FROM THE VAULT - Episode 293 - Gabby Petito: Isolated

Summary

RedHanded — FROM THE VAULT: Episode 293

Title: Gabby Petito: Isolated
Released: February 24, 2025

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Overview

This RedHanded episode, hosted by Hannah Witton and Heather Rogers, returns “from the vault” to revisit the highly publicized Gabby Petito case. The hosts critically dissect the sequence of events, media involvement, and the darker realities of intimate partner violence. With their signature blend of sharp analysis, dark humor, and empathy, they explore why Gabby’s story gripped the world, from the details of her relationship with Brian Laundrie to the shortcomings of law enforcement and the devastating aftermath for both families.

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Main Theme

The episode investigates the tragic disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito—a case that became a social media spectacle and public obsession. While untangling the timeline, the hosts question the complicity of Brian Laundrie’s family, critique the actions of the police, and reflect on society’s fascination with real-time true crime. At the core is a broader conversation about domestic violence, victim blaming, and the failures of people and systems that should have protected Gabby.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The “Van Life” Facade and Social Media Obsession

• [03:39] The cross-country trip began on July 2, 2021, with Gabby (22) and fiancé Brian Laundrie (23), intending to document an idyllic, adventure-filled lifestyle as travel vloggers.
• Social media painted a picture-perfect relationship, filled with “running across beaches, kissing under waterfalls, and sunset camping shots” (Heather, [05:19]).
• The hosts compare the curated nature of Gabby’s posts to their own experiences, mocking influencer photo ops and how easily reality is hidden behind staged perfection.
• Memorable moment/quote:
  • “It was a case that was like happening like it was some sort of true crime series and people were keeping up with it. Every day brought new updates. People were obsessed…” (Hannah, [03:39])

2. Sudden Disappearance and Suspicious Behavior

• [08:47] When Gabby’s mother, Nicola, didn’t hear from her for several days—a break from near-daily contact—she grew alarmed.
• The last known direct contact from Gabby was on August 24. The final Instagram post was August 25.
• After 12 days of silence, Nicola reports Gabby missing; police discover Brian is already home in Florida—alone, with Gabby’s van ([10:04]).
• The Laundrie family immediately “close ranks,” refusing to communicate with police or Gabby’s family; they had hired a lawyer before Gabby was reported missing ([22:47]).
• Notable moment:
  • “If there is a sure fire way to make yourselves look guilty as fuck, this is it.” (Hannah, [10:04])

3. The Internet Sleuths and Virality

• The immense digital footprint—Instagram, YouTube, TikTok—fuels an unprecedented wave of amateur investigations and public outrage.
• Gabby’s follower count exploded from dozens to over 1.6 million during the case’s peak ([11:22]).
• While problematic at times, this online attention helps deliver key leads and witnesses to authorities.

4. The Gabby-Brian Relationship Backstory

• The pair met as teens in Long Island and were “on again, off again,” always embroiled in visible drama ([14:46]).
• Friends flagged worrying signs: Brian was described as controlling, manipulative—hiding Gabby’s ID to prevent her from going out ([16:20]).
• Despite their image, their relationship had “very high highs and very low lows.”
• Quote:
  • “[Brian] was certainly a manipulator. Not in a physical way, but he would always get what he wanted...” ([16:20])

5. The Odd Conduct of the Laundrie Family

• Immediately lawyering up before Gabby is reported missing ([22:47]).
• Going on a family camping trip mere days after Brian returns home alone ([19:06]): “Why they went there and what they were doing... is still up for debate.”
• Continued silence and refusal to cooperate fuels public outrage and suspicion.

6. The Moab Police Stop and Domestic Violence

• [24:09] Body cam footage from August 12, 2021, emerges, showing an altercation between Gabby and Brian:
  • Witnesses report seeing Brian strike Gabby; police nevertheless determine Gabby is the “aggressor” and simply separate them overnight ([32:34]).
• Gabby displays extreme anxiety, distress, and self-blame, while Brian is calm and collected ([27:06]-[30:23], [32:34]).
• Later, it’s revealed that the officers misunderstood or ignored key evidence—both in the 911 call and in Gabby’s visible injuries—and never contacted the original caller ([69:40]).
• The hosts highlight systemic police failures in handling suspected domestic violence and the rules requiring an arrest in such cases.
• Memorable analysis:
  • “They just didn’t ask the right questions and they didn’t spot the right signs of domestic violence.” (Hannah, [72:38])

7. Timeline Acceleration: The Disappearance, Search, and Breaks in the Case

• Multiple witnesses come forward, such as Nina Angelo witnessing a tense scene between the couple at a Wyoming restaurant ([34:44]) and the Bethune family’s GoPro capturing Gabby’s van’s location ([41:27]).
• With the help of such tips, Gabby’s remains are found on September 19, 2021; Brian has vanished, sparking a national manhunt ([43:03]).
• The police's inability to monitor Brian infamously leads to him slipping away, mistaken for his own mother ([39:09]).

8. The Aftermath: Brian’s Death and His “Confession”

• On October 20, 2021, Brian’s remains are found—he had died by suicide ([54:04]).
• His notebook contains a manipulative letter, blaming Gabby’s death on an “unexpected tragedy” and claiming he killed her out of mercy ([54:48]-[59:20]).
• The hosts read excerpts, furiously debunking his narrative and highlighting its self-serving, narcissistic tone.
  • “I ended her life. I thought it was merciful, that it was what she wanted. But I see now all the mistakes I made.” (Brian Laundrie, [54:48])
  • Host reaction: “Fuck you, Brian Laundrie, you mega giant fuck faced twat. I hate you.” (Hannah, [59:18])
• Brian’s explanation contradicts forensic findings (manual strangulation, blunt-force trauma). The hosts emphasize the “whitewashing” both in his letter and the couple’s pre-incident social media image.

9. Continuing Legal Fallout & Systemic Failures

• Gabby’s parents sue both Brian’s estate and his parents for intentional infliction of emotional distress, alleging the Laundries were complicit ([66:55]).
• Moab Police are also sued for failing to follow law and protect Gabby during the August stop.
• The case sparks wider debate about the effectiveness of domestic violence procedures in policing, and about the roles of enablers within families and systems.

10. Legacy and Calls for Change

• Gabby’s family establishes a foundation to raise awareness about domestic violence and early warning signs.
• The hosts reflect on the tragic, preventable pattern:
  • “This whole letter is reflective of who they were portraying themselves to be on social media...a complete whitewashing.” (Hannah, [60:50])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the media frenzy:
  • “It was a nightmare true crime case with a level of social media virality that I don't think I had ever seen before.” (Hannah, [03:39])
• On the Laundries hiring a lawyer:
  • “Only rich people and criminals have attorneys on retainer like that. You don't just have one when you're an ordinary family.” (Hannah, [22:47])
• On Brian’s manipulative “confession”:
  • “It is the most self serving, cowardly, narcissistic drivel that I've ever read.” (Heather, [54:38])
  • “He does a very good job of painting himself as the hero and the victim at the same time.” (Heather, [61:16])
• On police failures:
  • “They missed an absolutely vital opportunity...if officers had better understood the law...then it is entirely heartbreakingly possible that Gabby Petito might still be alive today.” (Hannah, [72:38])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:39] — Introduction to Gabby and Brian’s trip; emergence as a social media case
• [08:47] — Gabby loses contact with her family; Brian returns alone
• [11:22] — The internet sleuthing begins; “virality” and obsession
• [14:46]-[17:02] — Relationship history, concerning behaviors emerge
• [19:06]-[22:47] — The Laundrie family’s actions under scrutiny
• [24:09]-[33:20] — Analysis of the Moab Police stop; warning signs missed
• [34:44] — Key witnesses propel the search forward
• [41:27]-[43:03] — Bethune family GoPro footage leads to Gabby’s remains
• [54:04]-[62:38] — Brian’s death, letter, and hosts’ blistering critique
• [66:55]-[72:38] — Civil lawsuits and failure of bystanders
• [73:51]-[74:14] — Conclusion; Gabby’s legacy and ongoing action

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains RedHanded’s trademark blend of forensic storytelling, feminist critique, and gallows humor. The hosts’ anger and heartbreak for Gabby (and their utter contempt for Brian and his parents) are palpable throughout, balanced by moments of dark wit and relatable asides.

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Heard the Episode

This compelling, emotionally charged recap walks listeners through not just the events but the deeper ramifications of the Gabby Petito case. You’ll gain a clear sense of the timeline, the public’s role, law enforcement missteps, and the manipulation that underlies so many abusive relationships. The hosts’ commentary and detailed examination make it clear why Gabby’s story mattered, why it inspired outrage—and why change is so badly needed.

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If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, support is available. The legacy of Gabby Petito, as presented by RedHanded, is a reminder to recognize the signs and to push for systemic accountability.

