Brian Laundrie Manhunt

The case of Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito became one of the most widely followed missing person cases in American history, driven by social media attention, a cross-country van life road trip that had been documented on YouTube, and a massive FBI-led manhunt. Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old from Blue Point, New York, was killed by her fiancé Brian Laundrie, 23, during their cross-country trip in the summer of 2021.

Petito and Laundrie had been in a relationship since at least 2019 and became engaged in July 2020. In July 2021, they set out from their home in North Port, Florida, on a cross-country road trip in a converted Ford Transit van, documenting their journey on social media and a YouTube channel called "Nomadic Statik." Their trip took them through numerous national parks in the western United States.

[On August 12, 2021, police in Moab, Utah, responded to a 911 call reporting a domestic dispute between Petito and Laundrie near the Moonflower Cooperative](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/16/gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-utah-police/). Officers separated the couple for the night but did not file charges. An independent investigation later found the Moab police response was deficient and failed to properly identify Petito as the likely victim of domestic violence.

On September 1, 2021, Laundrie returned to his parents' home in North Port, Florida, driving the couple's van alone. He did not report Petito missing and retained a lawyer. On September 11, 2021, Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, reported her daughter missing to the Suffolk County Police Department in New York.

The case exploded into national news as social media users and amateur investigators mobilized to search for Petito. [On September 19, 2021, the FBI confirmed that a body found in the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming was Gabby Petito](https://www.npr.org/2021/10/12/1045475979/gabby-petito-cause-of-death-strangulation-homicide). The Teton County Coroner ruled her death a homicide by manual strangulation, placing the time of death between approximately August 27 and August 30, 2021.

Meanwhile, on September 14, 2021, Brian Laundrie's parents told police he had left their North Port home to go hiking in the nearby Carlton Reserve and had not returned. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Laundrie on September 23 for unauthorized use of a debit card. A massive search of the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve ensued, involving FBI agents, local law enforcement, and cadaver dogs.

[On October 20, 2021, investigators discovered partial skeletal remains, personal belongings, and a notebook belonging to Brian Laundrie](https://apnews.com/article/gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-notebook-confession) in an area adjacent to Carlton Reserve that had previously been underwater. The remains were confirmed as Laundrie's, and the medical examiner determined his cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In the notebook, Laundrie claimed responsibility for Petito's death.

[The case also sparked important conversations about "missing white woman syndrome" — the disproportionate media attention given to cases involving young, white, conventionally attractive women compared to missing people of color](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/22/gabby-petito-missing-white-woman-syndrome).

On September 23, 2021, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Brian Laundrie by the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, charging unauthorized use of a Capital One debit card belonging to Gabby Petito between August 30 and September 1, 2021. The FBI was the lead investigative agency. No murder charges were filed against Laundrie, as [he was found dead on October 20, 2021, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58999082), before charges could be brought. [The Teton County Coroner ruled Petito's death a homicide by manual strangulation](https://www.npr.org/2021/10/12/1045475979/gabby-petito-cause-of-death-strangulation-homicide). In a notebook found with Laundrie's remains, [he claimed responsibility for killing Petito](https://apnews.com/article/gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-notebook-confession). In November 2022, Petito's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Laundrie's parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, alleging they knew their son had killed Petito and helped him evade law enforcement. A separate lawsuit was filed against the Moab, Utah, police department. The FBI officially closed its investigation in January 2022, confirming Laundrie as the sole person responsible for Petito's death.