On 19 August, a young couple posted a video on YouTube documenting their travels around the US in a converted Ford Transit van. The idyllic, slo-mo montage, entitled Beginning Our Van Life Journey, showed them driving through stunning scenery, cartwheeling on a beach and kissing for the camera. Attractive, loved-up and carefree, they seemed to have lives most of us would envy.
Yet exactly one month later, the woman’s remains would be discovered in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, while her boyfriend, the prime suspect in her apparent murder, would become the subject of an FBI manhunt. Her name was Gabby Petito, and her disappearance and death – by strangulation, a coroner has ruled – have unleashed an avalanche of attention in the US and internationally, largely because every development in the story has been dissected in forensic detail on social media.
When Gabby, a 22-year-old from Blue Point in Long Island, New York, set out on her road trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, 23, in July, she had fewer than 1,000 followers on Instagram. Now, her account has 1.3 million followers, despite the fact she’ll never post on it again. On TikTok, the hashtag #GabbyPetito has an extraordinary 1.4 billion views, while podcasts, vlogs and endless Reddit forums have sprung up to pore over the case.
Social media has enabled followers to feel as though they’re not merely onlookers, but active participants in Gabby’s story, piecing together clues about her relationship with Laundrie from her Instagram and TikTok in an attempt to find answers. To millions of armchair detectives, it’s as if Gabby’s untimely death is a Netflix true crime documentary unfolding in real time.
‘Few stories have exploded like this one,’ says Bevan Hurley, US correspondent for The Independent, who has been covering the case. ‘There’s been a tsunami of interest and it’s showing no sign of stopping. It’s been fuelled by the fact Gabby lived her life online – she put so much out there, so there’s been a lot for people to sift through.’
Gabby had used Instagram to chronicle her road trips with Laundrie from the start of their relationship in March 2019. In July 2020, she posted that he had proposed to her, writing, ‘You make life feel unreal, and every day is such a dream with you.’
After setting off on their big adventure in July 2021, she and Laundrie both posted regularly with the hashtag #vanlife, sharing images of themselves at locations including Zion National Park, Utah. On TikTok, their ‘nomadicstatik’ account featured videos of the couple against a backdrop of vast, beautiful canyons.
On YouTube, they promised further videos, but the 19 August montage was to be the only one posted. On 12 August, Utah police had attended a ‘domestic violence’ incident between the couple, with bodycam footage showing a tearful Gabby telling officers she had been assaulted by Laundrie, who grabbed her face and left a cut. No charges were filed, but Gabby was described as ‘confused and emotional’.
Gabby’s family last FaceTimed with her on 24 August; a text was sent from her phone on the 30th, but they doubt she sent it: the coroner in the case has now said Gabby was killed three to four weeks before her body was found on 19 September. On 1 September, Laundrie had returned to the couple’s home without Gabby, whose parents then reported her missing on the 11th.
Meanwhile, Laundrie is believed to have gone hiking in the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, Florida, two days later and hasn’t been seen since, despite a police hunt. On October 20, in what may prove to a major development in the case, investigators said they had found apparent human remains in a Florida park, as well as items belonging to him.
Investigators found what appears to be human remains, along with personal items such as a backpack and notebook belonging to Brian Laundrie. These items were found in an area that up until recently had been underwater,' said FBI special agent Michael McPherson, who described Laundrie as 'a person of interest in the murder of Gabby Petito'.
Bevan was at the memorial held for Gabby in Long Island on 26 September, in which her father Joe gave a moving eulogy about her passion for new experiences, including hiking the Appalachian Trail and scuba-diving. ‘It was a strange collision between quite a remote, small town in staunch Republican territory and global media interest, with dozens of TV crews and reporters,’ he says. Joe also delivered a poignant piece of advice for women, saying, ‘If you’re in a relationship that you think isn’t right for you, get out of it right now.’
'If you’re in a relationship that you think isn’t right for you, get out of it right now.’
In parallel to the very personal tragedy still unfolding for those who loved Gabby, however, the case has spotlighted the way our lives – and even deaths – are now documented online. Social media has been fascinated by every new development, responding with a slew of fresh speculation and amateur sleuthing.
Vloggers Kyle and Jenn Bethune, who have lived on a bus with their three children for two years, even helped locate Gabby’s remains. After being informed she and Laundrie had been in the Bridger-Teton National Forest at the same time as their family, they scoured a video they had taken until they found the couple’s van. The video went viral and, soon after, police found Gabby’s remains nearby.
Others, however, have been accused of exploiting Gabby’s death by turning it into entertainment. True crime as a genre has exploded in popularity following hit podcasts and series such as Serial and Making A Murderer, yet behind every gripping story is a real loss. Gabby’s family are starting the grieving process while contending with millions devouring every morsel of their daughter’s final days.
According to media psychologist Dr Pamela Rutledge, although distasteful, ‘true-crime rubbernecking’, is an understandable response to a frightening situation.
‘In uncertain times, true crime stories can provide comfort because the narratives have a predictable arc that promises resolution, one way or another,’ she says. By packaging up Gabby’s death in this way, we feel we’re restoring a sense of order and control.
Her story has also prompted the observation that missing white women receive a disproportionate level of coverage by comparison to other demographics. Bevan believes Gabby’s case may nonetheless help change that. ‘It’s brought the subject into the open and changed the conversation around other missing people,’ he says. Gabby’s family have also started a foundation in her name, to help other families with missing loved ones. ‘Hopefully, some good will come from her death,’ says Bevan.
READ MORE: Stop Treating Gabby Petito’s Murder As If It’s A Live True Crime Documentary