The FBI closes the case of the murder of the 'influencer' Gabby Petito at the hands of her boyfriend

Brian Laundrie, in a capture of the video recorded on August 12 by a Moah (Utah) police officer who intervened in a fight between the couple.AP

The US federal investigative agency (FBI) closed this Friday the case of the disappearance and death of

Gabrielle Petito, whose body was found in September after several weeks unaccounted for, confirming that her boyfriend and murderer, Brian Laundrie, who committed suicide weeks later, was the only one implicated in the crime. FBI agents notified Petito's family the day before in Tampa (Florida) of the conclusions of the case. Laundrie himself admitted to the murder in a note that investigators found on his laptop.

"All the logical steps of an investigation have been taken in this case," investigating agent Michael Schneider of the FBI's Denver office said in a statement. “The investigation has not found that anyone other than Brian Laundrie was involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito (…) The role of the public in helping us has been invaluable as the investigation was covered by the media. communication from all over the world, so I want to thank all the information received”.

The disappearance and subsequent confirmation of Petito's death kept the US on edge this summer, with great media coverage. The couple had embarked on a van trip around the country at the beginning of July, a kind of reduced sabbatical year that the young woman broadcast almost live to her hundreds of thousands of followers on social networks. The apparent idyllic image of the couple in their twenties was broken a few days before the girl's disappearance, when the body camera of a police officer notified of an alleged case of sexist violence recorded a tense discussion between the two. Shortly after, Petito disappeared and her boyfriend began an erratic flight forward in which he used his girlfriend's cell phone to sow false clues, trying to pretend that she was still alive.He also used the girl's credit card without authorization to pay for his return trip to his parents' home in Florida from Wyoming, according to the FBI statement.

The mortal remains of Gabby Petito were found on September 19 in a natural park in Wyoming. Forensics determined that she had died of strangulation, although her body also had several injuries with a blunt object to the head. His family had reported him missing a week earlier, after the boyfriend returned alone to his parents' house on September 1. The couple was lost sight of on Instagram and YouTube, where the girl recounted the trip, at the end of August, just two weeks after the live anger recorded by the police intervention, on August 12. Nearly a month after the discovery of his girlfriend's body, Laundrie's remains were found on October 21 in a remote and arid Florida wilderness, along with his belongings.

Once he disappeared again from his parents' house, after refusing to answer investigators' questions, Laundrie ended up shooting himself, the FBI has concluded thanks to the boy's confession of guilt "in a note found on his laptop ”, located next to his remains.

From the beginning, Laundrie was the main suspect in the tragic end of Gabby Petito, a case of sexist violence broadcast this time to a virtual audience, which multiplied the dimension of the event.

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