Gabby Petito’s Van Caught On Video: Van Life Family

BLUE POINT, NY — The Bethune family — on a cross-country tour of America in a converted bus — discovered footage of a white van they believe is Gabby Petito’s in the Spread Creek dispersed camping land of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on Aug. 27.

In a post on the family's Facebook page, Red White and Bethune, Jenn Bethune, the matriarch of the Tampa, FL, family who has been documenting the journey on social media, says she had been editing video from around 6 p.m. on Aug. 27, when she stumbled across the footage which shows a white van parked on the side of the road.

Her discovery, which came at the urging of a social media follower, came on the same day that remains, believed to be those of the missing former Long Islander’s, were found in Grand Teton.

Bethune said she is aware the Federal Bureau of Investigation reviewed her footage, and is happy that “Gabby” will be brought home to her family.

“Thank you for bringing Gabby home to her family,” she said during a Sunday Livestream, adding, that she had been in contact with Petito’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, “and, I just apologized and told her that I'm so, so sorry that I didn't bring her home safe. I am happy that we brought her home.”

Noting that Sunday was an emotional day, the Bethunes explained how they also suffered the loss of a child when their son was killed in a car crash in 2017.

Kyle Bethune, Jenn's husband, said the Schmidt/Petito family is going to “need help” in the coming months and years.

“You know, send those messages,” he said. “You may think they may never read them and they may not, but they may scroll through them and you never; you just never know.”

He suggested sending Petito’s family “some good love” as well as prayers and “good vibes.”

“We've been on that end of this,” he said, adding, “meaning you need all you can get.”

Petito had been traveling with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, on a cross-country road trip touring the national parks, including Grand Teton National Park, but she vanished before the trip ended. Laundrie returned home without her and ended up being named a person of interest in her disappearance. Laundrie was reported missing by his family on Friday. He has never spoken with the police about Petito’s disappearance.

Investigators still have not confirmed 100 % that it is Petito whose remains were found.

When asked about the Bethune’s van footage, an FBI spokeswoman referred Patch to the department’s official Twitter page.

Agents executed a court-authorized search warrant on Monday at the Laundrie home in North Port, FL, that was “relevant to the Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito investigation,” the agency tweeted, adding, “No further details can be provided since this is an active and ongoing investigation.”

Police have not been able to confirm whether the Bethune’s video footage contained Petito’s van, Newsweek has reported.

The Bethunes did not respond to a request for an interview.

"It's kind of wild; insane a little bit because we drove past," said Kyle Bethune said in a YouTube video over the weekend, adding, "We weren't able to find any sites, and we ended up driving back through solid again."

The van, which has a distinctive set of stickers on the back, can be seen on the left-hand side as the bus drives past.

"It's kind of freaky for a late Saturday evening, " Kyle said, adding, "but we just had a brain fart, 'oh my God, there's that van.'"

Jenn wrote on Facebook that the bus stuck out because it had Florida plates and remembered wanting to stop and say hello because they are from Florida also, "but the van was dark and it didn’t look like there was anyone there," she wrote.

"So we kept going," she continued, adding, "We eventually left and parked up front in the gravel area."

She ended up receiving a comment from someone on Instagram saying “please tell your 10K followers about finding Gabby!” she wrote. "I didn’t think much of it, I knew we were in the Tetons area around the 25th but wasn’t sure which day."

Jenn had been editing their Sunday video from Aug. 27 and saw the footage, but then paused her editing and went to lay in bed, she wrote, adding, "I opened Facebook and saw that @fettisonthemove had tagged me in a story asking me to check all my videos from the 25th-27th of August."

"I instantly got a bone-chilling feeling," Bethune wrote, adding, "that she leaped up and then ran to her laptop. "I watched the rest of my footage and sure enough, her van was in the video."

She then learned that the National Park Service had posted an update that they were looking at activity in the Spread Creek Area of the Tetons.

Jenn said the reason why the family is sharing their story is that after they left for another area, they got a message from someone on Instagram saying that they saw their bus drive through the Spread Creek area and they are now following them and watching their videos.

"I thought that if other people in the area that day saw us and started watching our videos, they may watch this one and realize that they too may have seen [Gabby Petito or Brian Laundrie] in the area that day and could lead investigators to find Gabby," she said.

Petito's family reported having the video of the van on their Facebook page, Find Gabby.

"We have this video; so does the FBI," the post read. "We believe this is the van for multiple reasons."

The post goes on to ask followers not to" clog up" the tip line with the same video because it’s "in the hands of the right people."

"Thank you so much, this is exactly why we are asking people to review older photos and video," the post ended.