Blue Point native Gabby Petito, 22, died by homicide – an initial determination found, though the official cause of death is pending final autopsy results, per Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue.
In the week-plus since she was officially declared a missing person on September 11, Petito has become the talk of the Internet, with an outpouring of supporters in lockstep with her family in their quest for answers. Last seen in August before disappearing while on a cross country road trip with her fiancé, substantial breaks in the case were more than desired. But those delivered over the past few days leave a family in mourning on national display, and a “person of interest” still at large.
“She was the sweetest, kindest person ever,” Dorothy Johnson told ABC. After losing her son 10 years ago, the Petitos’ across-the-street neighbor in Blue Point held a contest to select the logo for a nonprofit she founded to raise substance abuse awareness. Gabby’s drawing won, according to Johnson.
“I thank God they have finalization, because not knowing is the worst thing.”
The discovery of Petito’s body near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on Sunday may have provided a degree of resolution- but the case, and hurt, are both far from over.
How was Petito’s fiancé, Brian Laundrie, 23 – who returned to North Port, Florida on September 1 in the van he and Petito shared, without her – able to successfully vacate his family’s residence during an active investigation he refused to assist in (through an attorney)? While the FBI and local authorities have narrowed the focus of their search for Laundrie to a “swampy Florida reserve” he frequently hikes at, the Internet celebrates itself for the role they played in deducing Petito’s whereabouts.
Credit is owed to the YouTube-famous couple whose discovery of Petito and Laundrie’s van while editing videos taken a month prior sent authorities to the Grand Teton area where the body matching Petito’s description was ultimately found. But for every person out there doing their part to demonstrate the “power of social media,” there are countless other users guilty of “spreading misinformation” and “reporting sightings of Petito and Laundrie that turned out to be wrong,” as AP News reported.
One couple’s travel series helped explain why another’s abruptly ended on August 25 – the date of Petito’s last Instagram post. Similarly to Laundrie’s account, Petito’s – which, save for the few hours it was taken down last Wednesday, is still up, though not active, and now tallying 1,000,000 followers – features posts speaking to the culmination of what the couple had been billing as their “VanLife” series. Their Instagram accounts exclusively consist of photos and video reels commemorating the summertime sight-seeing, hiking and exploring they had partaken in, for all the virtual world to see.
Then, deep-dive and dissect. Such invited every news outlet and amateur detective taking up the case to construct timelines based on the one given by the subjects themselves- adding further fascination to a case also dominated by analysis of Petito’s jarringly-updated Spotify playlists, Laundrie’s reading habits, and the widely-viewed police bodycam video.
The lattermost event of intrigue, though not readily available to the public until last Thursday, was filmed shortly after the August 12 road altercation in Moab, Utah between the two. With Petito in tears, Laundrie noted to officers the “tension that had been building between them” due to their months of traveling together. Reporting to the scene under the suspicion of a domestic disturbance, police recommended Petito and Laundrie separate for the night, later citing they did not have enough grounds to charge either with a crime.
Like most, Petito and Laundrie’s happiness-espousing social media images – regurgitated by those demanding justice for the former, and apprehension of the only individual ruled a “person of interest” thus far – tell a completely different story, and not the story in its entirety. Meanwhile, a police bodycam caught them within the fray of disarray, perhaps shedding light on what was really going on – and how social media can become not only a crutch to rely upon, but also a mask to hide behind.
While the Internet did step up to help bring the search for Petito to a swift end, it also likely inspired this Long Island born-and-raised, but since-relocated to Florida, couple to uproot their lives for the sake of building their brand. The end result: they gained the notoriety they so coveted, but with one fatal caveat.
Laundrie is on the run, presumably in hiding, with his “missing person” designation threatening to become official “suspect” status the more he averts the myriad of questions that still need answering.
But Petito, by far, suffers the greater misfortune- though Long Island had the privilege to know her before everyone with a cell phone began to assert they did too, she’s soon to become forever immortalized by the masses as a “cautionary tale” that famously died, and not the 22-years-young woman who once lived.
With the events seemingly spanning every corner of the country, as well, citizens on the homefront are still very much grappling with how this ever-unfolding case may affect their day-to-day lives- and how it also may have crossed paths with theirs too, without them even knowing so until after the fact.
Veronica Mannarino, 54, of Smithtown – who shares a mutual friend with Petito’s mother – and her husband were on a hiking trip in Grand Teton mere weeks ago, during and at a time and place they now know eventually nationally-covered events were taking form.
“A friend of mine told me to look closely at my photos and videos, just in case they were in the background,” Mannarino, a local real estate agent, recalled. “I don’t remember seeing them, though we did speak to so many young couples.”
As for advice she’d lend those eager to visit an area sure to be uttered in the same breath with this too-close-to-home, missing person-turned-tragic tale for the foreseeable future, Mannarino encourages all hiking hopeful abide by simple, yet sage sentiment:
“Don’t do anything foolish just for a photo,” Mannarino warned. “It isn’t worth the great picture to slip and lose your life.”
More developments are likely to come, but close followers of the case ought to do their best to remember: despite its existence as a real-life narrative with an admittedly cinematic backdrop, it is not to be mistaken for the phenomenon born from the popular, ever-on-the-rise genre of media known as “true crime.” Especially at this stage in the investigation.
A person, once local to Long Island, and with immediate family still residing in the area, is no longer with us. Exactly why remains to be seen- but unless one has truly concrete information pertinent to the case, they should refrain from vigilantism and let the proper, licensed authorities handle the pursuit of those responsible.
Lastly, and of utmost importance: respect the privacy that should be paid to the Petito family during this, the most trying time of any of their lives – which no parent, or person in general, should ever have to go through.
