A timeline of the Gabby Petito case
Laundrie returned to the pair’s North Port, Florida, home earlier this month without Petito and refused to talk to authorities, police said. His parents later told police he left home with a backpack on September 14. Local and federal authorities searched for Laundrie in a Florida nature reserve but said Tuesday those efforts have “yet to yield any answers.”
Here’s what we know about the timeline in Petito’s case.
June 2021
Petito and Laundrie embark on a cross-country trip, according to North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison, who refers to Laundrie as Petito’s fiancé.
They planned to travel in Petito’s white Ford van to the West Coast and visit state and national parks across the western United States, Garrison says at a news briefing.
She had been excited to share her journey with her family and others on social media, he says.
“She maintained regular contact with her family members during her travels; however, that communication abruptly stopped around the end of August,” the police chief adds.
August 12, 2021
Moab, Utah, police have an encounter with the couple on August 12, where officers describe them as having “engaged in some sort of altercation.”
Although the two are described as getting into a physical fight following an argument, “both the male and female reported they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn’t wish to see anyone charged with a crime,” a report from officer Eric Pratt says.
At officers’ suggestion, the couple separated for the night, the report says, which describes Petito as “confused and emotional.”
“After evaluating the totality of the circumstances, I do not believe the situation escalated to the level of a domestic assault as much as that of a mental health crisis,” officer Daniel Robbins writes in the report. No charges are filed.
The couple each had their own cell phones in case of emergency, the report adds.
In a 911 audio recording from that day which was provided by the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, a caller tells dispatch he wanted to report a domestic dispute and described a white van with a Florida license plate.
The caller said that as they were driving by, “the gentleman was slapping the girl.”
“Then we stopped,” the caller added. “They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off.”
Last week of August
In a news conference in September, Petito family attorney Richard Stafford says the family’s last communication with Petito was August 30, but they do not believe the message they received was from her.
Stafford shares a timeline of events on September 17, as the family knows it:
On August 25, there are multiple texts between Petito and her mother. The young woman’s family believes she is in the Tetons on this date.
On August 27, there were more texts between Petito and her mother, during which her family believes she remains in the Tetons.
On August 30, her family receives their last text from Petito. They doubt she wrote that text. According to Stafford, that message reads, “No service in Yosemite.”
In a series of videos posted on TikTok, Miranda Baker said she and her boyfriend picked up Laundrie that evening while he was hitchhiking in Colter Bay, Wyoming. Laundrie told them he had been camping at a site outside the Grand Teton National Park, near the Snake River, she said.
Once Laundrie found out Baker and her boyfriend were going to Jackson Hole instead of Jackson, he got agitated, asked that the vehicle stop, and got out near the Jackson Dam, according to Baker.
Baker said she spoke to law enforcement about the interaction. North Port police confirmed to CNN that Baker spoke with the department before posting the videos on TikTok.
“Her account is plausible, it appears,” North Port police spokesperson Josh Taylor said. CNN has not been able to independently verify Baker’s claims.
September 1, 2021
Laundrie returns to the couple’s North Port home, where his parents also live, on September 1, according to police.
According to an affidavit attached to a search warrant request, a license plate reader shows the vehicle exited Interstate 75 into North Port at 10:26 a.m. ET.
The white vehicle Petito and Laundrie had been traveling in was later recovered by police at the home. It was processed and “there was some material in there” that authorities will be going through, Taylor, the police spokesperson, says at a news briefing.
September 11, 2021
After not being able to get in touch with her, Petito’s family — who lives in New York — reports her missing to the Suffolk County, New York, Police Department.
North Port authorities go to Laundrie’s home that night and ask to speak to him and his family, but “we were essentially handed the information for their attorney,” Taylor, the police spokesperson, says.
“That is the extent of our conversation with them,” Taylor says.
September 16
In a letter read by the Petito family attorney during a news briefing held by police, the missing woman’s family begs for Laundrie’s family to help in the investigation.
“Please, if you or your family have any decency left, please, tell us where Gabby is located,” Stafford says. “Tell us if we are even looking in the right place. All we want is for Gabby to come home. Please help us make that happen.”
He says Petito’s family reached out to Laundrie’s family earlier in the month for information on Petito’s whereabouts, but his family refused to answer.
“We haven’t been able to sleep or eat, and our lives are falling apart,” the Petito family’s letter adds.
September 17
“We’ve been trying all week to talk to his family, to talk to Brian, and now they’ve called us here on Friday, we’ve gone to the home, and they’re saying now they have not seen their son,” Taylor tells CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “It is another twist in this story.”
Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino tells CNN “the whereabouts of Brian Laundrie are currently unknown. The FBI is currently at the Laundrie residence removing property to assist in locating Brian. As of now the FBI is now looking for both Gabby and Brian.”
September 18
North Port police say authorities are conducting a search for Laundrie at the Carlton Reserve, a natural area with more than 80 miles of hiking trails in Venice, Florida.
Roughly 50 law enforcement officers from five local agencies and the FBI are searching for Laundrie, Taylor, the police spokesperson, says at a news conference, adding that Laundrie has an “enormous amount of pressure” on him to provide answers to what’s going on.
September 19
Human remains discovered in Teton County, Wyoming, are “consistent with the description of” Petito, FBI officials say in a news conference.
“Full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100% that we found Gabby, but her family has been notified of this discovery,” Charles Jones, FBI Denver’s supervisory senior resident agent in Wyoming, says.
September 20
The parents of Brian Laundrie are questioned at their home by the FBI.
Christopher and Roberta Laundrie are escorted from their home and return after federal agents executed a search warrant, according to Taylor, the North Port police spokesperson. Authorities search the home for hours.
Police say they have exhausted search avenues at the nature reserve and the search area has shifted.
September 21
“The cause of death remains pending final autopsy results,” the FBI said.
CNN’s Linh Tran and Gregory Lemos contributed to this report.
