamic being stuck in the van together 24 hours a day, but never in a million years did we think that he would harm her.

Speaker 7 That didn't cross your mind. Yeah.

Speaker 7 At what point did it get, wait, something's going on here. This doesn't make sense.

Speaker 6 Well, it didn't make sense is when we couldn't get in touch with her.

Speaker 61 The Petitos call and text Gabby.

Speaker 9 What they don't know is that on September 1st, Brian in that little white van has driven back to Florida to his parents' house alone.

Speaker 16 The neighbors saw the van in the driveway. One of the neighbors told me I did think it was strange that I didn't see Gabby, but what do I know? I'm just a neighbor here.

Speaker 7 The Laundry family is going about their business.

Speaker 73 Neighbors told me that they saw Brian and his parents going for walks down the street. And then eventually, Brian and his parents went camping for a few days.

Speaker 8 They were camping at Fort DeSoto, which is our usual camping spot.

Speaker 8 And because it was Labor Day and the kids had school the next day, we just went for a couple of hours and we ate dinner and had s'mores around the campfire and left.

Speaker 8 There was nothing peculiar about it.

Speaker 7 His sister says she didn't have any reason to ask about Gabby and she had no idea that anything was wrong. It just never came up.

Speaker 8 I'm frustrated that in hindsight I didn't pick up on anything. It was just a regular trip.

Speaker 9 Ten days after they last hear from her, on September 11th, the Petitos report Gabby as missing. And on that very day, in Northport, Florida, the police go to the laundry's house.

Speaker 75 Northport Police Department.

Speaker 75 Yes. Hi, Disa.

Speaker 23 I apologize for bothering you.

Speaker 75 I have the detective on the phone.

Speaker 57 I'm not talking to anybody.

Speaker 75 You don't want to talk to us?

Speaker 75 Okay, she's on the phone.

Speaker 76 You don't want to talk to her now? No.

Speaker 10 Okay,

Speaker 75 when was the last time that you saw Brian and Gabriel?

Speaker 30 Well, Brian is here.

Speaker 75 Brian is here?

Speaker 76 Yeah, and that's all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 75 And that's all that you're saying?

Speaker 18 Yeah, we have an attorney.

Speaker 76 They've been calling out on

Speaker 76 that's all I'm gonna say. I don't know why, so my attorney's aware of the coin, so

Speaker 76 I can give you his number.

Speaker 75 Whose number? The attorney's number? Okay, I would like that, please, so I can give it to the detective. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
And just to let the detective know, is Gabriel here?

Speaker 76 No. She's not here.
Okay.

Speaker 75 They said that

Speaker 77 Gabriel's not here. That's all they're saying.
That his son is here, but Gabriel's not here. And they're not talking.

Speaker 6 Brian's home. The van's home.

Speaker 6 Gabby's nowhere to be found.

Speaker 25 And he has a lawyer. And he's got an attorney.

Speaker 10 And he's got an attorney.

Speaker 20 To hear all of that.

Speaker 7 Gabby loved that van.

Speaker 8 Oh, yeah. She wouldn't have given that van up.

Speaker 7 Did you immediately just think something is...

Speaker 8 oh my god, I think I said he did something to her. I know it.

Speaker 9 As shocking as it may seem, the laundries are under no legal obligation to assist or to talk to the Petitos.

Speaker 71 Right now on ABC Action News, desperate for answers.

Speaker 17 The ever-expanding search for Gabby Petito tonight, new developments in the nationwide search for a missing Long Island native, Gabrielle Petito.

Speaker 7 In their desperation, Gabby's parents are grasping at straws.

Speaker 25 Maybe it's just a hoax. They're trying to get this YouTube video up.
So maybe it's just a hoax to try to get more followers.

Speaker 25 I mean, your brain just goes and goes and goes, but in the back of your head, it's like he's not talking and he has a lawyer. That's always that just stuck right there.

Speaker 25 It's like if something bad didn't happen, then he would have been talking.

Speaker 6 I've never had to contact an attorney when my daughter broke up with somebody.

Speaker 7 And there's the van in the laundry driveway.

Speaker 57 I'm not speaking to anybody. Yeah, we're not comfortable.
Without an attorney,

Speaker 6 so that's that. Yeah.
Okay.

