The Reel Review
In the Fall of 2021, 22-year-old Gabby Petito, an aspiring travel vlogger traveling with her fiancé in her van through the American West, made headlines after she disappeared near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. This Netflix crime docuseries shares new details about her tragic death.
Starting with the now infamous Moab police body cam footage of a distraught Petito and her fiancé Brian Laundrie following a domestic dispute, the three episodes use interviews with friends and family and archival footage to examine their codependent relationship and later, eventually lay out a meticulous timeline of events leading up to and after Petito’s death and Laundrie’s subsequent suicide back home at a nature preserve near his hometown in Florida a month later.
In addition to portraying Brian as a socially awkward and controlling boyfriend and Gabby as a sweet people pleaser who struggled with anxiety, the briskly paced, three-episode docuseries sheds light on Brian’s efforts to create an alibi after her death and even again prior to his suicide, and a conversation Gabby had with her ex-boyfriend after Brian briefly had flown back home to sell some items to pay for their trip. It is both heartbreaking and infuriating that Moab police took a bruised and battered Petito at face value when she falsely said she was the aggressor in their dispute, and later, how slow Florida authorities were to act when the Laundrie family was uncooperative and lawyered up after Brian returned home with her van. To this day the Laundries have not been charged in their role in obstructing the investigation and harboring Brian.
REEL FACTS
• Initially a Florida judge awarded Gabby Petito’s family $3 million dollars in their lawsuit against the Laundrie family and their lawyer, but to avoid a trial, the two families reluctantly reached a nondisclosed settlement in November 2024, which was used to help fund The Gabby Petito Foundation.
• In November 2022, Petito’s parents filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab Police Department, which included allegations that officer Eric Pratt acknowledged that he was aware Laundrie was a threat but had decided to ignore the department’s own Lethality Assessment Protocol. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in November 2024 citing governmental immunity, but Petito’s parent plan to appeal.
• The docuseries addresses the disparity in media coverage of missing white women vs. missing women of color or of indigenous heritage. The StrongHearts Native Helpline (1-844-762-8483) offers 24/7 advocacy for missing Native American and Alaska Natives who are victims of domestic and sexual violence.
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