Gabby Petito’s cause of death was strangulation, a Wyoming coroner said Tuesday, as the nationwide manhunt persisted for the Long Island woman’s missing fiancé.
Petito’s remains were found on Sept. 19 at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area campground in Bridger-Teton National Forest. Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue had previously ruled it a homicide.
But the 22-year-old’s official cause of death wasn’t disclosed until Tuesday, though Blue did not reveal any other details.
Sept. 22, 202102:21
Petito and Laundrie were on a cross-country road trip, chronicling their travels on social media, before he returned to his parents’ home in North Port, Florida, arriving there on Sept. 1 without his fiancée, police said.
The woman’s family reported her missing on Sept. 11 and Laundrie himself soon vanished as well.
Laundrie’s family told investigators he had gone hiking on Sept. 14 in the Carlton Reserve in Florida and never returned. Law enforcement searched the 25,000-acre wildlife refuge multiple times looking for him.
There have been numerous reported sightings of Laundrie up and down the East Coast since.
Police have thus far only called Laundrie a “person of interest” in their investigation into Petito’s disappearance, but there is an arrest warrant out for him after authorities said he used her debit card without permission.
Also last month, the Grand County Sheriff’s Office in Utah released 911 audio from a witness who said he saw a man slap a woman and then saw a white Ford Transit van bearing a Florida license plate drive away.
The 911 call led Moab police to stop the van — driven by Laundrie, with Petito as a passenger — on Aug. 12.
The incident appeared to be a mental and emotional “break,” police said, writing that Petito had slapped Laundrie. They forced the couple to separate for the night to avoid a case of domestic assault against Petito.
Sept. 24, 202103:50
The intense focus on Petito’s disappearance raised questions about the lack of comparable news coverage of missing people who are not white.
The disparity in national attention has been particularly infuriating to nearby Indigenous communities, where scores of Native American women have gone missing with little or no news coverage.
This is a developing story, please refresh here for updates.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
