On Sept. 19, human remains swiftly identified as belonging to Petito were discovered in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, near the Spread Creek site. After an autopsy, the Teton County Coroner declared her death a homicide.
A Louisiana couple CNNA few days later, Petito’s death was confirmed. “commotion” go down between the young woman and Laundrie at Merry Piglets Tex-Mex in Jackson, Wyo., on Aug. 27. Laundrie looked angry and she was in tears. CNN reported that a manager of the restaurant witnessed the incident and called the FBI on September 22.
Vloggers Kyle and Jenn also recorded footage on August 27 of the white van parked at Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area. The area is approximately 25 miles from the restaurant.
“We figured maybe they were out hiking or they were just chilling inside,”CNN interview with Kyle
Schmidt’s last text message to her daughter on Aug. 27, read, “Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls.” “Stan”Schmidt stated that Petito was her grandfather. However, she didn’t refer to him as such. She was moved by the message. “concerned that someone was wrong with her daughter,” noted the timeline of events North Port Police compiled to get a search warrant for an external hard drive found in the Ford van, which was obtained by Florida’s NBC 8 News.
The warrant stated that Petito had once-infrequent communications with her mother before her disappearance. “there appeared to be more and more tension between her and Laundrie.”
Hundreds of mourners joined Petito’s family in honoring her at a Sept. 26 memorial in Holbrook, N.Y. Countless more watched the livestreamed service online. But there are still infinitely more questions about her fate than there are answers.