All language subtitles for The Murder of Gabby Petito Truth, Lies and Social Media

this is where things spin out of control

brian laundry's notebook was found near

his remains that could break the case

open

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come on let me show you this we'll go to

the beach

um just listen to the ocean look at the

waves look at the sand watch the sunrise

watch the sunset

driving across the country all the way

to california in oregon was an absolute

dream

wish i was back running down the beach

looking at the pacific ocean

she did a lot she was very busy she

loved her friends

she was a beautiful artist brilliant

artist

just so talented

everybody sees the pictures of her out

there as an adult but

when i close my eyes and i think her i

still remember

a little blonde hair bright blue-eyed

little girl with her hair up and

you know ponytails

gabby wants to be adventurous if you

look at the instagram posts it's just

very clear

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she's just loves life

uh and loves new experiences

made my favorite mango smoothie for

breakfast went on a nice little hike

had some sushi and watched the sunset

before going home to some chocolate

covered strawberries

what could be better than this

hashtag 21.

the gabby potito story is important

because i think everybody

not only saw a little bit of someone

they knew in the story but also frankly

maybe saw a little bit of themselves

gabby wore her heart on her sleeve

gabby believed everything could come

true

she believed in this perfect love i

can't wait to get back to days like this

traveling the world with you and asking

strangers to take our picture

never taking moments like this for

granted again

brian laundry is a

typical american young man loved the

outdoors by all accounts they met in

high school he was a junior when they

met in high school

seems like the both of them were

kind of free-spirited

we don't know a whole lot about brian

laundry there's no friends or

acquaintances that have really come

forward and wanted to speak with us if

you take a look at his public instagram

page a lot of the photos are just solo

with just him alone brian laundry had

his own social media accounts too and he

did his own posting

he definitely fashions himself as being

a little edgy

gabby and brian knew each other in long

island that's where they're from she

came down to where he was living with

his parents in their house playing the

gabby potato case since day one we do

know that gabby petito lived laundries

in northport florida for about a two and

a half year period brian and gabby were

actually engaged before they went on

this trip

so

we are

right outside capitol reef right now in

a free dispersed camp spot since we left

new york i've only set up my hammock

once

and we're kind of like in the desert

you see this

evolution you see them growing you see

the excitement you see you know what's

happening you watch someone grow up

right through instagram photos the

potatoes talk to abc australia she

always wanted to do this she planned it

out she she knew what she wanted to do

and

she knew where she wanted to go

i worried um i told her to be careful be

safe you know make sure

to be aware of your surroundings um you

know don't trust everybody

but i felt safe because she was with

ryan and i i felt like she would be okay

i think i thought he would take care of

her

it's a lot easier walking up river

holding someone's hand then walking

alone

what we can tell from brian laundry from

his instagram page is that he was very

into the environment keeping the

environment clean and we can see that he

eats out of melon rinds he tries to not

use plastic

downsizing our life to fit into this

itty bitty van was the best decision

we've ever made

she wanted to create her own business

of blogging for a living and she had a

unique perspective on how she was going

to capture that audience

we know that brian and gabby purchased

this van actually a year prior and this

was something that they had been

planning for quite some time to do to

travel the country i think that for a

lot of young people right now this idea

of leaving everything behind getting in

a van

seeing the world is attractive

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i love the van

van life is exactly what it sounds it's

living in often a restored van or school

bus and having this kind of nomadic

lifestyle where you can travel around

the country van life is an aspirational

lifestyle and it is something that

people seek it attracts a certain person

who wants to travel and sort of see

things up close not from the air or from

a speeding train but traveling at their

own pace

van life was made popular and kind of

grew into people's

vision of what they were seeing through

this very popular film nomad land it's

fine i need a ride to town

walk i blew my tire

there's kind of a joke in van life that

you really never know where you're gonna

go more than a few days in advance and

that's really very true it was growing

in popularity largely through instagram

and youtube the pandemic really flipped

our life on its head the life we were

living was completely opposite of what

really brings us joy

we've taught ourselves everything we

needed you know vehicle maintenance

hello hello and good morning

it is really nice and sunny today

it's only 10 o'clock in the morning

and your hope is that you will become an

influencer the way to live a sustainable

life as a van lifer is to have millions

of followers online gabby definitely

wanted to be part of this community she

and ryan were posting it on instagram on

youtube they were documenting this

journey for people on the internet to

essentially engage with wow

oh my god

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when i look at gabby's

instagram to see her building her brand

she followed a lot of people who also

were doing the van life thing too so it

looks like she was following the formula

for how to get successful there

living in a van is a struggle it is not

the beautiful picturesque life that a

lot of internet creators painted out to

be

and gabby and brian were in a smaller

van than i usually see people in i

imagine that's a lot of pressure any

relationship has fights

but

now you're in this tiny van there's no

place else to go i don't know what

you're supposed to do when you're in

that kind of environment

life on the road is difficult you have

to pivot a lot it changes in a

millisecond and you have to be ready for

that

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for gabby and brian they were struggling

they were not the cream of the crop

family of creators they were not going

viral they were really living hand to

mouth and so there was a lot of tension

you could tell around that i'd like to

report a domestic dispute but we drove

by and the gentleman was slapping the

girl

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went hiking for my birthday

22 one whole year's worth of adventures

and stories down and a lifetime to go i

love our adventures

i think in a lot of her old posts you

saw that she really cared about brian he

was a figure on her page and in her life

and he really meant a lot to her

here's a picture from our first date

because i have so much love for you

brian asked me to marry him and i said

yes

the other thing to note about her posts

is they are heavily edited keeping her

life beautiful

on camera

social media is basically the highlight

reel of your life you're not posting

videos of yourself fighting with

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me and brian just got up and got ready

