The fiancé of the murdered American Gabby Petito committed suicide by shooting himself in the headhunter
Steph Deschamps / November 24, 2021
The boyfriend of murdered traveler Gabby Petito, who was considered a person of interest in the investigation of her fiancée's murder, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, according to his family's attorney.
The remains of Brian Laundrie had been found on October 20 in a natural reserve in Florida.
The 23-year-old man had refused to answer questions from investigators, creating doubt in public opinion about his possible role in the murder, before disappearing. The body of Gabby Petito, 22, whose disappearance had caused a stir beyond U.S. borders, was found on September 19 near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. According to the autopsy, she was strangled.
Chris and Roberta Laundrie have been informed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and that the circumstances of death are consistent with suicide, said Steven Bertolino, attorney for the young man's family. Both parents are still grieving the loss of their son, and hope that these findings will provide closure for both families, he added in a statement.
The case Gabby Petito, very followed by the media, had also been intensely commented on social networks, which abounded in various theories on the death of the young woman and the potential involvement of her fiancé. Before the body of the latter was found in Florida, many Americans had believed to see it in the four corners of the country.
Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito had left New York in July for a trip in a converted van supposed to last four months and whose stages, in the grandiose scenery of the national parks of the American West, were regularly shared on Instagram and YouTube, through photos and videos. But the young man with the shaved head had returned earlier than expected and alone on September 1, while Gabby Petito's parents had no news of her since late August.
A video made public in September by the police of Moab, in Utah, had accentuated the trouble caused by the personality of the young man. She gets angry sometimes, he declared to the agents, called for a marital dispute, while Gabby Petito appeared in tears, in a car.
The unprecedented media attention given to the disappearance of the young woman sparked a debate about the attention given to the disappearance of white women, which is considered disproportionate to the cases of people from ethnic minorities.