The Case of Gabby Petito, Part 1: The Beginning (English Version).
Over a year after what happened, I talk about the case of Gabby Petito, a series of events that shook the internet and made us question who we can trust.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, 800-799-7233 is the number for help in the United States and 0-800 MUJERES (0-800-6853737) is the toll-free number of the National Women's Institute In Venezuela.
I've been a fan of true crime podcasts and channels for as long as I can remember. The first case that struck me was that of Madelaine McCann, an American girl who disappeared in Portugal during a vacation with her family and was never found. There is something about cases like these that draw a lot of attention, but what is it? Does it make us realize that it could happen to us too?
In September 2021, the first short video about the case appeared on the TikTok entertainment platform. The user, a girl who dedicates her page to real crime cases, was talking about Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old girl (like me at the time. Gabby also worked as a pharmacy technician, just like me), who had been missing for a few days.
Originally from New York, Gabby Petito was a beautiful girl with a somewhat peculiar life. After graduating from high school and starting dating her future fiancé, Brian Laundrie, Gabby decided to fulfill her dream of leaving her ordinary life and job and instead moving into a van and traveling through the United States. In July 2020, the couple got engaged. In June 2021, they set out on their journey.
Together Gabby and Brian visited multiple national parks and destinations. To this day, we can still how Gabby documented her adventures through her Instagram @gabspetito. Personally, I can never help but be overwhelmed by a horrible feeling when I enter her profile.
On August 12, 2021 at the Moonflower Cooperative Community in Moab, Utah, where Petito and Laundrie had temporarily settled, a person called the 911 emergency service. Said witness claimed to have witnessed the couple fighting and that the man (later identified as Brian Laundrie) had slapped a woman (identified as Gabby Petito). She said they had then walked back and forth on the sidewalk before he hit her again. Another witness says that the couple were arguing heavily and that Gabby hit Brian on her arm as he tried to leave her and drive away, prompting Gabby to jump into the passenger seat of the vehicle as they ended up driving off together.
Near the entrance to Arches National Park, police stopped the couple and found Gabby crying her eyes out in the passenger seat. In the United States, police officers are required to have a body camera. This is what they recorded:
The video of more than an hour shows many things that I could not effectively condense in this post, but in short, this is the moment that infuriates me the most out of everything that happened. Anyone who's been a victim of domestic violence at any level can see what's going on here, but no officers seem to have seen anything at all. Their solution, after talking to Laundrie (who was perfectly calm and composed) and trying to understand what a Gabby in complete and extreme emotional stress was trying to say, was to give Laundrie a ride to a motel for one night. Meanwhile, Gabby was instructed to stay in the van.
Mohab police officers described the incident as Gabby’s mental breakdown. They never mentioned any suspicion of domestic violence. For reference as to why this makes me so angry: suspicion of domestic violence would have required an arrest. Today, the large community of people who followed this case from beginning to end, describe this moment as the most outrageous in this entire history, and (with every reason in the world) put a lot of the blame on the shoulders of the officers.
The Mohab Police Department eventually began an investigation into the incident, trying to figure out whether or not officers had followed proper protocol. In the midst of that investigation, the police chief took a convenient leave of absence.
On August 17, Laundrie took a solo flight from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Tampa, Florida, where his family lives. Gabby stayed in a hotel for several nights. After resolving some issues regarding the couple's storage unit in Florida, Laundrie flew out to meet Gabby on August 23. The couple checked out of the Fairfield Inn and Suites hotel on August 24.
The last time Gabby spoke to her mother was on August 25. Gabby told her that they were headed for Yellowstone National Park and Teton National Park. That same day, Gabby posted what would be her last photo on Instagram.
On August 27, Gabby texted her mom saying “can you help Stan? I keep getting the voicemails from him and missed calls.” Gabby's mother immediately suspected that something was wrong: Gabby never referred to her grandfather by her first name. Honestly, who ever calls their grandfather by his first name?
The last message Gabby's mother received said "no signal in Yosemite." What followed that was complete and utter silence. Today, Gabby's mother still suspects that those messages were not sent by her daughter.
On September 1st, Brian Laundrie was sent back to Florida. He arrived at his parents' house driving Gabby's van, but Gabby wasn't there.
On September 6, the Laundrie family went camping for two days at Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County.
On September 11 and after not hearing of her daughter's whereabouts since late August, Gabby's mother files a missing persons report.
On September 15, Brian Laundrie is declared a "person of interest" in the disappearance of Gabby Petito. Laundrie's parents immediately hired a lawyer and proceeded to confine themselves to his home in North Port, maintaining total administrative silence.
Although the house was being watched by the police day and night, on September 17, Laundrie's parents filed a missing persons report.
That's when police realized they had let the main suspect in Gabby Petito's disappearance get away.
Thank you for reading! This case disturbed me greatly when it happened. Knowing that Gabby was the same age and had the sameprofession as me makes me shiver. Knowing that the police were so negligent makes it all the more terrifying. In the next post, I'm going to talk about the research process to find both Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie. If you've never heard of this case, I'd just like to warn you that it ends very badly.
A year later, I'm still furious. I write all this in the hope that we realize that we have more capacity to help than we think and that we must be alert in all situations. What happened to Gabby could have happened to you and me. With what we know now, hopefully we can try to prevent this from happening to more people.