Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old woman from New York, has gone missing after a road trip with her boyfriend, and some of her final appearances took place in the state of Utah.
Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, left Long Island on July 2 for a cross-country road trip. The two had been living in North Port, Florida, for more than two years, per ABC 7.
The two shared photos and videos of their trip, posting them to Instagram and YouTube. The final destination was set to be Portland, Oregon. They planned to arrive in October.
Petito spent a considerable amount of time in Utah during her road trip. She stopped at Zion National Park, where she took a photo in front of cliffs along the Virgin River. She visited the Mystic Hot Springs and Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands and Arches national parks, photos of which she posted on her Instagram.
Her last photo came on Aug. 25. In that photo, Petito was shown holding a small knit pumpkin in front of a mural of butterflies, which is located in Ogden, Utah.
That photo — as well as a few text messages — were the last words she ever shared with her family, according to The Washington Post. No one has seen or heard from Petito since Aug. 30.
Suffolk County Police in New York said in a statement that Petito’s last appearance was at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Her mother, Nichole Schmidt, said she was in constant contact with her daughter throughout the trip, which started in early July, according to CBS New York. The mother and daughter had a FaceTime call in late August, which was the final call the two shared, she said.
“It’s scary and it’s nerve-wracking. We don’t sleep. We’re just actively looking for her,” Nichole Schmidt said.
Schmidt said she received text messages from her daughter on Aug. 27 and Aug. 30, according to Fox News. However, she said she’s unsure if those text messages were from her daughter since they didn’t speak on the phone.
So what about the boyfriend? Well, he has hired attorneys and has not spoken publicly about the case. Police in Florida have tried to speak with the boyfriend, but the boy’s parents won’t allow police to speak with him, according to the New York Post.
“We have not talked with him, we would love to talk to him. He is under no obligation to talk to us — and he has not. And we don’t even know yet if a crime happened,” North Port police spokesman Josh Taylor told the Daily Mail.
The vehicle the couple was traveling in — a white 2012 Ford Transit van, which had Florida plates — was recovered on Saturday in North Port, Florida, per The Daily Mail.
“We have the vehicle, we took it away very late Saturday night into Sunday,” Taylor said.
“We take it, we process it for evidence — fingerprints, any evidentiary value that we think is possible. We are continuing to try to piece the things together. The situation is obviously very fluid,” Taylor said.
The North Port police department said these circumstances aren’t normal.
“We currently have no definitive information that a crime took place here in North Port. With that said, the circumstances are odd,” the department said.
But Schmidt, the mother of Petito, has confidence that her daughter will return home.
“I believe she’s in danger because she’s not in touch with us,” Schmidt said, per ABC 7. “She could be alone somewhere. She could be stranded somewhere in the wilderness and she needs help.”