Netflix Docuseries On Gabby Petito Murder Puts Wyoming In Spotlight Again

It’s a tragedy that captured the world’s attention when a 22-year-old aspiring YouTuber from New York disappeared in Wyoming in August 2021. Gabby Petito’s remains would be found less than a month after she disappeared near a campsite in Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Her fiance, Brian Laundrie, left a note admitting to killing her before taking his own life. His remains were discovered in late October 2021 in a nature preserve in Florida.

The spotlight once again falls on Wyoming with the recent release of the three-part Netflix docuseries “American Murder: Gabby Petito.” 

It’s sparked renewed interest in the case as the world again tunes in to discover the details of the couple’s lives and the unraveling of their relationship in their short time traversing the country in a white Ford van.

The docuseries also sheds light on the investigation behind the scenes with interviews from Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr and two FBI agents in Denver and Florida who were central to the case.

Carr declined a request for interview as did Teton County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Coordinator Mike Estes. Both agencies were front and center during the search and investigation and the eventual find of Petito’s remains.

Carr details the immense scrutiny he and his department were under in the second part of the series as national and international media descended on the county of just over 23,000 tucked between two national parks at the base of the Teton Range.

And though the case began like every other missing person investigation, Carr said it was soon apparent that this was anything but ordinary. 

“With the amount of national coverage and media that was involved, it became something that was unique to me and to our agency,” Carr says in the documentary. “We’ve never dealt like anything like this before.”

Along with working closely with Petito’s stepfather Jim Schmidt, who had flown from New York to Wyoming as the family’s feet on the ground, Carr said he immediately called in the Denver FBI for help.

His first conversation was a request for help, Carr said, with the second being a lot more urgent.

“My final call was really telling him to get his ass up here to Jackson, because the whole world was now focusing on this location, and this was going to be a big deal,” Carr said.

Media Maelstrom

Teton County Coroner Brent Blue remembers the media maelstrom all too well.

Blue was front and center to the intense attention after Petito’s remains were discovered Sept. 19, nearly a month after she was reported missing. 

As Blue and his team determinately worked to discover the means and manner of death, he told Cowboy State Daily that the office phone rang off the hook. Calls came from media and news outlets from all over the country and world. He estimated he got a call about every five minutes.  

It got so bad that Blue left a recorded message telling anyone who didn’t have a question about the Petito autopsy to text him on his personal phone. 

He also recalled the number of photographers camped out on public property around his office, all clamoring for any new information.

“And there was nothing to see, but they were literally stationed up there for several days,” Blue said.

He’d never seen anything like it. 

It was by far the most high-profile case of his 10 years and two months of being coroner, he said. 

Going Viral Again

The autopsy took Blue and his team about three weeks to determine Petito had died by strangulation in what he deemed to be a homicide. 

“It wasn’t easy,” he said of the process. 

He credited the help from deputy county coroner Russ Nelson, a forensic pathologist with a doctorate degree in anthropology, in making the determination.

Blue said he’s had his share of media coverage, so he felt prepared for his press conference on Oct. 12, 2021, as the whole world tuned in with several network news anchors and crime show hosts asking him questions, including John Walsh from “In Pursuit With John Walsh.”

Blue was surprised to learn there was a new docuseries on the couple, though he’d been tipped off by calls and emails from friends in recent weeks who saw him mentioned in the series. Two of those friends were from Kenya and Italy.

“It’s definitely once again capturing international attention,” he said.

He’s also received a slew of emails from reporters throughout the country, all of whom are asking for more details about how exactly Petito died, which Blue said Wyoming law prevents him from disclosing without the family’s permission. 

He said he remains surprised at how Petito’s case continues to get so much attention, but it was that attention that ultimately solved the case. 

Last Sightings

As news of Petito’s disappearance went viral, many tipsters came forward to piece together the puzzle of what happened between the couple in those final days in Wyoming. 

Petito last spoke with her family Aug. 27, 2021. Texts from Petito to her mother say that she had convinced Laundrie to go camp by himself in the woods for a few days to give her space. 

Tensions had been high between the couple as documented in police video from an incident in Moab, Utah, where a witness reported seeing Laundrie slap Petito outside their van on a downtown street.

After being ordered to spend a night apart, the couple ventured on to Wyoming. 

Other sightings suggested that troubles persisted after they arrived in Jackson. 

On the afternoon of Aug. 17, a staff member at the Merry Piglets Tex-Mex restaurant later told police that there was a commotion between the couple when they stopped for lunch. Laundrie argued with the waitress about paying the bill and left in a huff, according to the documentary.

The police later captured the couple on surveillance camera shopping at Whole Foods in Jackson, which is the last known footage of Petito. 

