The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies and Social Media

.

- So me and Brian just got up and got ready,

made the bed in the tent...

and set up.

I think our plan for today

is to just hang out here

in the tent.

Man, that smile.

That smile didn't change.

Those eyes didn't change.

I--those eyes...

they would get her out of so much trouble.

Didn't matter how old she got,

she would always be my baby girl.

No matter what she, you know, how much trouble she was in,

it didn't matter.

She was still my baby girl, you know?

These are all I have left now.

People would meet her

and just fall in love with her.

She just had this presence.

I don't know what it was. It was just magical.

There's so many good memories over the years,

but the one thing that I hold dear to me

is the hug that we had

before she left for the trip in the driveway.

* *

It's just-- It's still unbelievable.

I don't understand it. It doesn't make sense.

Sense...

- In June of 2021, Gabby and her fiancé

embarked on a cross-country trip.

They were traveling in Gabby's 2012 white Ford van...

* *

And documented their journey on YouTube and social media.

Doing some morning yoga.

- We've been lucky so far at all the places we've stayed.

Oh, my God!

- She maintained regular contact

with her family members.

However, that communication abruptly stopped

around the end of August.

- If you've been active on TikTok or watching the news,

you've probably heard of Gabby Petito.

- Everybody's on this case. Everybody's talking about it

because we have to find this girl.

The twists and turns

throughout this case have been bizarre.

- We have this moment where we see behind the scenes

of their perfect Instagram van life.

[overlapping, indistinct yelling]

- People became obsessed with this case.

They wanted to find her

and they wanted to solve this case

really more than anything.

- The media and the internet just went crazy.

- I am going to walk down here a little bit

because I see something.

- Oh, my God, there's that van.

- Right here is where they think

that it's a shadow of someone digging.

- Human remains were discovered,

consistent with the description of Gabby Petito.

- It was like every parent's nightmare just, like,

in a flash of a second.

- Brian is currently on the run and hiding.

- He could be in the Appalachian Trails.

He could be in Mexico, Canada.

- Earlier today, investigators found

what appears to be human remains.

- The remains matched the dental records

of Brian Laundrie.

- It's just been confirmed the cause of death

is a gunshot wound to the head,

and the manner of death is suicide.

There are so many questions

that we just don't have answers to.

- Who is Gabby Petito? - Who is Gabby Petito?

She wasn't just a YouTuber.

She was an amazing individual, and she was our daughter.

- Gabby, Gabrielle Venora Petito,

was born in March 1999.

I was 20 years old, so...it was scary for me.

She was a big baby.

She came out crying and ready to start life.

It was her for the first few years, just no siblings.

So it was nice just to have that mother-daughter bond.

She was just such a loving kid.

I mean, she would sleep in the bed with me sometimes.

She loved to snuggle, and I don't know.

I loved all those years.

- I was 20 years old when Gabby was born, you know?

A new baby is terrifying, terrifying,

and when she was born, I mean, she--

I can hold in her my hands, you know, like, tiny.

And you're responsible for this perfect innocent,

you know, baby.

It's just an instant bond that it'll just never go away.

She was just awesome to be around, you know?

Her smile, her eyes, all that stuff,

and I just remember melting, you know,

and she have me wrapped around her finger quick.

You know, that didn't take long.

That's my perfect little girl.

Gabby was two,

just about turning three,

when I met her for the first time.

She had these little, like, pigtails

and you know, her blonde hair, these bright blue eyes,

and she was just this happy kid.

She was pretty amazing.

And I saw the way Nichole was with Gabby

and how amazing of a mother she was.

I'm like these... they're beautiful.

They're awesome.

- Jim is just as much as a dad that I am.

Tara is the only person that Gabby has ever seen me with,

that she would even remember, you know,

and she is just as much as a mom as Nicki.

So she always had four parents.

- And I never looked at Gabby as my stepdaughter.

She was my daughter.

I started dating her father when she was a year old,

and I fell in love with her instantly.

I loved just being with her.

I loved spending time with her.

We used to sit there. I used to tell her.

I'm like, "Gabby, I got a secret. I got a secret.

I got a secret to tell you," and she would come running up

and whisper in my ear, "I love you."

- Blue Point is a small town. It's a small school.

She had a lot of good friends.

She was a baton twirler.

She did that a little bit in her late elementary years.

Middle school, she ran some track.

You know, she always tried new things.

Just a spitfire, she had goals,

and she did what she could to get there.

As she got older, she just loved

to take lots of pictures, lots of videos.

- When we were always together,

all she wanted to do was take selfies.

She was always taking pictures of things

and put her twist of her artwork into it.

- She'd start uploading pictures and videos,

and she was putting her life out there,

and she would post a new picture or a new story

on Instagram every couple of days.

She wanted to put her stuff

out there online for people to see.

- Gabby and Brian met in high school.

- They had the same group of friends in school,

common interests, you know?

They liked to do things together.

They're both artistic. - Very artistic, yeah.

They started dating after the first road trip,

the one when they took the car to California.

They were kind of friends when they left.

* *

Came back dating, yes.

She was so happy.

Gabby and Brian were dating, and he would come to my home.

Brian would be there, and he was very polite, very kind.

- Get your guard up as a dad, you know,

especially when it's one of your girls,

but when he would come over, he was respectful,

very quiet, very polite,

and, you know, he would actually take the time,

and he would, like, color with our younger daughters

and stuff and talk with them.

- I didn't see anything in him that would worry me at all.

No.

- When her and Brian started dating,

and he was like, "I'm moving to Florida,"

and she was like, "Can I come with you?"

So she had no problem doing that.

She had no fear to move to another state.

I said, "You know,

"you're always welcome to come back home.

If you don't like it, this is your home."

Gabby was living with Brian

and his parents in North Port, Florida.

- Gabby did have a close relationship

with Roberta and Chris Laundrie.

They treated her like their own daughter.

* *

They were engaged.

So it was exciting, but I was like,

"Well, just make sure this is--

"You know, you're young, and make sure

it's what you want."

But I couldn't tell her,

you know, you can't get married now

because I got married very young.

- You know, as a dad, you're like, okay, you know,

that's great, you know, you can settle down a little bit.

* *

You're happy for her, you know, that she's found

who she wanted to be with.

- We're not going to talk about it.