Where Are Brian Laundrie’s Parents Now? Here’s Everything That’s Happened Since 2021
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‘American Murder: Gabby Petito’ Netflix docuseries shines new light on Gabby’s case
Gabby Petito is back in national headlines almost four years after her disappearance and death.
The 22-year-old is the subject of a new Netflix docuseries, “American Murder: Gabby Petito,” which premiered on Monday, Feb. 17.
The docuseries features new details and stories from those close to the vlogger, including her father and stepmother, who live in Vero Beach.
Here’s what to know about the documentary.
Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito made headlines in 2021 for her suspicious disappearance and subsequent death.
She moved to Florida in 2019 from New York to be close to then-boyfriend Brian Laundrie and his parents. They had been dating for nine months before relocating and getting engaged in July 2020.
The docuseries details the couple’s decision to put off a wedding and instead purchase a 2012 Toyota Transit Connect van to travel the country in 2021. Petito recorded their journey on a YouTube channel she created called Nomadic Statik.
On Aug. 12, 2021, someone called 911 to report a domestic disturbance after seeing a man in a white van slapping a woman in Moab, Utah. But when police investigated, they determined Gabby was the aggressor and sent the couple on their way.
She was last seen alive Aug. 27. Gabby’s body was found Sept. 19 at Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area, near Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, according to the FBI’s investigation. Her cause of death was determined to be “blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation,” according to the Teton County Coroner’s Office.
Gabby Petito Foundation:A donation helps SafeSpace expand from Martin to Indian River
Spoilers:The most shocking moments from Netflix’s ‘American Murder: Gabby Petito’
On Nov. 29, 2023, Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, D-Davie, filed SB 610, also known as the “Gabby Petito Act,” and Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, filed companion HB 673, after Gabby’s father, Joseph Petito, brought the initiative forward.
S.B. 610 outlined the following:
While the bills died on March 8, 2024, in the criminal justice subcommittee, companion bill SB 1224 was approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis on April 10 and went into effect July 1.
SB 1224 creates a statewide domestic violence lethality assessment and law enforcement officers will determine whether a domestic violence victim is at a higher risk of death or serious injury.
Besides these pieces of legislation, Joseph and his wife, Tara Petito, also helped pass SB 117, the Domestic Violence Amendments bill that reformed lethality assessments in Utah, Gabby’s father and stepmother told Netflix.
“American Murder: Gabby Petito” is exclusively on Netflix. The streaming platform’s subscription prices include:
The docuseries has three episodes, with each one delving into a separate part of the case:
“I’d like to see countries around the world use her story as a learning tool to get better resources and information out to everyone that needs help,” Joseph told Netflix. “There are so many — 10 million people in the U.S. are affected by domestic violence every year.”
Samantha Neely contributed to this report.
Gianna Montesano is TCPalm’s trending reporter. You can contact her at gianna.montesano@tcpalm.com, 772-409-1429, or follow her on X @gonthescene.
What happened to Gabby Petito?
What happened to the ‘Gabby Petito Act’
How to watch ‘American Murder: Gabby Petito’
Gabby Petito’s parents speak out about controversial use of AI to recreate her voice in documentary
EXCLUSIVE: Although Gabby Petito’s parents gave permission for her voice to be recreated in the American Murder: Gabby Petito series currently streaming on Netflix, her mother tells The Independent that a fake version of her daughter’s voice was “weird.”
Text messages and journal entries penned by Gabby Petito have been brought to life with the help of AI in a new Netflix docuseries nearly four years after the vlogger was killed by her fiancé while they were road tripping across the country.
And although her grieving parents gave permission for the use of AI to recreate her voice, her mother and stepfather told The Independent they are struggling after hearing a fake mechanical version of their daughter read out her words. AI, of course, can not bring someone back to life.
“I think it’s weird and because we know her actual voice, [it] is a little off,” Nichole Schmidt, Gabby’s mom, told The Independent via text. “It’s just hard to hear.”
Viewers were divided about the decision to use the voice recreation technology, with some slamming the streaming service, calling it “creepy” and “disrespectful,” while others praised the idea of breathing life into Gabby’s words from her final days. The Independent also reached out to families of other victims to see whether AI voice recreation is something they would want for their own loved ones.