Transcript

[Hannah Witton]

Wondry plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad free. Join Wondry plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

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[Hannah Witton]

Hello you lovely lot. I'm sure if you went anywhere near Netflix this weekend to watch Yellowstone like I was doing, you will also have noticed that trending in the top like 5 for the entire weekend was of course their brand new Gabby Petito documentary. We're not sponsored by them, but if you would like our take on it, then here's the episode we did many moons ago. Enjoy Straight from the Vault.

[Heather Rogers]

I'm Surruti and I allegedly am Hannah.

[Hannah Witton]

She is, I can confirm it. And this is red handed, which I almost forgot to say. If you are listening to this at the point at which it's being released, we'd have just come back off tour. We will be in Mexico.

[Heather Rogers]

Oh, Mexico.

[Hannah Witton]

Enjoying our week of holiday after the tour.

[Heather Rogers]

Yep.

[Hannah Witton]

Because we are doing a lot of pre recording.

[Heather Rogers]

Pre tour. Yep. During that week. If you are not made of tequila, I don't want to know exactly.

[Hannah Witton]

But by this point we will be having a great time probably. And you are probably not going to have a great time because it's one of those cases today, unfortunately. But that's what it is. So let's do it. Because today's story is one that most of you will already probably definitely know. It dominated headlines across the world for weeks. It was a nightmare true crime case with a level of social media virality that I don't think I had ever seen before. I don't think I had either, not before this case. It unfolded before our very eyes, trending number one on Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. It was a case that was like happening like it was some sort of true crime series and people were keeping up with it. Every day brought new updates. People were obsessed and this case had twists and turns like no one could have expected. So let's get into it. On 2 July 2021, 22 year old Gabby Petito and her 23 year old fiance Brian Laundrie left New York to head out on a four month cross country road trip. They'd been planning the trip for months. They were going to drive Gabby's white Ford van to the west coast, visiting as many state and national parks as they could on the way. And the pair were going to share every moment of their journey on social media. With Gabby hoping that this trip would be the start of her exciting career as a travel vlogger. And Brian, who was an outdoors guy through and through, was only too happy to join the party. So they'd both saved up enough cash, quit their jobs Done up the van to look vanlifepinterestperfect, and they were ready to go.

[Heather Rogers]

The next six weeks of the couple's trip, as documented on Gabby's Instagram, show a happy, smiley, young, beautiful pair enjoying themselves while exploring all of the stunning scenery of the US of A. There was a lot of running across beaches, kissing under waterfalls, and sunset camping shots. I wonder if they had to stand in a queue like all of those people in Bali.

[Alina Urquhart or Ash Kelly (Morbid Podcast Hosts)]

Do you remember?

[Heather Rogers]

Oh, my God.

[Hannah Witton]

Oh, my God. Yes, absolutely. Probably. Definitely 100% of that. It is very, like. Yes, like beautifully curated, stunning scenery which the US has got in bag. So it's very easy. But yes, when Hannah and I went to Bali, there was a waterfall that. No offense, it was just a waterfall.

[Heather Rogers]

We wanted to go and swim in it and we thought that was what was happening.

[Hannah Witton]

No.

[Heather Rogers]

And then you climb all the way down this massive cliff. You get there, just a queue, a queue of people waiting to take engagement photos under the waterfall.

[Hannah Witton]

It was embarrassing. And we left.

[Heather Rogers]

We left. Yeah. We were like, fuck this noise.

[Hannah Witton]

No, not for me. So, yeah, a lot of that. But nicely done.

[Heather Rogers]

Okay. On the 19th of August, the couple published an eight minute video on YouTube entitled Van Life Beginning Our Van Life Journey. It showed the couple laughing, having outdoorsy adventures, and lamenting the fact that that chocolate and the Utah sun are very much not friends.

[Hannah Witton]

Yes. Hannah, would you like to take a guess at Utah's state motto?

[Heather Rogers]

Oh, God.

[Hannah Witton]

So in a picture that Gabbie posts on her Instagram, her and Brian are standing in front of a big billboard and it's like, Utah. And then it's got a tagline, and I was like, is that Utah's state motto? That's a great state motto. It's not. Can you guess what the state motto actually is? And I'll tell you both in a second.

[Heather Rogers]

I love Brigham Young.

[Hannah Witton]

No. So the tagline on the billboard they're standing in front of says, life Elevated.

[Heather Rogers]

Okay.

[Hannah Witton]

And I was like, that's nice. That's cute. If it's like high sea levels, like, that's cute. It's not. It's one word. Tagline or state motto, whatever. Industry.

[Heather Rogers]

Oh, my God.

[Hannah Witton]

I know. And Utah is like, yes, we joke. Lots of Mormons, of course, but it's also absolutely beautiful.

[Heather Rogers]

Yes, yes, absolutely.

[Hannah Witton]

Yeah. Their state motto is Industry.

[Heather Rogers]

What? I don't know. Ohio's is even better than that.

[Hannah Witton]

Change it to Life Elevated Utah. Take it. Somebody's already written it on a billboard for you.

[Heather Rogers]

God.

[Hannah Witton]

So on the 24th of August, Gabby called her parents to tell them that she and Brian were leaving Utah and heading to Wyoming to visit Grand Teton National Park. I'd never heard of Grand Teton national park before, but I googled it and it is absolutely fucking beautiful.

[Heather Rogers]

I'm sure we can find you a national park on the way from Portland to San Francisco.

[Hannah Witton]

I'm sure love that more than anything. One of my biggest things is I would love to just go to the national parks of the us and I know we don't have a huge amount of time while we're in the States, but if we could do one, it would be amazing.

[Heather Rogers]

I'm sure tour manager Ben can make it happen for you. You can do most things.

[Hannah Witton]

Beautiful. And basically during this call, it seemed very much to Gabby's mum that her daughter was happy and she was thrilled for her that she was having so many adventures, which is exactly what Gabby had wanted when she'd left the next day. So, the 25th of August, Gabby posted a picture of herself on Instagram standing in front of a butterfly mural. No one knew it at the time, but it would be the last post Gabby would ever make.

[Heather Rogers]

Gabby was very close to her family and stayed in constant contact with her parents during her trip. Gabby texts her parents at least every other day just to say what she and Brian were up to that week. So when Gabby's mum, Nicola, didn't hear from her for a few days, Nicola started to get quite worried. Everyone else told Nicola to relax. After all, Gabby was in the middle of nowhere up there in Grand Teton. Nicola had even received a text from Gabby's phone on 30 August, telling her that there was no signal where she was. But then when Nicola tried to get in touch with Brian and Brian's parents and got no reply at all, she just couldn't push her fears down anymore. Nicola had started to worry that maybe something had happened to Brian and Gabby and nobody knew. So on the 11th of September 2021, now, not having heard from her daughter for 12 whole days, Nicola called the police. And much to her absolute horror, Florida police called her back to inform her that they had found Brian. He was at his mum and dad's house in Newport, Florida. He'd come home on the 1st of September, 10 days ago, alone.

[Hannah Witton]

But he did have Gabby's van, which he had used to drive back to Florida. The police seized the vehicle and then declared Brian Laundrie to be a person of interest in the disappearance of his fiance, Gabby Petito. Can you just Imagine how fucking weird that would be. Like your daughter and her fiance go away together, you don't hear anything and he's just back at his parents house and he's been there for over a week and no one's called you to tell you anything and Gabby's not there. So yes, as if this wasn't weird enough, this revelation that the Florida police made the laundries so Brian and his mum and dad, Roberta and Chris, all completely flat out refused to speak to the police, the press and even Gabbie's family. If there is a sure fire way to make yourselves look guilty as fuck, this is it. So yes, just to clarify, by this point, with Bryan acting weird as fuck and with him having brought Gabbie's van back home with him, the police were seriously concerned for 22 year old Gabby's safety. She was out there on her own somewhere making no contact with her family and now they know she doesn't even have a vehicle. And it was at this point that this case absolutely blew up.

[Heather Rogers]

Thanks to Gabby's social media pages, there was so much material online for the Internet sleuths to totally lose their minds over. And overnight, countless online communities sprung up all over the Internet. Facebook groups, Reddit pages, tiktokers. Everyone was on the case. And these armchair sleuths began to obsessively track and share every development in the search for Gabby Petito. When Gabby vanished, she had about a thousand followers on Instagram. Today her account has 1.6 million followers. Gabby's mum and dad, Jo and Nicola, appeared at numerous press conferences, pleading for tips and help from the community to find their daughter. They even directly addressed the laundries, begging them to put themselves in their family's shoes and to reveal where Brian left Gabby. But the cries of these heartbroken parents fell on deaf ears and the laundries stayed quiet with their lawyer stating that they were exercising their constitutional right to not speak with authorities.