made the bed in the tent

set up um i think our plan for today is

to just hang out here in the tent

um

ryan's stretching

doing some

morning yoga so they're visiting

national parks so we know they stopped

in colorado then they stopped in utah

thank you at gabspetito for putting up

with me through utah a topographic

playground they've been on this trip

over a month and then on august 12th

there is a phone call and placed to

9-1-1

a witness had reported seeing gabby and

brian fighting that witness said brian

had slapped gabby

hi can you hear me sir yeah yeah

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 gentleman

what were they doing

oh we drove by the gentleman was

slapping the girl he was slapping her

yes and then we stopped they ran up and

down the sidewalk he proceeded to hit

her in the car and they drove off

at the time these officers received that

original radio call they were on the

impression that a male had assaulted a

female it was clear that there was a

domestic situation occurring and that

officers needed to respond the police

followed the van driver is showing some

obscure driving

he's driving somewhat erratically

possibly intoxicated he's speeding

currently doing 45 miles an hour

zone through here is 25. oh brian hit

the curb subject says hit the curb

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when they pull brian and gabby over it's

a turning point in this story

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what's your guys's names

i'm ryan gabby brian okay

what's going on

i was hiring this inviting this morning

some personal indians it's a long

i was distracting him i'm driving i'm

sorry can i get you to step out of the

vehicle for me now yeah the body cam

footage was a real social media vs

reality moment huge contrast between her

public instagram and their youtube

videos

first what you saw in the body camera

footage which

seemed like a peek behind the curtain

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i might just like

i guess

my vibe is like

in a bad mood

without the body cam footage all i

thought was

this looks really toxic and

then i thought these are two people who

are struggling where do you go to

decompress and get away from somebody

you're in the middle of a fight with

somebody and you live in a tiny car

together

so i've been building my website

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brian laundry made light of what she was

doing that she was in a bad mood because

she was working on her little project

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now another

law enforcement speaks to gabby about

hey

this is a toxic relationship if you ever

considered life on your own

or leaving this now think about it and

what's his name is it brian is he

usually pretty patient with you

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you know you have anxiety look at the

look at the situations you can get in

you know what i mean

the officers questioned ms potato again

multiple times

and asked her directly were you struck

by mr laundry is there something on your

cheek here

looks like did he get did you get hit in

the face

kind of looks like something like

hitting you in the face

and then over on your arm

shoulder right here

that's new huh

have a new mark

can i see the other side of your face

so what happened here and here

um

i'm not sure it wasn't

that's i was just trying to get back in

the car and his backpack coming back

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so the backpack gotcha she had bruises

on her left arm that she blamed on an

inanimate object a backpack

so there's two people that came to us

and told us that they saw him hit you

there's two people saying that they saw

him punch you

and i've got a news flash for everybody

when brian laundry struck her in the

face in broad daylight i guarantee you

that was not the first time he had hit

her

now anytime we talk about demeanor it's

subjective

i'm giving you my take gabby's pretty

hysterical

she is

defensive

of herself and of brian

and begins to take responsibility for

what's been going on

even suggesting that she herself was the

aggressor

in any physical

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you slapped him first

on his face

there are relationships in which women

are aggressively violent toward men

but in the vast majority of domestic

violence situations the men are the

aggressors and the women in public when

questioned about it especially by law

enforcement

will often take responsibility for it

out of fear that the aggressor the man

in their relationship will be more angry

if they don't i do want to emphasize

that we do not know what happened

between these two people we want to know

the truth if he actually hit you

because you know

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i would have had about 50 questions to

ask her about what he's done in the past

has he ever hit you has he ever tried to

choke you out getting her to describe

the dynamic between the two of them

she totally covers for him she was

apologizing she was deferential she was

upset she was crying

she kept taking the blame where did he

hit you

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do you slap your face or what i like

so they have a couple questions for

gabby and depending upon how she answers

those questions that will determine the

outcome

this is a very very important question

how you answer this question is going to

determine what happens next

but the only person who can answer this

question is you

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throughout the

moab incident

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gabby is extremely distressed what

happened what's going on

she's the one crying she's the one

gasping for breath

seeing her in distress in that moment

really bonded people to her i thought at

first are these people high

are they sober

why are they acting so strangely hey we

got a call about a male hitting a female

and the two of them getting in this

vehicle taking off officer pratt's video

shows him approach mr laundry while he

is still seated in that white van and

officer pratt asks him multiple times if

he has struck miss potato so

i i i i don't try to defend myself by

saying here i pushed her away she gets

really worked up they officially take

brian out of the truck let's go ahead

and get you to step out of the map and

talk to him trying to figure out exactly

what's happened

mr laundry's demeanor at the time of the

stop was typical in that visibly

unperturbed tell me what's going on

you see this gets worked up sometimes

and i try and really this is my cell

phone so like i locked the car and i

won't believe it

the interesting dynamic is that brian

laundry is really calm and there's such

a discrepancy that it's almost an

intentional way to discredit her

experience i think our little swab has

started because you're hanging out at

the coffee shop and when we got back to

the gym there's some dirty something man

and i

food around i wouldn't even involve this

there's a few little little things just

a little relationship

i've been married for over five years

now there's a lot of little things

you see him connecting with the officers

on an interpersonal level also their

story was that they'd had similar kind

of discord with their own relationship

that's one thing that people really

weren't happy about they're like why are

they offering him help on how to deal

with this when this looks like a

domestic violence situation

they arrived at the scene and they

noticed marks on his neck

he's actually got some surface cuts

there's some blood i said let's just

take a breather from this time

gabby's account of what had happened

so you pushed her to meet you

it wasn't like a push and she jumped for

me

i don't know

once you get the wheels of justice going

it's hard to put on the brakes

it is not irrational

when he has scratches on his neck to be

asking him questions about how he got

them

but what they didn't ask enough was

why did we get a call from someone

saying you were hitting her

do you mind lifting up your right sleeve

for me

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i suppose fingernails but i'm not

