7 hours Ago By Daisy Phillipson
American Murder: Gabby Petito covers the 2021 murder case in great depth, but an investigative reporter has shared shocking details on what the Netflix documentary didn’t show. The new true crime docu-series tracks the case as it happened, speaking with Gabby’s friends and family to get a better insight into her relationship with Brian Laundrie. During their vanlife trip across the US, Brian murdered Gabby before traveling home to Florida.
One of the key focuses of American Murder is the actions of not only Brian but also his parents, Roberta and Christopher Laundrie , due to their lack of cooperation with the authorities. Brian eventually went on the run during the search for Gabby before dying by suicide. The Netflix docu-series , which is currently in first place on the Top 10 chart in the US, offers fresh details about the viral case.
But there are also many twists and turns that were left out, which you can find below. Mistakes made by Moab police Katy Forrester, assistant exclusives editor at The Sun, has revealed in a new video , “ Mistakes made by the Moab Police Department are not mentioned in the series, but are something I focused on as I travelled to Utah to investigate.” The reporter highlighted the November 2022 lawsuit taken out by Gabby Petito’s parents against Moab PD, seeking $50 million in damages.
“An investigative report revealed officers had probable cause of domestic violence and should have made an arrest,” Forrester continued. “Not doing so violated state law, according to the report. Officers also failed to document Gabby’s facial injuries, which were revealed in a heartbreaking selfie taken on her cell phone.
” Questions surrounding Eric Pratt What’s more, through her own investigation, Forrester discovered one of the responding officers, Eric Pratt, had actually been promoted to detective after the incident, a move that “angered locals in the tourist town.” Related “Sickening” Moab Police review-bombed after Netflix’s American Murder: Gabby Petito The Moab PD officer was one of the key defendants in the Petito family lawsuit, accusing him of being “fundamentally biased in his approach to the investigation, choosing to believe Gabby’s abuser, ignoring evidence that Gabby was the victim and intentionally looking for loopholes to get around the requirements of Utah law and his duty to protect Gabby”. The complaint also includes claims from a woman named as ‘Witness 1’, who accused Pratt of engaging in extra-marital affairs.
According to her account, Pratt threatened to kill her with a crowbar if she outed him. “One of the women (‘Witness 1’) Pratt was involved with between approximately March 2017 and June 2017 has provided credible testimony that Pratt improperly used his position to use government buildings for sex,” it states. “Witness 1 states that it was Pratt’s regular practice to not follow through on investigations or to sweep cases under the rug to avoid work, stating, ‘It’s too much paperwork,’ or, ‘There’s no way I’m doing all that paperwork.
’ “Witness 1 states that Pratt improperly used his position as police chief to improperly manipulate her and to sexually harass her. Witness 1 states that when she intended to disclose Pratt’s pervasive misconduct, Pratt threatened to kill her. “Pratt pulled Witness 1 over in her car, with her five-year-old daughter in the back seat.
Pratt credibly and clearly threatened her, stating, ‘If any of this gets out, I will kill you with a crowbar.’” Wrongful death lawsuit is “moving forward” As Dexerto previously reported , the family’s wrongful death lawsuit against Moab PD was dismissed in November 2024, another detail that isn’t included in American Murder: Gabby Petito . However, Forrester has confirmed that an appeal against this decision is making progress.
“ The wrongful death suit was dismissed, but I can reveal Gabby’s family have now appealed and are not giving up,” she said. “Their lawyer told me this week the appeal is moving forward. On February 10th, the Utah Supreme Court took the appeal directly, rather than allowing it to go through the Court of Appeals first.
They will be setting a briefing schedule soon.” “It’s devastating to think that years later, Gabby’s family is still fighting for justice,” Forrester added. “Nobody has faced consequences for the nightmare they endured, and Brian’s death means they will have questions that are still left unanswered for many years to come.
” Police’s failure to keep track of Brian Laundrie Although American Murder: Gabby Petito does briefly mention how Brian Laundrie managed to slip through the police’s fingers, it doesn’t go into detail about the mishaps that occurred. As stated by Forrester, ”North Point Police Chief Todd Garrison told a press conference on September 16, 2021 that he knew where Brian was. “But days earlier, his family lawyer allegedly reported him missing to the FBI, claiming he went out for a hike and his parents haven’t seen him since.
” “How police failed to keep tabs on him is something that baffles me to this day,” she added, and it’s one that baffles followers of the true crime case. Laundrie family’s response to American Murder It’s obvious why this isn’t included in the Netflix docu-series – Christopher and Roberta Laundrie couldn’t respond to it until it was out. Although we already knew they weren’t happy with the claims made in American Murder, Forrester has since discovered that they will not be taking legal action against the streaming service or the studio.
The Laundries’ attorney, Steven Bertolino, slammed the doc, stating, “One perspective depicted as the ‘truth’ as seen through their lens. Similar to Republicans and Democrats fighting it out lately. “Each side believes their perspective is correct.
Hard to see through the lens of the other with all the noise and distrust. To be clear though, there were no contradictions by my clients Chris and Roberta Laundrie. “The documentary contained many inaccuracies, incorrect juxtapositions of timelines, and misstatements and omissions of fact – perhaps deliberate to capture their ‘truth’, perhaps due to simple error.
“We all know Brian took Gabby’s life and Brian then took his own as well.” However, Forrester confirmed that Bertolino didn’t reveal which aspects of the documentary were “inaccurate,” and that “despite their view of the series, he confirmed they will not be suing and their only aim is to move on.” Why American Murder creators couldn’t include everything American Murder filmmakers Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro explained to US Weekly about why many of the details surrounding the Gabby Petito case didn’t make the cut.
“There was so much amazing material of Gabby’s that we wanted to include,” said Nason. “But we really also didn’t want to oversaturate the viewer and we wanted to balance it out with the actual scope of the crime and the ins and outs of the investigation, which was astronomical in terms of the feat of the investigators, how national this case was and how was a double missing person case across huge amounts of acres.” She went on to explain that they wanted to create a “balance”, but added, “We could just do a whole doc that was just Gabby’s journals.
” American Murder: Gabby Petito is streaming on Netflix now. For more on the doc, read more about Roberta’s ‘burn after reading’ letter , why you can’t find the heroic FBI agent Loretta Bush online , and why the conspiracy theory Brian faked his death is wrong ..
