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Podcast Host
This is Crime House.
Katie Ring
Gabby Petito became a household name overnight, but not for the reason she'd hoped. She wanted to share her love of travel with the world. But instead, her fiance, Brian Laundrie returned to his parents house without her and the Internet exploded. News crews swarmed in. Internet sleuths dissected every post. Then Brian vanished as well. Today we'll break down the heartbreaking resolution to Gabby's disappearance and the lasting impact it left on the nation. Every crime tells a story about the people involved, the system that tried to stop it, and the nation that couldn't look away. Some cases are so shocking, so deeply woven into who we we are, that decades later we're still asking, how did this happen? I'm Katie Ring and this is America's Most infamous Crimes. Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I'll take you deep into cases that have a lasting imprint on society and still haunt us today. If you haven't subscribed yet, be sure to hit that button so you never miss an episode. Today we'll be talking about the tragic
Co-host/Expert Commentator
case of Gabby Petito.
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Co-host/Expert Commentator
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Katie Ring
After Gabby Petito was reported missing on September 11, 2021, all eyes turned to her fiance, Brian Laundrie. That day, the police learned that Brian had come home from their cross country road trip alone and his family had hired a lawyer.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
It didn't take long for the Internet
Katie Ring
to latch onto the story and within days millions of people wanted to know, where was Gabby and what did Brian have to do with her disappearance? Both of these questions would be hard to answer. There wasn't a lot of physical evidence to go off of. And now Brian was missing as well after going hiking at the Carlton Reserve, a sprawling 25,000 acre park where a person could easily go off the grid. We'll get in the efforts to track Brian down soon, but let's start with the investigation to find Gabby first. Thankfully, although there wasn't much physical evidence, Gabby had left a digital footprint for them to follow. Along with her social media presence, investigators had found security footage from Whole Foods on the afternoon of Aug. 27 that showed the general direction she and Brian had gone before she disappeared. The FBI also had possession of Gabby's laptop, which let them see the last time Gabby was online at 8:32pm on Aug. 27, which was just a few hours after that Whole Foods video. So they started getting a good sense of the timeline and assuming something bad happened to Gabby, it probably happened sometime later that night or the next morning because nobody had actually spoken to her after that. The laptop also helped them zero in on her last known location. Gabby was using an app called the Dirt to plan out and record the hike she did. On the app, she'd marked trails around Spread Creek near Grand Teton national park in Jackson, Wyoming, which wasn't far from the Whole Foods. Although the area was massive and the process of narrowing down a more targeted search could take months, it was a good place to start, but they didn't have that kind of time. The pressure was on. The clock was ticking to find Gabby, and if they took too long, the weather could interfere with their search. Wyoming is usually hit with snow around November, which would make a search and rescue operation pretty much impossible. It was already September, so if the authorities wanted any chance of finding Gabby alive or dead, they had to do it soon. Thankfully, there were millions of people on Social media who wanted to help. Sometimes that kind of attention can be a distraction. But this time, it gave them a crucial lead. People in the Van Life community were especially helpful at getting the word out. This wasn't just an abstract story to them. Gabby was one of their own. When you give up everything to live on the road, you have to put a lot of trust in other people. So imagine how chilling it would be to hear how Gabby went missing, not the victim of a random attack, but seemingly betrayed by the person she should have been able to trust the most. Van lifers, as well as their followers, were all trying to help find Gabby. Which brings us to Jen and Kyle Bethune. The two of them were a lot like Gabby. They were travel bloggers who'd been on the road since February of 2020, when they left their lives in Florida and started traveling the country in a vintage bus with their three kids and four dogs.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
In August of 2021, Jen and Kyle
Katie Ring
had been traveling through Wyoming right around the same time Gabby and Brian were there. And on the night of September 18th, Jen got a message from one of her followers who wanted to know if she'd been near Grand Teton around August 27th. Jen was aware about Gabby's case, but she didn't think they'd cross paths because the latest information she had was an early estimate from the FBI that Gabby and Brian had been in Grand Teton from the 21st to the 24th. But now that she realized that might not have been right, a memory came flooding back to her. Jen remembered seeing a white van with Florida license plates parked on the side of the road close to Spread Creek, one of the locations Gabby had marked on her hiking app. As a fellow Floridian, Jen had wanted to stop and say hello. But the van looked dark and locked, so she and Kyle decided to keep driving. Jen grabbed her laptop and started scrolling through all of her footage. And there it was. Her GoPro had caught the van on video, and the license plate was clearly visible. The second she saw that, Jen sent the footage to the FBI, who confirmed that it was Brian and Gabby's van. So now they had a specific place to look. And they were pretty sure they'd find Gabby there, because other witnesses had also come forward to say they'd seen Brian in that area. But he