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[Alina Urquhart or Ash Kelly (Morbid Podcast Hosts)]

We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly, and our show is part true crime, part spooky and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. Up to 880 men who survived the attack. Around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group with a touch of humor. Shout out to her. Shout out to all my therapists. Out the years there's been like eight of them. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. That motherf er is not real. And if you're a weirdo like us.

[Hannah Witton]

And love to cozy up to a.

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[Hannah Witton]

Now I'd like to just say at this point that Gabby and Brian had been together for years. They had grown up less than two miles apart, and as teenagers they had met at Bayport Blue Point High School in Long Island.

[Heather Rogers]

That is complicated to say Bayport Blue Point.

[Hannah Witton]

That's very difficult to say. Bayport Blue Point High School guys just pick one or the other. So according to those who did know the pair as teenagers, they would say that they sort of connected because they were both kind of loners who didn't really fit in with the crowd. They were different, and that's what had brought Gabby and Brian together. Most of their friends say that they spent their high school years as on off boyfriend and girlfriend. Friends would say that they always had some sort of drama going on and you never really knew if they were going to be all over each other one day or at each other's throats the next. Apparently. And this is According to one of Gabby's friends, the couple swung between very high highs and very low lows. But nothing really made anyone think that their fallouts were anything more than your usual sort of teenage angst. And Brian and Gabby did actually break up after Brian Laundrie, who was one year ahead of Gabby, graduated in 2016. But they got back together when Gabby finished high school the following year. And she even moved from Long island, which is where they'd grown up, to Florida, to be with Brian, because that's where he moved after he graduated. So she, like, really upheaves her life. Absolutely for him. The couple even got engaged in July 2020, according to one of Gabby's Instagram posts. And they lived with his parents in Florida to save money. And after what was likely a very grim time over COVID lockdowns, I can't even imagine having to live with your boyfriend's parents, they decided, fuck the wedding, let's go traveling.

[Heather Rogers]

But their tumultuous relationship doesn't seem to have improved as they got older. Despite Gabby apparently only telling her friends the good stuff about Brian, some of them noticed that there was definitely some weird shit going on as well. Gabby's friend Rose, someone she met when she moved to Florida to be with Brian, says that Brian was controlling. And he was certainly a manipulator. Not in a physical way, but he would always get what he wanted. For example, if Rose and Gabby wanted to go out out for the night, and Brian didn't want Gabby to go, he would hide her cards and her id so she would be stuck at home with him, which is extremely troubling behavior.

[Hannah Witton]

Yeah, this is the thing. I think during their teenage years, people sort of write it off as just being like, immature, childish, like teenage boyfriend, girlfriend, arguing. But then as they're getting older, they're getting into their 20s. Like, you can't keep writing off behavior like that as being petty and immature. Like, it is incredibly controlling, manipulative behavior. And this is the thing, this is the point I'm trying to make, is that they had known each other for a very, very long time. Gabby had made an enormous decision to move away from her family to go and be with Brian. So Gabby was not just some random girl that Brian knew whose disappearance was just like bringing a load of drama to his parents door for no reason. She lived with them, they knew her, and their son was engaged to this person. And also, Brian was the last person to see Gabby alive. And the family still go totally silent. Closed ranks completely will not cooperate in the Smallest way with the police or with Gabby's family. It's completely unbelievable. Internet sleuths. And this made me really sick because Internet sleuths even found Pinterest boards like one labelled life goals, which had shared access between Brian, Gabby and his mum, Roberta.

[Heather Rogers]

No. Yes. No.

[Hannah Witton]

Yes. This is what I'm saying. Like, Gabby was very clearly intertwined with the Laundrie family. Or maybe it'd be more accurate to say that Roberta, Brian's mom, was very involved in Brian and Gabby's lives. The point is they know her.

[Heather Rogers]

Yes.

[Hannah Witton]

She lived with them.

[Heather Rogers]

She hasn't just sprung up out of the blue.

[Hannah Witton]

No, it's not like he's come home and been like, oh, Mum, dad, like I hooked up with this random girl and now she's gone missing and the police are like badgering me about it and I had nothing to do with it. Fuck anyone who gives them even the slightest of passes. Because, yeah, it's just crazy. And that's the thing. I just think all of this makes it even more bizarre how much little outward concern they showed for Gabby when she vanished.

[Heather Rogers]

And things got even weirder still when it became public that on the 6th of September. So five days after Brian had gone home, minus his fiance, the laundry family, Mum, dad and Brian had all gone on a little camping trip together. I'd forgotten about this bit. According to a Pinellas county park, the family had checked in at a campsite about 75 miles away from their home at the Fort de Soto campground from the 6th to the 8th of September. Why they went there and what they were doing while their son's fiance was missing and he was being treated as a person of interest is still very much up for debate.

[Hannah Witton]

I can't find any information to explain why they went camping. I tried looking it up on a map. I don't know. It's not anywhere near where Gabby is eventually found. I'm not going to say spoilers. Everybody already knows what happens in this story. I don't know why they were there. Were they there to destroy evidence? Possibly. But like they very obviously check in there, right? So they know eventually the police are gonna go there. So I don't know. It might possibly have been because at this point the case is starting to blow up. There are a lot of people starting to gather around their house because the press make it very clear and Gabby's family make it very clear that Brian's family are not cooperating with them. So they were. We'll go on to discuss this in more detail, become quite Hate figures in the community for which I have absolutely zero sympathy. But possibly they just needed to get away. But it's very. Why two days? Like it doesn't really make any sense, I don't know. So some people out there do give Brian's parents the benefit of the doubt saying we don't know what he told them. He could have said that he and Gabby had just decided to go their separate ways for a bit and that Gabby was fine travelling on her own, you know, without a van, like we don't know what he came home and said. Those people who are saying it are saying it on like big documentaries that are being made by CBS or whatever because they don't want to get sued by the laundrie family. I don't care. What could he possibly have said? Because when you have a full blown investigation, police investigation underway, a nationwide manhunt with Gabby's face on every single TV screen, phone screen, TikTok page, everything, and Gabby's parents frantically trying to get in touch with you, desperate for information because by this point they haven't heard from their daughter in almost two weeks and you are actively ignoring them. What could Brian have said to them that made them ignore all of those facts? I can't give them a pass on any of that.

[Heather Rogers]

No, I can't. And presumably, like they've been together for so long, the laundries knew Gabby's parents. They don't even call them.

[Hannah Witton]

No. Can you imagine letting your 22 year old daughter move into the house of another family? You don't know they know each other.

[Heather Rogers]

They probably bought each other Christmas presents every year anyway. The silence on the part of the laundries started very early into the investigation. The police went to the Laundry home on 11th September after they got the call from Gabby's mum reporting her missing and they found Brian at home safe and sound. But he had no explanation for where Gabby was. The police tried to get the family to allow them to talk to Brian but they were essentially handed the information for the laundries attorney and told to leave.

[Hannah Witton]

And the laundries, let's be clear, they run a juicing equipment business. They are not mafia kingpins. They are not even rich.

[Heather Rogers]

There's a lot of money in juice.

[Hannah Witton]

There is probably, especially in Florida. But they're not wealthy.

[Heather Rogers]

No.

[Hannah Witton]

Why would they have an attorney already at hand like that? Only rich people and criminals have attorneys on retainer like that. You don't just have one when you're an ordinary family. So why are they able to Just hand the police this information. Well, it turned out that on the 28th of August. So four days before Brian came home to Florida without Gabby, he had called his parents and had a lengthy phone conversation with them. According to phone records, the very next day. So 29 August, so long before Gabby's parents even contemplated that anything might be wrong with their daughter, the laundries had already hired their lawyer. So on the 28th, he calls them. On the 29th, they hire a lawyer. This is days before he's even come home without Gabby. So as news like this came out, the laundries, like I said, quickly found themselves public enemies number one. Protesters gathered en masse outside their Newport home, demanding that they reveal what Brian had done and where Gabby was. And look, if Brian had been arrested and there was no evidence that the family knew anything, I would genuinely feel awful for them because this mob was brutal. But knowing what we know, knowing everything I have just said to you about when they hired the lawyer, etcetera, I find it really hard to care that they were harassed in any way, to be perfectly honest with you.

[Heather Rogers]

Yeah. On the 16th of September, five days after Gabby had been reported missing, the Moab Police Department out of Utah released some rather disturbing body cam footage. This footage had been recorded on 12 August, so almost a month before it became public and Gabby was missing. And it really does make for some seriously uncomfortable viewing. On 12 August, Gabby posted on Instagram a picture of herself that had been taken a few days before in the Arches national park in Utah. But within hours of this photo being shared, the Grand County Sheriff's department received a 911 call.

