We’re barely two minutes into the Netflix true-crime documentary series “American Murder: Gabby Petito” when we feel a lump in our throat. We see the Moab City, Utah, Police body-cam footage from Aug. 12, 2021, as officers pull over Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito after a 911 caller had alerted them to possible domestic abuse.
Gabby is crying, hysterical. She tells an officer, “Some days I have really bad OCD. … I’ve been really stressed. … I’m trying to start a blog. … I’m perfectly calm. I’m calm all the time.” Gabby is seated in the back of a police vehicle. Still in tears, she says, “Is there any way I can get my phone so I can call my mom?”
In that moment, Gabby Petito looks and sounds much younger than even her 22 years. She sounds like someone who is hurting and lost, someone who just wants to talk to her mother. Someone who would be better off going home.
Someone who never made it home.
“American Murder: Gabby Petito” unfolds over three episodes, told mostly in chronological fashion, with the filmmakers employing the familiar and reliable techniques of packaging home video footage, snippets of news coverage, and interviews with Petito’s family members and friends as well as law enforcement officials. Also, because Gabby was creating a “Van Life” blog and YouTube channel, we see raw clips and still photos from a road trip gone tragically wrong.
The visuals of Gabby and Laundrie appearing (and in some cases clearly trying too hard) to come across as a happy, enthusiastic couple embarking on a grand adventure are a marked contrast to the reality of what happened: the trip was marred by tension and fighting and eventually took a horribly violent turn, and Brian Laundrie murdered Gabby Petito. He then returned home, avoided authorities and Gabby’s family, and eventually killed himself, leaving behind more questions than answers.
In Episode One: “We Bought a Van,” we see home video footage of the newborn Gabby in 1999, and we hear from Gabby’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, and stepdad, Jim Schmidt, as well as Gabby’s dad, Joe Petito, and stepmom, Tara Petito. (Gabby’s parents split up when she was six months old, but remained amicable, and united in their determination to always put Gabby’s happiness first.) Gabby and Brian started dating in the spring of 2019 and moved to Florida, living with Brian’s parents.
After Gaby bought a 2012 Ford Transit Connect van, the couple set out in July of 2021 on the cross-country trip that was designed to kick-start Gabby’s plan to become a lifestyle content creator. (The filmmakers occasionally use AI to facilitate the narrative, with a graphic telling us, “Gabby Petito’s journal entries and text messages are brought to life in this series in her own voice, using voice recreation technology.” I’m far from being sold on this type of technique, but I have to admit that Gabby’s voice as heard in actual recordings is virtually indistinguishable from the recreation.)
By the time the episode revisits that body-cam footage, the dream trip had turned darker by the day. As officers gather to debate what to do about the situation, we hear one of them say, “Another option is to not charge them but separate them for the night. If they find themselves together again, what’s it to you? You separated them. You provided for his safety.”
HIS safety.
The second episode focuses on Gabby’s disappearance, and the search that exploded into a nationwide media sensation, with countless Facebook posts and TV news stories asking, “Where’s Gaby?” One can’t help but feel outraged all over again as we see Laundrie’s parents on police body-cam footage in Florida, casually telling a police officer that Brian is actually in the house, they have an attorney, and that’s all they have to say on the matter. Wait a minute: he’s home?? (In another sickening development, Laundrie’s mother wrote him a note titled “Burn After Reading” that read in part, “If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.”)
Through diligent law enforcement efforts and with the help of information provided by witnesses, Gabby’s body was found on Sept. 19, 2021, in Wyoming. A month later, Laundrie’s remains were found in a park in Florida. To its credit, the series notes that the massive coverage of this case is a classic example of “Missing White Women Syndrome” — though its very existence reinforces the reality that there is disproportionate coverage of white victims as compared to persons of color. (Of course, the same could be said of this very review. Fair enough.)
A closing title card notes:
“On Aug. 19, 2021, Gabby Petito launched her Van Life YouTube Channel and published her first and only video. Before her murder, Gabby’s video had less than 500 views. Today’s Gabby’s video has over 7 million views.”
We can expect that number to rocket higher in the next few days.