Speaker 7 So the van is only registered to her.

Speaker 57 Okay?

Speaker 57 Well,

Speaker 76 I'm not really sure.

Speaker 57 Well, I'm going to tell you. I'm telling you, the title on the state of Florida is it's only hers.

Speaker 24 So it's not supposed to be here.

Speaker 57 Okay. So I'm going to take a tow truck and get it.

Speaker 43 Is a car in the way?

Speaker 76 It's my car. I can move it.

Speaker 57 I mean, so you don't have any issue with us taking the van?

Speaker 57 If that's what you're saying you gotta do, you gotta do.

Speaker 76 But right now, I'm not speaking to you anymore.

Speaker 37 You're without our attorney.

Speaker 68 We don't know what Brian knows. I mean, that's the bottom line.
And we're hopeful to talk to him. He needs to talk to us.
We need to know exactly where he was, where she was, their last locations.

Speaker 24 Gabby's parents beg for information from her boyfriend.

Speaker 73 Police have said that deafening silence from Gabby's boyfriend, Brian Laundry, is hindering their investigation and search efforts.

Speaker 8 We would have gone to the edge of the earth to find her.

Speaker 10 You just go into like a hyper mode, and

Speaker 10 all we were thinking about was getting the word out to try to find her and doing what we had to do to try to assist in that. And we had no idea that it was going to take the entire world by storm.

Speaker 10 And our focus was just on her at that point.

Speaker 7 Did you feel that at the time?

Speaker 7 Did you know that it was everywhere?

Speaker 6 It was hard not to because we would do interviews and they would tell us.

Speaker 7 The police get a search warrant for gabby's van they don't find any evidence of a crime but the fbi says something is missing the mattress is gone the laundry family lawyer gives only a statement that they hope the search for gabby is successful and that brian will remain silent on advice of counsel joe gives a press conference what i need from everybody here is help the goal is still not met and that goal is to bring gabby home safe this is what matters that That is it.

Speaker 34 Anything else comes second to this.

Speaker 24 Tonight, her boyfriend is now a person of interest, but he's not talking. The new plea is for him to share what he knows.

Speaker 7 It seems like a stalemate, but suddenly everything changes.

Speaker 16 When we got that alert that Brian Laundrie was missing, my stomach dropped. I remember looking at my phone and not being able to believe what I was reading.

Speaker 7 Now the laundry parents are searching too. Brian Laundry has disappeared.

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Speaker 70 An all-new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu.

Speaker 4 Mom Talk started as a sisterhood, and that's gone to flames. New secrets and lies are coming out.
This is going to be catastrophic.

Speaker 4 We're fighting for our marriages, and the girls are just putting us through hell. They make everything about themselves.

Speaker 5 I can't.

Speaker 4 Hopefully, this doesn't end in a bloodbath.

Speaker 70 Watch the Hulu original: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for von subscribers. Terms apply.

Speaker 70 What do you know?

Speaker 7 Brian has vanished. Crowds start start to gather outside the laundry home in Northport, Florida, demanding answers.
Gabby has not been heard from in over two weeks.

Speaker 7 You were feeling pretty desperate then.

Speaker 8 Nobody actually laid eyes on Brian, but his parents came to the door and said he was home.

Speaker 7 It was just chaos.

Speaker 33 Your heart sinks.

Speaker 8 It's an undescribable feeling in your body, and you don't sleep, you don't eat. From that moment on, it's nonstop.

Speaker 11 In the very beginning of this investigation at Brian's parents' house, media was lining the street up and down.

Speaker 56 Be respectful of everyone's property, please.

Speaker 16 Northport police told us that they had been surveilling the house and had surveillance on the house during this time. But at some point, Brian left.

Speaker 7 The laundry family says they don't know where their son is at this point, and they're hoping for him to come home safely.

Speaker 17 We're going to turn next year to the search for that person of interest, Brian Laundry.

Speaker 28 That search intensifying tonight.

Speaker 7 After Brian's parents tell Northport police he has gone camping in the Carleton Reserve, a massive manhunt ensues.

