On Sept. 11, the family of 22-year-old Gabby Petito reported her missing to authorities in Suffolk County, New York. This is a timeline of events that led to the report and things that have occurred since.
As the investigation around the case of Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old woman originally from Long Island who was found dead in Wyoming this week, intensifies, officials are finding out more about what happened between her and her fiancé Brian Laundrie in the days before and after she vanished.
That includes a witness observing a fight between the two, police in Utah pulling the pair over while Petito was visibly upset, texts from her phone, Laundrie returning to Florida alone, her parents reporting her missing -- and finally, his parents doing the same for him days before Petito's body was found. Her death is a homicide.
Here's a chronological breakdown of what we know in the case so far:
July
- July 2: Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie leave on a months-long road trip from her mother's home in Blue Point, Long Island, driving a white 2012 Ford Transit van
August
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- Early August: Petito and Laundrie make it to Utah
- Aug 12: Witness calls police after seeing Petito and Laundrie involved in argument, and in the 911 call the witness said he saw the man slapping the woman; in written testimony, another witness said that "something seemed off" as he saw a couple having a fight, with the man seeming to take the woman's phone and lock her out of the van. At one point, the woman was "punching him in the arm and/or face & trying to get into the van." Moab City police pull over their van near entrance to Arches National Park and speak with the couple. Body camera footage shows Petito crying and very emotional, couple describes fight they had and they are not charged, but are separated for the night – Laundrie goes to hotel, Petito stays with van.
- Aug. 17: Laundrie flies from Salt Lake City to Tampa, Florida, alone as he goes back to pick up some items, as well as empty and close a storage unit to save money, according to the family attorney.
- Aug. 19: The couple post their first — and so far, only — video on their YouTube channel, Nomadic Statik, where they documented their "van life," a popular lifestyle and genre on the platform. The video, entitled “Van Life: Beginning our Van Life Journey,” featured eight minutes of footage of their travels in their white van.
- Aug. 23: Laundrie flies back to Utah to "rejoin Gabby;" the couple shared expenses and split the price of the flight.
- Aug. 25: Petito and Laundrie are at Grand Teton National Park. The last photos are posted on Petito's Instagram page before her disappearance — which is also the last day she speaks to her mother directly over the phone.
- Aug. 29: Laundrie hitchhikes at Grand Teton National Park with a woman and her boyfriend heading to Jackson, according to videos the woman posted on TikTok following Gabby's disappearance. She says Laundrie told them he had been camping for multiple days without his fiancée while she was working on their social media page back at their van. Laundrie "freaks out" when the couple says they're driving to Jackson Hole (same place as Jackson), and immediately has them pull over to leave at Jackson Dam, saying he will find another ride. The woman later says it's odd that for someone who said he had been camping, Laundrie didn't look or smell dirty, and had surprisingly little equipment. Laundrie told them he only packed a tarp to sleep on.
- Aug 27: Petito's mother gets texts from daughter’s phone, but never speaks directly to her; Petito's last text to her mother reads “No service in Yosemite,” even though she had previously told family she and Laundrie were heading to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, 800 miles away from Yosemite. Petito's mother also thought it was "odd" that in one of the final text messages that she received from Petito's phone, Gabby talked about her grandfather using his first name, Stan, something her mother said she never did. Petito's phone gets turned off for 15 days, and the text messages are the last contact anyone else has with her.
Petito and Laundrie eat at the Merry Piglets Grill for dinner, with a manager saying the couple arrived on foot and did not have a van in the parking lot. The manager said she spoke to the couple extensively and multiple times during the meal, denying that the couple caused any commotion, but did not characterize the conversation further. Law enforcement says they haven't heard from anyone who saw Petito and Laundrie after this dinner.
The FBI is executing a search warrant at the home of Gabby Petito's boyfriend Brian Laundrie, one day after a body believed to be her was recovered in Wyoming. Pei-Sze Cheng and Romney Smith report.
September
- Sept. 1: Laundrie arrives with the van back in Florida at the home he and Petito share with his parents in North Port; Petito is not with him, according to police.
- Sept 4: Laundrie purchases a new cellphone with an AT&T plan (not a burner cellphone), according to family attorney.
- Sept. 6-7: Brian and his parents go for an overnight camping trip at Fort De Soto Park in Florida, an attorney for the Laundrie family says. All three are said to have left the campground together. However, Pinellas County records indicated that the family actually left on Sept. 8. Brian does not bring the newly purchased cellphone
- Sept. 11: After not hearing from her for days, Petito's family reports her missing. North Port Police visit Laundrie home for first time after Petito family file missing persons report.
- Sept. 13: In Florida, Brian Laundrie leaves for a hike at a nearby nature preserve, the last time his parents have seen him, the family lawyer says.
- Sept. 14: Laundrie family releases statement saying in part "On behalf of the Laundrie family it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is re-united with her family," adding that they won't have further comment. A search warrant is executed on the van Petito and Laundrie used for their trip, with an external hard drive discovered. The Laundrie family goes to the nature preserve to look for Brian, find his car there with a note from police to move it. They leave it there for Brian to drive back home, according to the family attorney.
