Studying Time: 3 minutes
Gabby Petito’s tragic story captivated the world.
What started as a suspicious disappearance quickly confirmed everybody’s worst suspicions: a horrific homicide.
Quickly, a manhunt started for her abusive fiance, Brian Laundrie. When authorities discovered his physique, additionally they recovered a confession to the heinous act.
However the world had unanswered questions. The brand new Netflix documentary, American Homicide: Gabby Petito, managed to reply a few of them.
‘American Murder: Gabby Petito’ delves right into a violent tragedy
In August 2021, Brian Laundrie murdered Gabby Petito. The 2 had been documenting their “van life” on a protracted journey. Gabby’s smiling photographs with lovely backdrops didn’t reveal the escalating violence that the person she beloved was inflicting upon her.
Netflix’s American Homicide: Gabby Petito delves past Gabby’s disappearance and the eventual discovery of her stays in Bridger-Teton Nationwide Forest the next month.
The subsequent month, in October 2021, Brian Laundrie died by suicide. Roughly everybody had suspected him instantly, and the invention of her physique and the following post-mortem had pushed him into hiding.
American Homicide: Gabby Petito options members of Gabby’s household in addition to a number of of her shut buddies. As such, there are particulars that the general public by no means noticed through the seek for her — or the manhunt for her killer.
The documentary contains textual content messages that Gabby had despatched, disturbing police physique cam footage obtained by means of the FOIA, and even excerpts from Gabby’s private journal.
We see all of this juxtaposed with snippets of Gabby’s #Vanlife Vlog. The vlog confirmed this picture-perfect depiction of a getaway. Gabby was an aspiring influencer who would by no means reside to see her twenty-third birthday.
Gabby Petito referred to as an ex-boyfriend on the day of her homicide
The docuseries sheds mild upon how Gabby reached out to her ex. This got here as a shock even to filmmakers, in line with filmmakers Julia Willoughby Nason and Mike Gasparro’s interview with Selection.
“We didn’t know about that,” Gasparro admitted. “We didn’t know she had reached out to him during a vulnerable time (during her trip with Brian). She was obviously suffering.”
Gasparro continued: “She trusted her ex and reached out. It was like a cry for help. We think that’s probably something that Brian caught wind of.”
As many victims of ongoing home violence know, making an attempt to go away could be probably the most harmful. Abusers can change into much more violent when shedding management of their sufferer. This (normally unstated) menace is without doubt one of the components that retains so many from escaping.
The filmmakers are implying right here that Gabby Petito’s reaching out to an ex for emotional assist may have been found by her killer proper earlier than he murdered her.
That mentioned, we have no idea that. Brian Laundrie took some issues to his grave — however solely after ensuring that Gabby took some to hers.
Why will we hear her voice through the docuseries?
Quite a few Netflix viewers expressed concern after watching American Homicide: Gabby Petito, questioning on social media whether or not the moments the place Gabby’s “voice” seems on display screen have been some type of ghoulish genAI recreation.
A few of these moments have been. That’s unlucky, however was at the very least executed with the permission of Gabby’s household.
There’s a hope that the media circus that surrounded her disappearance and homicide will assist others to acknowledge indicators of abuse: of their family members and in their very own relationships.