had been alone. Around 5.30pm on August 29, two days after the Bethune saw the van, a woman named Miranda Baker and her boyfriend had picked up Brian while he was hitchhiking. The incident had been pretty off putting. Brian offered them $200 for what amounted to a 10 mile ride. But as they got closer to his destination, he started acting weird. All of a sudden, he asked Miranda to pull over and said he'd find someone else to take him the rest of the way. About 20 minutes later, a woman named Norma Jean Jalovac was on her way to church when she saw Brian on the side of the road and gave him a ride. According to Norma, Brian offered her gas money to take him to the entrance of the Spread Creek dispersed camping area, the same place the Bethunes video was taken. Norma said that Brian was antsy the entire ride, and as soon as they got close to Spread Creek, he freaked out and got out of the car before they could make it all the way there. Norma felt like Brian didn't want her to know exactly where he was staying. With all of this information in mind, the authorities were pretty sure that they'd find Gabby somewhere near Spread Creek. And on the morning of September 19th, just hours after Jen Bethune sent the FBI her video, they were able to find the exact spot the van had been parked. Officers on horseback went up and down the south bank of the creek, then crossed the riverbed to search the north side of the area. Just a thousand feet from where the van had been parked, one of them spotted something that stood out in the landscape. It looked rough, like some kind of fabric. And as they got closer, they realized it was a body wrapped in a sweater. And even though it was starting to decompose, they could tell it was Gabby right away. She was lying on her side with one hand under her head. If they didn't know any better, it would almost look like she was taking a nap. Of course, that wasn't the case. And although the forensic evidence would tell the authorities a lot about what happened, Brian Laundrie was the only person who could truly tell them exactly what happened. But first, they had to find him.
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Katie Ring
At the same time the authorities in Wyoming found Gabby Petito's body, there was a frenzied manhunt to find Brian Laundrie out in Florida. Remember, he'd gone missing in a nature park called the Carlton Reserve, and finding him came with its own set of problems. Carlton is right next to another park called the Myakahatchee Creek Park. Together they cover 40 square miles and the landscape is not easy to navigate. It's swampy and full of wild boars, alligators and venomous snakes. Not to mention that parts of it get completely flooded and can't be searched on foot. The police realized that Brian was missing on September 17 after his parents, Roberta and Chris, finally broke their silence and told them that he'd been gone for three days already. Not only that, but the laundries said they'd already gone to look for him themselves without telling anyone. According to them, Brian had gone out on the 14th and hadn't come back. The next day they found his Ford Mustang in the reserve's parking area and for reasons they couldn't explain, they decided to drive it back. Even though the laundries were under 24 hour surveillance, the police didn't realize what was going on until Brian's parents told them they'd originally mistaken Brian for Roberto when he left. So when she took his car home, it didn't set off any alarm bells. But now that they knew what happened, they put everything they had into finding him. We're talking helicopters, drones, canine units, dive teams, and dozens of volunteers searching through waist deep water. It was also a total media circus. There were journalists and protesters camped outside the laundry's house. Even Dog the bounty hunter showed up and said he was going to Find Brian. And this time, the Internet sleuthing that played a huge role in helping to find Gabby started making things more complicated when it came to tracking down Brian. People were calling the tip lines from all over the country and even Mexico saying that they saw him. And there was even a conspiracy theory that he was actually buried in his parents backyard. By September 27, the search had been going on for 10 days and there was still no sign of him. By this point, the laundry silence was deafening. A lot of people were convinced that they were hiding something or that they may have even helped Brian escape. So Roberta and Chris finally decided to speak out. But all they said was that they had no idea where their son was and denied helping him escape. After that, they didn't say anything else, not even to their daughter, Brian's older sister, Cassie. After another week of radio silence from Chris and Roberta, Cassie finally decided to speak out on October 4, 2021. Like her parents, Cassie said she didn't know where Brian was. But she did say she hoped Brian was still alive and if he was, he should turn himself in. If Brian was out there, he wasn't listening. And heavy rains had made it even harder to search the Carlton reserve. But on October 20, the park was finally in good enough shape for the authorities to really start looking again. That morning, Brian's parents agreed to join the search. Alongside law enforcement, they knew his favorite trails. And after looking for about an hour or so, Chris found Brian's dry bag in the woods. About 45 minutes later, they found human remains that were too decomposed to visually identify. Forensic testing would confirm that the remains were Brian's and he died from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Nearby, investigators also found a pair of shoes, a handgun and a journal inside of his dry bag with a note saying, I have killed myself by this creek in hopes that the animals will tear me apart, that it may make some of Gabby's family happy. The note also gave Brian's version of what happened the night Gabby died. It read, quote, this was an unexpected tragedy. Rushing back to our car, trying to cross the streams, I heard a splash and a scream. I can barely see. I found her breathing, barely gasping. She was freezing cold. The temp had dropped.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