[Police Officer]

Hi, can you hear me, sir? Yeah, I can hear you. Hi, I'm calling. I'm right on the corner of Main street by Moonflower and we're driving by and I'd like to report a domestic dispute. Florida, with the white van. Florida license plate, white land gentleman, five, six, beard. They just drove off. They're going down Main Street. They made a. A right onto Main street from Moonflower. What were they doing? Operative. But what'd you say? What were they doing? We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl. Who's slapping her? Yes, and then we stopped. They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off. Okay, you said it's a white van.

[Heather Rogers]

And the couple that you just heard that man describing as having a physical altercation was of course, Brian and Gabby. As you heard in that call, the witnesses clearly pointed the finger at Brian as being the aggressor. The 911 caller even got the license plate of their vehicle. So patrol cars were notified to be on the lookout for Gabby's white van, and authorities spotted them pretty quickly, probably helped by the fact that the van was being driven erratically down the roads of Moab. Police officers pulled Gabby and Brian over.

[Hannah Witton]

And the next part of this story is definitely one element of what made this case blow up like it did, because the police, wearing their body cams, interviewed Gabby and Brian back and forth for over an hour on the side of the road. And let's listen to a few clips here from that particular incident.

[Gabby Petito]

Yeah, I don't know. It's just some days I have really bad ocd. And I was just cleaning and straightening up the back of the ample floor, and I would apologize to him and saying I'm sorry that I'm so mean, because sometimes I have OCD and sometimes I just get really frustrated. Not, like, mean for him. I just, like. I guess my vibe is like, I am in a bad mood. And I was just saying I'm sorry if I'm in a bad mood. I've just been really stressed. I had so much work I was doing on my computer this morning.

[Police Officer]

What do you do for a living?

[Heather Rogers]

Well, I have.

[Gabby Petito]

I used to work at an organic juice bar, but I just quit my job. I was a nutritionist.

[Hannah Witton]

That's my job.

[Gabby Petito]

I just quit my job to travel across the country. And I'm trying to start a blog stuff. So I've been building my website. So I've been really stressed. And he doesn't really believe that I.

[Hannah Witton]

Could do any of it.

[Gabby Petito]

So that's kind of been like a. I don't know. He's like, down there. I don't know. We just been fighting all morning. And he wouldn't let me in the car before.

[Police Officer]

Why wouldn't he let you in the car? Because of your ocd.

[Hannah Witton]

He told me I needed to calm down.

[Gabby Petito]

Yeah. But I'm perfectly calm. I'm calm all the time. And he really stresses me out. And I just. This is a rough morning.

[Police Officer]

Well, why don't we do this? Why don't I sit you down and back seat of my car? You're not in any trouble, okay? I'm not going to be putting handcuffs on you. You obviously don't have any weapons. I'm going to get you into the air conditioning, let you take a breath, relax a little bit, and then I'll come back and talk to you. In a few minutes.

[Omaha Steaks Advertiser]

Okay.

[Hannah Witton]

Okay.

[Heather Rogers]

All right.

[Police Officer]

This office that he hit a curb.

[Gabby Petito]

I, I, I, While you're driving.

[Police Officer]

While he was driving. You were hitting him.

[Gabby Petito]

You don't trigger anything.

[Police Officer]

She started hitting him?

[Gabby Petito]

Yeah, I was yelling at him. And then when you turned to like that, I like kind of touched his.

[Brian Laundrie]

Arm like there's a shoe thing while he hit the curb.

[Police Officer]

He said it was Gabby. I'm sorry, I remember that name was Gabby. But you tend to have a lot of anxiety and stress.

[Hannah Witton]

A lot of anxiety.

[Police Officer]

And what's his name?

[Brian Laundrie]

Is it Ryan?

[Police Officer]

Is he usually pretty patient with you?

[Brian Laundrie]

But my ex wife, my ex wife, I'm just sharing. I know it's a little personal, but.

[Police Officer]

To help you understand, we would feed off each other's anxiety spiral.

[Mr. Ballin (Medical Mysteries Host)]

You know what I mean?

[Brian Laundrie]

And it doesn't matter how much I loved her.

[Police Officer]

Maybe a bad for your soul.

[Brian Laundrie]

Just saying, I'm not telling you what.

[Police Officer]

To do with your life, but if.

[Brian Laundrie]

You know you have anxiety, look at.

[Police Officer]

The, look at the situations you can get in.

[Brian Laundrie]

You know what I mean?

[Omaha Steaks Advertiser]

Quick question.

[Police Officer]

You said you were hitting him in the arm. Did you grab the steering wheel?

[Gabby Petito]

No, I didn't.

[Hannah Witton]

You did not.

[Gabby Petito]

Only for like a second because I just saw the lights come on and it was more just like you're an idiot.

[Police Officer]

Like, you know, but did you grab the steering wheel and like swerve or anything like that?

[Hannah Witton]

And as you can hear in those clips, it's very, very hard to listen to. And I'm sure most of you have already seen the video clips of this, but if you haven't, we'll leave links to the video recordings and you can watch them on YouTube if you want to. I think they make very, very painful viewing because you can hear Gabby is very upset. And more than that, she sounds incredibly anxious, like frantic. And when I was watching it, the word I kept thinking is hysterical. And I don't mean to use that or want to use that in a derogatory sense, like, oh my God, she was so hysterical. I mean it, because she is so worked up. It's almost like she sounds like drunk or like disassociating. It's so heartbreaking to hear. And Brian, on the other hand, while Gabby is in this state, well, he sounds chill as fuck. Let's have a listen.

[Police Officer]

So tell me what's going on.

[Brian Laundrie]

She just gets worked up sometimes and I try and really distance myself from her. So like, I locked the car and I walked away from her. What happened this morning is that she's trying to set up like his own, a website, blog and everything. So I give her time and we really had a nice morning with. And if anything. But she just got worked up because we were trying to get going and get our day going. Cuz we want to go like.

[Heather Rogers]

Gar.

[Police Officer]

You want to tell me about those scratches on your face?

[Brian Laundrie]

She had a cell phone in her hand. That's why I was pushing her away because I.

[Hannah Witton]

She wanted me.

[Brian Laundrie]

I locked the keys so I could walk away. I said let's just take a breather and let's not, you know, go anywhere. Let's just calm down for a minute. And then she had her phone, was trying to get the fusion so I got in the way. I was just trying to. I know I was gonna push, but I was just trying to push her.

[Hannah Witton]

Way to go.

[Heather Rogers]

Let's.

[Brian Laundrie]

Let's just take a minute, step back and breathe. And you see, she got me up there. Cool.

[Police Officer]

Can I see your hand? Oh, you gotta mark right here.

[Brian Laundrie]

Oh, that's from a wire.

[Police Officer]

That's from a wire?

[Brian Laundrie]

Yeah.

[Police Officer]

You want to tell me about hitting that curve?

[Brian Laundrie]

Hitting the curve was her grabbing the wheel.

[Police Officer]

She grabbed the wheel?

[Brian Laundrie]

Yeah. She said I can't believe you're getting pulled over. And then she grabbed.

[Police Officer]

What about the speed? Did she take over the. Did you take over the pedal on you?

[Brian Laundrie]

If I was going fast, I'm sorry. No, it's probably just the moment of. I'm still shaking now, the adrenaline, seeing the lights flashing up and then her grip and the wheel. So if I sped up. I'm sorry about that. Or if I was speaking beforehand. I'm sorry about that.

[Police Officer]

It took quite a bit to catch.

[Brian Laundrie]

Up to you, so I'm sorry about that. We're just going into the. The park again, get water. Cuz we have a six gallon water.

[Police Officer]

Container to fill up.

[Brian Laundrie]

So we're just grabbing water for the hike and we're just. I was trying to keep everything calm and quiet cuz there's plans still to.

[Heather Rogers]

Go for a hike.

[Brian Laundrie]

But then.

[Police Officer]

Good.

[Brian Laundrie]

I'm.

[Heather Rogers]

I'm.

[Hannah Witton]

Do me a favor.

[Police Officer]

You want to go ahead and just take a seat right over here on the curb for me and if I.

[Brian Laundrie]

Was speeding, I'm sorry, I want apologize.

[Police Officer]

You don't have anything in my pocket or anything like that, do you?

[Brian Laundrie]

Nope, just the wallet.

[Heather Rogers]

All right.

[Police Officer]

And then do you mind lifting your shirt so I can check the waistband? I gotta turn around for me real quick.

[Hannah Witton]

Perfect.

[Police Officer]

Nothing, I just. I just wanna make sure that's all, man. Go ahead, do me A favor.

[Hannah Witton]

Take a seat. All right, now, we're gonna come back to this roadside conversation with the police later on in this episode. But, yeah, for now, let's stick with what actually happened next.

