A witness said Brian Laundrie was "acting crazy" before he killed Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing in August 2021 and was found dead later the one month.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report, the witness saw Petito and Laundrie in Moab, Utah while he was traveling and his family from Las Vegas to Denver.
While driving, he noticed a couple with a van parked on the side of the road. A man slapped the woman, believed to be Petito.
Because of this, the witness returned, parked on the other side of the road, and watched the two for 10 to 15 minutes, from 4:30 PM to 4:45 PM.
According to an FBI document released by the New York Post, as the witness watched the two, Laundrie disappeared—opening and closing the van door loudly, walking around, and seemed to plead with Petito. He even tried to hug her, but she pushed him away. After a while, he pushed the woman's legs into the van, closed the door, and got into the driver's seat.
At that moment, the witness noticed that they were both crying, and Laundrie seemed confused, holding her head between her hands.
The witness wanted to intervene but did not continue because he called 911 after a truck almost hit their car.
When he saw on the news that Petito was missing, he immediately reported to the FBI in September 2021 what he saw and said he was sure Petito was the woman he saw in Moab.
According to reports, abusive the relationship between Laundrie and Petito.
On August 28, 2021, Laundrie walked from their last location in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming to another part of the park.
Two days later, he used Petito's van to drive home to Florida, without Gabby. Ten days before Petito's family reported him missing, Laundrie suddenly disappeared as well.
Petito's body was found, and according to the autopsy, he was strangled and suffered blunt-force trauma to the head and neck.
In October 2021, Laundrie's remains were also found in a nature reserve. He has a notebook where he confessed that he killed Petito before he committed suicide.
Petito and Laundrie's case is trending again after the release of the Netflix miniseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito."
