By Antonio Planas and Wilson Wong -
NBC News
Before 22-year-old Gabby Petito disappeared, she and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, were in love and ready to embark on the journey of their lives.
In July, the couple began a road tour through the country's national parks documenting their journey on Instagram and YouTube with the hashtag #VanLife.
Now, authorities are looking for Petito, who has not been known since late August when he is believed to have been in Grand Teton National Park, near Jackson, Wyoming.
And half a dozen law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, are investigating his disappearance
.
Florida police this week called Laundrie a "person of interest"
in the disappearance of his fiancée and have said he has not cooperated with the investigation.
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The young man refuses to talk about the issue
on the advice of his family's lawyer, Steven P. Bertolino, who said that during these types of investigations the police usually focus too much on the intimate partner.
On Thursday, Bertolino also declined to comment.
The first days of the relationship
According to Nicole Schmidt, the girl's mother,
Petito and Laundrie met in high school and announced their engagement last year.
“Brian asked me to marry him and I said yes!” Petito wrote in an Instagram post.
"You make life feel unreal, and every day is a dream of you," he added.
Petito, originally from Blue Point, New York, moved to North Port, Florida, to live with Laundrie
, Schmidt said.
This year's trip was not Petito's first.
In 2019, he documented one to the Western United States on Instagram.
In a January 2020 post, he said that driving across the country to California and Oregon was a "dream."
In May 2020, she posted that she couldn't wait to “travel the world” with Laundrie again.
[Police consider the fiancé of the missing young woman as a person of interest while traveling in the US by truck]
“She wanted to cross the country in her van and live free. That was his dream, "
Schmidt told the NBC affiliate KSL station.
When did the trip start?
Petito and Laundrie left Blue Point, New York, on July 2 in a 2012 Ford Transit van
, according to the young woman's posts on social media and Schmidt's statements to KSL.
The couple posted the trip on their Instagram and YouTube accounts under the moniker Nomadic Statik.
Social media posts and statements from Petito's family provide a clue to the couple's journey, indicating they
drove about 3,800 miles (6,115 kilometers) to Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming
before she went. reported missing.
In the promotional video for their YouTube account, the couple said that they had already traveled together.
"After our first trip across the country in a small Nissan Sentra, we decided we wanted to cut our lives short and travel full time," they wrote.
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In July, Instagram posts show them touring the nation's national parks, visiting Monument Rocks in Kansas and the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, before heading to Utah.
"There is no place like the little house we build,"
Petito wrote in a July 4 post in Kansas.
[They publish the police video of the incident between the missing young woman and her boyfriend during their trip by truck through the United States]
Another post from July 16 places them in Utah's Zion National Park.
“The last two nights camping in Zion have been so great,” Petito recounted on Instagram, “We climbed here at about 100 (degrees Fahrenheit) and it was so nice to go back to our camp, watch the sky fill with dark clouds, and the view of the lightning storm in the nice fresh air of the light rain ”.
Five days later, she posted a message from Bryce Canyon National Park, also in Utah.
Later that month, the couple posted in other landmarks across the state, including Mystic Hot Springs and Canyonlands National Park.
An altercation documented by Utah police
On August 12, police in Moab, Utah, responded to a report about a "domestic problem" between the couple, according to police reports released this week.
According to the report,
the alleged altercation occurred when Petito and Laundrie were driving into Arches National Park
.
An agent reported that the couple's van was traveling at about 45 miles per hour in a 15-mile-per-hour zone.
When the officer turned on the lights to stop the vehicle, it swerved and hit a sidewalk before stopping, the report reveals.
[The sheriff appreciates that the disappearance of the young woman who was traveling the country in a truck with her fiancé is linked to a double murder]
Another agent wrote that
Petito slapped Laundrie after an argument and that he allegedly tried to lock her out of the van
.
She managed to get in before Laundrie left in the vehicle, explains the report that also mentions that both claimed that "they were in love and engaged to be married and did not want anyone to be charged with a crime."
They were asked to separate for the night and she kept the van.
No charges were filed.
Petito and Laundrie also confided to the officers that they were facing mental health problems
and that neither was taking medication.
The long road trip was taking its toll, Laundrie told an officer.
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"The time they shared created an emotional tension between them and increased the number of arguments,"
the agent reported.
Body camera footage of the police officers, released Thursday, also captured part of the encounter.
In them, one of the agents is seen talking to Laundrie.
Petito looks emotional after authorities stopped the van.
She wipes her tears as she tells the agent that she was "struggling."
"I'm sorry," the young woman said when the agent asked her why she was crying.
“We argued this morning.
Some personal problems, ”he explained.
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Laundrie added: “It's been a long day.
Yesterday we were camping ”.
When the agent questioned Laundrie about the scratches on her face, he replied, "She had her phone and was trying to take my keys and I said, 'Let's try to calm down and breathe,' but she hit me with her phone." .
Petito disappears
In the days after that incident in Moab,
Petito's communication with his family ceased, according to police.
Schmidt said the couple left Salt Lake City for Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park around Aug. 24, which is when
she last spoke to her daughter on a FaceTime call.
Afterward, she said, she
continued to receive text messages sent from her young woman's cell phone until Aug. 30
, but she's not sure whether she wrote them.
Petito's last message to his mother read: "No service in Yosemite
.
"
It is not known if the couple made it to the Californian park.
The last post of her on Instagram is from August 25, without a specific location
.
What happened next is a mystery, according to his family and authorities.
According to the police, what is known is that Laundrie arrived in Florida with the van.
North Port police recovered the vehicle on September 11 at the home the couple shared with Laundrie's parents
.
He arrived on September 1, 10 days before Petito's family reported him missing, authorities reported.
Gabby Petito in a photo published on her Instagram account on July 21, 2021 Instagram Gabby Petito
"Every day that the search for Gabby continues, the Schmidt and Petito family despair more," said Richard Stafford, the family's attorney this week.
"They are frantically searching for answers and information about their daughter's disappearance while Brian is sitting in the comfort of his home," he added.
Bertolino, the young man's lawyer, said in a statement Wednesday that his client would not speak about the matter because "intimate partners" are often the first focus of police attention.
"I have been informed that the North Port, Florida police have named Brian Laundrie as a 'person of interest' in this matter," he said.
“This formality has not changed that Mr. Laundrie is the focus and attention of law enforcement.
He will continue to be silent on the advice of his lawyer ”, he settled.
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