In the first episode of American Murder: Gabby Petito, which began streaming on February 17, a message flashes on the screen that reads, “Gabby Petito’s journal entries and text messages are brought to life in this series in her own voice, using voice recreation technology.”
Viewers then hear an excerpt from Gabby’s journal, narrated in her own voice recreated by AI.
Filmmakers Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro explained the reasoning behind their decision.
“We had so much material from her parents that we were able to get. All of her journals since she was young and there was so much of her writing. She documented her trips and most of her life from a young age. We thought it was really important to bring that to life,” Gasparro told US Weekly this week.
“At the end of the day, we wanted to tell the story as much through Gabby as possible. It’s her story.”
But they made sure to get permission from Gabby’s family to recreate their daughter’s voice. Her mother and stepfather, Nichole and Jim Schmidt, and her father and stepmother, Joseph and Tara Petito, have forever been bonded from the tragedy, and all participated in the docuseries.
“We reached out to the family to get their blessing and then we worked diligently to represent it in exactly how it was written,” Gasparro added. “That allowed you to hear it through her own words.”
Although they gave their full permission, Nichole and Jim still found it very difficult to hear the AI version of Gabby when they watched the documentary themselves.
“AI or her real voice, I still get upset hearing it knowing she’s gone,” her stepfather Jim Schmidt told The Independent.
Some viewers found the AI voice disturbing and took to social media to share their thoughts.
“I’m watching #AmericanMurderGabbyPetito and HOLY S**T. They’ve used AI voice recreation to have Gabby Petito reading journal entries and text messages from the last months of her life…this is a deeply unsettling use of AI,” one person wrote on X.
Another person wrote that they didn’t like that it “put words in her mouth that she didn’t actually speak, especially since she can’t give consent… documentaries aren’t supposed to be fictional.”
“I understand they had permission from the parents, but that doesn’t make it feel any better,” another person wrote. “This woman had her voice taken from her, so to recreate it with a poor substitute – a monotone, lacking in emotion AI model – is an insult to her. There is absolutely no need for it.”
But one viewer, and close follower of Gabby’s case, who knows the horrors of losing a loved one to murder, felt very differently.
When Christy Kennedy watched the docuseries, she couldn’t help but think of her own sister Brenda Lambert, who went missing 32 years ago from Bluewell, West Virginia. No body has been found, but Brenda was legally declared dead in 2022, and her sister says she was a victim of domestic violence.
Kennedy told The Independent that she would have no problem using AI to recreate her sister’s voice if she had the chance — in fact she wishes it was even a possibility.
“We’re an old school missing person family. We had nothing but a pen, paper and feet back then and all of this technology from the Internet to AI is so valuable,” she said.
“Anything to raise awareness for not only Brenda, but also awareness for domestic violence and missing and/or murdered persons. No one should live this life. It’s harder when there’s no resources and I’m hoping that people come to realize just how helpful technology can be especially when your mind is already taking blow after blow.”
“I know that Brenda would be cheering for this and I feel the same about Gabby,” she said.
“We were alone for 30 years fighting this, we know the value of technology.”
Other families had mixed feelings about using AI to recreate a victim’s voice. Sarah Turney, who, like Christy Kennedy, knows the pain of losing a sister, told The Independent that she would rather let her sister’s silence speak for itself.
“She used her real voice her entire life to scream for help and no one listened,” Turney said. “I hope her silence now is deafening to those who were in positions and had the responsibility to help her.”
Turney was just 12 years old when her 17-year-old sister Alissa disappeared from their Arizona school on May 17, 2001. Turney believes Alissa was killed, but her body has never been found.
Alissa’s story went viral in 2020 when Turney posted her suspicions that her father Michael Turney was the one who killed Alissa. She continued to investigate her sister’s disappearance, which eventually led to her father’s arrest. He has denied killing Alissa and was acquitted of her murder in July 2023.
After dedicating years to finding Alissa, Turney launched multiple podcasts and eventually, the Voices for Justice Media network, to help other families of missing loved ones.
While she says she fully supports what each family feels is right for their loved one, she would not support the use of AI to recreate Alissa’s voice, instead preferring that silence “convey[s] the harsh reality that she is gone and likely never coming back.”
“I think while consumers enjoy their true crime wrapped up neatly in a bow at times, it doesn’t convey the real loss and horror of these tragedies,” Turney added.
