‘The Gabby Petito Story’: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Lifetime Movie
The tragic disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito get the Lifetime movie treatment in The Gabby Petito Story. The movie, which airs on Oct. 1, comes roughly a year after Petito’s body was discovered in a remote part of Wyoming. The 22-year-old travel blogger had been murdered by her fiance, Brian Laundrie, with whom she’d been on a cross-country road trip.
The movie stars Skyler Samuels as Petito and Evan Hall as Laundrie. It promises to “bring to life Gabby and Brian’s doomed love story.” But what’s truth and what’s fiction in the film, directed by Thora Birch?
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Gabby Petito Story.]
Fiction: The movie simplifies the first part of Gabby and Brian’s relationship
The Gabby Petito Story traces the early days of Gabby and Brian’s relationship. The pair, who had gone to high school together, reconnected on Long Island, started dating, and eventually moved to Florida to live with his parents. But the movie does alter this part of the story somewhat.
According to a report in Vanity Fair, Brian’s parents had moved to Florida before he and Gabby started dating. He stayed in New York, sleeping on various friends’ couches. Once he and Gabby got together, they took a months-long road trip before relocating to Florida. The movie simplifies this timeline, with Brian moving with his parents to Florida and convincing Gabby to come with him.
Fact: Brian did steal Gabby’s ID to keep her from going out with a friend
Once in Florida, the cracks in Brian and Gabby’s relationship became clear. They worked together at a supermarket, which the movie depicts. Gabby also met a woman named Rose online, and the two became friends.
In the movie, Rose and Gabby make plans to go out one night, which upsets an increasingly jealous and possessive Brian. She grabs her purse and heads out with Rose, but once they get to the bar, she can’t find her ID because Brian has taken it. That mirrors an incident from real life, according to Vanity Fair. Rose has also said she warned her friend about Brian’s behavior, which she found alarming.
Fact: Police in Moab, Utah, did fail to intervene to protect Gabby when Brian assaulted her
In early July 2021, Gabby and Brian left on what was supposed to be a four-month road trip. On Aug. 12, they were in Moab, Utah, when a bystander saw Brian hit Gabby during an argument and called 911. Officers responded, but after pulling over the couple’s van and speaking to both of them, they decided Gabby was the aggressor. They chose not to arrest Gabby. But they did connect Brian with a local organization for victims of domestic violence, which put him up in a hotel for the night.
The scenes depicting Gabby and Brian’s interactions with police are almost identical to body-cam footage of the officers responding to the altercation. The movie also appears to draw from an official report (via the City of Moab) on the incident, which was produced in response to scrutiny from critics who said the police should have done more to help the clearly distressed young woman.
Fiction: The FBI agent who helps the Petito family was invented for the movie
Gabby kept in regular contact with her family during her trip with Brian, but in late August she fell off the radar. Her parents became concerned and alerted authorities in early September. In the movie, Gabby’s family struggles to get anyone to take her disappearance seriously until they connect with a sympathetic FBI agent played by Matisha Baldwin.
Agent Shaw appears to be a character created for the movie who is inspired by various law enforcement officers who worked on the case. For example, some lines she delivers at the press conference during the search for Gabby were actually spoken by the chief of police in North Point, Florida, where Brian lived with his parents.
Fiction: The movie imagines what happens in private moments between Gabby and Brian, including right before Gabby’s murder
About a week after Gabby was reported missing, human remains were found in a national forest in Wyoming. They were later determined to be Gabby’s. By that time, Brian had disappeared, and his family was unable or unwilling to say where he was. On Oct. 20, his remains were discovered in a remote area of a Florida park. Authorities later determined he’d died by suicide.
The Lifetime movie depicts these events. But it also imagines the final moments of both Gabby and Brian. In the film, the Gabby character tells Brian she wants to end their relationship. That leads him to attack and kill her. Viewers also see Brian speaking to a vision of his late girlfriend before taking his own life. Once his body is discovered, officers find a notebook in which he reveals that he was responsible for her death. The FBI did recover a notebook near Brian’s remains, which contained a confession. But they have not revealed any specific details about what he wrote about Gabby’s death.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.
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