fighting i'm not

complaining or anything like that i'm

fine i love you

i don't see this as many complaints

about me

so brian laundry

is trying to portray himself as victim

but also trying to say but hey you know

it's not that big a deal

she just kind of gets this way

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and i think that was part of the problem

here is that the

police ended up

believing that

look these are not easy situations and i

think the police were really trying to

figure it out so at this point

the primary aggressor

be the male or be the female

we shall rest

it seemed to me that they chose to

ignore the previous 9-1-1 call

where there's clear evidence that

laundry had just beaten

gabby potito

the entire moab incident hinged on one

thing and that is naming gabby potato as

the aggressor

she appeared to be the aggressor and she

said she was the arrester now do i

believe that no

but the police can only go the evidence

they are given they had no basis on

which to arrest brian

if anything they could have arrested her

we can't treat this differently than if

it was a male on female violence

we're gonna have to charge her it is

also evident to me that during the

course of

their interactions with both parties the

officers felt that was not the right

course of action

in no way shape or form that i can

perceive

what happened here a little slap fight

between fiancees who love each other

want to be together

can i perceive that this is going to

digress into the situation where he's

going to be a better man

right but then again i don't have a

crystal ball

oh this is really bad news let's talk to

him first

i unfortunately interested in utah the

state legislature doesn't give us

discretion on who's charged when opposed

to a domestic assault and your own

companions

have made it clear that she was the

primary aggressor

and then she was striking you in the

same interviews so at this point you're

the people that mention that

even if you didn't want to pursue this

you don't have a choice

they print brian's story and now they

have to decide what to do what are their

next steps do they arrest gabby ryan i

don't want to be separated

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so look

i'm going to speak to you frankly i have

a daughter almost your age

and i'm looking at you not so much like

a suspect

but also it's kind of a victim in the

sense that stuff you did today that

contributed to because you both

contributed to this

is as a result of your inability to cope

with the anxiety and the stress that

you're having

normally we take people to jail but he's

trying to work so you can just have the

van

in some states when there's been a

domestic violence incident there can be

a mandatory separation imposed

those kinds of separations

can save a life

nobody wanted to go to jail they didn't

want to be separated

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[Laughter]

the very best thing i can do is call my

supervisor and see if i'm missing

something here

she gets extremely agitated when she

believes they are going to be separated

and or being separated from her van

and let me point out that it's not just

a van this is where she's living

this is also her livelihood her dream

i think when miss potato is

informed by the officers that there may

be an impending arrest she's frightened

i'll play any driving to get a party to

get anything her reaction causes the

officers to re-evaluate those officers

were heading down the path of making an

arrest and they changed the direction

in the police report that they filed in

moab the officer made it clear that the

couple stated that they were in love

they were engaged to be married and they

didn't want to see anyone go to jail

that night or face any charges we

understand you're not even wanting to

pursue this but the cops have to follow

the statute there is no doubt in my mind

that the moab police had had training in

domestic violence

because they kept going back to the

statute back to what proper

there was a significant debate that was

occurring on the scene about the

appropriateness of a physical arrest or

not how far do you want to go with this

so i went and i looked at

the code for assault if you go ask her

what was your intention when you were

slapping him

and she says i wanted him to hurt or be

ill or in paris physical condition then

there's nothing we can do whatever she

answers that question will seal her fate

right

if it became clear

that she had the

intent to hit him and she was not acting

in self-defense the police clearly

believed they would have had to arrest

him

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this is a very very important question

how you answer this question is going to

determine what happens next

when you

slapped him those times

were you attempting to cause him

physical pain or physical impairment was

that what you were attempting to do to

him

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they did what appeared to be a pretty

thorough investigation at the scene for

over an hour

talking to each one of them talking

among themselves

not really getting that critical element

of assault

all right brian she claims that she did

not have them

and make them cool down basically for 24

hours

these kids didn't have any money

the domestic violence provider says to

them

no

we cannot pay for a hotel room for ms

potato because she is identified as the

primary aggressor

so instead of sending her

to a hotel they send her off in the van

here's that i'm giving him a ride over

to the hotel

okay

so

everything's gonna

[Laughter]

not like far

she's concerned about driving the van by

herself and

knowing where the hotel where he's going

to be is

gabby asks how near is this hotel is he

going to be nearby it is

striking to

listen to gabby feel like

she needs brian

if the cops had arrested him would gabby

be alive today would that have changed

the course of these events the hard

truth

maybe

she may still be alive today if he had

been arrested

or not

the city of moab launched an independent

investigation into the handling of the

incident but declined to comment at this

time

so after the incident in moab they

continue on their journey and then

august 25th she posts what was her last

photo on social media

final post had people really scratching

their heads it's a photo of her holding

this little pumpkin in the middle of the

summer

what was that all about

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so shortly after this incident in utah

