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Netflix docuseries 'American Murder: Gabby Petito' explores her story
A Netflix documentary series visits the disappearance and death of the travel vlogger, whom officials say was killed by her fiancé during a cross-country trip.
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The disappearance and death of vlogger Gabby Petito is the subject of a new Netflix documentary examining the 2021 tragedy that put a spotlight on domestic violence, social media and missing persons cases.
In the three-part documentary series "American Murder: Gabby Petito," which begins streaming Feb. 17, Petito's family and friends share her story using text messages, videos and excerpts from the 22-year-old's personal journals, according to Netflix. One of the documentary's directors, Julia Willoughby Nason, told TODAY.com in an interview about the series that her team reached out to the Laundries.
"They didn't want to participate," she explained, "and we respect that. This is a very difficult story."
Petito's sunny #vanlife Instagram posts from her cross-country travels in a Ford Transit van with fiancé Brian Laundrie were contrasted by a stormy off-camera relationship between the couple.
Petito's disappearance during their trip in August 2021 made national headlines and led to a widespread search that ended when her body was found in a national forest in Wyoming.
Here's what to know about the story.
Born in 1999, the New York native became a vlogger documenting road trips across the western part of the country. In 2020, she called driving cross-country to Oregon and California "an absolute dream" in an Instagram post.
“She wanted to cross the country in the camper van and live the van life and live free. This was her dream,” her mother, Nichole Schmidt, told NBC affiliate KSL in 2021.
Gabby Petito, a travel vlogger who was killed by her fiancé during a cross-country trip in 2021, is the subject of the new Netflix docuseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito." NetflixIn May 2020, she shared her wish on Instagram to get back to traveling the world with Laundrie. The two left her hometown of Blue Point, New York, in July 2021 to embark on a cross-country trip, according to her Instagram posts and comments her mother shared with KSL.
Petito and Laundrie chronicled their journey on a YouTube channel they created called Nomadic Statik. They wrote in the description of a video posted on their channel Aug. 19, 2021, that they had previously traveled across the country together in a Nissan Sentra, but were making the journey this time in a white 2012 Ford Transit van.
Laundrie first met Petito at Bayport-Blue Point High School in Bayport, New York, Petito's stepfather told The New York Times in 2021. Petito marked her first anniversary with Laundrie in a March 2020 Instagram post.
In another Instagram post Petito shared a few months later in July, she announced she and Laundrie were engaged. Petito moved from New York to live with Laundrie in Florida, Petito's stepfather previously told The New York Times.
Brian Laundrie, whom the FBI said took responsibility in his writings for the death of fiancée Gabby Petito, was found dead in a Florida preserve in 2021 after Petito's body had been found in Wyoming. @gabspetito / InstagramLaundrie and Petito were on their cross-country road trip together in the Ford Transit van when she was reported missing. "The circumstances are odd," police said in a statement in September 2021 after recovering the van in North Port, Florida, NBC News reported.
Instagram posts by Petito documented them visiting Monument Rocks in Kansas and Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah in July 2021.
Petito's family reported her missing to the Suffolk County Police Department on Sept. 11, 2021, KSL reported at the time.
Around Aug. 24, 2021, Petito and Laundrie left Salt Lake City for Grand Teton National Park, and this was also the last time Schmidt spoke to her daughter on FaceTime, her parents told KSL.
Schmidt said she received the last text from her daughter Aug. 30, 2021.
"I don’t know, again, if that was her texting me or not," Schmidt said to KSL.
Petito’s last post on Instagram was shared Aug. 25, 2021, and no location was specified.
Police responded to a physical altercation between Petito and Laundrie on Aug. 12, 2021, according to a report by the Moab City Police Department that was released Sept. 15, 2021, NBC News reported at the time. The couple and a witness spoke to an officer responding to the domestic violence call near a grocery store in Moab, Utah, police said.
In September 2021, Utah's Grand County Sheriff’s Office "released 911 audio from a witness who said he saw a man slap a female and then saw a white Ford Transit van bearing a Florida license plate drive away," NBC News reported, adding that "the 911 call led Moab police to stop the van."
Police released bodycam footage from a police stop involving Petito and Laundrie in Moab, Utah, that occurred just weeks before her disappearance. TODAYA second officer wrote that the couple's van swerved and hit a curb before stopping after the officer turned on the police lights to pull them over, according to the police report obtained by NBC News.
The report also stated the responding officer wrote that Petito slapped Laundrie after an argument, NBC News reported.
“The male tried to create distance by telling Gabbie to take a walk to calm down, she didn’t want to be separated from the male, and began slapping him," the responding officer wrote in the report, according to NBC News. "He grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed upon him and the van.”
The couple then asked for no charges to be filed, according to the report obtained by NBC News.
“No one reported that the male struck the female, both the male and the female reported they are in love and engaged and to be married and desperately didn’t wish to see anyone charged with a crime,” according to the report NBC News obtained. “There were no significant injures reported and both agreed that Gabbie suffers from serious anxiety.”
The four or five months that Petito and Laundrie spent traveling together had sparked tension, the police report said.
“The time spent created emotional strain between them and increased the number of arguments,” the report said, according to NBC News.
In lieu of police making a case against Petito for domestic assault, the couple separated for a night, the report said, NBC News reported. Petito was given the van, while Laundrie was taken to a hotel, police said in the report, according to NBC News. No charges were filed.
