L.I. woman on trip west is missing

A 22-year-old Long Island woman who went on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend hasn’t been seen or heard from in nearly a month, according to her family.

Gabby Petito’s last known stop was Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park in late August, about a month after the couple left New York. It’s believed she planned to head northwest from there.

Meanwhile, the boyfriend — identified on social media as Brian Laundrie — has gone back home to Florida, hired a lawyer and refused to sit down with investigators, her family said in published reports.

“Please Help Find Gabby,” her mother posted on Facebook above a pic of a smiling Petito (photo below). “She was last seen headed to Yellowstone National Park from Salt Lake City, Utah.”

Her mother, Nicole Schmidt of Blue Point, L.I., told Newsday she FaceTimed Petito on Aug. 23 or Aug. 24 and got texts from her on Aug. 30, although she said she couldn’t be sure her daughter was the one communicating with her on that day.

The couple’s vehicle, a white Ford Transit van with Florida plates, has been recovered, reports said.

“After going on our first road trip across the country in my tiny car, we felt like there was just so much we missed,” Petito posted on social media on July 10. “Turning this Ford transit essentially into a camper was such an adventure in itself, but I couldn’t love the way it turned out more!

“All the places it’s brought us so far have been amazing! As soon as we got to the Great Sand Dunes I didn’t want to leave, there was so much to hike!”

According to Suffolk County police it was while traveling in the van with a “companion” that “she stopped communicating with friends and family.”

It’s like “drowning with your hands tied behind you,” Petito’s dad, Joe Petito, told Newsday. “There’s nothing you can do. You can’t control anything.”

He said he moved to Vero Beach, Fla., this year to be near his daughter, who had moved two years ago with Laundrie to another Florida city, North Port.