where police had responded to a fight

between brian and gabby

gabby

is going to post this famous now final

youtube video you would have no idea

that this was a couple who was in a

serious fight all the chocolate

mountains

it's a river of chocolate you can't keep

chocolate in utah

not in july

it was five days after that police stop

in moab when something strange happens

brian goes home on the 17th

brian alone hops a plane in salt lake

city and flies all the way back home

according to the laundry family attorney

the reason brian flew back was to pick

up some items and close up a storage

space to save money

that couldn't have been cheap have

another fight

did they need to split for a while and

cool off

so according to her father gabby was in

salt lake city working really on her

youtube page at that point

the whole thing seems odd to me and

particularly odd when you think in

another six or seven days she's dead

august 23rd brian then flies back to

utah from florida to get back with gabby

and they continue on their road trip

once they're back together there's a

pose from gabby that really raises

eyebrows the pumpkin post her last post

was on august 25th

gabby in the photo has perfect hair

after being on a trip for two months in

a van

and she's holding a pumpkin and writes

happy halloween

which is odd because it was posted on

august 25th

so in gabby's latest instagram post her

roots are not there

especially in comparison to some of them

before that

it seemed as if she had taken that

at some point and was planning to use it

at halloween

it didn't fit in with all of her other

blog postings

and then in late august people saw brian

get in another fight at mary piglet's

restaurant in jackson wyoming witnesses

reported a lot of screaming him yelling

at the restaurant staff going in and out

of the restaurant

he was really angry that's the best way

i can describe it he was just very

visibly angry

and in that moment gabby reminded me a

lot of how she seemed in that body cam

video of the cops she just seemed

distraught she seemed really upset she

was emotional she was crying

and then people saw him get into this

van and

that leave to me

that the pressure between the two of

them in particular in brian is building

what we would later know

is that that was the last time gabby

petito was seen in public

from the youtube video their

relationship seemed solid but clearly it

wasn't showing everything

it does appear that their relationship

was

what some would term toxic they would

fight according to gabby's mother during

her conversations with gabby during the

trip there appeared to be more and more

tension between gabby and brian

so we know that the last time gabby

spoke to her mother

she told her mother they were in grand

teton national park and they were likely

headed to yellowstone

after that conversation over the phone

gabby's mother started receiving some

odd text messages

the text message to her mother was can

you help stan i just keep getting his

voicemails and missed calls

called her grandfather by his name stan

the last contact that

gabby's mother has from her daughter is

august 30th

she gets a text that says

no service in yosemite

which is strange because it's so brief

but also they weren't going to yosemite

that's hundreds and hundreds of miles

away

so mom knew immediately something was

very very wrong gabby's mother is really

concerned she hasn't had a face-to-face

video call with her daughter in days

and more days are passing and now

there's no contact whatsoever where is

she i was texting her every day anyway

but i wasn't getting responses

by day six seven i was checking her

social media i didn't see any activity

i'm worried and everybody was like she's

fine she's fine they're out in the

mountains they have no signal and i said

no it's not like her unbeknownst to

gabby's mother brian laundry has driven

gabby's van back to florida he arrives

on september 1st

authorities say brian used a debit card

that was not his to withdraw a thousand

dollars and he made his way all the way

back home to florida with no sign of gap

according to the laundry's family

attorney the card in question is gabby's

debit card

brian

laundry shows up

back in florida

without gabby

and seemingly unconcerned about her

whereabouts so what's that about lady

red lights go off in my head when i hear

that he has left his fiancee

and that's when everybody becomes deeply

concerned

about gabby's well-being and whereabouts

and deeply suspicious of ryan laundry

developments tonight

desperate for answers this is where

things really

get weird and when the story becomes a

national story it starts to spin out of

control lights cameras reporters we are

everywhere this girl right here this is

what matters everybody wanted to find

this woman it opened up this broader

conversation about

missing women and specifically missing

black and indigenous women and the lack

of attention there's an explosion on the

internet crime junkies go crazy the

theory that has been circulating i think

he had just dumped her body it was so

eerie that i couldn't even believe it

was happening in real life

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

lights cameras reporters we are

everywhere

two people went on a trip one person

returned

this girl right here

this is what matters everybody wanted to

find this woman it opened up this

broader conversation about

missing women and specifically missing

black and indigenous women and the the

lack of attention

missing my girls coming in

my stomach

dropped anywhere he goes anywhere

somebody sees that guy got some strange

looks like uh i'm not bringing any

advice on what i should say to people

that think i am brian laundry protesters

started coming out and they were

gathering outside ryan's parents house

and they were shouting things at the

laundry family the truth always comes

out where's brian where's gabby brian

laundry's notebook was found near his

remains it could break the case open

this is a 23 year old man come on own it

take responsibility stand up tell us

what you

did hello hello and good morning ryan's

stretching

doing some

morning yoga everything about gabby and

this case is tailor-made to go viral you

have a young attractive couple there's

controversy

it was so eerie and so real that i

couldn't even believe that it was

happening

in real life two people went on this

vacation and only one returned wow on

this gabby potato cakes and so they feel

compelled to keep talking about her

we need to talk and i'm on the road and

then because the case was so viral the

theory that has been circulating i think

he had just stumped her body it ended up

everywhere you couldn't escape it we

have some new information from tick tock

i've spotted gabby's browsing facebook

and gabby

actually when i checked the gabby potito

tag on tick tock he had over a billion

hits today

[Music]

