A couple starts in a good mood on a trip through the USA in the summer.
But the man returns alone.
Gabby Petito was already dead by then. Now there is certainty about her death.
Teton County - Now there is sad certainty: Gabby Petito did not die of natural causes, she was strangled.
The 22-year-old American was reported missing about a month ago after traveling with her boyfriend and found dead in Wyoming state days later.
A few weeks ago, forensic medicine had declared that a homicide was to be assumed.
On Tuesday (local time) coroner Brent Blue announced the exact cause of death after completing the autopsy.
The authorities have not yet named a suspect.
The search for Petito's missing 23-year-old friend, Brian L., who had returned from vacation without her, continued.
The FBI federal police and local investigators in the southern state of Florida are looking for him at full speed.
Gabby Petito's body lay in the open for weeks before it was found
Petito's body had been outdoors for three to four weeks before emergency services discovered it near Grand Teton National Park on September 19, coroner Blue said.
The exact time of death can therefore not be determined with certainty.
Petito was not pregnant.
Blue did not provide any further details about the alleged course of events, Petitos' autopsy or the condition of the corpse, with reference to local laws.
The case is attracting attention both in the US and internationally - not least because the Florida couple shared numerous pictures and videos of their trip in a converted van on social networks.
The two pose on them in front of the impressive landscape of various national parks in the USA.
Couple starts a trip through the USA together - but only the man comes back
However, the image taken by a police officer's body camera left a completely different impression than the pictures of the couple.
The police were called to the vehicle of the two in mid-August about a possible domestic violence case.
The caller, who notified the police, saw a man arguing with a woman and beating her, reported CNN, among others.
The completely distraught and crying Petito then told the police in the video that she suffered from an obsessive-compulsive disorder and that there had been an argument.
She also slapped her boyfriend in the face.
The couple then agreed to spend the next night separately.
The two had set off on a trip through the USA in the summer.
On September 1, the boyfriend came back home to Florida alone, according to police.
Ten days later, Petito's parents reported their daughter missing.
Why the journey of the couple, who looked happy in pictures, came to a fatal end is open.
There is now no trace of her boyfriend - his parents reported him missing in mid-September.
Missing case Gabby Petito: arrest warrant issued against friend
The authorities issued an arrest warrant against him for bank fraud in late September.
The young man withdrew around $ 1,000 with a bank card between August 30 and September 1, according to a corresponding court document from the Wyoming District Court.
It remained unclear who owned the card.
In recent weeks, there has also been criticism of the scope and intensity of the coverage of the missing Petito in US media and social networks.
According to the authorities, around 90,000 missing person reports nationwide were considered active at the end of last year.
Few of these cases received nearly as much attention as Petito's, critics noted.
In Bavaria, the missing case of eight-year-old Julia caused a stir.
The girl from Berlin was rescued from a forest in the Czech Republic after two days.
List of rubric lists: © Moab City Police Department
