Gabby Petito’s parents sit down with True Crime Arizona ahead of Netflix docuseries release

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The Gabby Petito case is front and center in a new docuseries being released on Netflix on Monday.

Ahead of its release, True Crime Arizona sat down with Gabby’s parents about why it was important to them to finally tell their story about what happened to their daughter and what they’re working toward in the aftermath of her death.

PART ONE: BEHIND THE SCENES

The world may know Gabby Petito, but nobody knows Gabby as her biological and stepparents do: her father, Joe Petito and Tara Petito, and her mom, Nichole Schmidt and Jim Schmidt.

“There was still a lot of the story that a lot of people didn’t know,” said Jim.

“We wanted to tell the story our way,” said Tara.

It’s their turn to share what they saw and how the behind-the-scenes of a nationwide search for their daughter affected them, re-racking their minds about their interactions with Gabby’s fiancé, Brian Laundrie, who police believe suffocated her during their cross-country vlogging trip before returning to Florida without her and taking his own life.

“What was your perception of Brian Laundrie before the van trip?” asked true crime correspondent Briana Whitney.

“I didn’t have a problem with Brian. I liked him. I thought he was a little strange but not in a negative way,” said Gabby’s mom, Nichole.

“Things started to shift for me right before they went on this trip. I was questioning a lot of behaviors from Gabby, and I didn’t understand what was going on,” Tara said.

Gabby and Brian set off on their “Van Life” road trip in early July 2021. A month later, police were called after a witness saw the two arguing in Moab, Utah.

Gabby was distraught, as seen in body camera footage.

“And I was apologizing to him and saying I’m sorry that I’m so mean because sometimes I have OCD and I just get really frustrated,” she’s crying and seen saying on the body camera footage.

Her parents knew about this incident, but Gabby told them things were okay, and the police handled it. Now, seeing the footage, they said they see a domestic violence victim.

“She asks the officer for phone so she can call her mom. And that breaks my heart because I did not get that phone call,” Nichole said.

“She downplayed it considerably; made it sound like it wasn’t as big as it was. Said it was just an argument - they had been traveling together. If we had known how serious it was, we would have been on the next plane to see her,” said Jim.

Gabby was last seen alive on Aug. 27, 2021 in Wyoming. Her mom replays a memory over and over again.

“Who of the 4 of you was the last to talk to Gabby?” asked Briana.

“The 27th was the last texts I received from her,” Nichole said. “I was the one, and I feel very blessed for this, I did get to hug her goodbye before she left for the trip and um, I wish I could give that to the other three parents because it really truly is a blessing that I have.”

Gabby’s body was found after weeks of searches in the Grand Tetons. Brian Laundrie left a note behind in Florida, confessing to taking her life before he took his own.

“What will viewers see in this documentary that they haven’t seen in this case before?” asked Briana.

“Her personality. You’ll see that, more about who she was and how she became who she was. It’s really hard to watch it,” said her dad, Joe.

“There’s also some text messages going back and forth that you get to see,” Tara said.

“Are these concerning messages? Or is this like things were seemingly fine until they weren’t?” asked Briana.

“You see the dynamic of their relationship and how things weren’t how they were portrayed online,” said Joe.

As their daughter’s life, and their own words, are about to be unraveled in front of millions, Gabby’s mom has a heartfelt request.

“Remembering that these are real people. When somebody is in a documentary, it’s a beautiful story, but Gabby is a sister, she is a daughter, she is a friend. She represents so many other people out there. So just remember that these are real people behind these stories,” Nichole said.

PART 2: THEIR MISSION

“If your family could get one theme or message out more than anything to people from this documentary, what is it?” asked Briana.

“You’re not alone. If you’re in a situation and need help, reach out,” said Tara.

“I think social media shows all the good things and it shows this lifestyle that everybody thinks they need to be envious of. It shows happy times, only the good stuff. But behind the scenes you don’t really know what’s going on,” said Nichole.

Gabby’s parents said they learned so much about domestic violence after Gabby’s case skyrocketed into the headlines.

Her disappearance prompted immediate national attention, something her family was so thankful for.

But after they created the Gabby Petito Foundation to work toward missing persons and domestic violence prevention, they learned about missing and murdered Indigenous women whose cases weren’t getting nearly the attention Gabby’s case was and set out to change that.

“We started with the MMIW crisis. Someone had sent me an article of Darlene Gomez talking about Gabby’s story and how it impacted missing persons and brought other peoples’ cases, I guess, to the top of the list. We thought it was important. We reached out to Darlene to see what we could do to help, and I think we’ve had a great partnership ever since,” Joe Petito said. “Jim and Tara, you guys were just in Arizona for Jamie Yazzie and were not slowing down anytime soon.”

Jim and Tara were in Phoenix for the federal sentencing of Jamie Yazzie’s boyfriend, Tre James, in September last year to show their support.

He was sentenced to life in prison. He killed Jamie Yazzie on the Navajo Nation in 2019. Her remains weren’t found for years, and even when they were, murder charges weren’t filed for months.

Gabby’s father and family said all cases should get the same treatment from law enforcement, media, and the public. “It’s all of us; it’s you carrying the story, it’s you interviewing us, it’s other people sharing the stories, you see it now on social media. More and more stories are being shared and we want it to continue, and we hope that gap is filled in more to where you don’t see it anymore. Everyone gets the same attention,” Joe said. “There so many people affected by domestic violence. Don’t let color be the judge of who is and whose not deserving of that attention.”

The True Crime Arizona podcast with the Petito and Schmidt families is being released on Monday, the same day as the Netflix docuseries “American Murder: Gabby Petito.”

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2025 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.