Gabby Petito’s stepmum shares three ‘warning signs’ she missed, five years after her death

Gabby Petito’s stepmother has done a new interview five years after her death, detailing the three warning signs she missed that something was wrong.

The 22-year-old was tragically murdered by her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, while they were travelling across America in a Ford Transit van that had been converted into a camper, and her death was revisited in detail in a three-part Netflix documentary last year.

In a new interview with Criminally Obsessed, Tara Petito, who’s married to Gabby’s father Joe, said there were three red flags she missed that Brian was abusing her, long before she passed away.

Credit: Netflix

Gabby Petito stopped paying her car payments

Tara revealed that she co-signed a car for Gabby in 2018 and she suddenly stopped paying the car payments after beginning to date Laundrie.

“I wanted her to be happy. I wanted her to be doing things that she loved, but I also wanted her to be a responsible and adult. I co-signed a car for her back in 2018 and when she started dating Brian, she stopped making those payments. And that, I think was the first warning sign that I didn’t understand,” she said. 

“I always thought abuse was physical. I didn’t realise that there were many forms of abuse, one being financial, and I didn’t realise there was something going on deeper. So I never asked her, ‘Is there something else going on? Why are you not making the payments?'”

Brian Laundrie acted strangely on a trip to Florida

Right before they left for the trip, Tara and Joe Petito took a trip to Florida to see Gabby and Brian over Easter, and Brian didn’t spend much time with them at all.

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“I thought it was very strange at the time, but he didn’t really hang out with us. We stayed there over a little over a week and a half and he didn’t really hang out with us at all. He hung out with us once, and that was just with me and her brothers, but it was weird. It was very strange looking back at it. It was like he wanted to stay kind of away from us,” Tara recalled. 

“I don’t know how many conversations that I’ve had with Brian. I never met him when they were in high school together. Before they went on their first road trip, I met him a couple times, but they weren’t dating. After they got back from the first road trip, they immediately moved down to Florida. And then I never really spoke to him again that much after that.”

Credit: Netflix

She found out they were engaged through a Facebook post

The third warning sign that something was wrong related to the proposal. Brian never asked Joe for his daughter’s hand in marriage, and they found out Gabby was engaged through a Facebook post.

“He did not ask her father for her hand in marriage. I found out through a Facebook post by his mother. That’s weird. I confronted Gabby. I asked her about it, and she got very standoffish and weird about even trying to talk about it. And I think that was another missed opportunity where I probably could have asked and been there for her a little bit more,” Tara said.

“But again, I didn’t know what I don’t know. And unfortunately, I did not do that. So, again, it was just… these are just things that you just start putting together. It’s the pieces of a puzzle that you just don’t want to see. And now I know he was financially abusing her. Then he was lovebombing her.”

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Featured image by: Netflix