[Applause]

this loving couple had been out on a

road trip and then

brian for whatever reason decides that

he's going to come back to florida

without gabby abby's family hasn't heard

from her in days when they last checked

in with her things seem to be going fine

but now they're realizing that something

here is wrong

brian shows up back in florida on

september 1st he's in gabby's van and

the neighbor saw the van in the driveway

one of the neighbors told me i did think

it was strange that i didn't see gabby

but what do i know i'm just a neighbor

here

we don't know obviously what he told his

parents as to where his gavin we do know

that when brian was back home in florida

at least with his family he was

interacting with them he was there with

his parents the potatoes have no idea

that brian is home in florida without

gabby driving the van they had been

traveling in if brian was staying at my

house and gabby returned

to my house without him in in his

vehicle

i'd be on their phone with their parents

say we got an issue we need

once brian got home it appeared to be

family business as usual neighbors told

me that they saw brian and his parents

going for walks down the street and then

eventually

brian and his parents went camping for a

few days

they were camping in fort de soto which

is our usual camping spot and because it

was labor day and the kids said school

the next day we just went for a couple

of hours and we ate dinner and had

s'mores around the campfire and left

there was nothing peculiar about it she

said she had no reason to ask about

gabby gabby never came up and she had no

to believe there was anything wrong i'm

frustrated that

in hindsight i didn't pick up on

anything

it was just a regular trip

it's been 10 days since gabby's family

has heard from her and they are worried

enough that on september 11th they

report her as a missing person right now

on abc action news desperate for answers

plus the ever expanding search for gabby

potito tonight new developments in the

nationwide search for a missing long

island native gabrielle petito once the

missing persons report has been filed

they can go ask questions but they can't

force anyone

to answer them northport police when

they were investigating gabby's

disappearance they were met at the door

by brian laundry's parents with a note

with contact information for their

attorney it's not a crime to hire a

defense lawyer but it really looks bad

it certainly looks bad to gabby's mother

when the detective came to my door to

let me know that the van was in florida

with him

she also said that he had obtained a

lawyer

i

almost fell on the ground because i was

just like where's gabby and that's that

was my response to that information

and i might just went to shock i knew

something was wrong so gabby petito is

officially missing but remember there's

no evidence that brian laundry was

involved with that the laundry family

lawyer released a statement saying they

hope the search for gabby's successful

and that brian will remain in the

background with no comment that may be a

smart legal strategy but not one that

looks good to people following the case

his attorney mr bernalino told the

parents not to talk but i think the

average person saying this is this is

not right we don't know what

brian knows i mean that's the bottom

line and we're hopeful to talk to him he

needs to talk to us

we need to know exactly where he was

where she was their last locations

brian's sister cassie says she was

shocked to learn that gabby was missing

and she hasn't heard from brian since

that camp out nothing radio silence

i have i've tried to get in touch with

him phone went to voicemail i didn't

think anything of it because he's not

very good at keeping his phone charged

so

everything's different when you look

back on it i understand what tried to do

with trying to protect you all right

you're supposed to tell your child to

stand up for the things that they've

done this is a 23 year old man but come

on tell us what you did tell us what you

didn't do tell the truth plus something

why can't the police department arrest

brian for a stolen vehicle because that

van was gabby's but the police

department was clear they had no

evidence that a crime had been committed

but the police were able to get a search

warrant for gabby's van looking for any

information on her computer hard drive

that could help them if she were killed

in the van do you have some body fluid

that's suspicious that's either his or

hers is there an indication of a

struggle inside the van you're going to

look at anything that can potentially

link

brian to gabby keeping in mind that they

live together

what i need from everybody here is help

the goal is still not met and that goal

is to bring gabby home safe there is

nothing else that matters to me now this

is what matters

that is it

anything else it comes second to this

so the attorney for the pedito family

puts out a statement directly to the

laundries pleading with them to come

forward with information they said she

was going to be your daughter-in-law

please help us

and then it all takes a turn tonight her

boyfriend is now a person of interest

but he's not talking the new pleas for

him to share what he knows if law

enforcement tells you they have a person

of interest we now know that this is a

serious case we've been assuming that

brian laundry was at home with his

parents but then his parents told

investigators that brian had gone on a

hike into a swamp in the carlton

preserve that he had left days ago and

that he hadn't returned

when we got that alert that brian

laundry was missing my stomach dropped i

remember looking at my phone and not

being able to believe what i was reading

the question everyone wanted to know is

brian missing or is he just hiding so

investigators are searching everywhere

for brian laundry and they're soon

joined by someone unexpected fox news

capturing dog the bounty hunter joining

the search knocking on the laundry door

boom boom boom boom i really let loose

on a knot

[Music]

where is gabby where is

police arriving to find out her fiance

has now vanished with neighbors now very

angry gathering in their yard and gabby

has not been heard from in weeks

what do you know in the very beginning

of this investigation at brian's parents

house media was lining the street up and

down there were so many people so many

reporters and media outlets in that

neighborhood be respectful of everyone's

property

tons of equipment lights we are

everywhere

north port police told us that they had

been surveilling the house and had

certain claims very strongly that they

do not know where their son is at this

point and they are just hoping for him

to come home safely

we're going to turn next year to the

search for that person of interest brian

laundry that search intensifying tonight

numerous law enforcement agencies are

involved in the search inside the

carlton reserve they're using drones

utvs atvs and they're searching a

heavily wooded area

75

of it is underwater

they're using vehicles that can go into

marshy water area

[Applause]

