The body of a missing woman was discovered in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest. She was found largely thanks to a husband-wife team of YouTubers (Red White and Bethune) who had video of Petito’s van and tipped off the FBI. The County coroner positively identified Gabby Petito’s body. And confirmed her cause of death as a homicide on Tuesday.
Petito and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie were road-tripping, exploring national parks, and documenting the journey on social media. Throughout the summer, the couple regularly posted videos, photos, and stories to their social media pages using hashtag #vanlife. They were developing a following for their vlog. And Gabby was developing a YouTube channel Nomadic Statik.
The social media posts stopped abruptly in late August. Gabby’s communications with her friends and family also stopped. Laundrie returned to his parent’s home, where he and Petito lived, in Florida on September 1st.
Petito was not with him, but he was driving her van.
Petito’s Mom, who lives in New York, got increasingly desperate for news of her daughter. Her calls to Laundrie and his parents were not returned. Petito’s family discovered on September 10th that Laundrie had returned to Florida without Gabby. On September 11 Petito was reported missing to the Suffolk County Police Department in New York.