Speaker 11 Numerous law enforcement agencies are involved in the search inside the Carleton Reserve. They're using drones, UTVs, ATVs, and they're searching a heavily wooded area.

Speaker 11 75% of it is underwater.

Speaker 16 The Carlton Reserve is a 25,000 acre wildlife reserve. It is massive.
And I can tell you from being there, it is a rough environment.

Speaker 16 We do know that Brian Laundry has quite a lot of experience camping.

Speaker 7 Brian's sister Cassie says Brian is skilled in surviving outdoors.

Speaker 8 He reads books about it and it wouldn't surprise me if he could

Speaker 8 last out there a very long time.

Speaker 9 While authorities hunt for Brian in the Carleton Reserve, Gabby's parents band together in their search for Gabby.

Speaker 7 Gabby's parents try to stay upbeat.

Speaker 10 A million things racing through your mind at that point. You just have no idea.

Speaker 6 We've all said it, you know, we're not naive to the fact that we thought, but we really had hope. Because there's a million different scenarios that could play out just the same.

Speaker 6 Hurt in the wilderness, bad reception, you know, all that stuff. Maybe they split up and she's just done with him and doesn't want to tell us yet because she's really upset.

Speaker 6 You really try to rationalize any scenario.

Speaker 25 You have that hope.

Speaker 7 While there are initially many empty leads in Florida, something extraordinary unfolds.

Speaker 47 One thing that happened immediately after this case blew up in the media and on the internet was it opened up this broader conversation about missing women and specifically missing black and indigenous women and the lack of attention given to them.

Speaker 42 Gabby's case, luckily, has brought awareness to that.

Speaker 35 Let's stand up for missing and murdered Indigenous Women.

Speaker 13 It's really hard to talk about the missing white woman syndrome in the context of this case because of course we care deeply, deeply about Gabby Betito.

Speaker 13 But at the same time, we have to recognize that we have an outsized compassion

Speaker 13 for young white women who are missing. or murdered and we have a negligence about brown women.

Speaker 10 There is really a vast difference. Minorities do not get shared the same as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white girl.
They have family, they have friends, and they just want them found.

Speaker 10 Indigenous women go missing and are murdered at rates 10 times higher than the rest of the country. And how can we help? What can we do to help elevate your voice?

Speaker 7 Mary Johnson Davis.

Speaker 73 Kimberlena Yellowhair, Sarah Nicole Graham.

Speaker 9 Wyoming, the last place Gabby was seen, issued a report in 2020 that only 18% of Indigenous women's missing cases got media coverage.

Speaker 79 There's a phrase in Indian country that when a Native American woman goes missing, she disappears twice, once in life and once in the news.

Speaker 73 Lorianne Boffman, Wanda Faye Walker.

Speaker 13 Why do we have greater compassion in our hearts? for Gabby Petito than we do for these other women. We have to really dig deeply to ask ourselves that question.

Speaker 78 It's on all of you,

Speaker 78 everyone that's in this room, to do that.

Speaker 78 And if you don't do that for other people that are missing, that's a shame. Because it's not just Gabby that deserves that.

Speaker 6 It is our belief, and we want others to be inspired to share people

Speaker 6 and try to be cognizant of those who do not look like you. 600,000 people go missing a year.
Half of them are people of color. So, you know what? We have to share everybody.

Speaker 7 Meanwhile, Brianne has now been missing for weeks. The search going on.

Speaker 9 A lot of the public forms the opinion that Brian Laundrie has to be involved in Gabby Petita's disappearance. But police need actual evidence of criminal activity before they can make an arrest.

Speaker 25 What would you say to them?

Speaker 6 Nothing.

Speaker 14 Nothing.

Speaker 43 They don't deserve it. Yeah.

Speaker 15 Earlier today, human remains were discovered, consistent with the description of Gabrielle Gabby Petito. The cause of death has not been determined at this time.

Speaker 7 Now this is no longer a missing persons case. It would soon become a murder investigation.

Speaker 7 And amazingly, it's someone online who cracks the case.

Speaker 54 When we found the footage, I'm like, please, please keep recording. Please keep recording.
Please be on here. And all of a sudden, we see this white speck getting closer and closer and closer.

