Gabby Petito Lifetime Movie Officially Underway
By MLC on June 29, 2022 at 11:00 AM EDT
The Lifetime original movie surrounding Gabby Petito’s death is currently in production.
The movie loosely titled “The Gabby Petito Story” will detail the senseless murder done by the hands of her fiancé, Brian Laundrie.
Recent photos from set surfaced and show production is underway in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"The Gabby Petito Story" Is In Production
The movie is being directed by Thora Birch, who will also star as Gabby’s mother in the movie.
Lifetime said the project is part of their “Stop Violence Against Women” campaign.
Brian murdered Gabby last year during a cross-country road trip that was well documented on social media.
Brian Killed Gabby By Strangling Her
In fact, there was so much footage and photos on social media of their trip that unsuspecting campers saw Gabby’s van right around the time of her murder. It played an integral part in piecing together the timeline of her disappearance and death.
Brian returned home to North Port, Florida without his significant other in September, and Gabby’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, filed a missing person report on September 11, 2021.
A little over a week later, her daughter’s body was found in a National Park in Wyoming. The coroner believed her death to have occurred sometime in mid-August.
She had been out in the elements for weeks before her body was recovered.
Gabby’s official cause of death was manual strangulation.
Upon returning to Florida, Brian sent FBI agents and local law enforcement officials on a wild manhunt for him.
Parts of his body were discovered in the Carlton Nature Reserve near his parent’s North Port home. Along with his body was a notebook and backpack.
The notebook holds the grim truth behind why Brian killed his fiancé.
Brian Felt Her Had To Kill Gabby Because It Was 'Merciful'
Last week, we reported that the Laundrie’s family lawyer made the contents of his notebook public.
Brian admitted he killed his fiancée in a notebook entry he wrote shortly before he took his own life.
Now, the entirety of his journal entry following his confession has been made public.
Fox News first obtained photos of the notebook entries.
Laundrie explains how Gabby’s death happened.
The 23-year-old praised his former fiancée writing, “I love you more than anything… When I close my eyes I will think of laying on the roof of the van, falling asleep to the sight of a meteor shower at the crystal geyser. I will always love you.”
“I hear a splash and a scream. I could barely see, I couldn’t find her for a moment, shouted her name. I found her breathing heavily gasping my name, she was freezing cold. We had just came from the blazing hot National Parks in Utah,” he wrote. “The temperature had dropped to freezing and she was soaking wet. I carried her as far as I could down the stream towards the car, stumbling exhausted in shock, when my knees buckled and knew I couldn’t safely carry her. I started a fire and spooned her as close to the heat, she was so thin, had already been freezing for too long. I couldn’t at the time realize that I should’ve started a fire first but I wanted her out of the cold back to the car.”
He explained that after Gabby fell in the water she couldn’t tell him what hurt, but she had a small bump on her forehead which grew in size as time went on.
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This is Brian Laundrie’s notebook confession where he admits he ended Gabby's life. pic.twitter.com/f3iyTutWpo— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) June 24, 2022
After Brian Killed Gabby, He Realized The 'Mistakes' He Made
“Her feet hurt. Her wrist hurt but she was freezing, shaking violently, while carrying her she continually made sounds of pain, laying next to her she said lapsing between violent shakes, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain,” his notebook entry continued. “I ended her life, I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked, I was in shock. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldn’t go on without her.”
Laundrie said he rushed home without Gabby’s body to spend “any time I had left with my family.”
He said he wanted to drive north to let two guys kill him, but he didn’t want them to “spend time in jail over my mistake.”
“I am ending my life not because of a fear of punishment but rather because I can’t stand to live another day without her. Please do not make life harder for my family, they lost a son and a daughter. The most wonderful girl in the world. Gabby I’m sorry,” he continued. “I have killed myself by this creek in hopes that animals may tear me apart. That it may make some of her family happy. Please pick up all of my things. Gabby hated people who litter.”