An independent review released in January 2022 that was conducted by Capt. Brandon Ratcliffe of Utah's Price City Police Department found that the officers who responded in Moab misclassified the incident and lacked details, NBC News reported.
An officer for the Moab police wrote in the report that the incident was “more accurately categorized as a mental/emotional health ‘break’ than a domestic assault.” However, the independent review states that “officers failed to cite Ms. Petito for domestic violence.”
Police did not get a statement from the 911 caller who reported “the gentleman slapping the girl,” the independent report said.
The city of Moab said in a statement that the officers "made several unintentional mistakes" and that it intended to follow the report’s recommendations, which included improved trainings and reviews of overall policy and software.
The police report of the incident was made public weeks after Petito had last been seen and days after Petito's mother reported her missing.
Police then released bodycam footage on Sept. 16, 2021, that showed Laundrie and Petito talking to an officer after getting pulled over in Moab, NBC News reported after obtaining the footage. Petito could be seen wiping away tears.
“We’ve just been fighting this morning,” Petito said to the officer. “Some personal issues.”
“It was a long day. We were camping yesterday," Laundrie said.
In August 2022, Petito's family announced a wrongful death lawsuit against police in Moab seeking $50 million in damages, NBC News reported. The family's lawyers said the Moab police weren't properly trained to detect signs of domestic abuse or they would have known “Gabby was a victim of intimate partner violence” and needed “immediate protection,” NBC News reported. At the time, the Moab City Police Department did not immediately respond to NBC's request for comment, and a Moab representative said it does not comment on pending litigation, according to NBC News.
The lawsuit was dismissed by a Utah judge in November 2024, according to The Associated Press.
A body that was later determined to be Petito was found in the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming on Sept. 19, 2021, NBC News confirmed with authorities at the time.
A Wyoming coroner ruled her death to be a homicide by strangulation, according to his comments in a video shared by NBC affiliate WNBC in October 2021.
Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie in "American Murder: Gabby Petito." NetflixPolice said Laundrie returned to North Port, Florida, on Sept. 1, 2021, without Petito, NBC News reported that same month. The van the two had been driving across the country was recovered at Petito's Florida home and processed for evidence with help from the FBI, the North Port Police Department said in a statement, according to NBC News.
On Sept. 15, 2021, North Port, Florida, police confirmed Laundrie was a person of interest after Petito's family reported her missing, according to NBC News. Laundrie's family attorney acknowledged Laundrie had been named as a person of interest by police in a statement obtained by NBC News and that Laundrie would "continue to remain silent on the advice of counsel."
Laundrie's family attorney then told NBC affiliate WFLA via text message that the Laundries believed their son left home Sept. 13 to go hiking, after previously telling police he left home Sept. 14 when they reported him missing.
Authorities repeatedly searched the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve near Sarasota, Florida, trying to find Laundrie, according to the North Port Police Department, NBC News reported.
Human remains were found in the Carlton Reserve along with a backpack and notebook belonging to Laundrie, an FBI official told reporters Oct. 20, 2021, according to NBC News. A day later, the FBI confirmed the remains were Laundrie's after a review of dental records, WNBC reported.
Laundrie died by suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, an attorney for Laundrie’s family said in November 2021, according to NBC News.
He also left behind writings showing his “responsibility” for Petito's death, the FBI announced in January 2022, NBC News reported.
“A review of the notebook revealed written statements by Mr. Laundrie claiming responsibility for Ms. Petito’s death,” an FBI statement said, according to NBC News.
Petito's family filed a civil lawsuit against Laundrie's parents in March 2022 that accused Christopher and Roberta Laundrie of interfering with the search for their murdered daughter, according to the lawsuit, which NBC News reported on at the time.
Attorneys for the family argued that Laundrie's parents issued a statement on Sept. 14, 2021, supporting a search for Petito "with full knowledge that Gabrielle Petito had been murdered by their son,” the complaint said, according to NBC News.
Laundrie's parents “knew of the mental suffering and anguish” Petito's family was experiencing but refused to disclose information about her whereabouts. In doing so, they allegedly “acted with malice or great indifference,” the lawsuit said, NBC News reported.
The lawyer for the Laundries denied the allegations in the lawsuit filed in Florida's Sarasota County, which sought at least $30,000 in damages, according to NBC News.
Jim Schmidt and Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, are interviewed in "American Murder: Gabby Petito." NetflixPetito's parents, Laundrie's parents, and attorney Steven Bertolino, who represented the Laundrie family, reached a "confidential resolution" in the case in February 2024 to which "all parties reluctantly agreed in order to avoid further legal expenses and prolonged personal conflict," according to a joint statement by Petito's parents that was shared with NBC News.
Petito's family also filed a separate wrongful death lawsuit in Florida against the estate of Brian Laundrie. The lawsuit was resolved when the judge ruled for Petito's mother, the administrator of her daughter's estate, to receive $3 million in November 2022, according to court documents obtained by NBC News.
“The Petito family lost their daughter, and they were also denied the opportunity to confront her killer. No amount of money is sufficient to compensate the Petito family for the loss of their daughter, Gabby, at the hands of Brian Laundrie,” Patrick Reilly, an attorney for Petito’s family, said in a statement obtained by NBC News.
Reilly said any money from the $3 million settlement would be going to the Gabby Petito Foundation, which supports organizations that help victims of domestic violence and assist in locating missing persons.
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