Speaker 24 The search continues for Gabby Petito, Grand Teton National Park, where Gabby spoke directly with her family for the last time before she disappeared.

Speaker 58 Where we're at right now is in the Grand Tetons.

Speaker 29 in Wyoming, just north of Jackson Hole on Spread Creek Road, which is the camping area that Ryan Laundrie and Gabby Petito were last camping at.

Speaker 40 Once someone goes missing, you hope you have a starting point.

Speaker 56 Where were they at last?

Speaker 73 When did you see them?

Speaker 29 The quicker you get search teams out, the better.

Speaker 24 The reality is time's against you.

Speaker 19 They urgent search for a missing woman, Gabby Petito.

Speaker 7 Her family telling us they have no idea where she could be.

Speaker 7 Everyone wants to to find Gabby and now with social media, many are taking it upon themselves to track her down. The internet sleuths get to work.

Speaker 74 The fact that she randomly posted it on August 25th with just that caption to me is very suspicious.

Speaker 10 And we had no idea that it was going to take the entire world by storm.

Speaker 62 Also notice that the capitalization is different. She never capitalized anything but the first word.

Speaker 47 It's a true crime story happening in real life, which you feel like you can participate in. So, people on TikTok were immediately going to scrutinize.

Speaker 47 Why is she posting with a pumpkin? Why is this video framed like that?

Speaker 80 They're getting into Gabby Petito's mind and trying to align themselves to find out what happened. They're looking at the body language.

Speaker 46 They are looking into the timestamps.

Speaker 42 They're creating a map of everywhere that they traveled in this van.

Speaker 10 It just seemed like everybody came together as one because they had a mission to find her.

Speaker 7 Then a new discovery on TikTok as a young woman named Miranda Baker says she thinks the hitchhiker she picked up in her jeep on August 29th was actually Brian Laundrie.

Speaker 81 My boyfriend and I came into the Tetons.

Speaker 41 That's when Brian had approached us and he said, hey, I need to get a ride back to Jackson.

Speaker 16 He offered $200 to drive a few miles and they thought that that was a little odd.

Speaker 41 He was really clean for someone who had been hiking for multiple days. That did strike me as weird and especially his backpack.
It wasn't full.

Speaker 41 He said him and his fiancé were camping at a dispersed campsite near Snake River.

Speaker 41 The biggest red flag is why would you go camping by yourself for multiple days alone with just a backpack and leave your fiancé in your van? It just doesn't make sense.

Speaker 55 We were driving for 15 minutes and I had brought up, you know, why are you going to Jackson Hole?

Speaker 41 And once I said Jackson Hole, that's when the energy shifted.

Speaker 16 He got very upset about that, said, please let me out of the car. He got out of the car and as Miranda Baker states, about 10, 15 seconds later, he was gone.

Speaker 7 And after people spend days online poring over countless posts, it is social media that helps find Gabby's body.

Speaker 7 There is video found of Gabby's white van in the Grand Tetons.

Speaker 23 Yeah.

Speaker 7 How did you find out about that?

Speaker 10 I was out in Wyoming there, and they were getting a tremendous amount of tips. And so people started recognizing, hey, I was in that area around that time.

Speaker 10 So they started going back and looking at their own photos and their own videos.

Speaker 54 My name is Jen Bethune, and I travel with my husband Kyle, our three kids, and four dogs in our 1983 Silver Eagle bus.

Speaker 54 Our story is very intertwined with Gabby's story. We're YouTubers and so we film all the time.
It's the freaking Tetons!

Speaker 16 She did not know at that time. They were just driving through the Teton National Forest and this van is on the side of the road.

Speaker 54 It was crazy to us because it had Florida plates and we're from Florida and we were like, oh, we can go hang out with them. But the van looked very very dark.
It didn't look like anybody was there.

Speaker 16 She doesn't think much of it till many weeks later.

Speaker 74 The FBI Denver Twitter account posted this saying that they are conducting ground surveys at the Spread Creek dispersed camping area.

Speaker 7 Without all that attention, Jen Bethune never would have noticed that white van in her own footage.

Speaker 8 Crazy part about that video from the Bethunes is that for some reason the camera was rolling and it wasn't supposed to be.

