Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Documentary, Netflix
Ilana Frost
The upcoming Netflix docuseries, American Murder: Gabby Petito, will tell the story of Gabby Petito, a young travel vlogger who went on a road trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, and tragically wound up dead. The three-part documentary will include interviews with Gabby’s friends and family as well as excerpts from her personal journals, text exchanges, and video footage. According to Netflix, the doc “captures the reality of a young woman enmeshed in an abusive relationship behind closed doors.”
Although this case went viral while it was happening, it’s been a few years now since the tragedy occurred. Ahead of the Netflix documentary, here’s a refresher on all the unsettling details of the Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie case.
To her followers, Gabby’s life seemed fun and romantic as she shared glimpses of her road trip with Brian. However, her off-camera life was clearly an entirely different story.
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Gabby was last seen alive on Aug. 27, 2021 before she mysteriously disappeared. She and Brian had been on a four-month “van life” road trip across the country, and they’d been documenting their experiences together on social media. But in September 2021, Brian returned home without Gabby and was quickly named a person of interest in her disappearance. A few days later, Gabby was tragically found dead in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. She was just 22.
It was eventually discovered that Brian strangled Gabby to death. After his parents reported him missing, there was a month-long manhunt for Brian before his remains were found in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. A Florida medical examiner ruled that the 23-year-old died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He left behind a written confession that he was “responsible” for Gabby’s murder.
Gabby grew up in Blue Point, New York, but in 2019, she moved Florida to live with Brian and his family.
The doc will be available to stream on February 17. Per a Netflix press release, the series will “take viewers on a journey through Gabby and Brian’s final days together” and “unveil the tragic reality behind their Insta-perfect life and reveal painful moments where their story might have taken a different turn.”
American Murder: Gabby Petito is from directors Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro and executive producers Dr. Phillip C. McGraw and Sarah Carden. Gabby’s family and friends share their own stories and perspectives in the doc.