Additional footage provided to Jackson police show the couple leaving Jackson in their white van around 3 p.m. that day, according to the more than 360-page report released by the FBI last June. 

Petito was last traced to a camping spot in the Spread Creek dispersed camping area in Bridger-Teton National Forest that she’d booked through an app, according to FBI documents, which is also the last place her phone pinged. 

From there, her trail went cold as concerns from Petito’s family ratcheted up when nobody heard from her. 

Finally, when police visited the Laundrie family home in Florida on Sept 1, 2021, to learn that Laundrie and the van were there without Petito, her family reported her missing the next day. 

Later, tipsters and local Jackson residents would report seeing Laundrie while FBI documents traced his trek home, including a stop at a gas station in Riverton on Aug. 30.

Laundrie would later be reported missing by his parents Sept. 17, 2021, with his body discovered in the nearby nature preserve in late October after he’d taken his own life as outlined in a letter. 

Fitting Together Puzzle Pieces

Even before Laundrie was found, FBI charged him with Petito’s murder as the desperate search to locate her remains continued.

Petito’s body was ultimately discovered by Teton County Sheriff’s Office deputies on horseback, who found her curled in the fetal position on her side in what appeared to be a staged crime scene. 

Paramount to the discovery was a tip from YouTuber Jenn Bethunes, a nomad who travels the country in a converted bus with her husband Kyle and three children, which they document on their channel, “Being Bethunes.”

Bethunes provided police with a vital clue — the exact location of where Petito’s white van was parked in the campground.

She recounted the moment when she realized she had captured video of the van. The family had just attended a rally in Idaho, near Yellowstone, and asked friends for recommendations for camping spots. 

“We fly by the seat of our pants,” Bethunes told Cowboy State Daily. 

The friends recommended the Spread Creek camping spot. On the way, the bus broke down, but Kyle was able to fix it, getting them to the camping area later than they would have liked, Bethunes said, noting their rule of no off-grid boondocking after dark.

It was getting late as they got to the camp area with Jenn driving behind the bus in their Jeep. 

She spotted the van with Florida license plates that was dark as if nobody was inside and made a mental note to come back and visit travelers from their home state.

Once parked, they stopped back at the van, which was still dark and closed up. The family headed out the next day less than 12 hours later toward North Dakota, where they were planning to work the sugar beet harvest.

Spotting The White Van

Bethunes said she didn’t think about it again until someone brought the missing woman to her attention. 

Initially, the timeline was off by several days, so Bethunes didn’t think anything of the van until people began tagging her in a National Park Service post that authorities were seeking any video from the camp ground between Aug. 27-30, 2021, when they were there.

“I just had this feeling,” Bethunes said. 

She had just been working on a YouTube video when she remembered seeing the van. She flew to her laptop, she said, and began going through her GoPro camera video from the front of their van.

“And there it was; this little white spec that got bigger and bigger as the van passes by,” she said. 

It was midnight, and also the birthday of her son, Ethan, who had died in a car accident when he was 7. It would have been his 17^th birthday, and Bethunes could not wait until the next day to report her find to the FBI.

She recounted her call to the dispatcher, who told her to submit the video with all the other tips online. There were thousands for agents to sift through.

“You don’t understand,” she told the dispatcher. “I have footage of Gabby’s van. Patch me on over to a detective”

That’s not how it worked, the woman explained, again instructing Bethunes to submit it with the other tips online. 

Bethunes said she couldn’t stand the wait and needed to get it to the FBI as soon as possible. She asked Kyle what she should do. In the end, they decided to post the video of the white van on their YouTube channel.

“If it were my child, I would want this to get out as far and fast as possible,” she said.

By 6 a.m. the next morning, the post had more than 1 million views as reporters and news networks from across the country flooded her phone.

Lasting Connections

That same day, she received an email from Petito’s mother, Nichole, thanking her for finding the van. 

Within days, a detective was able to locate the precise location of where the van had been parked with Petito’s remains discovered within 200 yards from the location.

Today, Bethunes and Nichole are still close friends, and both are on a mission to help domestic violence survivors and missing people.

Bethunes said it’s hard to express how much it meant to her to help Petito’s family and her own healing which she documents in her soon-to-be-released book, “Soulful Miles.”

“I want to help others heal themselves,” she said.

Bethunes joined Petito’s family at the campground in October 2022 when they all convened to spread her ashes and celebrate her life. 

This gathering is also captured in the documentary as both sets of Petito’s parents and her siblings remark on the beauty of the Tetons as they spread her ashes in the place where she took her last breath.

The family laughs and shares memories at the spot marked with rock crosses and a single wood cross surrounded by stones at the spot where her body was found.

Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.