Speaker 54 When we found the footage, I'm like, please, please keep recording, please keep recording. And all of a sudden, we see this white speck getting closer and closer and closer.

Speaker 54 We both got goosebumps all over our body. We knew it was her van as soon as the footage passed by it.
It was an insane feeling.

Speaker 54 At 12:08 in the morning, I called the FBI.

Speaker 7 After the Bethunes alert the FBI, they post their video online for the world to see.

Speaker 7 And when Gabby's parents watch it, they call the FBI themselves saying, this, without a doubt, is their daughter's van.

Speaker 8 It was assembly when we saw it. It gives you like the heebie-jeebies, but at the same time, you're like, there's a clue.
Like, that's where the van was. That's probably the last location.

Speaker 10 They were already in that area searching. Yeah.
But it's such a a vast area out there. And that was just like that missing piece to say they were in the right place.

Speaker 40 If they didn't have that,

Speaker 10 we'd still be looking today.

Speaker 54 I think each of us that had tips and that had the sightings held a piece of the puzzle. So I think it was a community as a whole working together to bring Gabby home.

Speaker 10 They could pinpoint exactly where that van was.

Speaker 10 And I want to say within a day of that is when they found her.

Speaker 60 Starting with breaking news, authorities found a body in the Bridger Teton National Park in Wyoming.

Speaker 35 There is breaking news in the search for Gabby Petito.

Speaker 56 Just moments ago, officials said, Tonight, officials confirming they found a body near Grand Teton National Park that earlier today, human remains were discovered, consistent with the description of Gabrielle Gabby Petito.

Speaker 10 And I said, you have to be sure.

Speaker 7 And tragically, Jim is about to face an unimaginable task.

Speaker 62 That was the worst phone call

Speaker 8 of my life.

Speaker 6 I don't know how we did that.

Speaker 7 Since there are so many possibilities for what could have happened to Gabby, her parents decide to split up and help out with the different searches across the country.

Speaker 6 We were told by the FBI they wanted us to stay in Florida. Jim is like, I'm going to Wyoming.
Nikki was in New York at the time, you know, so

Speaker 14 we were just really in all the locations where we needed to be.

Speaker 8 We would have went to the edge of the earth to find her.

Speaker 7 Gabby Petito has been reported missing for three weeks. Gabby's parents are about to live a waking nightmare.

Speaker 6 Jim had to make probably the, I mean, not safe to say, the worst phone call you've ever had to make. I don't even know how he made it.

Speaker 10 I can remember every waking moment of that day, September 19th, meeting with my FBI agent in the morning, kept getting phone calls asking about certain things.

Speaker 40 And

Speaker 10 finally, I got a phone call. They asked where I was, if I was close to the hotel.
I said, yeah, I'm a few blocks away. They said, you need to meet us there now.

Speaker 10 And at that moment, I knew it wasn't good.

Speaker 11 On September 19th, the FBI announced that they had located remains just outside Grand Teton National Park in Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Speaker 15 Human remains were discovered consistent with the description of Gabrielle Gabby Petito.

Speaker 10 They came in and they said, we found

Speaker 10 remains consistent of your daughter.

Speaker 10 We won't know until we do a forensic autopsy, but you have to call your family. And there was another girl missing around the same time who fit her description.
And I remember I was crying.

Speaker 10 And I said, you have to be sure. Like, I have to be sure if I'm making this phone call, remains consistent.
What does that mean? It could mean it's not her.

Speaker 10 I said, you have to give me something more than that.

Speaker 40 And

Speaker 10 they did.

Speaker 10 They showed me pictures. And I confirmed it was

Speaker 10 our daughter.

Speaker 6 I don't know how we did that.

Speaker 25 I got just hearing it, it's like, you can't

Speaker 10 do my life. I'm 2,000 miles away.

Speaker 40 I don't have my family with me.

Speaker 10 I can't hold her. I can't hold my other children.
I said, I'm going to bring our daughter home no matter what. I'm not leaving there until I have her.

Speaker 10 And

Speaker 10 yeah.

Speaker 10 I lost a big part of myself, part of us, our family that day.

Speaker 14 We're not the same people we were before this happened.

Speaker 8 There was life before and life after.

