Van-lifer, 22, disappears after cross-country trip to Yellowstone with her fiancée

A New York woman who was traveling across the United States with her fiancé, while living out of a van, has been reported missing after he returned home without her.

Gabby Petito, 22, of Blue Point, New York, was last seen on August 24 when she checked out of a hotel with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The following day she made her final call to her family, telling them that she and Laundrie had traveled to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

The pair were heading for Yellowstone National Park but Petito never made it.

Laundrie has since returned to his Florida home with their couple’s 2012 Ford Transit van and has reportedly not been cooperating with investigators, according to her family. They also claimed he has hired an attorney.  

Neither Petito’s family nor her boyfriend Laundrie could be reached for comment at press time. 

‘[It’s like] drowning with your hands tied behind you,’ Petito’s father, Joseph Petito, told Newsday of his daughter’s disappearance. ‘You can’t describe it. There’s nothing you can do. You can’t control anything.’

The Suffolk County Police Department opened an investigation after her family reported her missing just before 7pm on Saturday, the agency wrote in a press release.  

The pair had documented their conversion of a 2012 Ford van into a camper and their life traveling in it on YouTube and Instagram, and were developing a social media presence under the name ‘Nomadic Statik.’

Per their Instagram accounts, the pair began their trip in July and traveled to Florida’s Fort De Soto Park, a Georgia portion of the Appalachian Trail, Kansas’ Monument Rocks, Colorado Springs, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Zion National Park and Bryce National Park in Utah and Canyonlands National Park since July.

‘Downsizing out life to fit into this itty bitty van was the best decision we’ve ever made,’ Laundrie wrote on Instagram in early July. 

‘Sacrificing space to wake up in nature everyday has been no sacrifice at all.’ 

Petito and Laundrie had turned back from Utah in late August to evade wildfire smoke, Nicole Schmidt said, and had planned to go to Yellowstone National Park next.

Nicole said that she last spoke to her daughter on the phone on August 25, but she had received texts from her on the 27th and 30th. However, she told Fox she couldn’t be sure it was Petito or not ‘because it was just a text. I did not verbally speak to her.’

‘I can’t say much, but she’s no longer with the van,’ Schmidt told the outlet of her daughter. ‘I don’t want to say anything more than that but for people looking for her, I want them to look for her now, not look for that van anymore.’ 

Since Petito’s disappearance, her family has launched a GoFundMe that has accrued $5,000 in just six hours. They have also started a social media campaign on Facebook, simply called ‘Find Gabby,’ where a number of national park visitors have claimed to recognize the pair’s van. 

‘While we are working with the FBI, multiple law enforcement agencies, and outside resources to pursue any and all leads the family will need funds and resources to travel and pay for expenses related to an investigation and search on the other side of the country, any help is appreciated,’ reads the body of the fundraiser.