When I pulled Gabby out of the
Katie Ring
water, she couldn't tell me what hurt. While carrying her, she continually made sounds of pain. Laying next to her, she said between violent shakes, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain, I ended her life. I thought it was merciful, but from the moment I decided to take her pain away. I knew I couldn't go on without her. I rushed home to spend any time I had left with my family. I wanted to let James or TJ kill me. I'm ending my life because I cannot stand to live another day without her. Please do not make it harder for my family. They lost a son and a daughter. The thing is, Brian's story didn't exactly match up with the results of Gabby's autopsy, which had come out a few days before. According to the FBI, she'd died from blunt force injuries to her head and neck and manual strangulation. There was no sign of the mysterious injury Brian mentioned or that she'd experienced hypothermia. So whatever really happened to Gabby, it probably didn't happen the way Brian said. Not to mention that Brian's behavior after the fact did not match up with someone who'd gone through what he'd described. Yes, people process trauma in all different kinds of ways, but if you ask me, he worked pretty hard to cover up what happened. To recap, there was a fake paper trail of him using her credit the Zelle payment with the weird goodbye message, the weird text to Gabby's mom, and the messages from Gabby's phone to Brian's, which the FBI was able to prove had been sent while the phones were right next to each other.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
Let's just say Gabby's family was not
Katie Ring
buying the story in that note and they wanted to make sure that Brian could be held accountable for her death in one way or another.
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Katie Ring
After Brian Laundrie's journal entry was released, Gabby Petito's family flat out rejected his explanation that he'd killed her out of mercy after she got badly injured during a hike. Gabby's mom, Nicole, publicly called Brian a narcissist and said she thought this was his one last way to try and control the story. Now that Brian was dead, there was no way to try and hold him criminally accountable. But Gabby's family could still sue his estate in civil court for wrongful death, and a judge eventually awarded them a $3 million judgment. Of course, Brian's estate didn't have anywhere close to that. But any funds that were eventually collected went straight to the Gabby Petito foundation, which her family had dedicated to helping victims of domestic violence. And then there was still the question of how much Brian's parents knew and if they tried to help their son cover up what he'd done. Gabby's parents also sued Roberta and Chris in civil court for Gabby's death and for withholding vital information. Those lawsuits were settled before they even went to trial, so there's not a lot of evidence that was publicly released. But the Internet has latched onto an undated letter Roberta had written to Brian. The envelope read burn after reading, and this is what it said. I just want you to remember I will always love you. And I know you will always love me. You are my boy. Nothing can make me stop loving you. Nothing will or could ever divide us. No matter what we do or where we go or what we say, we will always love each other. If you're in jail, I will bake a cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags. If you fly to the moon, I will be watching the skies for your re entry. If you say you hate my guts,
Co-host/Expert Commentator
I'll get new guts.
Katie Ring
She ended the letter by saying, nothing can separate us. Not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not threats, not even sin, not the thinkable or unthinkable can get between us. Not time, not miles and miles and miles. Now, to be clear, there is no date on that letter. And we know that Brian and Roberto were close, so this could have been written at any point in his life. So you could chalk it up to her being an overbearing mom. In addition, the Laundries have never been criminally charged in relation to Gabby's death. Unfortunately, we'll probably never get all the answers in this case, as Gabby's mom noted, the only two people who knew what really happened are no longer alive. But here's some additional context. On August 22, 2021, just five days before she died, Gabby reached out to an ex boyfriend and said she'd planned to break up with Brian. She was tired of all of the fighting and the gaslighting and she just wanted it to be over. What many people aren't aware of is that leaving is the most dangerous time for a victim of domestic violence. Around 77% of women who are killed by their abusers are killed while or after leaving. And many of the murders and murder suicides happen when the victim tells their abuser they are leaving. Looking back, Gabby's family and friends say that the warning signs were all there, along with everything I've talked about in these episodes. Brian had a dark side to him that most people ignored. His art was edgy to the point of being disturbing, and he was also fascinated with weapons. When investigators searched his room, they found brass knuckles, ammunition, receipts for two different firearms, and a crossbow with a rifle scope. Gabby was such a kind person who radiated joy, and it is so devastating
Co-host/Expert Commentator
to see a woman with such a
Katie Ring