Speaker 25 We're lucky we have a lot of memories.

Speaker 25 We're lucky we have so many pictures of her.

Speaker 25 I'm so happy that she took as many as she did.

Speaker 25 Because that's what we have. That's what we have now.

Speaker 8 22 beautiful years.

Speaker 6 Through all of it, we still say it could have been worse.

Speaker 43 Really?

Speaker 6 Could have never found her.

Speaker 71 Yeah, we could have never brought her home.

Speaker 10 There's so many people that we know that

Speaker 10 have been searching for their loved ones for 5, 10, 20 plus years,

Speaker 10 and they always have that thought in the back of their mind that maybe they're still alive.

Speaker 9 Once Gabby has been identified by Jim, there's an autopsy performed, and Gabby's death is ruled a homicide.

Speaker 56 Tonight, breaking news in the Gabby Petito case, what the coroner in Wyoming has now determined.

Speaker 58 In the manner of death of Gabrielle Lenora Petito,

Speaker 58 we find the cause and manner to be cause, death by strangulation, and manner is homicide.

Speaker 9 It actually takes five to seven minutes for somebody to actually kill another human being as they strangle them.

Speaker 9 So that is five to seven minutes where somebody is face to face with their victim, watching as they gasp for air, watching as their eyes fill up with blood.

Speaker 9 It is an incredibly gruesome, incredibly intimate form of homicide.

Speaker 9 The reason that's important is when you look at domestic violence homicides that involve manual strangulation, there have often been instances involving non-fatal strangulation.

Speaker 26 Where did he hit you?

Speaker 15 Don't worry, just be on.

Speaker 25 A lot of times if you strangle your loved one, your partner,

Speaker 25 it gets dropped down to a misdemeanor.

Speaker 10 Less than 90% of the people charged with felony strangulation in this country are ever charged and convicted of strangulation.

Speaker 9 This is a vicious death by any interpretation. And now all the energy that the public had poured into finding Gabby Petito is directed at finding Brian Laundrie.

Speaker 73 The nationwide manhunt for Laundrie. Still the only named person of interest in Petito's murder after he returned home from their cross-country road trip without her.

Speaker 9 Soon, there would be clues about what Brian is hiding.

Speaker 26 I ended her life.

Speaker 83 I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made.

Speaker 33 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 59 Hi one one, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 33 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted, and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker.

Speaker 33 He's fallen asleep, so she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 4 Is there any way you can get out of the building? I don't know without waking down and I'm scared.

Speaker 33 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 6 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 70 The first thing that hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 33 A new series from ABC Audio and 2020, The Hand in the Window. Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 33 Give it up for Chicago.

Speaker 84 Sebastian Meniscalco's new stand-up special, It Ain't Right, is coming to Hulu on November 21st.

Speaker 3 30 years ago, Jeff Bezos, complete nerd. Bezos now ripped to shreds on his super yacht and the boxes keep

Speaker 3 coming.

Speaker 84 Sebastian Maniscalco, It Ain't Right, premieres November 21st, streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

Speaker 7 After a desperate weeks-long search for Gabby Petito, her body was discovered beside a streambed near Grand Teton National Park.

Speaker 7 The cause of death, manual strangulation.

Speaker 7 Where is Gabby?

Speaker 7 Now that Gabby has been found, the focus turns to finding Brian Laundry.

Speaker 9 According to the FBI, while Brian was driving Gabby's van back to Florida, it seemed as if he was trying to cover his tracks.

Speaker 9 The FBI would later say he was attempting to deceive law enforcement by sending text messages to and from Gabby's phone, as well as from Gabby's phone to her mother.

Speaker 8 I was texting every day, I wasn't getting a response, and then finally on August 30th, I get a text that says, we have no signal, we're in Yosemite.

Speaker 8 Like I had all these reasons as to why maybe it was from her, but that was the last text I received.

Speaker 9 The search for Brian, first out west, then in the south,

Speaker 9 is now focused on an area in Florida not far from where his parents lived.

Speaker 9 A few weeks into the search, Brian's parents join the effort. They go into an area in the park that they had told police to search, but it had been underwater at the time.

Speaker 9 Shortly after, authorities find his remains.

