Gabby Petito’s Body Found Near WY National Park One Year Ago Today

WYOMING — Monday marks the one-year anniversary of authorities finding the body of Gabby Petito, the missing 22-year-old woman strangled to death near a Wyoming national park. Authorities determined her fiancé killed her, and the parents of the couple are locked in a court battle.

Petito’s case first made the news about a week earlier, when her parents in New York – who hadn’t heard from her since the end of August – initially reported her missing to the Suffolk County Police Department on Sept. 11, 2021. It wouldn’t be long before her story grabbed global headlines, as people around the world followed every new detail of her case in the months that followed.

Petito went missing while on a cross-country trip with her 23-year-old fiancé, Brian Laundrie. An aspiring vlogger and social media influencer, she and Laundrie hit the road in early July and traveled the western United States in her 2012 Ford Transit van, which they converted into a camper.

By all appearances, the “van life” couple seemed happy — the perfect, adventurous duo — sharing Instagram photos and a YouTube video from their exciting trip exploring the U.S.

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• Gabby Petito's Family Plans To File $50M Lawsuit Against Police: Court
• Petito Lawsuit Going To Trial, Laundrie Motion To Dismiss Case Denied

But their relationship wasn’t everything it appeared to be outwardly on social media. During their months-long trip, Petito missed plans to meet up with friends on the road and stopped responding to text messages and phone calls from her family, worrying those who cared about her.

There was also a much-publicized ill-fated traffic stop in Moab, Utah, where police failed to notice signs of domestic violence and even branded Petito the abuser. An officer’s bodycam video from that interaction showed her visibly upset and crying, while Laundrie smiled, laughed and joked with police. He was provided a free night’s stay in a motel to give the couple some breathing room, while she spent the night alone in their camper.

The last time anyone saw Petito alive was Aug. 27, when a witness came forward to say she had seen the couple arguing at the Merry Piglets, a Tex-Mex restaurant in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She told Fox 13 that Laundrie seemed aggressive and stormed in and out of the eatery.

Their relationship was on-again, off-again and friends sometimes couldn’t keep up with their current status. One friend told People that the two “always had some drama.” But another said that though the couple “had very low lows and very high highs” they “never saw any sort of physical abuse,” and friends weren’t concerned.

At the time they left for their trip, the native New Yorkers and former high school classmates from Blue Point, New York, were living with Laundrie’s parents in North Port, Florida. After Petito’s parents reported her missing, her van was found at the Laundrie family home.

By Sept. 15, Laundrie was named a person of interest in the case, according to city of North Port officials. But he and his family refused to cooperate with the investigation into her disappearance.

Days later, it was revealed that her fiancé was nowhere to be found, either. His parents told North Port police on Sept. 17 that their son had left for a hike at Sarasota County’s Carlton Reserve on Sept. 14 — weeks later telling authorities he actually left their home Sept. 13 — and he hadn’t been seen since.

A month-long global manhunt for Laundrie ensued with tips about his whereabouts coming in from across Florida, along the Appalachian Trail and beyond.

As the FBI and other law enforcement agencies launched their search for him, Petito’s body was found on Sept. 19, 2021, in Wyoming in the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, near the Grand Teton National Park.

Of course, the case didn’t end there, as Laundrie was still missing. Despite the many rumors coming in, officials focused their search on Sarasota County’s Carlton Reserve and Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, which is connected to the reserve by a 12-mile trail.

During that time, they used various methods to comb the swampy reserve and the adjacent park, including K-9 dogs, ATVs, drones, helicopters, dive teams and airboats.

His skeletal remains, including a portion of his skull, were found Oct. 20, 2021, in the area, along with several of his belongings. The FBI used dental records to match the remains to Laundrie.

The District 12 Medical Examiner’s Office also used DNA analysis to confirm the remains belonged to Laundrie and determined that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

In June, Steven Bertolino, an attorney representing the Laundrie family, shared pages from a notebook found near Laundrie’s remains with the public.

In a written confession, Laundrie said Petito fell while crossing a stream at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping area and injured herself. She had difficulty staying awake, and he said he worried she might have a concussion.

“I don’t know the extent of Gabby’s injurys (sic)," he wrote in his notebook. "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.”

Even a year later, the story continues to capture global attention and likely will for some time, as the Petito and Laundrie families prepare to face off in a Florida court next summer.

A Sarasota County judge has denied a motion by Brian Laundrie’s parents to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed against them by Gabby Petito’s family.

The Petitos are suing the Laundries for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Seeking answers and justice in her death, Petito’s parents filed the civil lawsuit against Christopher and Roberta Laundrie in March, amending their complaint at the end of April.

Her parents claim the Laundries knew their son murdered the 22-year-old woman and “knew the whereabouts of her body” when they took a family vacation in early September, according to their complaint. They’re seeking "damages that exceed $30,000 exclusive of prejudgment, interest, costs and attorney fees."

After a June 22 pre-trial hearing in a Venice – which saw both sides make their arguments about why the case should or shouldn’t move forward - Judge Hunter W. Carroll decided to go ahead with the jury trial.

In his denial of the Laundries' motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Carroll focused on the Petito family’s complaint that the Laundries failed to act by not telling them whether their daughter was dead or where her body was. The Laundries even blocked Petito’s parents’ phone numbers and social media accounts.

“The Laundries frame their ‘silence’ in constitutional terms, arguing that their silence was constitutionally permissible under the First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the related Florida Constitution provisions,” the judge wrote. “The court does not believe it is necessary or appropriate in this case to resolve these constitutional claims on a motion to dismiss.”

He added, “If the facts of this case truly were about silence with no affirmative act by the Laundries, the court would have resolved this case in the Laundries’ favor on the concept of legal duty, or more precisely, the lack of any legal duty for the Laundries to act. Had the Laundries truly stayed silent, the court would have granted the motion to dismiss in the Laundries’ favor. But they did not stay silent.”

During a national search for Petito, the Laundrie family’s attorney, Bertolino, released a public comment Sept. 14 on their behalf: “It is our understanding that a search has been organized for Miss Petito in or near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. On behalf of the Laundrie family, it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family.”

In his decision, Carroll wrote that it should be assumed “that the Laundries are responsible for authoring” the comment delivered by their attorney and called the statement “objectively outrageous.”