bright future be taken so young. In the wake of her murder, Gabby's family got matching tattoos across their forearms just like the one Gabby had. It was the name of a famous song by the Beatles, Let it be. That's not to say they're sitting back and moving on with their lives. They know how high profile Gabby's case was. It showcased how social media can bring people together and rally around a cause. But it also showed how easy it is to hide behind the appearance of a perfect life, and how easy it is to ignore the warning signs of abuse. If you or someone you know is in a relationship where you feel unsafe, where someone is controlling your actions, isolating you from friends and family, or making you feel like you're constantly walking on eggshells. The time to seek help is now, so please talk to a friend or family, find someone you trust and let them know what's going on. And if you don't have anyone or know where to start, you can always call the National Domestic violence hotline at 1-800-799-7233. All calls are free and confidential and they're available 24. 7. In the wake of Gabby's death, her family has also worked through the Gabby Petito foundation to highlight other missing persons cases. Through her story, Gabby's dad, Joe, learned about the concept of the missing White women Syndrome. The disproportionate media, law enforcement and public attention are given to the disappearances of young, attractive, upper middle class white women compared to women of color, indigenous women or men. Over the past few years, Joe and the Gabby Petito foundation have made sure to advocate for missing black and brown people, partnering with their families and groups like the Black and Missing Foundation. They're doing everything they can to make sure everyone gets the help they deserve and that something like this never happens again.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
At the end of each episode we'll
Katie Ring
be going off the record where I'll give my thoughts about the case and answer any questions you've submitted.
Audience Member/Questioner
Do you think Brian killed Gabby because she told him she was leaving?
Katie Ring
Unfortunately, we will never truly know what
Co-host/Expert Commentator
happened, so I can only speculate on this.
Katie Ring
But knowing that around 77% of domestic violence related homicides occurred during or after separation, I would say it's highly likely that Brian killed Gabby when he found out she was leaving.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
Whether Gabby told him she was leaving outright or he saw the text between her and her ex boyfriend that said she wanted to leave, I believe he
Katie Ring
did take her life because she was leaving.
Audience Member/Questioner
Why is leaving the most dangerous time for victims?
Co-host/Expert Commentator
Leaving is the most dangerous time because abuse is fundamentally about power and control and when a victim decides to leave,
Katie Ring
that control is suddenly threatened and taken away from the abuser. So many abusers will attempt to regain power, prevent the person from leaving, or punish them for trying to end the relationship.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
When a victim leaves, it can provoke jealousy, fear of abandonment and fear of
Katie Ring
consequences like legal trouble, social exposure, people finding out that they are abusers or
Co-host/Expert Commentator
losing access to that partner and their source of power. So when they lose power and control over someone, this is when violence usually
Katie Ring
escalates and can lead to homicide or them taking the lives of their partner.
Audience Member/Questioner
What are your thoughts on the letter Brian's mom wrote to him?
Co-host/Expert Commentator
It's obviously extremely creepy, especially the guts comment, but it also raises some questions and red flags about the family dynamic. I'm personally obviously not a psychologist, but when people look at that letter alongside the fact that she was extremely jealous of Brian and Gabby's relationship, it can suggest what psychologists call a mother son enmeshment, where boundaries between a parent and adult or the mother and the son can become blurred. A lot of times the mother will depend on the son to support her emotions. And this is why I say that many times being a mama's boy can be a red flag. And that's not saying that loving or
Katie Ring
being close with your mom is a
Co-host/Expert Commentator
red flag at all, that can be
Katie Ring
actually a great sign.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
So what you want to look out for is a controlling or overly dependent relationship that is disguised as closeness. And why this is important is that in some cases, men who grow up in those dynamics can struggle with boundaries as adults. And in adult relationships, they can lead to intense controlling behavior or what they call engulfment of a partner. They also can use aggression to assert a sense of control and manhood that they never developed. And sometimes they even project their resentment
Katie Ring
towards their mother onto their partner.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
And lastly, another factor is that a lot of these moms who typically refer
Katie Ring
to themselves as boy moms will shield
Co-host/Expert Commentator
their son from accountability, which can foster a sense of entitlement and the belief that their needs or emotions should come before anyone else's.
Audience Member/Questioner
Do you have advice for someone trying to leave an abusive relationship?
Co-host/Expert Commentator
My biggest piece of advice is to reach out to friends and family, even if you feel like those relationships are strained. Because typically that's the first tactic of abusers is to strain those relationships. So you don't have a support system,
Katie Ring
know that many of them will still
Co-host/Expert Commentator
be there when it is time for
Katie Ring
you to want to leave.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
If you don't have a support system, you can also reach out to hotlines or other resources, shelters. The biggest thing is also reach out to that support system. Make a plan and never tell your abuser that you are leaving. You need to move in silence. And I know sometimes you feel like the right thing is to give them an explanation and explain it in person, but that is one of the most dangerous things you can do because that is the time where many people are severely injured or killed.
