Nichole Schmidt is calling out online sleuths who continue to spread conspiracy theories about her daughter’s murder five years after the fact.
Schmidt, the mother of slain travel vlogger Gabby Petito, said US that “armchair detectives” keep pushing false narratives about the 2021 killing even after her daughter’s fiancé confessed to the crime in a suicide note. Petito, 22, disappeared in late August 2021 while traveling through Wyoming in a converted van with Brian Laundrie, 23, and her body was found the following month at Grand Teton National Park. An autopsy determined she had been strangled.
“The creators and the armchair detectives, as we like to call them –– people who are trying to create these other stories, speculation, and trying to make things different than what the simple answer is — Brian killed her, and then he took his life,” Schmidt said.
The online speculation has taken increasingly bizarre forms. Schmidt noted that some creators have claimed Laundrie is still alive, that the couple were crisis actors, or that the entire story was fabricated. “And I’m just like, I wish it was fake. I wish that my daughter was still here. Like, just horrible, horrible things like that,” she continued. “And then it just kind of kept going. And it’s still today, I still see videos pop up.”
The harassment has persisted despite a clear confession from Laundrie himself. His skeletal remains were discovered on Oct. 20, 2021, in a Florida nature park, alongside a backpack and notebook containing his admission that he had killed Petito. “I ended her life. I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made,” Laundrie wrote in the notebook recovered by the FBI. He had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The case first drew national attention after Petito’s family reported her missing on Sept. 11, 2021, following weeks of silence. Laundrie had returned alone to his parents’ home in North Port, Florida, on Sept. 1, ten days before the missing person report was filed. Petito’s family had desperately tried to get information from the Laundrie family during that period, according to reports from the time.
A domestic violence incident weeks before Petito’s death had already put the couple on law enforcement’s radar. On Aug. 12, 2021, Utah police responded to a 911 call reporting a domestic dispute between Petito and Laundrie in Moab. Bodycam footage showed a highly distressed Petito crying uncontrollably as officers questioned the pair. However, officers categorized the incident as a mental health break rather than domestic assault, and instead of making an arrest, they separated the couple for the night.
Petito was last seen alive in Jackson, Wyoming, and her family lost contact with her shortly after Aug. 25. The final days of communication came during what had been presented as a dream adventure: the couple spent the summer of 2021 traveling across the western US in a white Ford Transit van, documenting their journey on social media for thousands of followers.
The case exploded across the internet as amateur investigators pored over Petito’s Instagram posts and YouTube videos, searching for clues. That initial wave of public attention helped pressure law enforcement, but Schmidt’s recent comments highlight how the online fixation curdled into something more toxic and persistent. “Once she was found, the story was kind of still ongoing,” she explained, describing how the speculation failed to die down even after both the victim and killer had been found.
Petito’s family now runs the Gabby Petito Foundation, which supports missing persons and domestic violence prevention efforts. The organization represents their effort to channel the attention surrounding Gabby’s death into concrete advocacy work, even as they continue battling the conspiracy theories that Schmidt says exploit their tragedy for online content.
A warrant for Laundrie’s arrest had been issued by the US District Court of Wyoming just days before his remains were discovered, following the grim finding of Petito’s body on Sept. 19.