[Heather Rogers]

The police at the scene clearly think that Gabby is the perpetrator of the violence and that Brian is the victim. But they think that Gabby doesn't really pose that much danger to Brian, so they simply order that the two of them separate for the night and calm down. So Brian was taken to a local hotel, whilst Gabby, who was clearly vulnerable, was left with her van. By the following morning, the pair were back together and back on the road. And of course, after this, they went back to posting happy videos and photos of them back on van life. And that's why no one had any idea about this incident until the police released the body cam footage from one officer. And hold onto it, because it will come back later.

[Hannah Witton]

Yeah, especially when we get the body cam footage from officer number two. So after the release of this initial footage, this case, like I said, got even bigger again. This case, basically, there was such a digital footprint and so much information that there was just like. There was just like, so much to quench the appetites of these people who were ravenous for content. So social media was absolutely flooded with pictures and videos of Gabbie and the world of Internet sleuths. And basically anyone who's ever watched a true crime documentary on Netflix all jumped on board. And I don't mean it to sound like it was all bad, right? I know we've criticised Internet sleuths a lot on this show before, and I'm not saying that it's always a bad thing for people to show interest and to get involved. Undoubtedly, the attention that Gabbie's story got online helped the police achieve massive breaks in the case of. And her family have always been eternally grateful to everyone who shared her story. Because remember that the police, at this point, all they know is that Brian is back in Florida and that Gabby is missing somewhere without a van. They know that the last place they were seen was in Grand Teton, which itself is absolutely fucking massive. But realistically, Gabby could have been anywhere. And so they were very grateful when the Internet sleuths got the word out and the sightings started to roll in.

[Heather Rogers]

Nina Angelo and her boyfriend Nick England claimed that they had seen Gabby and Brian on 27 August, two days after the Moab roadside police incident. The Louisiana couple were on holiday in Jackson, Wyoming, having lunch at a Tex Mex restaurant called the Merry Piglets. Which is sweet. And they spotted a couple involved in a scene. The woman, who they now believe to be Gabby, was crying and apologising to the waitress and the man, Brian looked very angry at his partner and at the restaurant staff. Nina remembers feeling really creeped out by Brian, thanks to his overt and very obvious rage. And Nina also noted that the woman, Gabby, looked, quote, emotionally overwhelmed and at breaking point.

[Hannah Witton]

All right, should we talk about the Signal Awards?

[Heather Rogers]

Sure, sure.

[Hannah Witton]

That is the level of enthusiasm we would love you guys to have for us too, because if you remember, we made the podcast series Flesh and Code with Wondery. We were super excited, like, the minute they brought that story to us, because if you haven't listened to Flesh and Code, it's essentially about following people who essentially fall in love with their, like, AI companions. It's about Russian interference and all sorts of crazy things and about how these AI companions are to be trusted, whether this is a good thing, how it was impacting on a larger scale, and the ramifications when Replica, that was the company at the heart of it, took away the erotic roleplay function and didn't go well. Spoilers. So we loved making it. We spent, what, 18 months making that show and we worked so, so hard on it. And so we are going to ask a very small favor of you guys. Shockingly to us, Flesh and Code has been put up for the Listener's Choice category of the Signal Awards 2025. So we would love you guys to please help us out and basically try get some more eyes and ears on Flesh and Code because it was a real labor of love for us. What you guys need to do is go to the Signal Awards website and vote for Flesh and Code. Again, it's in the Listener's Choice category and you can find us under documentaries. That's the category you're looking for. And then under Limited Series and Specials, voting is open until the 9th of October, so you really don't have much time. Like, literally go do this now. And we would just be so incredibly grateful, because if we did win the Listener's Choice for Flesh and Code at the Signals Award, then it would just mean the world to us. Thank you.

[Mr. Ballin (Medical Mysteries Host)]

You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest and most myster stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Balin's Medical Mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and.

[Omaha Steaks Advertiser]

Thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr.

[Mr. Ballin (Medical Mysteries Host)]

Ballin's medical mysteries should be your new go to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

[Heather Rogers]

And I don't think we really need to try that hard to imagine the scene that Nina described because emotionally overwhelmed is exactly how we describe Gabby in the Moab police body cam footage. And this is two days later. After this restaurant incident, Gabby Petito was never seen alive again. There were more vital witnesses to come who we'll come onto in just a moment. But for now we need to discuss yet another strange twist in this case. After being begged for days by both Gabby's family and police, the Laundrie family, who had stayed silent, called authorities to their home in Florida because they now needed to report their son Brian Laundrie as missing.

[Hannah Witton]

Yep. So Roberta and Chris Laundrie now tell a shocked investigative team that they had last seen their son Brian on the 13th of September when he'd gone for a hike in the Carlton Reserve in Florida. The police couldn't believe it. They had cameras hooked up in the laundry's neighbours gardens so that they could basically have a 24 hour surveillance situation of the house. They also had officers sat outside the house the entire time, all to make sure they knew exactly where Brian was. So when people were demanding of them at like press conferences where they're still talking about not having found Gabby, they're like, well, why haven't you arrested Brian? And they're like, we can't arrest him yet. We need to find the body, we need to find more evidence. They're like, but don't worry, we know exactly where he is because we're keeping an eye on the house. Apparently it turned out that the surveillance team had got confused between Roberta Laundrie and her 23 year old bald son Brian. And that is how he'd managed to get away. Roberta Laundrie doesn't look anything like her son, but somehow this is how he got out. Did he go out wearing a wig like his mum? I don't know. But he gets away. So now, on top of the massive ongoing search for Gabby on the other side of the country in Grand Teton, local and federal authorities now have to start a search for Brian in Florida.

[Heather Rogers]

And just to be clear, for anyone who has forgotten just how absolutely Gargantu, Hugo. Imassive, enormous the United States is, Grand Teton national park is 310,000 acres.

[Hannah Witton]

Is that the size of the UK? I don't know. It might be.

[Heather Rogers]

Fucking probably. It's a lot. It's a lot of Winnie the Poohs. That's how many acres it is. And the Carlton Reserve is 25,000 acres. Yep.

[Hannah Witton]

So now they have to search about 350,000 acres plus just the rest of the country, because you don't actually know where Gabby is.

[Heather Rogers]

It's a whole lot of land to be searching through. But thankfully it was time for another one of those lovely witnesses to come forward.

[Hannah Witton]

This bit, I love this bit and I also want to say this family's name correctly, because every single bit of anything like audio video I saw on this case, I don't know if it's just way saying in an American accent. I thought their surname was Buffoon. And I was like, oh, my God, those poor people. It's not. It's not Buffoon.

[Heather Rogers]

Bethune.

[Hannah Witton]

And I was like, oh, my God, what an unfortunate surname.

[Heather Rogers]

What is it? Bethune.

[Hannah Witton]

Bethune.

[Heather Rogers]

Bethune. Okay. I think there's a Bethune Road in Stamford Hill on 27 August 2021. Another couple, Jen and Kyle Bethune, family vloggers with their own channel called Red, White and Bethune. Well, Jen and Kyle were driving around the Grand Teton area as well. I also think why there was so much social media stuff to do with Gabbie is, yes, there's a digital footprint also. It's 2021. We're all locked inside.

[Hannah Witton]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. This is like the perfect case for the virality achieved.

[Heather Rogers]

So let's remember that what you're about to hear happened long before Gabby was even reported missing.

[Hannah Witton]

Yeah, they're in the area on 27 August, long before anything is known about Gabby.

[Heather Rogers]

But they are YouTube sensations, so they had their GoPro rolling on their dashboard filming the road. And that day they remembered spotting a white van parked off to the side of one of the country roads. And that van stood out to them because it had Florida license plates. The Bethunes were also from Florida, so they wondered who from their neck of the woods was about. But the van looked dark, like no one was in it, so they carried on. But when the news about Gabby's disappearance hit the headlines, a very conscientious Jen went back over the footage from that day and bingo, the white van they had seen was Gabby's white Ford van.

[Hannah Witton]

Can you imagine?

[Heather Rogers]

What are the chances?