the carlton reserve is a 25 000

acre wildlife reserve that is twice the

size of manhattan it is massive

and i can tell you from being there it

is a rough environment

we do know that brian laundry has quite

a lot of experience camping he made that

clear on his social media pages so is he

able to survive in that type of

environment he reads books about it and

it wouldn't surprise me if he could

last out there a very long time

[Music]

my name's michael hawk

i'm retired special forces 25 years

combat veteran survival expert

if you're on the run out here trying to

hide he's got to get something small

like a baby sack on the ground right

which then exposes him to the critters

and the wetness

if he wants to survive out here for any

period of time is he's got to be able to

keep himself clean he's got to be able

to dry out his feet he's got to be able

to stay hydrated and those are massive

challenges in this environment

if i were going to stay here for the

night this would probably be a bed for

me

it'd be most comfortable but at least i

would be dry can dry out my feet not get

it by the critters this right here

it's gonna be my tree hugging pillow for

the night

the threats that he faces out here are

numerous he's got alligator he's got

snake he gets bit by one of those if he

doesn't get help within 24 hours he's

most likely going to be dead but the

biggest danger out in this environment

will be the things that he doesn't see

the ticks the leeches and most

importantly the scrapes and cuts are

going to get infected will bring him

down unless he's got medical training

and antibiotics

brian does not strike me as the type of

person that has the real survival skills

necessary to survive in this kind of

environment just don't think he has

[Music]

people are going to turn this guy in if

they find him but he might be able to

survive on his own for a time or get

somewhere else like mexico there's no

border patrol on the mexican side

there's no immigration brian laundry

could have walked across that border

with his hair on fire naked and nobody

would have seen him if he would have

done this correctly he would have had to

have front loaded his movements have

enough cash avoid atms grocery stores

gas stations never use your cell phones

you should have decomposing that an

animal's ate it with something that way

he doesn't go to prison

[Applause]

there are obviously numerous law

enforcement agencies investigating this

case but also it caught the attention of

dog the bounty hunter fox news capturing

dog the bounty hunter joining the search

knocking on the laundry door

i really let loose on a knock

the reason i got involved in the gabby

case was purely by request from our fans

this is a real hunt this is probably

right now in america the most wanted man

there is

in order to find him we gotta hunt he's

going into the wilderness because that's

what he knows and he feels protected

there

we don't know if he's armed or not

you have personalities like john wall

short dog the bounty hunter being

involved then that's a win the more eyes

on this case the better what's with all

the resources to find this one guy who

may or may not have killed this one

woman

one thing that happened immediately

after this case blew up in the media and

on the internet was it opened up this

broader conversation about missing women

and specifically missing black and

indigenous women and the the lack of

attention given to them you have to

remember that

there are thousands of indigenous women

that have gone missing in the same area

that gabby's body was found and gabby's

case luckily has brought awareness to

that let's stand up for missing and

murdered indigenous women anna and i

were just discussing that she had never

heard of this sort of missing white

woman syndrome it's a term that was

coined by gwen ifill anybody in true

crime has seen it this notion that we

have as a culture

to specifically fixate on young

beautiful white women

it's really hard to talk about the

missing white woman syndrome in the

context of this case because of course

we care deeply quickly about gabby

potato but at the same time we have to

recognize

that

we have an outsized compassion

for young white women who are missing or

murdered

and we have a negligence

about brown women i saw a post from an

indigenous page on instagram and they

specifically said we feel very terrible

for gabby's family can we spend some of

the energy that we spent focusing on her

finding many of the other indigenous

women missing across north america

mary johnson davis kimberlina yellow

hair sarah nicole graham

wyoming the last place where gabby was

seen issued a report this january it

said in the past decade only 18

of missing cases involving indigenous

women receive media attention

there's a phrase in indian country that

when a native american woman goes

missing she disappears twice once in

life and once in the news

and if you look at the data from

2020 there's 250 000

lori ann boffman

wanda faye walker erica nicole hunt

why do we have greater compassion in our

hearts

for gabby potito than we do for these

other women we have to really dig deeply

to ask ourselves that question it's on

all of you

everyone that's in this room

to do that

and if you don't do that for other

people that are missing that's a shame

because it's not just gabby that

deserves it

[Music]

[Applause]

brian is missing for weeks and the

search goes on and on i worry about him

i hope he's okay and then i'm angry and

i don't know what to think everything

runs through my head i hope my brother

is alive

because i want answers just as much as

everybody else gabby petito's boyfriend

has apparently disappeared himself a lot

of the public was operating under the

assumption that okay clearly brian

laundry is involved here in gabby

potato's disappearance why don't the

authorities just arrest him but from

authorities perspective there was no

crime at play this was simply a missing

person and brian laundry has no legal

obligation to help them try to find her

when did he tell his parents there was a

problem when did they call their

attorney i got questions

earlier today human remains were

discovered

consistent with the description of

gabrielle gabby petito

now it's no longer a missing person's

case it's a murder investigation

and amazingly it was someone from social

media who cracked the case

when we found the footage i'm like

please please keep recording please keep

recording please be on here and all of a

sudden we see this white speck getting

closer and closer and closer

[Music]