Speaker 30 Earlier today, investigators found what appears to be human remains, along with personal items.

Speaker 73 This morning, the month-long manhunt for Brian laundry ending where it began. The FBI using dental records to confirm the remains are his.

Speaker 7 Among the materials belonging to Brian Laundry that authorities uncover was a letter from his mother. And it said, burn after reading.

Speaker 8 I remember the first time I read that letter, I had to read it like three times because I was so confused. I didn't understand.

Speaker 7 And the letter reads, you are my boy. Nothing can make me stop loving you.
If you're in jail, I will bake a cake with a file in it.

Speaker 7 If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.

Speaker 8 It made me feel like very uncomfortable, and I felt sick to my stomach. I was like, how is this even possible?

Speaker 9 A lawyer representing the Laundries has said the letter had nothing to do with Gabby Petito's death and had been written months earlier.

Speaker 9 Roberta Laundrie would later say in an affidavit, the letter was a reference to a book she had given him called Burn After Writing, and it was intended as a way to bond with her son.

Speaker 7 A month after Brian was found, the medical examiner released his findings from the autopsy. Brian died by suicide.
He shot himself in the head.

Speaker 16 The attorney for the laundry family releases the actual pages from Brian Laundrie's notebook. Now

Speaker 16 people can read for themselves what Brian Laundrie says happened.

Speaker 24 Gabby, I wish I was right at your side.

Speaker 83 I loved you more than anything.

Speaker 16 And then it goes from this beautiful sort of love letter to this very

Speaker 16 serious, scary situation.

Speaker 83 Rushing back to our car, trying to cross the streams of Spread Creek before it got too dark to see, too cold. I hear a splash and a scream.

Speaker 7 Brian claims that he wasn't sure sure exactly where they were. He didn't think he could make it back to the van.

Speaker 83 She said little, lapsing between violent shakes, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain.

Speaker 16 Brian says he killed Gabby as a form of mercy.

Speaker 26 I ended her life.

Speaker 83 I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted. But I see now all the mistakes I made.

Speaker 16 The Petitos release a statement saying that they don't believe anything that's in this notebook.

Speaker 6 He was a liar.

Speaker 6 Nothing he said in those stories were true. He was a coward to the day that he died.

Speaker 7 When you look back at all the stuff that happened,

Speaker 7 were there any red flags that this was coming?

Speaker 6 Yes, there were. But we didn't notice them at the time.

Speaker 7 Could you sense if he was controlling her?

Speaker 6 So Gabby didn't come up to us and say, he's doing this. It's things that we would notice, again, after the fact.
We can see that that pattern was part of that progression that she was in.

Speaker 7 Since her death, Gabby's parents have uncovered communications between her and Brian that show the darker side of their relationship, shared as part of the new Netflix series.

Speaker 7 One of those texts from Gabby to Brian said, don't try to control me because it only makes me mad. I love you so much, but it's the way you speak to me that hurts me the most.

Speaker 7 They also found a haunting letter that Gabby had written to Brian.

Speaker 49 Brian, you know how much I love you. Just please stop crying and stop calling me names.
You in pain is killing me.

Speaker 7 Gabby's family says there were potential signs in their daughter's relationship that could have caused alarm bells to ring earlier.

Speaker 7 Gabby's parents established the Gabby Petito Foundation to help other parents recognize the signs of domestic violence.

Speaker 6 There's so many versions of it and a lot of people don't even know where to go when they're in it. Knowing what we know now, we see that progression that happened.
Alienation of friends and family.

Speaker 10 Isolation.

Speaker 29 But it's hard to pick up.

Speaker 6 But when you get a high-level view and you can see the path that it was leading to, and that's part that is is hard for us.

Speaker 25 And that's one of the reasons why we started the foundation, the Gabe Petito Foundation, to teach others and other parents. There might be some tips that you could talk to your child about.

Speaker 25 Try to let them know that you are there for them and that there are resources out there.

Speaker 10 We get messages all the time from people saying, I didn't realize I was in a bad relationship or a potentially violent relationship until I saw her story. I saw it, I got help, and I safely got out.

Speaker 10 And if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here today.

