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Gabrielle Petito’s disappearance has caught the attention of millions of people this past week. The Long Island, NY, native and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, set out on a cross-country trip in July in a van with a plan to visit various national parks. Petito’s family reported her missing on Sept. 11 after Laundrie returned to Florida without their daughter in early September. Petito was capturing their trip on social media and YouTube and kept in constant contact with her family throughout. There were signs of trouble in the couple’s relationship after the authorities shared a video of them responding to a call for a domestic dispute between Petito and Laundrie while they were in Utah in August, which raised flags for people paying attention to the case.
The story sparked interest across several social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, and onlookers joined the police in doing their own extensive research and creating their own theories regarding the missing 22-year-old’s whereabouts. Interest in the case intensified when it was announced that the authorities were also searching for Laundrie, who had disappeared after returning to his parents’ home in Florida alone. The F.B.I. announced on Sept. 19 that remains found at a national park in Wyoming were believed to be Petito, while her partner’s whereabouts are still unknown. Authorities confirmed on Sept. 21 that the body found in Wyoming was identified as Petito, and her death was ruled a homicide. On Oct. 20, human remains were found in a park in Florida and were later confirmed to belong to Laundrie. He was 23. Here’s a timeline of the Gabby Petito disappearance case.
Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie leave New York together
Date: July 2
Petito’s stepfather, Jim Schmidt, said the couple left New York on July 2 embarking on what was supposed to be a four-month-long trip to visit and camp at national parks across the country. The couple documented their journey on Instagram and YouTube, sharing photos and vlogs of their stops along the way. They launched a YouTube channel named Nomadic Statik to share vlogs from their travels but only one video was uploaded on Aug. 19. “A glimpse into our van adventures! After our first cross country trip in a little Nissan Sentra, we both decided we wanted to downsize our lives and travel full time, but trying to fit everything for two people into the tiny little trunk of the car, also spending way too much on gas, food, and Airbnb, was not the road to take,” the description for the video titled “VAN LIFE | Beginning Our Van Life Journey” read. “We quickly realized we had to come up with a solution if we wanted to continue traveling and living nomadically, so that’s why we handcrafted our own tiny van, a simple 2012 Ford transit connect, utilizing space with unique designs and features. Creating a space for both artistic expression and distance hiking. Thank you so much for watching, and we hope you tag along on our journey wherever the van takes us!” No updates were shared on the website, which is currently password protected. But the pair continuously shared their adventures on Instagram.
A man reported witnessing a domestic dispute between the couple
Date: Aug. 12
A man called 911 to report that he had seen Laundrie allegedly slap and hit Petito in Moab, Utah, on Aug. 12. Fox obtained the 911 call in question, where a man tells the operator he’s calling to report a domestic dispute he said he saw in town. He described the white van the couple had been traveling in, saying it had Florida plates, and gave a license plate number. He told the operator that he saw the man slapping and hitting the woman, then both of them ran up and down the sidewalk and then got into the van and drove off.
The cops respond to a domestic dispute in Utah
Date: Aug. 12
Police officers responded to the report of a “domestic problem” after the couple had an argument in public. In the bodycam footage, Laundrie can be seen telling the cops that he asked her to take a walk and calm down after they got into a scuffle inside the van. Petito told the officer that she suffered from anxiety, and said she slapped her partner because she was scared that he “was going to leave her in Moab without a ride.”
The episode was treated as a “mental/emotional health break’” instead of a domestic assault. Laundrie told a police officer that “issues between the two had been building over the last few days” due to living in such close quarters. Laundrie was described as the victim of the incident in the police report. They had him stay in a hotel that night while Petito stayed in the van. No charges were filed, and according to the report, the couple told the officers that they were in love and “desperately didn’t wish to see anyone charged with a crime.”