grand teton national park where gabby

potito spoke directly with her family

for the last time before she disappeared

the search continues for gabby potito

family friends and now where we are

right now is the grand tetons

in wyoming just north of jackson hole on

spread creek road which is the camping

area that brian laundry and gabby potato

were last camping at

law enforcement agencies on both sides

of the country are looking for clues to

find 22 year old gabby petito

so once someone goes missing you hope

you have a starting point where were

they at last when did you see him

the quicker you get search teams out the

better the reality is heinz against you

in the gabby potato case it wasn't

someone coming forward saying she

laughed she was wearing this i last are

walking in that direction to give

searchers any kind of

assistance how are you going to cut

nightmare hello nobody knew gabby patina

was until unfortunately she disappeared

but because she'd created

this incredible

log of her travels

with her effervescent

presence

on social media everybody wanted to find

this woman and now with the internet

people were going to take it upon

themselves to find her suddenly we have

internet sleuths i heard about gabby

petito roughly

around the time that she was reported

missing people are like oh she's an

internet influencer it's a true crime

story happening in real life which you

feel like you can participate in you

know by making content on the internet

people on tick tock were immediately

going to to scrutinize every part of

everyone's online presence why is she

posting with a pumpkin why is this video

framed like that they're getting into

gabby potito's mind and trying to align

themselves to find out what happened

they're looking at the body language

they are looking into the time stamps

they're creating a map of everywhere

that they traveled in this van when did

she really stop posting is this her the

fact that she randomly posted it on

august 25th with just that caption and

did not tag a location to me is very

suspicious this caption seems different

from the one five months ago and the way

that she's talking also notice that the

capitalization is different she never

capitalized anything but the first word

and now she's capitalizing different

words which is what he does in his

writing looking for breadcrumbs anywhere

they're hoping for any type of clue

[Music]

august 29th is when we see brian

resurface

and it is with a woman who's traveling

through the teton national forest with

her boyfriend and they pick up

hitchhikers which by the way is very

common out there in the beginning of the

investigation you didn't really know

where to look for gabby petito

but then those tick tock videos by

miranda baker started to come out

my name is miranda baker i'm 22 years

old

my boyfriend and i came into the tetons

that's when brian had approached us and

he said hey i need to get a ride back to

jackson do you think you could give me a

ride back they offered 200 to drive a

few miles and they thought that that was

a little odd he was really clean for

someone who had been hiking for multiple

days i did strike me as weird and

especially his backpack it wasn't full

it was empty he said him and his fiancee

were camping at a dispersed campsite

near snake river the biggest red flag is

why would you go camping by yourself for

multiple days

alone with just a backpack and leave her

fiance

in your van

it just doesn't make sense

we were driving for 15 minutes and i had

brought up you know why are you going to

jackson hole and once i said jackson

hole that's when the energy shifted

he got very upset about that said please

let me out of the car he's gone

this is one more weird instagram anomaly

gabby and brian people spent days on end

on social media trying to help resolve

the situation and in the end it was

social media that helped find gabby's

remains

my name is jen bethune and i travel with

my husband kyle our three kids and four

dogs in our 1983 silver eagle bus

our story is very intertwined with

gabby's story

we're youtubers and so we film all the

time our everyday lives it's the

freaking tetons she did not know at that

time they were just driving through the

teton national forest and this van is on

the side of the road it was crazy to us

because it had florida plates and we're

from florida and we were like we can go

hang out with them go say hi

but the van looked very dark it didn't

look like anybody was there she doesn't

think much of it until many weeks later

the fbi denver twitter account posted

this saying that they are connecting

ground surveys at the spread creek

dispersed camping area without all that

attention jen bethune who watched her

video never would have thought of a

white van when we found the footage i'm

like please please keep recording please

keep recording please be on here and my

husband kyle's standing next to me and

all of a sudden we see this white speck

getting closer and closer and closer

which found it

at a particular moment

at a particular time

we both got goosebumps all over our body

we knew it was her van as soon as the

footage passed by it it was an insane

feeling

at 1208 in the morning i called the fbi

i think each of us that had tips and

that had the sightings held a piece of

the puzzle and we all worked together to

be able to put that puzzle together so i

don't think it was just us i think it

was a community as a whole working

together to bring gabby home once the

bathoons were able to pinpoint the van

in their gopro footage

the police who had been searching the

entire area

were able to pinpoint to within a

thousand feet

where gabby's remains

were

and without that footage

they might not have been able to do that

she might have been composed without

ever having been found starting with

breaking news here at six o'clock

authorities found a body in the bridger

teton national park in wyoming there is

breaking news in search for gabby potito

just moments ago officials tonight

officials confirming they found a body

near grand teton national park earlier

today human remains were discovered

consistent with the description of

gabrielle gabby petito

[Applause]

[Music]

on september 19th the fbi announced that

they had located remains just outside

granting national park in bridger teton

national forest human remains were

discovered consistent with the

description of gabrielle gabby petito

[Applause]

if you go behind where that van was

placed about 15 feet there's a small

creek

her body was on the creek bed out

exposed in the open

so if anybody here was trying to bury a

body good luck you're not going to get

six inches before you're hitting right a

rock

once her remains are recovered and

they're in a state of decomposition

there's a question of how she died which

is eventually ruled a homicide not an

accident

not natural causes but a homicide we're

now looking for the person of interest

in that homicide and that person of

interest is brian laundry

the fbi has been looking for brain

laundry all over the country we're going

to turn next to the search for that

person of interest brian laundry there

have been spottings of him

throughout florida where is brian

laundry as far north as north carolina

possible brian laundry sightings along

the appalachian trail calls coming into

9-1-1

we've gotten almost as many tips for on

the appalachian trail as we have for

mexico i bet my money on mexico

brian's smile in various social media

gives some insight into his comfort

level and natural surroundings no matter

where he is the fact that brian has

spent so much time in the outdoors

living with minimal supplies makes the

search for him a lot more complicated is

this person in the middle of a swamp is

he on the appalachian trail is he out

somewhere where no people are located he

has the possibility of lasting out there

on his own without any outside help

[Music]

