There has been an outpouring of claims from Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie’s friends stating that the couple’s past together has always been fraught. After being reported missing during a cross-country van trip with her lover Brian Laundrie, Petito’s tragic story has captivated the nation’s attention and the internet after she was found dead in the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in Wyoming.
Her death was ruled a murder once the initial autopsy results came back. Last week, Laundrie vanished, and the police are still looking for him. For this reason, Laundrie is considered a suspect.
Due to his actions before and after Petito went missing, many interested parties believe that Laundrie is responsible for her murder. On August 12, a witness called 911 to report what they said was a domestic altercation between Laundrie and Petito. Someone dialed 911 to say that they witnessed Laundrie slapping Petito.
The Moab Police Department videotaped Laundrie’s and Petito’s August 12 police stop on body camera for an hour. The video is another another aspect of the Petito case that has been the subject of intense scrutiny in the digital sphere. Throughout the body camera footage, Petito can be seen apologizing and crying to the police officer who is speaking to her. Petito admits on camera to suffering from OCD and that she and Laundrie had been “fighting all morning” before the camera was turned on.
It seems that Laundrie is making light of Petito’s mental state with one of the other responding officers. Since Petito admitted to slapping Laundrie, the Moab police conclude that she was the aggressor. When the police pull the pair over, Petito doesn’t tell them if Laundrie smacked her or not. There were no formal charges taken.
Many viewers concluded that Laundrie may have been abusing and gaslighting Petito based on his behavior in the bodycam footage and the 911 call. This included the fact that Laundrie initially lied to the police on the scene about having a cell phone, only to pull a phone out of his pocket in the same video.
How did Petito and Laundrie’s relationship become strained?
Recently, the couple’s mutual friends revealed a key piece of information about the couple’s past.
A close friend of Petito’s believes Laundrie stole his ID at one point
In Florida, Petito became quite close with a woman named Rose Davis. She told The Daily Mail how Laundrie reportedly stole Petito’s ID on the night they were supposed to go line dancing together. Davis added that Laundrie had “jealousy issues” and that Petito frequently slept at her place to avoid Laundrie’s “episodes,” during which he “heard things and hear voices and wouldn’t sleep.”
Davis claimed that she and Petito routinely used an iPhone app to relay their whereabouts to one another for security purposes. In addition, she said that Petito had the app deleted by Laundrie after he learned about it.
As the story goes, Davis and Petito were supposed to meet up at Yellowstone National Park on Davis’s birthday (August 29) this year. Davis states that she has not received any communication from Petito. The murder of Petito has been assumed to have occurred between August 27 and 30, and this occurrence coincides with that time frame.
Davis said in the interview, “He was always worried that she was going to leave him.” An ongoing effort was made to discourage us from socializing together.
Laundrie’s pal said the couple’s relationship was unhealthy even as youngsters
Friend of Laundrie’s Ben Matula told People that the couple’s relationship was never as perfect as it seemed online. Matula had known Laundrie and Petito since they were all young adults on the New York metropolitan area’s Long Island. Matula claims that the couple “always had some trouble” when they were young, but that the adult Laundrie represented in the media isn’t “the guy [he] knew.”
Matula concurred with the assessment that Laundrie’s actions following the original report of Petito’s disappearance were suspicious.
“One minute, they’d be all over each other, and the next minute, [Laundrie] would be like, ‘We’re fighting,'” Matula recalled of his interactions with Laundrie and Petito in New York.
Another one of Petito’s friends, Alyssa Chen, opened up to People about the poisonous and inconsistent nature of Laundrie and Petito’s relationship.
“There were times when they were toxic, and other times when everything seemed a lot healthier. Their highs were so high, and their lows were so low.”
Authorities have not given up their search for Laundrie. Unfortunately, Petito’s murder remains unsolved and no suspect has been identified.