TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Previously unseen video shows Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie shopping together at a Wyoming Whole Foods store not long before her death.
The video, obtained from the Town of Jackson Police on Tuesday, was taken Aug. 27, the day Petito’s family said they last spoke with her. They claim Laundrie told his parents he killed Petito the next day.
In the video, Petito and Laundrie are seen pulling into the parking lot in her white Ford Transit van. The couple shopped for about 15 minutes, bought cheese and coffee and left the store. They sat in their van for another 20 minutes before pulling out of the parking lot and getting back onto the highway to continue their journey.
A body language expert with more than 20 years of experience reviewed the video and told 8 On Your Side Petito’s body language at the store was ‘telling’.
“Her head is down, you look at her facial expressions, she is not a happy camper. You can see that there is sadness there and as she is walking along with him, and that doesn’t change,” said body language expert Susan Constantine-Perfido. “Overall, that relationship was really, it may have been close, but there was also a lot of friction because you don’t see them holding hands, you don’t see him putting his arm around her or even her wanting to touch him.”
In July 2021, the couple set off on a lengthy road trip, which they documented on their YouTube and Instagram pages.
Petito was reported missing by her mother on Sept. 11. Her body was found Sept. 19 near Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.
Investigators searched for Laundrie for more than a month before his body was found in Sarasota County’s Carlton Reserve. The FBI said he shot himself in the head, and confessed to killing Petito in a notebook found near his remains.
Petito’s family sued Laundrie’s parents, Brian and Roberta Laundrie, for $30,000, claiming they had hindered the search for their missing daughter, knowing she was murdered by their son.
A motion to dismiss that lawsuit was denied in June.
