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15th Aug 2022

WATCH: The first trailer for The Gabby Petito Story has dropped

Ellen Fitzpatrick

Gabby died last year.

The story of Gabby Petito’s disappearance and death was one that captured people from across the globe, with many twists and turns in what was an utterly devastating case.

Marking the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the US, a docu-film called The Gabby Petito Story will air on the American TV channel Lifetime on October 1st.

Bringing viewers through Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie’s turbulent relationship, it looks into what might have gone wrong during their trip across the US which left Gabby murdered by Brian and him eventually taking his own life.

The trailer for the film starts with Gabby and Brian, played by Skyler Samuels and Evan Hall, and the two are happy as a couple. However, as they go off on the road trip, things begin to worsen.

“One second I’m so happy and in love, and the next he’s like a total stranger,’ Gabby says in the trailer. Gabby’s mum, played by Thora Birch, then says “something is not right” about the couple.

Marking the one-year anniversary since Gabby was reported missing, the film is part of Lifetime’s Stop Violence Against Women public affairs initiative.

Partnering with National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, they are going to provide those who need it with the best resources and a helpline.

Once the film airs, a documentary special is set to follow called Beyond the Headlines: Gabby Petito.

In August last year, Gabby and Brian took off on a road trip, before Gabby stopped answering texts and calls from friends and family. She was then reported missing on September 11th when Brian returned to his family home in Florida without Gabby and refused to speak with police about her disappearance.

His family also initially did not tell Gabby’s family that Brian had returned home without her.

By the end of September, Gabby’s remains were found in a national park in Wyoming, with her cause of death being determined as strangulation.

Brian himself then was reported missing and discovered dead in a swamp near his Florida home, with the cause of death being a self inflicted gunshot wound.

Brian was found guilty of her murder after FBI discovered a written confession in a notebook belonging to him, with him being a person of interest in the case for weeks prior his death.