Gabby Petito documentary: Chilling text messages with killer Brian Laundrie

The disturbing months and days before American woman Gabby Petito was found dead in a national park have been picked apart, with a string of text messages exposed.

The disturbing months and days before American woman Gabby Petito was found dead in a remote US national park have been exposed in a new Netflix documentary.

In the explosive docuseries, dubbed American Murder: Gabby Petito, which aired in Australia on February 17, it was revealed that days before Petito was murdered she told her ex-boyfriend she wanted to leave Brian Laundrie – but was fearful of how he might react.

Petito’s ex-boyfriend, identified only as Jackson, said the two spoke on August 22 after she got into a fight with Laundrie. At the time, he thought the call was a “cry for help,” Jackson told the filmmakers behind the docuseries.

Jackson recalled Petito telling him, “I have a plan. I think I want to leave him. I’m going to do it. I have to figure out when to do it,” according to USA Today.

“From the sound of her voice and the way she was saying it,” he said. “I think that she wasn’t sure of what he would do or what he could do.”

Gabby Petito, who was murdered in 2021, is the focus of a new documentary.

Brian Laundrie questioned by police during their cross-country road trip in the US.

Petito texted her ex-boyfriend again on August 27 when she and Laundrie were in Jackson, Wyoming, to tell him the town’s name reminded her of him, according to Fox News Digital.

The new docuseries unveiled previously unseen text messages from Petito, as well as interviews with her parents and other loved ones.

Text messages from August 27 shed light on a fight Laundrie was seen having with workers at the Merry Piglets Tex-Mex restaurant in Jackson – which many thought was a catalyst for Laundrie’s rage just hours before Petito’s murder.

Petito’s ex-boyfriend, Jackson, told the Netflix docuseries’ filmmakers that she had reached out to him in the days before her death. Picture: Netflix.

Texts show the argument he was seen having with an employee stemmed from Petito claiming the food made her sick.

Witnesses told Fox they believed Laundrie was arguing with the restaurant’s staff about money, and that he left and returned four separate times.

In 2021 Petito and Laundrie packed their 2012 white Ford Transit Connect van for a cross-country road trip in the US.

The new Netflix documentary delves into the lives of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie.

Gabby Petito was murdered by strangulation.

Throughout their travels, she posted photos of them on social media and on her YouTube channel, with the pair embracing one another and kissing at Utah’s Mystic Hot Springs.

But the smiles came to a devastating end, when Laundrie returned to his parents’ Florida home alone on September 1 — without Petito.

Authorities conducted a mass land and water search after family and friends hadn’t heard from the young American in weeks, only to discover her body near Grand Teton National Park on September 19 and a coroner ruled her death a homicide.

Laundrie later took his own life in a nearby national park to his home in Florida and penned a handwritten note admitting to the murder.

Petito and Laundrie started dating in 2019, and were engaged in mid-2020.

In the Netflix docuseries, her friend Rose Davis spoke of a time he grabbed Petito’s ID so they couldn’t go on a girls night out together.

Text messages have exposed the controlling traits of Brian Laundrie.

She claimed he chastised Petito for working at fast food restaurant Taco Bell and called her “disgusting.”

Ms Davis said Laundrie later explained his objection to Petito going out as “worry” she’d leave and that he “couldn’t have my life without you.”

She went on to explain that Petito would often blame herself if Laundrie was upset, saying she didn’t “deserve” him or that she is a “bad person”.

In a text shown, Petito pleaded to Laundrie, “Don’t try to control me because it only makes me mad. I love you so much but it’s the way you speak to me that hurts me most.”

Petito’s body was found on September 19. Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation.

– with New York Post