Who Killed Gabby Petito And Why? Netflix Docuseries Revisits The Shocking True Crime Case

When 22-year-old aspiring travel vlogger Gabby Petito went missing in 2021, her case dominated news coverage and social media as people searched for answers and hoped for her safe return. Now, her story is the focus of Netflix’s latest American Murder docuseries, American Murder: Gabby Petito, which explores the case in depth with the help of her family and friends.

Released on Feb. 17, the three-part docuseries takes viewers through the years and weeks leading up to her mysterious disappearance. Petito had been sharing what appeared to be a happy journey with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, on social media as they traveled across the U.S. in a converted camper van.

But after she suddenly stopped posting and her messages to family seemed unusual, her mom filed a missing persons report. Soon after, authorities discovered that Laundrie had quietly returned to his parents’ home in Florida — driving their shared van, but without Petito.

Social media quickly became obsessed with the solving mystery, with millions analyzing every detail of Petito’s online presence in real time as they searched for answers. The docuseries unpacks her story through the voices of her family and friends, along with real text messages, video footage, and excerpts from her personal journals.

Keep reading to uncover what happened to Gabby Petito — and how her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, became the prime suspect in her disappearance and death.

Petito and Laundrie first met at Bayport-Blue Point High School in Bayport, New York, and became friends. After reconnecting post-graduation, they began dating in 2019. Petito later moved to North Port, Florida, to live with Laundrie’s family.

In the Netflix series, Petito’s friend Rose Davis said that she struggled to get along with his family, particularly his mother, Roberta. As Petito made new friends and started working at Taco Bell, Laundrie’s controlling behavior intensified. Davis recalled one night when they planned to go line dancing, Laundrie stole Petito’s wallet and ID to prevent her from going out.

The documentary reveals text messages from Laundrie that highlight his jealousy and manipulative behavior. Despite their altercations, Petito often forgave him and blamed herself. “‘I don’t deserve him. I’m hurting his feelings. I’m a bad person,’” Davis recalled Gabby thinking. In one text message, Petito told Laundrie, “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 most.”

A year after getting engaged, Petito and Laundrie decided to go on a cross-country road trip to visit National Parks. She purchased a 2012 Ford Transit van and remodeled it for their journey. As an aspiring travel blogger, Petito planned to document their adventures under the YouTube channel Nomadic Statik and her Instagram account.

On Aug. 12, 2021, police received a 911 call in Moab, Utah, where the caller said he witnessed a man “slapping” Gabby in a van driving by. Moab pulled over the van and spoke with Laundrie and a very distraught Gabby. A police report later described it as a possible mental health crisis rather than domestic violence, and the pair were separated for the night. Laundrie was taken to a hotel, while Petito stayed in the van. They resumed their trip the next day.

Petito shared her final Instagram post on Aug. 25, which was around the same time she stopped responding to text messages. On Aug. 27, Petito’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, got a strange text from Gabby’s phone which read, “Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls.” Schmidt told investigators that Stan is Petito’s grandfather, but that Gabby doesn’t usually refer to him by his first name, according to a warrant obtained by People.

After not hearing from Petito for several days, her mother filed a missing person report with the Suffolk County Police Department in New York on Sept. 11. Meanwhile, authorities discovered that Laundrie had returned to his parents’ home with Petito’s van, but without her.

Authorities searched Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, where Petito’s phone was last believed to have pinged. Meanwhile, a fellow #vanlife couple reviewed their footage and discovered images of Petito’s van at Spread Creek within the park.

On Sept. 19, 2021, Petito’s remains were discovered in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest. A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide by strangulation. Teton County Coroner Brent Blue estimated she had died approximately three to four weeks before her body was found.

After returning home to Florida without Gabby on Sept. 1, 2021, Laundrie refused to cooperate with authorities and then disappeared on Sept. 13, 2021. His parents assisted the FBI and North Port police in searching Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, according to the family’s attorney, Steven Bertolino.

Laundrie’s remains were eventually discovered in the park on Oct. 20, 2021, along with personal belongings, including a backpack and a notebook. A forensic anthropologist later determined his cause of death to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In a notebook recovered by the FBI, Laundrie admitted to killing Petito. However, before his confession was discovered, he attempted to create an alibi in the days and weeks following her death.

On Aug. 29, he made numerous phone calls to his parents saying Gabby was “gone” and he needed help. Time.com reported the family called an attorney immediately after the call. Police also discovered that Laundrie hitchhiked two separate times to get from where he placed Petito’s body to get back to the van.

Laundrie also orchestrated a fake conversation between Gabby and himself via text on both of their phones to make it look like they weren’t together. Additionally, he moved $700 from Petito’s account to his own via Zelle with the memo, “Goodbye Brian, I’ll never ask you for anything again,” according to Tudum.

In the confession found in his notebook, Brian claimed that he killed Gabby after she suffered an injury. (Petito’s official cause of death was strangulation, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.)

“I don’t know the extent of Gabby’s ingerys (sic) only that she was in extreme pain. I ended her life, I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked. I was in shock. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldn’t go on without her,” he wrote, according to CNN.

On the last page of the notebook, Laundrie wrote, “I have killed myself by this creek in the hopes that annimals (sic) may tear me apart. That it may make some of her family happy.”

In November 2022, Petito’s parents, Nichole Schmidt and Joseph Petito, filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Moab due to the officers’ handling of an August 2021 traffic stop, during which body camera footage showed Gabby crying while speaking to police after they were pulled over in their van.

The complaint alleged that officers overlooked key warning signs of domestic violence, putting Gabby at greater risk. It further claimed that police failed to seriously act on a 911 call from a witness who claimed to have seen Brian striking Gabby outside a market.

In Nov. 2024, Nichole and Joe’s lawsuit was dismissed by a judge, a decision they had anticipated. “We never anticipated that this would be an easy process and look forward to the Utah Supreme Court upholding the Utah Constitution’s original intent to preserve the right to recover for wrongful death claims under these circumstances,” they said in a statement, per the Associated Press.

Gabby’s parents filed an emotional distress lawsuit against Brian’s parents in March 2022. They claimed that the Laundries were aware of Petito’s murder soon after her death and chose not to take any action, other than issuing a statement through their lawyer expressing hope that she would be found.

In February 2024, both families reached a settlement a few months before the scheduled trial. Gabby’s family attorney released a statement to WFLA on their behalf, saying, “Our hope is to close this chapter of our lives to allow us to move on and continue to honor the legacy of our beautiful daughter, Gabby.”

To keep Gabby’s memory alive, her parents established The Gabby Petito Foundation, a nonprofit designed “to address the needs of organizations that support locating missing persons and to provide aid to organizations that assist victims of domestic violence situations, through education, awareness, and prevention strategies,” according to its website.

American Murder: Gabby Petito is now streaming on Netflix. Watch the official trailer below.