Petito’s family speaks to her for the last time
Date: Aug. 25
Nichole Schmidt last spoke with her daughter on a FaceTime call between Aug. 23 and Aug. 25. Her stepfather said Petito told them that she and her fiancé were leaving Utah and heading to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. He said Petito texted her mom a few times after that. The couple had been updating Instagram regularly, sharing posts to their feeds and on their stories, giving their followers updates on their van life travels. The last post on her Instagram account was published on Aug. 25 and the last post on his page was shared on Aug. 13. Social media users pointed out that Petito tagged the location on nearly all of her posts from the trip, with the exception of the two most recent ones. The last text message from Gabby Petito’s phone warned her mom that she didn’t have phone service in Yosemite National Park on Aug. 30. It was sent two days before her van was found in Florida. Petito’s mom told The New York Post for a story published on Sept. 15 that she received the message from her daughter’s phone on Aug. 30. “No service in Yosemite,” the text read. The mom said she has reasons to believe that it wasn’t her daughter who sent the text. “I do not believe the text on August 30th was from my daughter,” Schmidt said. “The van was in Florida on the 1st [of September]. I think I can do the math.”
Laundrie returns to Florida alone
Date: Sept. 1
Police said Laundrie returned to the home where he lived with his parents and Petito in North Port, Fla., on Sept. 1. He was reportedly driving the white Ford Transit van that the couple was using for the trip, which was registered under Petito’s name. She was not with him.
Date: Sept. 15
The police named Laundrie a “person of interest,” since he was the last person to have been with Petito before she went missing. Chief Todd Garrison of the North Port Police took to Twitter to send a message to Laundrie’s lawyer Steven Bertolino, asking him to arrange a conversation between the authorities and his client, after the lawyer said he had advised his client not to speak with the authorities. “Mr. Steven Bertolino, esq. the @NorthPortPolice needs your help in finding Gabby Petito. Please call us to arrange a conversation with Brian Laundrie. Two people left on a trip and one person returned!” the tweet read. At a news conference, the next day Chief Garrison said that Laundrie was exercising his constitutional right not to speak with police and that investigators were still treating the disappearance as a missing persons case. Grand Teton National Park rangers were also working with investigators from the National Park Service, the FBI, and other local authorities to find Petito, searching Grand Teton National Park and the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in Wyoming.
Date: Sept. 17
Joseph Petito, Petito’s father, appeared at a news conference on Sept. 16 and pleaded for help from the community to find her. Petito’s parents also made a public plea directly addressing Laundrie’s parents, asking them to share where “Brian left Gabby.” Their lawyer, Richard Stafford, read a letter on their behalf. “We ask you to put yourselves in our shoes,” the letter read. “We haven’t been able to sleep or eat. And our lives are falling apart.” Laundrie’s parents asked the police to come to their home in North Port on Sept. 17 and claimed they had not seen their son since Sept. 14. Authorities began a search for Laundrie as a person of interest. “It is important to note that while Brian is a person of interest in Gabby’s disappearance, he is not wanted for a crime,” the North Port Police Department said in a statement on Sept. 17. “We are not currently working a crime investigation.”
On Sept. 18, the North Port police announced that they were searching the Carlton Reserve, a 25,000-acre park about 13 miles from North Port. “The North Port Police Department, FBI, and agency partners are currently conducting a search of the vast Carlton Reserve for Brian Laundrie,” the tweet read. “His family says they believe he entered the area earlier this week. More details when available.” The police department shared an update on Sept. 19, writing: “Our search of the Carlton has concluded for the evening. Nothing to report.”
The FBI searched Laundrie’s parents’ home
Date: Sept. 20
FBI investigators searched Laundrie’s parents’ home in North Port on Sept. 20 as part of a “court-authorized search warrant” related to the case. His parents were escorted from the home before the search and then were brought back inside for questioning, police said. CNN reported that FBI agents removed several items from the home, including a hard drive found in the van, as well as a Ford Mustang convertible. Laundrie’s whereabouts were still unknown. TMZ reported on Sept. 21 that a man who fits the description was spotted in the woods in Baker, Fla., 500 miles from Laundrie’s home.
A body was found in Wyoming
Date: Sept. 19
On Sunday, Sept. 19, the FBI announced that human remains were found in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest. The person’s identity has yet to be confirmed, but a press release said the body was “consistent with the description of Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito. Full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100 percent that we found Gabby, but her family has been notified of this discovery. The cause of death has not been determined at this time.” An autopsy was scheduled for Sept. 21. After the discovery, Petito’s dad tweeted a photo of his daughter writing that “she touched the world.” The Laundrie family attorney also released a statement that night saying “The news about Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family prays for Gabby and her family.”