Audience Member/Questioner
As your audience knows, you have a background in self defense. And when you look at cases like Gabby's, there are often warning signs. But for many, they only become clear in hindsight. What should people know about recognizing red flags in controlling or potentially dangerous relationships?
Co-host/Expert Commentator
I could go into a whole episode on all of the red flags that we can see in certain relationships. In this relationship in particular, one of the number one things across the board for domestic violence is you will always see love bombing in the very beginning stages. The abuser will try and move the relationship really fast. And that's what we saw here. Within nine months, he had moved her away from her support system to Florida to live with his support system, with his family. Even there, you know, he discouraged her, reaching out to her friends or family, her friends she made in Florida. He also kept on judging, kept on saying that she can't hang out with them, stole her ID and her wallet so she couldn't go hang out with one of those friends. So the other thing is that isolation, and the isolation was a very big red flag. And, you know, one of her friends, as we talked about earlier, Rose, who was kind of opening her eyes to the dangerous dynamics of this relationship and the control that was going on once he saw that, and I think he probably saw Gabby pulling away, is when he agreed to finally take off on this van life trip. And I think he did that really to get her away from everyone so that he could have her all to himself and that he could have total control over her. Unfortunately, many times control and abuse can be disguised as love, care, or protection. A lot of abusers will say, I'm
Katie Ring
just doing it to protect you. I'm just doing it to care.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
I'm just doing it because I want you to hang out with me because I love you so much. So that makes it harder for a lot of victims to recognize what is going on. But looking for that love bombing, looking for, you know, control, someone trying to control you, someone trying to take power over you. If you feel like you're constantly walking on eggshells, if you feel like they're constantly judging you or criticizing what you did, like how Brian criticized her job and sent the disgusting text, like, I can't believe you're working with like the scum of the earth. Not that wasn't quote for quote, but along those lines, that was also kind of financial abuse. So, you know, if someone wants you to drop your whole support system, your job, everything like that, they're trying to get you away. So it makes it much harder to leave. The last thing also is watching out for insecure men because Brian was extremely insecure. And insecure men will always drag you down.
Katie Ring
They will never lift you up. Thanks so much for joining me for this episode.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
Episode.
Katie Ring
If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to subscribe below. If you're listening on audio, please rate, review and follow America's most infamous crimes.
Co-host/Expert Commentator
And to get all of the episodes
Katie Ring
at once ad free, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. Come back next week for another deep dive into a case that changed America.
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Episode: How Two YouTubers Helped Lead Police to Gabby Petito Pt. 3
Host: Katie Ring (with Co-host/Expert Commentator)
Date: April 2, 2026
Duration (Content): ~00:06 – 31:20
This episode brings a detailed, emotionally resonant close to the Gabby Petito case, focusing on the crucial role of digital evidence, internet sleuths, and especially the Van Life community—including two YouTubers, Jen and Kyle Bethune—in helping police find Gabby's body. The episode traces the final days of the investigation, public and media involvement, the search for Brian Laundrie, the discovery of key evidence, and the case's lasting impact on domestic violence awareness and media coverage of missing persons. Katie Ring and her co-host offer factual narrative, analysis, and advice for those facing abuse, with poignant listener Q&A rounding out the discussion.
(03:09–06:26)
(06:26–10:00)
(10:00):
(11:21–15:31)
(15:31–17:07)
(18:25–20:13)
(22:06–24:01)
| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Context | |-----------|--------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 08:22 | Katie Ring | "Jen grabbed her laptop...her GoPro had caught the van on video, and the license plate was clearly visible. The second she saw that, Jen sent the footage to the FBI..." | | 15:32 | Katie Ring (reading Brian’s journal) | "Laying next to her, she said between violent shakes, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain, I ended her life. I thought it was merciful..." | | 20:13 | Roberta Laundrie (letter) | "If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags. If you say you hate my guts, I’ll get new guts." | | 22:29 | Katie Ring | "Around 77% of women who are killed by their abusers are killed while or after leaving." | | 22:52 | Katie Ring | "Gabby was such a kind person who radiated joy, and it is so devastating to see a woman with such a bright future be taken so young." |
(24:08–30:48)
This episode powerfully demonstrates how digital footprints and social media can change the trajectory of cases, as well as the complex human and societal factors at play in domestic violence tragedies. Katie Ring and her co-host use both storytelling and expertise to drive home the importance of recognizing warning signs, supporting survivors, and pushing for systemic change.