[Hannah Witton]

What are the chances? Like, I just can't even imagine this case that's taken over everything. And you're like, wait a minute, we were in Grand Teton at that date and we saw that Florida fucking white van. And it is Gabby's van. So she calls the FBI, and the FBI go to check the area that they had seen the van, because remember, the van, of course, by this point is back in Florida because Brian's driven it back when he went home. But they went to the place that Jen Bethune's camera had caught the van being in on the 27th and on the 19th of September, so literally within a day of Jen coming forward with this camera footage, unbelievably, the FBI found Gabby's remains. And watching Gabby's parents talk about the moment that they discovered their daughter was dead is so heartbreaking. There is like a 60 Minutes Australia documentary on this case in which the parents are featured heavily and they talk about why Brian did this. Why didn't he just walk away? Why didn't he just leave her? Why kill her and steal her life and take her away from all of us? Now, anyone who listens to True Crime content will know that these are the same devastating thoughts that the family of pretty much every such victim is left with. It just really hit home again to hear them say that of like, why? Why wouldn't you just leave her? Why kill her and fucking leave her in the wilderness? So after they find Gabby's remains, the very next day, police managed to get a search warrant for the laundry home. But it wasn't actually for the murder of Gabby. It was for suspected bank fraud. Because it seemed that Brian had used Gabby's debit card to spend more than $1,000 on his way home from Florida alone. And they were able to know that it probably wasn't Gabby spending that money, because from the look of her remains giving, Gabby had already been dead by that point. Again, one of the questions I have and don't have an answer to at the end of doing the research on this case is why the police weren't able to get to Brian for, like, so long. Like, the day that Gabby's mum calls them and is like, my daughter's missing. And they go to the laundry home and they find him there. The Family are just like, here's our lawyer's number, get out. Like, why weren't they able to interview him? Like, he was the last person who saw her alive. And it might just be a missing person at that case, but I don't understand why they weren't able to. Even here. They don't get the search warrant after they find Gabby's body. They get it for bank fraud. Like, I don't understand why they were so restricted from being able to question him. Yeah, maybe that's why he goes missing, you know?

[Heather Rogers]

And soon there were to be more specifics found on how Gabby died and just how long she'd been out there. Teton County Coroner, Brent Blue. What a name.

[Hannah Witton]

What a name. I had to put it in just for the name.

[Heather Rogers]

Well, Brent Blue determined that Gabby's cause of death was manual strangulation with blunt force trauma to her head and her neck. Brent Blue also confirmed that Gabby had been outside in the wilderness for about three to four weeks before being found. It's very difficult to exactly pinpoint the day that Gabby died, but it seems like it was between the 27th and 29th August. We know that Gabby was seen on the 27th in that Tex Mex restaurant, the Piglet One. She and Brian were also spotted that day on CCTV at Whole Foods. Gabby wasn't seen alive after that and it would be two days at least before anyone saw Brian again.

[Hannah Witton]

And also the fact that Brian calls his parents on the 28th and on the 29th, they've got a lawyer. Yeah, yeah, I think it happens on the night of the 27th or the morning of the 28th.

[Heather Rogers]

I think you're right.

[Hannah Witton]

So Gabby's mum got a weird text from Gabby's phone on the 27th of August as well. This text read, can you help Stan? I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls. So when Nicola gets this, remember she's not even thinking her daughter's missing yet. Nothing's going on, she just hasn't heard from her for a little while. And Nicola thought that this particular text was really weird because Stan was Gabby's granddad. And obviously, like most people, Gabby didn't call her granddad by his first name, Stan. But if it was Brian texting Nicola off Gabby's phone, this text also makes no sense anyway. Yeah, like, I don't understand it in any context, but that is a message that she received. Then on the 30th, Nicola got a one line text that we mentioned earlier and it basically said that there was no signal where they were. Now, there's no way to know if Gabby actually sent either of these messages, or, like I said, if it was Brian sending them from her phone to make it look like she was still alive. But it seems that Gabby's phone was off from the 1st of September. So the day Brian got home to his parents and never turned back on. But I think the 30th, the message on the 30th, I think that's Brian. There's no signal here.

[Heather Rogers]

Oh, I think so.

[Hannah Witton]

Because by this point, his parents have already got a fucking lawyer. And when the police discovered Gabby's phones, which were near her remains, they also were able to discover that her phone had received multiple missed calls and texts from Brian's phone in the days before it had switched off. And I really clearly think that this is Brian trying to cover up what he'd done by texting her and sending her messages and calling her phone that he knew she wasn't going to answer.

[Heather Rogers]

In that time, between 27 August and 1 September, two separate witnesses came forward claiming that they had seen Brian all on his own.

[Hannah Witton]

Again, lends the theory that if Gabby's not with him at this point, she's probably dead.

[Heather Rogers]

In September 2021, a woman called Miranda Baker reported to police that she and her boyfriend had picked up Brian Laundrie in Colter bay, Wyoming, on the 29th of August. Apparently, he was hitchhiking and he offered the pair $200 for a lift. Miranda said that he told them that he'd been camping by himself for multiple days while his fiance was in their van working on social media posts, per travel vlog. According to Miranda, once Brian found out that she and her boyfriend were going to Jackson Hole and not Jackson, Brian got agitated and asked that they pull over. And then he jumped out near the Jackson Dam. Then there's another woman called Norma Jean, not Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jean Jalabec. And Norma Jean said that she had picked Brian up that very Same day at 6:15pm, not far from the Jackson Lake Dam. So that's just a few minutes after Miranda said that she dropped him off there. He didn't have to wait very long. And Norma claims that she gave Brian a lift to the Spread Creek Dispersed camping area, and that is where Gabby's remains were eventually found. But despite all of this, authorities were still not explicitly connecting Brian to Gabby's death, possibly because they had been reassuring everyone for weeks. They knew exactly where Brian was and then they lost him from his own house. That they were surveilling 24 7.

[Hannah Witton]

So the hunt for Brian Laundrie now entered its fifth week, and the police were seemingly no closer to finding him. And while it was incredibly frustrating, I do have to be fair and say that the Carlton reserve is incredibly hard terrain to search. It's swampy, it's dense, it's like, jungly. Most of it is underwater. It's an absolute nightmare of a terrain. And I remember this period of this particular case as it was happening. The obsession online, I think, at this point reached fever pitch because it was now confirmed that everybody's worst fears had come true. Gabby was indeed dead. They had found her remains, and fucking Brian was in the wind like, nobody had a clue if he was alive, if he was managing to actually survive out in the wilderness, or if he was dead, what was going on.

[Heather Rogers]

Do you think that he's got Gabby in a bag while he's hitchhiking?

[Hannah Witton]

Oh, God, I don't know. Because this is the thing. Cause when he's hitchhiking, I'm like, why doesn't he have the van? And why does he get dropped back at the place where Gabby's remains are eventually found? And that's where the van had been parked on the 27th. So that timeline of these sightings, and I also have to mention that the sightings by Norma Jean and by Miranda and her partner, the police say they are entirely plausible, but they cannot corroborate those sightings. The thing that makes those women think it was Brian Laundrie is obviously, they saw him. And also because he sits in the van and tells them that he has a fiance who's working on social media posts in the van. I can't understand where Gabby is during this period of time. Like when he's hitchhiking, though. So, yes, everybody is obsessed with this case when Brian is missing and the searches were being conducted in the Carlton Reserve, like we said. And I don't know if you remember this, Hannah, but people were calling the police also telling them they'd seen him in the Appalachian Mountains. They'd seen him in this random national park. Like, sightings were coming in from every corner of the country. It was a complete mess. And the police were frankly humiliated because they'd let him escape right under their noses. And it was also at this point that Dog the bounty hunter got involved.

[Heather Rogers]

Oh, I forgot about Dog.

[Hannah Witton]

Yeah. In a desperate attempt, as we talked about on under the Duvet many a month ago, to re. Redo his boot vamp, redo his image in the Public's eye. So I don't care about Dog the Bounty Hunter. I think his reasons for getting involved were entirely cynical. But yeah, whatever, he couldn't find him either.

[Heather Rogers]

And then on the 20th of October, Brian's parents, Chris and Roberta, who had not lifted a fucking finger to try and find Gabby, joined the search for their son.

[Hannah Witton]

They don't join the search for five weeks after their son is missing. What are you doing that is more important? Your only son is missing and they don't get involved with the search until week five. These two, they are fucking awful.

[Heather Rogers]

Yep, it's true. And once they do get involved, within hours, 37 days after he went missing and two months after Gabby had died off a trail, Brian often visited in the Myakkahachee Creek Environmental Park, a site connected to the Carlton Reserve, Brian's remains and some of his personal belongings, like his backpack were discovered.

[Hannah Witton]

And a lot of people say like, oh, how convenient, as soon as they get involved with the search, they suddenly find Brian's remains. They're like, they knew who he was the entire time. This was the accusation. I don't know if they knew where he was the entire time because they don't know what benefit it would have served for them for his body not to have been found any sooner. Yeah, I just think they probably know where he liked to go camping because they're his parents.

[Heather Rogers]

The news was soon released that Brian had died from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. And the police made it clear that they weren't looking for anyone else in relation to the murder of Gabby Petito. But it wasn't until 21st January 2022 that we learned about the handwritten letter that was in Brian's notebook. I remember the first time I read this and being so incandescent with rage that I was pretty upset for about a week afterwards.

[Hannah Witton]

Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm gonna upset everybody again.