- Sept. 15: Lawyer for Laundrie family says they are “remaining in the background” and will have no further comment. Police say that Laundrie still has not talked with them or cooperated in the investigation, but is named a person of interest; Gabby’s family releases statement condemning Laundrie for not aiding in search. After Brian Laundrie still does not come home, the family picks up the car he drove, a Ford Mustang, and brings it back to their house.
- Sept. 16: Petito's stepfather searches for her in Wyoming, as FBI and other law enforcement attempt to trace Laundrie's steps from Wyoming back to his home in Florida. Petito family pens letter to Laundrie family, pleading with them: "Please, if you or your family has any decency left, please tell us where Gabby is located. Tell us if we are even looking in the right place."
- Sept. 17: Laundrie's family requests to speak with investigators in the evening. Later in the night, North Port Police and FBI say that Brian Laundrie is now missing as well, and his parents haven't seen him since Sept. 13 (although they initially say Sept. 14 was the last time they saw him). Petito's family releases a statement, saying "Brian is not missing, he is hiding. Gabby is missing."
- Sept. 19: Authorities say a body discovered Sunday in Wyoming is believed to be Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito. An FBI agent said the cause of death not yet been determined.
- Sept. 20: A large contingent of FBI agents with equipment descend on Brian Laundrie's North Port home to execute a court-authorized search warrant. That comes just hours after local police say they would not keep searching for him in a nearby nature reserve, as they had been all weekend long. Investigators also gain court permission to access the contents of an external hard drive they say was found in the van Petito and Laundrie shared.
- Sept: 21: A coroner in Wyoming confirms that the body found in the park is Gabby Petito, and rules her death a homicide. Meanwhile, police in North Port, Florida, resumed their search for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve, but found nothing new.
- Sept. 23: Search efforts in the Carlton Preserve continued for a third straight day. Again, nothing connected to the case was found as of mid-afternoon. The FBI announced that a federal grand jury Laundrie the previous day on a charge of debit card fraud. Earlier that day, police in Moab, Utah, announced the launch of an internal probe into their handling of the Aug. 12 domestic incident.
- Sept. 24: North Port, Florida, police return to the Carlton Preserve once again as the manhunt for Laundrie, officially now wanted by the FBI, intensifies.
- Sept. 26: FBI officers return to the home of Laundrie's family to collect "personal items" for the purposes of DNA matching, a lawyer for the family said.
FBI agents and police swarmed the home of a young man wanted for questioning in the disappearance of his girlfriend, Gabby Petito. Meanwhile, an autopsy was set for Tuesday after FBI agents had discovered a body on the edge of Grand Teton National Park. NBC New York's Pei-Sze Cheng and Sarah Wallace report.
More on Gabby Petitio
October
- Oct: 6: Brian Laundrie's parents tell investigators they may have last seen their son on Sept. 13 instead of the Sept. 14 date they originally reported. Family attorney Steve Bertolino issued a statement saying the parents had based that original date "on their recollection of certain events. Upon further communication with the FBI and confirmation of the Mustang being at the Laundrie residence on Wednesday, Sept. 15, we now believe the day Brian left to hike in the preserve was Monday, Sept. 13."
- Oct. 7: Brian Laundrie's father, Chris, joins FBI and other law enforcement members in person for the first time to search the Carlton Reserve. Bertolino said, "Chris was asked to point out any favorite trails or spots that Brian may have used in the preserve. Although Chris and Roberta Laundrie provided this information verbally three weeks ago it is now thought that on-site assistance may be better."
- Oct. 12: The Wyoming county coroner who ruled Gabby Petito's death a homicide, says she was strangled and likely died three to four weeks before her body was found in mid-September.
- Oct. 19: Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, the Florida environmental park where a silver Mustang -- like the one Brian Laundrie allegedly drove to get to a hiking spot the day he vanished -- was abandoned, reopened to the public on after a nearly month-long closure.
- Oct. 20: The FBI confirms human remains, a notebook and a backpack were found in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. The remains will be examined by a coroner to determine to whom they belong. The park has been closed again until further notice. The development comes after Chris and Roberta Laundrie, Brian's parents, searched the area and found "some articles" belonging to their son, the family attorney said.
- Oct. 21: The partial human remains recovered a day ago at the Florida environmental park where Brian Laundrie was last believed to have been, were described as "skeletal," a North Port police spokesperson confirmed to News 4. Law enforcement sources said they included part of a skull. A few hours later, the FBI announced that dental records confirmed that the human remains recovered were Laundrie's.
November
- Nov. 30: Brian Laundrie died by suicide, the attorney for the Laundrie family confirmed.
2022
- Jan. 13: An investigation has found that Utah police made “several unintentional mistakes” when they stopped Gabby Petito and her boyfriend before she was killed in what became a high-profile missing person case.
- Jan. 21: Brian Laundrie claimed responsibility for the death of his fiancée in a notebook found with his remains in a South Florida nature preserve, the FBI said Friday as it prepares to close the case.
