Review of American Murder: Gabby Petito

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m watching.

For three years I worked professionally as a film critic, and while going to all of the film festivals and interviewing directors and actors was cool for a while, but I wanted to reclaim my time and watch movies I wanted to watch. Sometimes watching all of the new releases is great, and behind ahead of the curve, but I feel like I was falling so behind on movies I was genuinely excited about.

So I quit and decided to focus on this blog. I also randomly fell into a period of unemployment because of unexpected circumstances, and I took a long and hard look at my finances and realized I had enough to take time off. I did end up doing that, traveled for a bit, applied to jobs, and found myself working on the blog now more than ever.

One of my goals in 2025, which I began implementing in late 2024, is to read more outside of the box for me. I know what I like—that’s one of the big pros of being a blogger. You become hyperaware of what works for you and what doesn’t, which means that you might be able to curate reads and watches that work well for you.

So one day my sister and mother wanted to gather in the living room of our childhood home and watch the series on Gabby Petito that had just come out. I remember clearly when Gabby went missing and it was all over the news, and while I felt so sad for her (I just knew Brian had done it—domestic violence is such a common occurrence in these situations), I was also annoyed at the media for giving her more attention that people of color who were also missing.

I now know her father is doing incredible work to spotlight some BIPOC individuals, which is great, and a massive step forward for everyone and the media. We can prevent situations like Gabby’s for people of all races and nationalities in the United States.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction.

A deep dive into the last years and death of Gabby Petito, and the situation that led her there.

So this edition of American Murder is three episodes long, and unlike the recent docuseries that came out about JonBenet Ramsey, I thought that this actually had enough material to be three episodes. The JonBenet Ramsey series just felt too dragged out to me, and I began losing interest as I watched through each episode.

Anyways, this series focuses on Gabby Petito. If you’re not aware of who she was, here’s a brief rundown. In 2021 Gabby went on a roadtrip with her fiance Brian across the United States. They were living the van life and everything; Gabby wanted to vlog most of the trip so she could have memories and an income, which Brian disagreed with (as we see in this series).

However, Gabby fell off the radar completely and wasn’t responding to texts. Her parents began to worry that no one could reach either of them, but then Brian returned to his Florida home with the van they were living in. Gabby was reported as missing, the Laundrie family began to get staked out by the FBI, and then Brian went off and killed himself eventually, confessing to the crime in his journal.

The media around this disappearance was frenzied during this time. People were really trying to find this girl and the feds were heavily involved with the search for her body. She was eventually found and put to rest, with many other bodies being found in the area during this process, and her death was not a natural one due to the wounds found on the body.

The series starts from the beginning, interviewing family members, friends, and even Gabby’s ex-boyfriend. We learn how Gabby, a girl from Long Island, met Brian, living in Florida, and how they began dating. One of her friends interviewed described the weird vibes Brian had, as well as the fact he seemed a little controlling, but Gabby was madly in love.

Through these interviews we begin seeing that not everything was what it seemed on the surface with this relationship. While they portrayed this happy and loving couple on their vlogs and on social media, even to her family, they were fighting. At one point in the docuseries, Gabby’s ex-boyfriend says she was talking to him of all people about leaving Brian because she was scared. She never did.

The most haunting footage shown on the documentary to me is the one where the police pulled them over. That could have saved her life, but instead she took the blame and was forced to sleep alone in the van, while Brian was the victim and got a hotel room for those who’ve been domestically assaulted.

Throughout it was quite apparent that Gabby was keeping excuses about his behavior, as she wasn’t fully aware this was dangerous until it was too late.

Overall Thoughts

I hadn’t thought about this case in years until suddenly I was watching these three episodes in the span of a couple of days. All in all, I found this to be a good experience watching the docuseries. Some docuseries don’t do the true crime element well, but the balance of the interviews, with the footage and journals, as well as the storytelling really worked for this one.

It was really sad what happened to Gabby, so I can only hope that this series helps other women who find themselves in the same situation. Some might not realize they’re in a similar situation, but by recognizing Gabby’s warning signs and how she ended up that way, maybe one life out there can be saved before it’s too late.

I say go watch this if you have time and are interested. It’s definitely worth picking up at least once! It might also be a good lazy Saturday watch.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.