[Heather Rogers]

We are gonna upset you again. We're gonna tell you exactly what he said. And it is the most self serving, cowardly, narcissistic drivel that I've ever read.

[Hannah Witton]

Okay, I'm gonna read it to you all. I know, we could have just been like, we're not gonna read you his bullshit, but we all know it's bullshit. No one listening to this is gonna be convinced by a single fucking word this man said. I'm going to read it to you and then we're going to talk about how much fucking bullshit it is. Gabby, I wish I was right at your side. I Wish I could be talking to you right now. I'd be going through every memory we've made, getting even more excited for the future. I can't live without you. I've lost every day we could have spent together, every holiday I'll never get to play with. And then it's like unintelligible here. Never go hiking with TJ and TJ's her younger brother. I loved you more than anything. I couldn't bear to look at our photos, to recall great times, because it's why I cannot go on. When I close my eyes, I think of laying on the roof of the van, falling asleep to the sight of a meteor shower at the Crystal Giza. I will always love you. If you were reading Gabbs journal, looking at the photos from our life together, flipping through old cards, you wouldn't want to live a day without her, knowing that every day you'll wake up without her. You wouldn't want to wake up. I'm sorry to everyone this will affect. Gabby was the love of my life, but I know adored by many. I'm so very sorry to her family because I love them. I'd consider her younger siblings my best of friends. I'm sorry to my family. This is a shock to them as well as a terrible grief. They loved her as much, if not more than me. A new daughter to my mother, an aunt to my nephews. Please do not make this harder for them. This occurred as an unexpected tragedy. Rushing back to our car, trying to cross the streams of Spread Creek before it got too dark to see. Too cold. I hear a splash and a scream. I could barely see. I couldn't find her for a moment. Shouted her name. I found her breathing heavily, gasping my name. She was freezing cold. We had just come from the blazing hot national parks in Utah. The temperature had dropped to freezing and she was soaking wet. I carried her as far as I could down the stream towards the car, stumbling, exhausted, in shock. When my knees buckled and I knew I couldn't safely carry her, I started a fire and spooned her as close to the heat. She was so thin, she'd already been freezing too long. I couldn't at the time realize that I should have started a fire first, but I wanted her out of the cold, back to the car from where I started the fire. I had no idea how far the car might be, only knew it was across the river. When I pulled Gabby out of the water, she had a small bump on her forehead that eventually got larger. Her feet hurt, her wrist hurt. She was Freezing, shaking violently while carrying her continually, she made sounds of pain. Laying next to her, she said little Lasping between violent Shakespeare, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain. She would fall asleep and I would shake her awake, fearing that she shouldn't close her eyes. If she had a concussion, she would wake in pain and start the whole painful cycle again. While furious that I was the one waking her. She wouldn't let me try to cross the creek. Thought like me that this fire would go out in her sleep and that she'd freeze. I don't know the extent of Gabby's injuries, only that she was in extreme pain. I ended her life. I thought it was merciful, that it was what she wanted. But I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked. I was in shock. But from the moment I decided took away her pain, 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 drive north and let James or TJ kill me. But I wouldn't want them to spend time in jail over my mistake. Even though I'm sure they would have liked to. I'm ending my life not because of fear of punishment, but rather because I can't stand to live another day without her. I've lost our whole future together. Every moment we could have cherished. I'm sorry for everyone's loss. Please do not make life harder for my family. They lost a daughter and a son. The most wonderful girl in the world. Gabby. I'm sorry. I've killed myself in this creek in the hopes that animals may tear me apart. That it may make some of her family happy. Please pick up all of my things. Gabby hated people who litter. I want to die. Fuck you, Brian Laundrie, you mega giant fuck faced twat. I hate you.

[Heather Rogers]

I just.

[Hannah Witton]

It's the worst. I hate him.

[Heather Rogers]

So he thinks he's being so smart.

[Hannah Witton]

Oh, he's such a prick. Okay, let's talk about it because I've highlighted like some specific in this that are worth touching upon and like it's also in the notes after. But like, yeah, I just want to read some of the bits. There's like the key bit that like fucked me off the most at the start is my family maybe loved her even more than I did. She was like a new daughter to my mother. Your mother who didn't fucking call the police or talk to her family. Fuck you, you absolutely piece of shit. And even when he's talking about like finding her, oh when she's fallen. And she's in so much pain, she's gasping. His name, Hannah. His name. Because they were so in love. Oh, my God. And the fact of, like, what? He couldn't carry her. She's absolutely fucking tiny, and this is it.

[Heather Rogers]

I don't. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. I am aware that national parks can be dangerous places. He makes it sound like they've been hiking Everest on their own for months and she hasn't eaten in four weeks. And, like. And that's not true. They're on a nice little driving holiday.

[Hannah Witton]

In all the pictures and videos of her leading up to that day, she looks absolutely fucking fine. Yeah, he makes it sound like they've been lost in the fucking wilderness.

[Heather Rogers]

Yes, exactly. He makes it sound like they were in a plane crash in the Arctic. Yeah, that's what he makes it sound like.

[Hannah Witton]

Yes, you're right.

[Heather Rogers]

The whole letter is just whitewashing their relationship.

[Hannah Witton]

It's like the Instagram posts. This whole letter is reflective of who they were portraying themselves to be on social media. And this isn't me victim blaming Gabbie. Like, she shouldn't have been whitewashing her. Everybody who does that, and, like, everybody, particularly who's in a toxic relationship does that. Like, yeah, I know that that's not her fault, but this letter is a supplementary addition to the social media posts. They were doing a complete whitewashing.

[Heather Rogers]

And he does a very good job of painting himself as the hero and the victim at the same time. It feels like he thinks he has thought of every eventuality.

[Hannah Witton]

And he tries his best, Hannah. Yeah, he tries his best to save Gaby, but the elements, the world, nature itself was against him.

[Heather Rogers]

It was an act of God.

[Hannah Witton]

It was an unexpected tragedy.

[Heather Rogers]

Yeah, so Gabbie fell. That's not his fault, is what he's saying. He, in fact, tried desperately to carry her to safety, but he just couldn't do it. Which, first of all, doesn't make any sense. Gabby was a very small person. He tries to start a fire and he tries to look after her, but she. Gabbie was angry and lashing out at him. Poor little Brian.

[Hannah Witton]

Yeah, the bit when he says she would wake in pain and start the whole cycle again. Furious at me for waking her. Fuck. Even there, he has to make her the bad guy.

[Heather Rogers]

So in the end, he decided he had to end her pain by strangling her and beating her around the head and neck until she died.

[Hannah Witton]

This is the thing he says. He never explains in the letter how he killed her. He says, I took her life. I thought it was a merciful thing to do. She died of manual strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head and neck. So you're telling me the merciful way you thought you were killing her was by strangling her and beating her around the head? Yeah, sounds really merciful.

[Heather Rogers]

And also, if Brian had to keep waking Gabby up for fear she would die because she was so cold, then why did he not just let her go out like that?

[Hannah Witton]

Exactly.

[Heather Rogers]

That makes no sense.

[Hannah Witton]

Yeah, he's like, oh, I had to keep waking her up because I thought she would die. But then when I decided to end her life, I decided to strangle her and beat her to death. Yeah, okay.

[Heather Rogers]

It just doesn't make any sense to wake her up and then strangle and punch her to death if you already think she's dying. But in our humble opinion, the absolute chef's kiss piastance of this whole letter is of course the fact that Brian Laundrie, King, amongst men that he is, wrote that he wasn't even scared to go to prison. He was killing himself because he was scared that if he told the families that someone in Gabby's family would hurt him and then they would go to prison and he would just, he just couldn't have that, just feel absolutely terrible.

[Hannah Witton]

So he had to kill himself there and let the animals tear him apart. Fuck off.

[Heather Rogers]

I just can't stand it.

[Hannah Witton]

My God, is he possibly the biggest narcissist we've ever talked about on this show? I don't know if he is, but he's definitely the fucking one that's left us the most clues.

[Heather Rogers]

Yeah.

[Hannah Witton]

I would say to the level of narcissism he has. He's up there with, up there with the big hitters.

[Heather Rogers]

He's up there with the Chris Watts and the Scott Petersons in my opinion.

