Crime & Safety
NBC's Peacock TV Streams Documentary On Gabby Petito Case Friday
"The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies, and Social Media" features exclusive interviews with the slain Long Islander's family.

LONG ISLAND, NY — Peacock TV will begin streaming a documentary on the Gabby Petito case on Friday.
"The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies, and Social Media" has been billed as including an exclusive interview with the slain Long Islander's parents.
"Her disappearance grabbed headlines. Her story grabbed hearts. Now, it’s Gabby Petito’s parents' turn to speak," reads a promo on the network's Facebook page.
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The 23-year-old Van Life blogger left the home she shared with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, in Florida in July on a cross-country tour of the national parks system. They were supposed to end their trip around Halloween in October, but Laundrie returned home without her in the van on Sept. 1 and would not speak with Petito's family. Petito was reported missing by her family in New York on Sept. 11, setting off a massive search to find her across several states.
"That was like every parent’s nightmare," said her stepfather, Jim Schmidt in the promo, adding, "Just like a flash of a second. She's gone, she's missing."
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Her mother, Nichole Schmidt, says, "the thoughts that were going through my head were, 'something really bad has happened to her.'"
Her father, Joseph Petito, describes the search period as "a blur."
"It was horrific," her stepmother, Tara Petito adds.
Petito was found strangled to death near Grand Teton National Park on Sept. 19. Laundrie, who was the sole person of interest in her death, shot himself to death inside a Florida nature preserve.
"It's so unbelievable," Nichole Schmidt says. "I don't understand."
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