The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies and Social Media

First off, as of now the other user reviews contain spoilers but the users didn't check the box. So if you stumble on this review first and didn't know about this case, you should skip the other reviews.

Without spoiling anything, this documentary clocks in at a relieving 1 hour and 25 minutes, so up front it's clear that it will be sticking to the story and not wasting our time with a bunch of auxiliary junk like podcast techniques and unnecessary graphical reproductions.

As the title states, this tells the story of the murder of Gabby Petito and all of the media and social media reactions before and after her body was identified. If you're interested in a recap with everything being in one convenient place, this film is recommended. Otherwise, if you followed the case as it unfolded, there probably won't be too much here that you didn't already know. 7/10.

I am one of those who got captivated over the year 2021 regarding the Brian and Gabby story. Her disappearance just didn't make sense. Brian and Gabby literally grew up together in New York. It isn't clear what his ambitions were but she and he decided to travel and blog to have fun exploring and make money doing it. Something it seems many young people want to do. Photos and videos seemed to witness to how much they were enjoying it.

Then came a series of events, one involving a roadside stop by Utah police after witnesses had reported a "domestic" incident where the two were fighting. Not too long after we all got news that Gabby was no longer heard from. Her daily blog stopped. Then Brian showed up back at his parents home, in Gabby's van but without her. Then her remains were located. Some weeks later Brian's remains were located in Florida, the coroner determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot.

So we will never know for sure what happened but Brian's notebook tells us that he was responsible for her death. My own speculation is they had a serious fight, Brian choked her and accidentally killed Gabby then panicked and didn't know what to do. And sadly his parents never cooperated, probably because they knew of his guilt. But that is sheer speculation on my part.

I watched this documentary, I didn't learn much new but it provides one long summary of the sad story of Gabby and Brian. It could have been better, of course. For example they spend some time on a video vacationers accidentally got of Gabby's van around the time she disappeared, analysis indicated the back door was closing, but they never indicated if Gabby's remains were found near there or if the video was just an inconsequential accident. It appears to have been rushed out while the news was fresh.

I watched it streaming on Peacock. I found it worthwhile.

I won't go into detail about the case as most would know the tragic case.

The documentary fairly straight forward retelling of the case and features powerful interviews with Gabby's parents as well as lots of the raw footage.

Unfortunately it increasingly relies far too heavily on 'web sleuth' attention seekers and this is where it falls apart.

They add nothing other than padding out the running time with seemingly endless clips of them talking to themselves online and pretending that they are somehow helping to solve the case.

Can't recommend as it is a 3 hour documentary, that could have been done far more effectively in 60 minutes.

Within 30 seconds of this start of this show, I was in tears. The anguish and the pain that both sets her parents went through was agonizing.

The story was captivating. However the ending was disappointing.

Gabby was not a hero. Far from it. When she had the opportunity to tell police what really happened, she blamed herself. I know she was a victim, but victims have to speak up and defend themselves. Especially when they have the opportunity. Women have to learn to leave men who are abusive, not return to them.

Maybe some will say that Gabby's failure is an inspiration to others to succeed. I hope that is the case. But let's be clear that her case was a failure. She did not speak out. She did not tell the police what really happened. She did not take the opportunity to leave this situation that would soon kill her.

Women please don't do this. Get out of abusive relationships. Stand up for yourself. Leave. Tell the truth.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.

First, I grew up in Jackson Hole and was familar of the exact location where Gabby was found. My pet peeve throughout this documentry was the idiot social media peeps and the idiot media standing outside the home playing armchair detective. They along with these social media vlogers simply wanted followers, their likes, their 15 minutes of fame as most jouranalists do. I will concede the YouTube video of Gabby's van being spotted at the campsite was a major breakthrough but the family never grandstaned their video like these moronic Tic-tokers. Oh it is Grand Teeeeton, not Grand Teeeeten. Pronounce the park correctly or don't say it. I am personally sick and tired of social media people pkaying like they are experts on everything.