Brian Laundrie was 'acting like a lunatic' before Gabby Petito's murder—witness
Brian Laundrie was "acting like a lunatic" before he killed Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing in August 2021 and was found dead after a month.
That's what a witness, who was on a road trip with his family, told the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which released a new document regarding Petito's case.
According to PEOPLE Magazine, the witness said he saw Petito and Laundrie in Moab in Utah, as he and his family traveled through Moab from Las Vegas to Denver.
While driving, he recalled seeing a couple with a van parked on the side of the road. A man slapped the woman, believed to be Petito.
The witness made a U-turn and parked on the opposite side of the road. He then observed the couple for 10 to 15 minutes, from 4:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., before police encountered the pair. (Police pulled them over after another man witnessed their argument. It reported the incident as "disorderly misconduct.")
“During the time (witness) and his family were observing the couple, the male 'acted like a lunatic,' sporadically opening and slamming doors and pacing around the van,” read the FBI document shared by The New York Post.
“[Laundrie] seemed to be pleading with the female and at one point may have tried to hug the female, but was pushed back by her. The male ultimately pushed the female’s legs into the passenger side of the van, closed her door, and entered the driver’s side of the vehicle.”
The man allegedly put his head between his hands, even as “both passengers appeared to be crying.”
While observing Petito and Laundrie, the witness said he considered intervening but ultimately decided against it as he had already called 911 when a truck almost ran him off the road.
The witness contacted the FBI in September when he saw news reports about Petito's disappearance. He was confident that she was the woman he had observed in Moab.
Petito and Laundrie's relationship was reportedly abusive.
Laundrie hiked from his and Petito's last known location in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park to a new area of the park on Aug. 28, 2021.
On Aug. 30, Laundrie began his trip home to Florida using Petito's sprinter van.
Upon returning home alone—10 days before Petito's family reported her missing—Laundrie disappeared. Authorities determined that he had killed her.
Petito's body was eventually found, with an autopsy report listing her cause of death as a homicide caused by manual strangulation and blunt-force trauma to her head and neck.
In October 2021, Laundrie's remains were found. He was 23.
Beside him was a notebook entry where he admitted to killing her before shooting himself dead.
Petito and Laundrie's case sparked renewed interest following the release of the Netflix miniseries American Murder: Gabby Petito.
