Gabby Petito’s parents reveal disturbing details about the case in new interview
"The Gabby Petito Story: Vanishing Point" episode of ABC News' "20/20" limited true crime series "Bad Romance," airing May 19 at 8 p.m. and streaming the next day on Hulu, features a case previously covered in a February 2025 episode of "20/20."
Travel blogger Gabby Petito's grieving parents want to turn their tragedy into a purposeful mission after losing their daughter to domestic violence. Following Petito's 2021 death, her parents discovered warning signs through text messages.
Petito and fiancé Brian Laundrie planned to spend months visiting various national parks in America and Petito started a blog and a YouTube channel to document their journey.
The vacation turned tragic when Petito went missing. Her body was found on Sept. 19, 2021, in Spread Creek in Grand Teton, Wyoming.
"They said we found remains consistent of your daughter," Petito's stepfather Jim Schmidt told Eva Pilgrim, co-anchor of GMA3 and ABC News correspondent, in an interview for "20/20." "I remember I was crying, and I said you have to be sure, like I have to be sure if I'm making this phone call. They showed me pictures and I confirmed it was our daughter."
Almost four years after her death, Petito's parents shared in a new Netflix documentary never-before-seen texts they found on her phone after her death and what they discovered regarding Laundrie and Petito's relationship.
The family found an alarming text in Petito's phone.
"Don't try to control me because it only makes me mad," Petito wrote in the text to Laundrie. "I love you so much but it's the way you speak to me that hurts me the most."
They also found a letter Petito wrote to Laundrie, which gave them a glimpse into their relationship.
"Brian you know how much I love you," she wrote. "Just please stop crying and stop calling me names. You in pain is killing me."
Petito lived with her family in Blue Point on Long Island, just outside New York City. By high school, she had a large circle of friends, one of whom was Laundrie.
"I liked Brian," Petito's mother Nichole Schmidt said. "I thought he was ... interesting. He was very soft-spoken. He would sit and do art with the girls, my-- you know, Gabby's younger sisters. He got along with TJ, her brother, and he just seemed like a nice person."
After high school, Petito and Laundrie began dating and when things got serious, they relocated to Florida to be closer to his family. They moved in with his parents.
In July 2020, after dating for a little over a year, Petito and Laundrie went on a camping trip and got engaged. Her parents said they didn’t find out about the engagement until someone congratulated them on Facebook.
"I'm an old-school person, and as an old-school person the one thing you do is you go up to the father of the person you wanna marry and you ask him for their hand in marriage, or parent, ask 'em for their hand in marriage," Gabby's father, Joe Petito, said. "That didn't happen. We found out on Facebook. All of us did."
Due to COVID-19, wedding planning was put on hold, so Petito and Laundrie made plans to travel the country, and they were outfitting a van for their trip.
The couple set off on their adventure with big dreams. Petito began documenting every move on social media, aiming to capture an audience like many other influencers.
"She always had that creative eye," stepmother Tara Petito said. "I mean, she always enjoyed taking photos. We would go on vacation and she had her GoPro. "She would take videos of us doing things. So I think that's something that she always really enjoyed to do. So why not try to make it as a career?"
Before the couple left for their trip, the family saw them when Petito and Laundrie returned to New York for her brother TJ's high school graduation. They didn't know it would be the last time they’d see Petito.
While Petito and Laundrie were traveling, in Moab, Utah, a witness called police in August 2021, reporting a man hitting a woman. Officers pulled over their van, and after questioning both Petito and Laundrie, the officers determined that Petito was the aggressor after she admitted having physically hit Laundrie first.
The police didn't arrest Petito; instead officers decided to separate the couple for the night. Petito was allowed to leave in the van, while Brian, perceived by the police as a victim of domestic violence, was taken to a hotel for the night. The next morning they resumed their trip.
On Aug. 27, Petito's mother received a strange text from Petito's phone: "Can you help Stan? I keep getting his voicemails and missed calls." Petito had never called her grandfather by his first name, which was suspicious.
Another text mentioned they were going to Yosemite, when they’d previously said they were going to Yellowstone.
"I questioned it, but then I thought there was fires out that way," Nichole Schmidt said. "Maybe they had to reroute. Maybe Brian did send the text. Maybe she's driving the van."
After not hearing from Petito for more than a week, on Sept. 11 Schmidt reported her daughter missing to the Suffolk County Police in New York. Investigators later found that Laundrie had returned to his parents' home in Southwest Florida with Petito's van, but she was not with him.
Three weeks after the search began, Petito's body was found on Sept. 19, 2021.
Once Petito was identified by her stepfather, an autopsy was performed and revealed that she died from strangulation. Authorities ruled Gabby's death as a homicide. Laundrie was identified as a person of interest.
Police attempted to speak with Laundrie at his home, but instead his parents referred police to an attorney. Shortly afterwards, Laundrie was also reported missing by his parents. After a nationwide manhunt, 37 days after he was reported missing, searchers located his remains on Oct. 20 at Carlton Reserve, not far from his home. Authorities determined that he had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Among Laundrie's belongings authorities found a notebook. The attorney for the Laundrie family publicly released the pages from the notebook in which Brian admitted to killing Petito, claiming that he acted out of compassion after he says she had a bizarre accident and was suffering from unbearable pain. The Petito family has said that they do not believe Laundrie’s version of events.
The FBI released a statement regarding their conclusions in the case: "The investigation did not identify any individuals, other than Brian Laundrie, directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito."
Petito's parents have established the Gabby Petito Foundation to combat domestic violence and assist in locating missing persons. It aims to ensure that anyone in a harmful relationship receives the help they need to escape it.
"She made a difference," Joe Petito said. "People saw a beautiful soul, and she had an impact that changed the lives of a lot of people and the world. There's no more amazing legacy that you could have."
If you need help or need help supporting someone else, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788 or chat online at TheHotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7.