Petito’s disappearance sparked a frenzy on social media. The #GabbyPetito hashtag has more than 500 million views on TikTok, and the #FindGabbyPetito ha has more than 50 million searches. Some people were captivated by the story, others became so deeply invested they started doing research of their own, while others claimed to have had close encounters with the couple when they were on their trip. One TikTok user claimed to have given Laundrie a ride while he was in Wyoming. Petito’s body was also reportedly found close to where YouTubers said they saw her van in the footage they recorded while camping on Aug. 27.
Date: Sept. 21
Teton County coroner Dr. Brent Blue confirmed that Petito’s body was the one found at the Bridger–Teton National Forest in Wyoming on Sept. 19. The FBI’s Denver office confirmed the news via a press release on Twitter and shared that the coroner has also initially ruled her death as a homicide. The FBI said an autopsy was performed on the body Sept. 21, and Blue said that the “initial determination for the manner of death is homicide. The cause of death remains pending final autopsy results.”
Petito's cause of death was confirmed
Date: Oct. 12
Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue held a news conference on Oct. 12 to give an update on the results of Petito’s autopsy, which revealed her cause of death. The coroner said that Petito had been strangled to death, and it was ruled a homicide. According to the autopsy, Petito died three to four weeks before her body was found on Sept. 19 near an undeveloped camping area along the border of Grand Teton National Park in remote northern Wyoming. “By Wyoming state statute, only the cause and manner of death are released,” Blue said during the announcement. “The autopsy findings and photographs and that sort of material [will not be] released.” Blue said Petito’s body was left “outside in the wilderness for three to four weeks.” Adding that it took a month to complete the autopsy because officials were “exacting” in their examination. “It was just a matter of making sure we had everything right,” Blue said at the time.
Human remains found near Laundrie's personal belongings
Date: Oct. 20, 2021
The FBI revealed that likely human remains and Laundrie’s personal items, including a backpack and a notebook, were found in the Carlton Reserve in North Port, Florida, on Oct. 20. The apparent human remains were found in an area that was underwater for some time, and a source told CNN that the remains “appear to have been there a while,” adding that “based on the condition of the remains, it may take some time to officially identify. It is going to be a very thorough process with the medical examiner.” North Port police said the remains were found “about 2 to 3 miles inside the Carlton Reserve, or about a 45-minute walk” from the entrance at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.
Laundrie’s parents made their first visit to the park since its reopening that week and helped with the discovery. “As happenstance was, they stumbled upon these items,” their attorney said. The family lawyer said they had previously led the police to the area where the remains were found in a previous meeting in September, saying it was the “very area of the park that we initially informed law enforcement on.”
Laundrie was not charged in Petito’s death and was only wanted for questioning, but the FBI described him as a “person of interest” in her murder that day. Authorities searched for Laundrie for more than a month. The discovery comes 37 days after he was reportedly last seen by his parents. Steven Bertolino, the Laundrie family’s attorney, addressed the family’s silence amid the search, which has been highly criticized. “I’m the one who told them not to talk,” he said during an appearance on CNN on Oct. 20. “That’s been on me from Day 1. That’s not on the family. And if it turns out my legal advice is wrong in that perspective, so be it. But that’s on me, not on the family.”
Date: Oct. 21, 2021
Brian Laundrie’s death was confirmed on Oct. 21. He was 23. The Denver division of the FBI released a statement via Twitter stating that the human remains recovered on Oct. 20 at a park in Florida matched Laundrie’s dental records. “On October 21, 2021, a comparison of dental records confirmed that the human remains found at the T. Mabry Carlton, Jr. Memorial Reserve and Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park are those of Brian Laundrie,” the statement read. The FBI also announced a backpack and notebook believed to have belonged to Laundrie were found near the remains. His parents Chris and Roberta Laundrie were also informed that the remains belonged to their son.