WHO KILLED GABBY PETITO?

POLICE ARE HUNTING FOR THE ONE MAN WHO COULD HOLD ALL THE ANSWERS HER MISSING FIANCÉ

Described as a free spirit and an old soul, fresh-faced adventurer Gabrielle “Gabby’’ Petito was living out her dream: crossing the American heartland with her fiancé in a converted van, while documenting her journey on social media to begin a career as a blogger and influencer. Now those Instagram, TikTok posts and an eight-minute video titled “Van Life: Beginning Our Van Life Journey’’ on YouTube have become a tragic tribute to her last weeks alive.

Eight days after she was reported missing by her family, the 22-year-old’s body was found in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. A cause of death has not yet been established.

As police hunt for clues in the area where her body was found, another search is underway on the other side of the country for her fiancé Brian Laundrie, 23. He returned home without Petito almost three weeks ago and refused to speak with investigators about her whereabouts. While Laundrie’s family say he has gone missing after going for a hike, Petito’s loved ones say he’s hiding. The FBI conducted an extensive search of a large nature reserve near Laundrie’s family home in North Port, Florida, but found no trace of him. Investigators also searched the home, removing a number of items and seizing a Ford Mustang convertible.

Fears were sparked for Petito’s safety when Laundrie abruptly returned on

POLICE

September 1 to his parents’ home, where the couple had been living before setting off on their “van-life’’ drive across the country in July. He came back from the trip in Petito’s converted 2012 white Ford Transit van.

Laundrie has been named by police as a “person of interest’’ and investigators have not ruled out the possibility he has taken his own life. “As far as hurting himself in there, we don’t know that one way or another. I think it’s a possibility certainly,” North Port Police Department spokesman Josh Taylor said.

“Does anyone not think it’s possible he went out there and shot himself in the

“We don’t have any information about where he’s at”

head? Sure,” Taylor said, adding, “We don’t have any information about where he’s at.”

While the couple’s social media posts presented a picture of carefree happiness against the backdrop of the great outdoors, it seems they hid a much darker reality. The carefully crafted posts show the young couple, who met at school in their hometown of Long Island, New York, kissing and hugging, laughing and soaking up the natural beauty of the vast country they were exploring.

But two weeks before her disappearance, the couple were pulled over by police in Utah after they’d been seen in a heated argument at a nearby grocery store. A witness called 911 to report seeing Laundrie slapping Petito.

The police body camera footage of the hour-long roadside interview on August 12 gives a startling insight into troubling aspects of their relationship.

A distraught Petito explains to the officer that they’d “been fighting this morning’’ and that she had been dealing with her OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) while trying to work on her blog. “He doesn’t believe that I can do any of it so that’s like a downer,’’ she tells the officer.

After hearing that the fight had become physical on both sides – with Laundrie admitting to pushing Petito and locking her out of the car, while she apparently struck Laundrie on the face – police released them once they’d agreed to separate for the night.

It’s understood the couple continued on their road trip the following day. On August 24, Petito and her mother Nicole Schmidt spoke over FaceTime and exchanged texts over the next few days. The final text was received on August 30 but her family don’t believe she sent it.

Just days before her body was discovered and still clinging to the hope that she would be found alive, Petito’s father Joseph described his daughter, who had a tattoo with the words “Let It Be’’ on her forearm, as having “that flower child type of personality. The old soul, you know?

“If Woodstock was still going on, she’d still be there, man,” Joseph told WHO’s sister publication People magazine. “She’s a hippie from the ’60s, all right? She’s a Beatles fan, round glasses ... a free spirit.”

After learning her body had been found, Joseph honoured his daughter on Instagram with a photo of her standing in front of wings. “She touched the world,” he said of Petito.

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Laundrie and Petito painted an idyllic picture of their travels, but shock details about their relationship are now coming to light.

Petito’s body was discovered less than 300m from where travel bloggers filmed the couple’s parked white van near Spread Creek on the evening of Aug. 27.

THE CALL Audio released on Sep. 20 revealed witnesses had seen Laundrie hitting Petito, contradicting a police report in which she was depicted as the aggressor. “We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl,” the caller told police. Laundrie shared this holiday snap to Instagram on Jul. 4, but the post has since been flooded with comments accusing him of being involved in Petito’s disappearance.

Petito posted her last photo on social media on Aug. 25.

The blogger’s parents appealed for help to find Petito after their calls to Laundrie and his family were ignored.

The 22-year-old looked visibly distraught when they were pulled over by police on Aug. 12 after reports of a “domestic dispute”.