Summary

American Murder: Gabby PetitoisNetflix’s latest true-crime series, and it landed on the platform on June 19, 2025. Gabby Petito was a young woman who embarked on a road trip across America back in 2021, alongside her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie. However,it all ended in tragedy when Gabby was killed by Brian, before he disappeared and was later found dead from suicide.

The case became a media frenzy, and armchair detectives around the world began speculating about what happened to Gabby Petito after she initially went missing. After her body was found, a lot of questions still needed to be answered relating to how the police reacted to a domestic disturbance between the couple, and what involvement did Brian Laundrie’s parents have in covering up for their son?The Netflix documentaryrevealed a lot of shocking details, and told the story in more depth than ever before.

Gabby Petito

American Murder: Gabby Petito

Contributors

Nichole Schmidt, Joe Petito, Tara Petito, Jim Schmidt, Loretta Bush, Matt Carr and Rose Davis

Directed by

Michael Gasparro and Julia Willoughby Nason

Gabby Petito’s murderwas one of the most shockingtrue crime mysteryof the last few years, but it should have resulted inthe killer, Brian Laundrie, being brought to justice instead of taking his own life.Brian Laundrie’s parents, Christopher and Roberta, were largely responsible for obstructing justice by covering for their son.The Netflix true-crime seriesreveals a shocking ‘burn after reading’ letter that Roberta wrote to Brian.It said:

I just want you to remember I will always love you, and I know you will always love me. You are my boy. Nothing can make me stop loving you, nothing will or could ever divide us. No matter what we do, or where we go or what we say, we will always love each other. If you’re in jail, I will bake a cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags. If you fly to the moon, I will be watching the skies for your re-entry. If you say you hate my guts, I’ll get new guts.

Roberta Laundrie claims she wrote it months before Gabby Petito was murdered, but the contents of the letter suggest otherwise. Of course, the love of one’s child is unconditional, but offering to dispose of a dead body is crossing a line. Even if the letter was written before Brian brutally strangled Gabby to death, it provides an insight into the lengths the Laundrie’s were willing to go to obstruct justice. Brian drove Gabby’s van back to his parents' home in Florida, after killing her, and they didn’t ask him where she was? They knew much more than they were letting on, and they ‘lawyered’ up soon after that.The police weren’t able to arrest Brian Laundrie as they didn’t have probable cause without the discovery of Gabby’s body, and the killer was free to disappear and end his lifebefore facing up to his crimes. Gabby Petito’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Laundrie’s, and it was settled out of court.

Gabby Petito’s death could have been prevented if certain red flags had been acted upon in the weeks leading up to her murder. For instance, the police stopped Gabby and Brian when their van was spotted driving erratically on the highway.The dash cam footage is featured in the Netflix documentary, and it reveals exactly how the officers handled the situation.Gabby was in tears, and it was clearly a cry for help, but the police officers played it down and shockingly came to the conclusion that she was the aggressor, despite having marks all over her. The most shocking part of the dash cam footage features a conversation between the two police officers, away from Gabby and Brian as they weigh up how to handle the situation: One officer states:

How far do you want to go with this? The reason they don’t give us discretion on these things is because, too many times, women who are at risk want to go back to their abuser, and they get worse and worse treatment and then end up getting killed. In no way, shape or form, that I can perceive that this is gonna digress into a situation where he’s gonna be a battered man. Then again, I don’t have a crystal ball.

The officers decided to split the couple up to give them some breathing space, and sent Brian to a domestic abuse shelter. Gabby and Brian patched things up, but unfortunately it was short-lived, and the rest is history.