American Murder: Gabby Petito – The Most Important Takeaways from Netflix’s Docuseries

As a parent of teenagers, I often worry about the ramifications of raising my kids in a world filled with influencers, social media, and extreme oversharing. Gabby Petito, who was just 22 when killed by her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, in 2021, was among the first generations to grow up watching YouTube and counting “likes” on social posts, but I didn’t know that part of her story when news first broke of her disappearance and, later, murder, several years ago.

Netflix’s latest iteration of its American Murder docuseries, American Murder: Gabby Petito, breaks down the entire story of Petito’s death, which began with a vlogging road trip. According to the three-episode Netflix series, Petito and Laundrie had a sometimes-troubled relationship, but quit their jobs at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to drive cross-country in a Ford Transit Connect van-turned-camper and share the trip on social media.

Petito was missing for several weeks in late August and early September 2021, before her body was found at a camping area in Wyoming. In the early days of Petito’s disappearance, Laundrie returned home alone to Florida with the camper van and made national news headlines due to both his and his parents’ unwillingness to speak with police or help with the search for Petito. Laundrie was later reported missing by his parents in September 2021, and his body was found in October 2021 at a Florida nature reserve. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

As was the case with American Murder: Laci Peterson, the Petito docuseries is eye-opening, shining a light on aspects that many observers missed in news reports in 2021 or simply forgot over the years. It’s a heartbreaking watch that reveals lots of interesting facts about the tragic murder of a 22-year-old girl, what could have been handled differently, and the impact Petito still has on young women today. Here are five things we learned (or were reminded of) while watching the latest American Murder docuseries.

Had police handled a domestic dispute call differently, Petito may still be alive today

Petito and Laundrie left for their cross-country trip on July 2, 2021, visiting destinations like Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park along their route. On August 12, 2021 in Moab, Utah, a 9-1-1 call was made by a witness to report a man hitting a woman several times before they drove off together. Soon after, the Moab City Police Department spotted the couple’s van driving erratically and performed a traffic stop. One officer’s body-cam footage recorded Petito explaining to officers that she was just “frustrated” and “in a bad mood” due to having OCD. “We’ve just been fighting all morning and he wouldn’t let me in the car before,” she says while crying and breathing heavily in the video footage.

Since neither Petito or Laundrie wanted to press charges and both asked not to be separated, police called the incident a “mental breakdown” and not “domestic violence.” Officers arranged for Laundrie to spend the night in a hotel while Petito spent the night in the van. The last time Petito was seen alive was 10 days later, on August 27, leaving many to speculate as to whether if the police had handled the incident as domestic violence, which would have required an arrest, the couple’s course would have been changed and Petito would still be alive today.

YouTubers helped police hone in on where to look for Petito’s body

As police searched for Petito, narrowing down the last known location of the van was critical. Many who had seen news of the disappearance shared stories of seeing the couple or just Laundrie in the the Jackson, Wyoming area contacted police, including Jenn and Kyle Bethune, van-life vloggers, who slept for a night at Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area on the night of August 27, 2021.

“I was editing our YouTube video from the Spread Creek timeline of August 27, Jenn Bethune says in the docuseries, “and I was sitting next to my phone and I got this notification from one of our RV friends and they said, ‘Check any footage you have, the timeline has changed.’ I read the National Parks Service post and it said August 27 or 28. All the color and life drained from my body because I was like, ‘I have it.’”

What Bethune “had” was video footage of Petito and Laundrie’s van pulled to the side of the road on the campgrounds. She posted the clip to YouTube where it quickly soared to over a million views. Police used the Bethune footage to hone in on the search area, which led to them locating Petito’s remains on September 19, 2021, not far from where the van was observed.

Laundrie’s mother wrote him a “burn after reading” note offering to help hide a body

After Laundrie was reported missing by his family on September 17, 2021, police searched the family’s Florida home for potential evidence and found a note written to Laundrie by his mother, Roberta Laundrie. The letter, titled “Burn After Reading,” contained statements like, “You are my boy, nothing can make me stop loving you. Nothing will, or could ever, divide us, no matter what we do. If you’re in jail, I will bake a cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.”

Later, it was Laundrie’s parents who found his body, as they knew areas where he liked to hike at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Sarasota, Florida. Laundrie’s skeletal remains were found on October 20, 2021, and in November 2021, it was released that a forensic anthropologist had determined Laundrie died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Later, Laundrie’s diary was released, in which he claimed he killed Petito after she had fallen and injured herself. Experts, however, say this account does not match investigators’ findings.

Petito’s parents later sued Laundrie’s parents and their attorney and were awarded $3 million for wrongful death. A suit was also filed by Petito’s parents against the Moab police department for their handling of the domestic dispute call regarding Petito and Laundrie, but the charges were dismissed by a judge who cited governmental immunity.

Petito’s death has helped other domestic abuse victims find the strength to leave

As the docuseries closes, Petito’s stepfather, Jim Schmidt, shares the impact his daughter’s death has even today. “Although we lost Gabby, many other people have been saved because of her.”

“We get messages saying, ‘Hey, Gabby’s story is what made me leave my boyfriend. I got help and I’m doing what I can,’” Petito’s best friend Rose Davis shares. “And it is beautiful and heartwarming.”

In Petito’s honor, her friends and family started the Gabby Petito Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the searches of organizations working to locate missing persons and assists victims of domestic violence. “We wanted to bring attention to the dangers and signs of domestic violence,” Petito’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, says in the series. “There is a literal help button on that page — you can click on it and it will guide you to the right resources.”

Petito’s death also brought awareness to how the disappearances of non-white women are handled

Loretta Bush, an FBI special agent based in Tampa, Florida, starts an important conversation toward the close of American Murder: Gabby Petito. “This story is unique,” says an emotional Bush, “but I will tell you there are so many other people out there missing and they are important, too.”

A news clip shown in the series reminds viewers, “Petito’s story has renewed debate about which cases get attention and the media’s seeming infatuation with missing white women.” And, on a CNN appearance shown in the final episode, Mara Schiavocampo, host of the “Run Tell This” podcast, says, “Imagine the men, women, and children in the community where Gabby Petito went missing who know that, for the last 10 years, more than 700 Indigenous people have gone missing and nobody has said a word and one missing white woman turns up in their backyard and the world pays attention.”

“This isn’t saying that Gabby Petito isn’t important,” Schiavocampo goes on, “what it is saying is that there’s an overrepresentation in media when white women go missing and an underrepresentation in media when Black, brown, and Indigenous women go missing.”

Petito’s father, Joe Petito, admits sentiments like these offended him initially, but when he started to look into the situation, his opinion changed. Now, he uses his platform to advocate for greater attention to missing persons cases that involve marginalized groups, including working with the Gabby Petito Foundation and helping produce a television series that highlights missing persons cases called Faces of the Missing.

All three episodes of American Murder: Gabby Petito are available to stream on Netflix now.

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