we know that brian laundry has hiked the

appalachian trail we know his camp there

before so that makes it likely he would

return to that spot

and there were 10 other sightings of

ryan laundry up and down the appalachian

trail i wasn't sure about what he looked

like and then i went and parked and

pulled up the photographs of him and i'm

99.99

sure that was him

are they real maybe not is it worth

investigating absolutely

you have elements of nature and social

media and true crime dramas and podcasts

and internet sleuths it kept getting his

everyday pass into this larger and

larger thing and everybody that you

talked to

had some kind of involvement or theory

about how this was all playing out who

had been spotted as being a brian

laundry look-alike one guy was mistaken

for being brian laundry so many times

that he established a tick tock account

dedicated to showing he wasn't the guy

that cops were looking for got some

strange looks like uh i'm not bringing

any advice

on what i should say to people that

think i am

the new yorker reported that u.s

marshals busted into the hotel room of a

man who looked like ryan laundry and had

been hiking on the appalachian trail

federal agents in riot gear and shields

pointed guns at his face

the guy reportedly got his room comped

and a free breakfast but that's how

intense the manhunt had gotten

so anybody that looks like him beware

because uh he can't go anywhere in

america without being spotted something

good has come of all this attention

and search crews say this spotlight on

the gabby petito case has already led

them to discover the body of at least

one other missing person in wyoming

thanks to new tips stirred up this

weekend in the gabby patino coverage

at this point as i say this

nine people who are missing have been

found as a result of searches for gabby

some in the general area where abby was

missing that's a good thing that people

are out there searching and finding

missing people so now the police are

moving to a new phase in the

investigation

where

they truly have a homicide and they

would be focused primarily on brian

i think when they use the word homicide

they wanted to make it clear

that there was no ambiguity about what

had happened to gabby

gabby had been killed by someone else

she had not walked off and been eaten by

an animal she hadn't drowned she had

been killed

you're in the crime scene please behind

the tape

what do you know

as the weeks grew on outside brian's

parents house then protesters and

neighbors from surrounding areas started

to gather and they started shouting

[Music]

you need to come out and speak to

authority

but

where is brian we would have the answers

if we had this guy and so we need him

because we need to know what happened

and

it just has lit this fire of

justice needs to be done

how did gabby wind up dead near a

wyoming creek the answer could be right

at her fingertips

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

tonight breaking news in the gabby

potato case with the core of the people

we find the cause of matter to be caused

death by strangulation and manner of

this homicide

the cause of death

with gabby potato with this being

throttling

male strangulation

[Music]

these are real up close crimes

strangulation

is a very personal way to kill right

you're feeling the life being snuffed

out of a person that's a whole other

level of

anger

and why that's important is that when

you start to look

at domestic homicides that have

strangulation in them almost invariably

there's been attempts to do non-fatal

strangulation

prior where did he hit

[Applause]

so is that any history in gabby and

bryan's relationship

obviously we don't know the answer to

that question but it might be there now

numerous questions were asked they were

asking dr blue what state of

decomposition was gabby's body found in

did dr blue believe the body was moved

or if gabby was killed in that location

dr brent blue was very clear that under

wyoming law he could not comment on

those details i don't know when we'll

see the autopsy report for gabby pitino

but for now all we know is she was

strangled it's a homicide she was not

pregnant and the coroner referred to

domestic violence unfortunately

this is only one of

many deaths

around the country

of people who are involved in domestic

violence

her body was on the creek bed out

exposed in the open

critters go to the water to drink if i

leave a body out in the creek

i increase the odds that a wild animal

will encounter a body and devours

enough of the body that you cannot see

what the crime was

we do know that dna was collected from

the body

if they collected dna underneath the

fingerprint impressions on the neck

that might give us information as to

whose hands were on her neck at the time

of her death that might be very crucial

to understanding the case

we will not know whether the dna is

useful or not until we get a report back

from the fbi

we may never find out if that dna is

useful dna or not in other words we may

never have an answer to why

gabby tito was murdered

this was a vicious death by every

interpretation and now all of the energy

that the public had poured into finding

gabby potito directed at finding brian

laundry the nationwide manhunt for

laundry still the old without her brian

laundry's notebook was found near his

remains he was writing his thoughts on

what had happened in the past weeks that

could break the case open and give us

the answers we're all waiting for

[Music]

police say that a backpack notebook and

human remains which were now being

described as skeletal were found in an

area that brian used to frequent

we are weeks in to the search for brian

laundry and i get a call they probably

found brian laundry

his parents decide that they're gonna

actually go out and help with the search

and they go to an area in the park they

had told the police to search and had

been looked at have been under water

once we're there we see

cadaver dogs are back out at the scene

the medical examiner has arrived at

carlton reserve you start to think that

this is likely the case that brian

laundry was in the swamp as suspected a

month before almost every time that we

hear of a medical examiner arriving at a

scene there's a reason that the medical

examiner is there they go because they

are being called to a specific location

to deal with remains or a body

all of the media is now rushing over to

the entrance trying to get the best spot

there and crowding around as they wait

for this announcement earlier today

investigators found what appears to be

human remains along with personal items

such as a backpack

and notebook belonging to brian laundry

and they were able to quickly confirm

that it was him because of a comparison

of dental records we've received

confirmation from the fbi that the

remains in florida that were found

yesterday are that indeed of brine

laundry about five percent of the