[Hannah Witton]

Absolutely. And I really do not think this is an exaggeration. Brian Laundrie, whatever fucking personality disorder he had, because he had one, and his parents behavior all again reminds me of the unholy trinity that is Casey Anthony, Scott Peterson and Chris Watts. Once again you have that highly enabling mother and a child whose behaviors were overlooked time and time and time again. And the mother just continuously makes every effort to protect this child, even after it's abundantly clear that they have done the worst thing imaginable. And honestly their laundries are so fucking weird. So much of what they did and how they acted just jars to me beyond any kind of belief. And it doesn't just have to do with Gabby, because when Brian's remains were found, video footage was captured at the scene and his parents are just standing there with a total lack of any sort of emotion he on their faces. So this, plus, like we said, the fact that police found him within like 90 minutes of them joining the search led many people to speculate that they already knew that Brian was dead and already knew where his body was. I don't know. The more conspiratorial amongst you might also have heard the rumors that have been suspected online that these remains weren't Brian's at all and that the family were actually hiding Brian somewhere and that they'd planted this evidence of human remains to make it look like he'd killed himself along with that bullshit letter. And that's why they don't look sad, because they know it's not their son. I don't believe that. They obviously DNA test the roommates and they know it's Brian Laundrie, but we still have no idea why they took that weird little camping trip. Like, I still can't answer that. So I think the question here is because maybe someone out there listening might think we're being very harsh on the laundries. But, like, what do you do if your child comes home and tells you that they just killed their partner? Like, what do we do? Let's brainstorm that. I'd be like, you're going to make it worse. They're going to catch you. Yeah, yeah, let's just. I will try my hardest to be there and get you a lawyer, but it's best that you just go hand yourself in yourself.

[Heather Rogers]

And yeah, I think that is what most people would come to the conclusion of. I mean, you would hope that you have to encourage your children to take responsibility for their actions and be there for them. But, yes, I would be like, you gotta. You gotta hand yourself in, man. The laundries didn't do any of that. Like we said, we absolutely believe that they knew what had happened to Gabby all along. Given the fact that Gabby was living with the laundries, I am certain that Brian's parents knew all too well the dynamics of the couple's toxic relationship. And they knew all about their son's controlling and angry behaviour and they just looked the other way.

[Hannah Witton]

Like, how could they not have known? Her friends knew. Her friends knew what kind of guy he was and she lived with them, I believe, for two years. Like, I don't know how they couldn't have known.

[Heather Rogers]

So what happens now? Well, Gabby's Family aren't done. They've set up a foundation in her honor to help raise awareness of the signs of domestic violence. And in late 2022, they also successfully brought a lawsuit against Brian Laundrie's estate for the wrongful death of Gabby. And they've pursued a lawsuit against Chris and Roberta Laundrie and their lawyer for, quote, intentional infliction of emotional distress. I think that's putting it lightly. They claim that the Laundries were well aware that Brian had murdered Gabby and they chose not to act, and they actively helped him elude capture. There was plenty of evidence that was already out there to back this theory up, their silence being the number one. And the long call that they took with Brian on the 27th of August and the lawyer they hired immediately afterward.

[Hannah Witton]

And there's more, because more recently, a letter written by Roberta Laundrie to her son Brian has also come to light, or at least like partial sentences from it. And I do understand that partial sentences out of context. We don't know exactly what this letter said, but I am going to talk about it, because those partial sentences included the following. If you go to prison, I'll bake a cake with a shiv in it. And second, a handy bit of advice was scribbled onto the envelope, which read, burn after reading. Roberta, give it a fucking rest. Your son's a prick. So Gabi's family are also in the process of suing the police in Moab, Utah. The lawsuit accuses police officers of not following the law and of failing to protect Gabby when they stopped her and Brian on 16 August. Utah law clearly states that in the case of suspected domestic violence, an arrest must be made. And they didn't. Very crucially, they did not arrest either Gabby or Brian that day. And people like, you know, this is a very conflicting thing to talk about. It's not really clear, but I think if they thought that Gabby was the aggressor, they should have arrested her, and they didn't.

[Heather Rogers]

The police have said that after evaluating the totality of the circumstances, they didn't believe that the incident rose to the level of a domestic assault as much as that of a mental health crisis, and that's why no charges were filed. The city of Moab also stated the police showed kindness and empathy in the handling of this case, and that's why the arrest wasn't made. But better training was needed. Even though Gabby admitted to hitting Brian, they didn't arrest her.

[Hannah Witton]

And that's the thing. They say they didn't think it rose to the level of a domestic violence incident, but more of a mental health crisis. But Gabby admits to them in the tape that we heard earlier that she hit Brian.

[Heather Rogers]

Police also failed to mention that in the hour they stood there talking to Brian and Gabby, they did not interview the 911 operator who took the call from a witness who clearly stated that he'd seen an incident of domestic abuse in which Brian hit Gabby.

[Hannah Witton]

If they had called the 911 operator and asked to understand what the caller had said, they would have known that somebody, a witness, an independent witness, saw Brian hit Gabby. But he's not admitting to that when they're interviewing them.

[Heather Rogers]

There should have been an arrest that day, and the Moab police know that because they released one officer's body cam footage weeks after the incident. But it took a further two weeks and accusations of a cover up before the Moab police released the second set of body cam footage from that day. And it does shine an entirely different light on the situation.

[Hannah Witton]

Yeah, because I'll admit in that first footage, they do seem very kind, they seem very empathetic. They do seem like they're really trying to understand what's happened here. But the new footage showed Gabby narrating a violent fight that took place between her and Brian. And in that she clearly states that he hit her. She told the police officer that she was struck on the face by Brian Laundrie during that fight. And in that 52 minute video, Gabby Petito describes injuries to her face and neck that are also visible. You can see them and she's describing them. And also the acute anxiety she felt about being separated from Brian Laundrie. The video also included a disturbing conversation between the officers, which takes place like in one of their cars when they leave Gabby and Brian to go and call a supervisor, in which they talk about and acknowledge how domestic violence can escalate to murder. So for them to say they didn't think it was a domestic violence issue at all and just a mental health crisis, they talk about domestic violence when they go to the car. So they were aware of the risk and they were aware of what they were probably looking at. But the problem is they think that she was the attacker and therefore they downplay it. Because the same guy who's saying it can lead to violence is basically the crux of it saying she's not going to be able to kill him. Like, she's 100 pounds soaking wet. Like, what is she going to do? Like, she is the aggressor, but like, it's going to make it worse if we arrest her. So they're kind of just like, let's just leave it, separate them and let's just, you know, not do anything here. But then there is this sentence.

[Heather Rogers]

Police officers can also be heard laughing with Mr. Brian Laundrie, and one officer even says to him, we feel bad for you. Officers didn't document the injuries clearly seen on Gabby's face, and they never asked Brian what he did. The police missed all the clear signs of domestic violence. They had in front of them a calm, collected, very together man and a hysterically highly anxious young woman who immediately started taking the blame for the altercation and very obviously trying to protect her partner and indicating heightened anxiety at the thought of being separated.

[Hannah Witton]

All of which they should have seen and spotted and recognized that she was not, in fact, the aggressor, but she was, in fact, the victim. And, like, I don't think the police knew how this was going to end. I know they go back into the car and they talk about how domestic violence can end in murder, obviously, but they spent an hour there trying to figure out what was going on. They just didn't ask the right questions and they didn't spot the right signs of domestic violence. And in the footage, one of them can even be heard saying that after they have incorrectly identified Gabby as the aggressor, they say that they're just going to cause more problems by arresting her. I'm not excusing it. I'm not defending what they did. I think they missed an absolutely vital opportunity. I don't think they knew what was going to happen here when they let them go. And like I said, they separated them that night, but the two of them were going to get back together as soon as they had the opportunity anyway, which is exactly what they did. I think the problem here is if officers had better understood the law, like the fact if they suspect domestic violence, they have to arrest somebody, and if they had better training, much better training on spotting the signs of domestic violence, then it is entirely heartbreakingly possible that Gabby Petito might still be alive today. Yeah. So that's that, guys.

[Heather Rogers]

Poor Gabby.

[Hannah Witton]

Poor Gabby. It is. Honestly, it's just so sad. So that is the case of Gabby Petito. I don't care that Brian Laundrie's dead. I couldn't give a shit. And I hate his parents, so whatever. So that's that. And, yeah, we will see you guys next week for a different case. That's hopefully not so sad.

[Heather Rogers]

Yeah, fingers crossed, eh? But we have had a bit of streak recently.

[Hannah Witton]

No promises, but we'll see you then. Bye.

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[Hannah Witton]

I swear.

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[Heather Rogers]

What?

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[Mr. Ballin (Medical Mysteries Host)]

How hard is it to kill a planet? Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere. When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

[Hannah Witton]

Are we really safe?

[Heather Rogers]

Is our water safe? You destroyed our tap.

[Mr. Ballin (Medical Mysteries Host)]

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

[Alina Urquhart or Ash Kelly (Morbid Podcast Hosts)]

We call things accidents. There is no accident. This was 100% preventable.

[Mr. Ballin (Medical Mysteries Host)]

They're the result of choices by people. Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime. These are the stories of we need to be telling about our changing planet. Stories of scams, murders and cover ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad free right now by joining Wondry plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts or Spot.