Date uploaded: 2021-10-12 19:15:24

Travel vlogger Gabby Petito, whose disappearance fueled intense interest across the nation and spurred a search for her missing fiance, died by strangulation, a Wyoming medical examiner said Tuesday. Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue ruled Petito's death a homicide last month. He said Tuesday Petito's body had been "outside in the wilderness for three to four weeks" before it was found Sept. 20. "Unfortunately this is only one of many deaths around the country of people involved in domestic violence," Blue said. Blue said he could not comment on how he reached his conclusions or who may have killed Petito, 22. He noted law enforcement took DNA samples from the body. Petito had been on a cross-country road trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie, occasionally posting happy social media photos and stories along the way. But police video soon emerged of problems between them, and officers at one point separated them for a night after a domestic dispute had turned physical. Laundrie was last seen a few days before Petito's body was found. He had told his parents he was going hiking in the Carlton Reserve, a sprawling wilderness and wetland area near the Florida home that Laundrie and Petito shared with his parents in North Port. His disappearance prompted a massive, weeks-long search.