Who Killed Gabby Petito? Revisiting the Travel Vlogger’s Shocking Murder — and the Warning Signs Her Family Claims Went Unnoticed

More information about the tragic disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito has come to light thanks to a Netflix docuseries.

American Murder: Gabby Petito premiered on Feb. 17 and examined both the case and the events leading up to her murder at the hands of her fiancé Brian Laundrie.

On Sept. 11, 2021, the 22-year-old vlogger was reported missing by her family while she was traveling across the country in a van with Laundrie. The pair had departed from his home in Florida in July and Petito’s relatives told police that their last verbal contact with her was on Aug. 25.

Investigators later learned that Laundrie had returned home to Florida 10 days before his fiancée was reported missing. He was officially declared a person of interest on Sept. 15 but went missing two days later.

Petito’s body was found in a camping area just outside of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on Sept. 19. Her cause of death was strangulation. Nearly a month later, Laundrie’s parents helped police locate his remains and a written confession in a park in North Port, Fla. His death was ruled a suicide.

Read on to find out more about Gabby Petito’s murder and the evidence police discovered about her relationship with Brian Laundrie — including a letter she wrote him before he killed her.

Who was Gabby Petito?

Gabrielle “Gabby” Venora Petito was a 22-year-old travel vlogger from Long Island, N.Y.

After getting engaged to Brian Laundrie in July 2020, she started documenting their cross-country road trip on YouTube with the hope of launching a vlogging career. Petito’s parents described her as a “bright light” who “loved adventure.”

“That’s why she went on this trip,” her stepmom Tara Petito told Tudum in February 2025. “She was an artist. She was a great big sister. Her brothers and sisters adored her, and she adored them. We miss her and love her so much.”

What happened to Gabby Petito?

Petito’s cause of death was “blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation,” according to a report released by FBI Denver in January 2022. During a press conference in October 2021, the Teton County Coroner’s Office confirmed that her body had been left outside for three to four weeks.

The exact day of Petito’s murder is unknown, but witnesses saw the couple get into an argument at a restaurant in Jackson, Wyo., on Aug. 27, 2021. A graphic designer named Jessica Schultz also told the San Francisco Chronicle that she saw a “generic” young White man “acting weird” in the same camping area where Petito’s body was later found.

Schultz supplied the information to the FBI and noted that she didn’t see anyone with the man, whom she believed to be Laundrie.

Who killed Gabby Petito?

Laundrie claimed responsibility for Petito’s death in a written confession investigators found with his remains, per FBI Denver.

In it, he claimed that his fiancée was injured while trying to cross a stream and had a “small bump on her forehead that eventually got larger.” He wrote that Petito was “begging for an end to her pain.”

“I ended her life,” the confession read. “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.”

A lawyer for Petito’s family told PEOPLE in June 2022 that Laundrie’s version of what happened was “nonsense.”

Where was Gabby Petito’s body found?

Petito’s body was discovered at Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area just outside of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, on Sept. 19, 2021.

According to the American Murder docuseries, Laundrie left the area and went to Colter Bay Village, Wyo., on Aug. 28. There, he hitchhiked back to Spread Creek with a woman named Norma Jean Jalovec, who said there wasn’t anything “extraordinary” about him — until they approached the site.

“He was antsy and just wanted to get out at the gate,” she told PEOPLE in September 2021. “I said, ‘Oh, you don’t want your fiancée to see you being dropped off out of an SUV. You want her to think you hiked all the way back.’ But now we all know, obviously, there was a reason why he probably didn’t want me to go down that road.”

What did Gabby Petito write in her letter to Brian Laundrie? 

In June 2024, the FBI released hundreds of documents related to Petito’s murder investigation — including an undated letter from her addressed to Laundrie.

In it, the young vlogger expressed her frustration that she couldn’t do more to help her fiancé when he was in pain and that she loved him “too much.”

“You know how much I love you,” the letter read. “Just please stop crying and stop calling me names because we’re a team and I’m here with you.”

Why did Brian Laundrie kill Gabby Petito?

Though Laundrie claimed he killed Petito in a merciful effort to relieve her pain following an injury, parents and friends of the late vlogger believe that she was a victim of domestic abuse.

Petito’s best friend, Rose Davis, described the couple’s relationship as “very toxic” and said Laundrie had “a jealousy problem.”

“I tried not to judge their relationship, but I knew something was off,” Davis told PEOPLE in September 2021. “I just, I didn’t expect this, obviously. I just thought he was just controlling.”

Two weeks before Petito went missing, police pulled the couple over in Moab, Utah, after a man witnessed them arguing outside of a food cooperative. The caller told the dispatcher that “the gentleman was slapping the girl.”

Police later released body camera footage of Laundrie and Petito, who they separated for the evening, and reported the incident as “disorderly conduct.” In November 2022, Petito’s parents filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Moab alleging that the officers overlooked key warning signs of domestic violence.

“We firmly believe if the cops did their job correctly, protected Gabby, and offered her the necessary domestic violence resources, she would be alive today,” Nichole Schmidt and Joe Petito wrote in a statement. The lawsuit was dismissed in November 2024.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.