I don't know if you all have heard about the disappearance of Gabby Petito yet but it's definitely been one that I've been following the last few days. While I first heard of it while watching a morning news broadcast I have since seen it covered on nearly every mainstream news source. Not only that but the Twitter sleuths have opened up many other rabbit holes to jump into that I'll try to avoid for this piece.
For those not familiar, Gabby Petito is a 22 year old girl originally from Long Island who decided to do the 'van-life' and travel across the country with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie. She had purchased a white 2012 Ford Transit van and they left out from her family's home to travel the country. Unfortunately she hasn't made it back home despite her fiancé and van being back at their Florida residence.
The story starts on July 2 when Petito and Laundrie leave from her parents house in New York on their way westward across the country to visit National Parks. The had launched a website to cover the journey as well as posting to their individual Instragram accounts throughout the journey.
I don't know much about their journey for the first month but a little past the first month things seem to have turned sour. On August 12, Utah police responded to an incident that a bystander had called in where Petito and Laundrie were fighting.
You can watch the video above from ABC7 that shows the full body cam footage from the officer that responded. Laundrie has some scratches on him and Petito is obviously shaken. They both agree that this was more of an instance of an emotional break as opposed to any form of domestic abuse. The officer decides to separate them for the night at least. They agree that Gabby will take the van and that the officer will drop Laundrie off at a local hotel.
Presumably they reunite the following day and begin travelling again. I have to assume things returned amicably because Petito ends up posting their only vlog of the journey to her YouTube account. The video shows them both to seem happy and enjoying the trip.
On August 24, Petito and Laundrie checked out of a hotel in Salt Lake City. This is important because this is currently the last place where Petito was seen by anyone in person. The following day she facetimed her mother and told her she was in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. She then posts to Instagram for the final time.
There were two additional contacts made to Petito's mother but they were via text messages on the 27th and 30th of August. The last message mentions them heading to Yosemite and not their actual target of Yellowstone. Petito's mother has apparently stated she doesn't believe those messages actually came from Petito.
This is where things get really strange in the timeline. On September 1st, Laundrie returns home to North Port with Petito's van but without Petito. That's nearly a straight drive home at that point. He doesn't report anything to police but does apparently decide to pick up legal representation.
On September 11th, Petito's family reports her missing. Presumably from the report the police go to Laundrie's residence in Florida where he was home but refused to speak with police instead telling them to speak with his attorney. The police recover the van and begin analyzing it.
That's more or less where we stand. The police have named Laundrie as a person of interest but no formal charges have been made and he's refusing to help investigators. His family continue to stay silent despite public pleas from the Petito family for any information that could help locate their daughter.
