Things About The Brian Laundrie And Gabby Petito Case That Still Don't Make Sense

It might seem hard to believe, but it's already been about 3.5 years since Gabby Petito made her last Instagram post. The timeline of the case ran as follows: Starting in July 2021, Petito chronicled her cross-country, traveling van adventure with her boyfriend and murderer, Brian Laundrie. She was declared missing in September and found dead that same month. Authorities found Laundrie's body in October, and in January 2022, they revealed that he'd confessed to Petito's murder via statements in his notebook. An autopsy revealed he'd strangled Petito to death before he shot himself. 

At this point and amidst the media firestorm surrounding the Petito-Laundrie case, it seems like little needs to be said lest we make things harder for their loved ones. Nonetheless, questions remain and ought to be considered, if only to help shed light on similar circumstances facing young couples now and in the future. After all, from the outside looking in, Petito and Laundrie seemed to be living a dream. But this was part of the strangeness of the case and a testament to how different relationships can operate from the inside as opposed to how they appear from the outside.

In that vein, it's still not clear if Laundrie intended to kill Petito from the get-go, or why he killed her — really, deeply, psychologically — aside from his statement that he "thought it was merciful" (per ABC 7). Then there's the question of why Utah police didn't pursue the case further when they encountered an abused Petito on the side of the road. And finally, there's the question of how much Laundrie's family suspected what their son had done.

One of the most tragic aspects of the Petito-Laundrie case is that Gabby Petito's murder might have been preventable. And we're not speaking of her and Brian Laundrie's personal decisions, but rather the couple's roadside encounter with Moab, Utah police. As many have asked: Why didn't the police intervene further?

On August 12, Moab, Utah police responded to a 911 call regarding what seemed like a case of domestic violence between Petito and Laundrie. Only three days earlier Petito had posted a happy picture on Instagram from Arches National Park in Utah. Less than two weeks after the 911 call on August 25 Petito made her last Instagram post.   

In what's become infamous bodycam footage, we can see Petito sitting in a police car and crying as she explains to an officer what happened. Clearly reluctant to call Laundrie out, she says that she hit him first. Making a claw-like gesture around her face, she says, "He grabbed me like this with his nail ... I definitely have a cut right here." In the end, the police let them go and didn't press charges because, as NBC News later reported, they said "they loved each other."

In August 2022, the Petito family brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab, Utah police department, claiming that it hadn't been thorough enough in its investigations or properly trained regarding cases of abuse. Earlier in January, the Moab police admitted in an internal review that it had "made several unintentional mistakes" in the case. In November 2024, a Utah judge dismissed the Petito family's lawsuit. 

It's difficult to tell what goes through the mind of any killer. To himself, Brian Laundrie's reasons for killing Gabby Petito apparently made sense. He laid out his thoughts in an eight-page letter written in his notebook, quoting at length (per ABC 7). 

"I ended her life, I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted," he wrote, and, "When I close my eyes I will think of laying on the roof of the van, falling asleep to the sight of a meteor shower at the crystal geyser, I will always love you." He continued, "I'm so very sorry to her family because I love them ... I'm sorry to my family, this is a shock to them as well as a terrible grief." He ends by explaining that he killed himself in a natural area in the hopes of being torn apart by animals and asks that whoever finds him clean up because "Gabby hated people who litter."

While these words constitute what Laundrie considered to be rationale for his actions, they clearly don't explain what inside, truly, drove him to do what he did. Barring a full psychological evaluation, it's difficult to think we'll ever really know why. Even if he was analyzed, the truth might ever have come out.

This next question dovetails with our last question and connects to the next one. That is: Did Brian Laundrie intend to kill Gabby Petito over the course of the entire trip, or even beforehand? Or did he come to his decision over the course of the trip? We'll never really know, but we can at least gain some insight based on available information.

To that, we first look to FBI records regarding physical artifacts found during their investigation into the Petito-Laundrie case. Items include some of what you'd expect of a traveling young person, like knickknacks collected en route, road maps, an old camera, and even books like "No Country for Old Men" and "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Then there are brass knuckles, ammunition, a crossbow and bolts, and drawings of a skull and the words "Trust no one" and "Kill" repeated again and again. While this isn't nearly what we'd call a smoking gun when it comes to intent to kill — self-defense weapons do make sense when traveling in remote places — it at least shows us what preoccupied Laundrie's mind. 

Other information implies that Laundrie was acting on the fly. Per ABC 6 Action News, Laundrie called his parents on August 29 in "an exchange of frantic phone calls" after killing Petito. He told them Petito was "gone," that he was coming home, and that he'd need an attorney. Then he actually did go home, where he stayed for about two weeks before leaving and ultimately killing himself.

While there are any number of other things about the Petito-Laundrie case that don't make sense, we're going to end on a big question raised by numerous outlets: Did Brian Laundrie's parents suspect, or even know, what their son had done? The Petito family addressed such questions in a lawsuit brought against the Laundrie family. In the lawsuit, amended in November 2023, they claimed that the Laundries had knowledge of what their son had done, or at least knew that Petito was dead weeks in advance of her body being discovered. 

Whether or not this is the case, it's true that the Laundrie family contacted attorney Steve Bertolino after their son called them and said that Petito was "gone." They also sent him a retainer of $25,000 for a Wyoming law firm, the state from which Laundrie had called. This lawsuit was quietly and confidentially settled in February 2024, when "all parties reluctantly agreed in order to avoid further legal expenses and prolonged personal conflict," per NBC News.

Of course, there's a simple and obvious answer to why the Laundrie family would have covered for their son: He's their son. Nonetheless, it does seem strange that, in the flurry of phone calls between Laundrie and his parents after he'd killed Petito, his parents couldn't have gleaned what had happened. This, plus the two or so weeks he spent with them in Florida before dying by suicide. But like every other unanswered question in the Petito-Laundrie case, it's likely that we'll never know for sure.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

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