It’s the end of a false suspense for a drama that will have held the United States in suspense for several months. On Friday, federal police announced that Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of young American traveler Gabby Petito, confessed to the murder of the 20-year-old woman in a notebook before committing suicide. “The investigation has not identified any individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito”, indicates the FBI while announcing the imminent closure of the investigation.
The body of Gabby Petito, 22, whose disappearance had caused great emotion in the country, was found on September 19 near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The young woman died after “blunt object injuries to the head and neck with manual strangulation”, according to the medical examiner who supervised his autopsy, reports the FBI.
Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito had left New York in July for a trip in a converted van supposed to last four months and whose stages, in the grandiose scenery of the national parks of the American West, were regularly shared on Instagram and YouTube, through photos and videos.
Written statements
The police investigation quickly focused on Brian Laundrie, who returned earlier than expected from the trip – and alone – on September 1, and who refused to answer investigators’ questions before disappearing.
Brian Laundrie had been charged with fraudulent use of a bank card and the federal police had issued an arrest warrant. A video made public in September by the police in Moab, Utah, had accentuated the disorder aroused by the personality of the young man. “She gets angry sometimes”, he declared in particular to the agents, called for a marital dispute, while Gabby Petito appeared in tears, in a car.
The remains of the body of the 23-year-old man, who shot himself to death, as well as personal effects including a notebook were found on October 20 in a nature reserve in Florida. In this notebook, the FBI found written statements from Brian Laundrie claiming responsibility for the murder of Gabby Petito. “The quality and quantity of facts and information collected by the FBI leave no doubt that Brian Laundrie murdered Gabby”, recognized the family of the young woman on Friday.
The Gabby Petito affair, very followed by the media, had also been intensely commented on on social networks, which were full of various theories on the death of the young woman and the involvement of her fiancé. Before the latter’s body was found in Florida, many Americans thought they saw him all over the country.
The extraordinary media coverage given to the disappearance of the young woman had fueled the debate on the attention given to the disappearances of white women, considered disproportionate to the cases of people from ethnic minorities.