Speaker 7 But one thing that brought them a bit of peace

Speaker 7 and the way Gabby Petito will be changing lives.

Speaker 7 How did you guys end up with the van?

Speaker 6 Once everything was done, the FBI asked us what we wanted to do with it, and we contemplated a few things.

Speaker 6 At the end, we were like, we just don't want the vibe to it.

Speaker 6 We had the van crushed. No one really knows that, but we did.

Speaker 43 It's very therapeutic for us.

Speaker 8 Almost like when you go to one of those rage rooms and you get to smash things.

Speaker 6 That was fantastic.

Speaker 11 Gabby, Peter, never goes outside.

Speaker 6 I understand the laundry's lost a son.

Speaker 6 And for that, they have my sympathy because I know how that feels, losing a child. And you will never get over that.
So my heart breaks for them for that.

Speaker 6 But that's the only thing my heart breaks for for them.

Speaker 7 Since Brian will never be prosecuted for killing Gabby, the Petitos want someone held responsible.

Speaker 9 The Petitos file multiple lawsuits. One of them is for wrongful death against Brian Laundrie's estate.
Months later, there is a settlement.

Speaker 85 Well, the family of Gabby Petito will be awarded $3 million in a wrongful death lawsuit against the estate of Brian Laundrie.

Speaker 9 An attorney for the laundry said in a statement, hopefully this brings some closure to this one chapter of this tragedy.

Speaker 7 Gabby's parents also file a lawsuit against Brian's parents, alleging their actions caused them pain and suffering.

Speaker 7 They allege Brian's parents knew that something was wrong, but didn't share that information.

Speaker 9 In a deposition, Chris Laundrie says that a frantic Brian called them from the road, said he needed a lawyer, but never said Gabby was dead, only that she was gone.

Speaker 9 Roberta Laundry said she thought maybe Brian and Gabby had gotten in a fight.

Speaker 9 Two years later, announcements by both families.

Speaker 85 The parents of Gabby Petito have settled a civil lawsuit against the parents of Petito's former fiancé, Brian Landry. Both sides say they've reached an agreement to avoid a civil trial.

Speaker 47 The terms are confidential.

Speaker 9 As for the Moab police, Gabby's parents file a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the department alleging negligence.

Speaker 7 In filings, attorneys responded that while Petito's murder is tragic, only speculation supports the assertion that Moab could have changed history.

Speaker 7 Gabby's parents remain committed to seeking justice for their daughter.

Speaker 6 The one thing we need more than anything else is don't make it just another cautionary tale. Use her, you know, her situation and her story as a lesson of what can and should not happen.

Speaker 6 We've been a part of four law changes since this all happened.

Speaker 23 SB at 1224.

Speaker 6 Two in Florida, one in Utah, and one nationally. And it's her voice doing it, not us.

Speaker 25 They take the call because of Gabby.

Speaker 6 Because of her name.

Speaker 6 She did it, not us. And she's going to continue doing it.
She's doing more in her death than she did in her life.

Speaker 7 The goal is to mandate that in domestic violence situations, police make a risk assessment and better collaborate with victim advocates.

Speaker 8 I really think when it came to her and Brian, she saw the best in him.

Speaker 7 She looked at the good.

Speaker 8 That's who she was.

Speaker 7 At Gabby's memorial service, Jim, alongside Joe, delivers a eulogy.

Speaker 86 Gabby had a tattoo on her arm that read, Let It Be.

Speaker 86 The title of a song from a band she loved. There's a verse from that song that speaks to me.
When the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer.

Speaker 18 There will be an answer. Let it be.

Speaker 86 It's okay to mourn for Gabby.

Speaker 86 It's okay to feel sorrow and pain.

Speaker 86 But we want to celebrate her and how she lived her life.

Speaker 86 We need to hold on to all those wonderful memories we shared with her, because that will be the answer.

Speaker 86 Let it be.

Speaker 28 Well, we should point out a different lawsuit from the Petito family for $50 million against the Moab, Utah police has been dismissed. The family tells us they do plan to appeal.

Speaker 28 That is our program for tonight.

Speaker 25 I'm David Muir.

Speaker 60 And I'm Deborah Roberts from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News.

Speaker 9 Good night.

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