American Murder: Gabby Petito

Emotionally heavy exploration of a heartbreaking case. It raises awareness about domestic violence while honoring the victim, rather than exploiting her story. The three-episode format is well-paced, providing a thorough but respectful retelling.

One of the most striking aspects is the contrast between Gabby's adventurous spirit and her tragic fate. The documentary bravely acknowledges the media's focus on her due to race and includes voices from those close to her, adding depth to the story. Seeing such a recent crime in HD footage makes it feel disturbingly real.

A particularly powerful moment is when Gabby's friend explains how abusers manipulate their victims-alternating cruelty with kindness to make them blame themselves. Women worldwide experience this cycle, and in Gabby's case, it cost her life.

As a society, we need to raise our daughters with love and self-worth so they don't seek validation from abusive men. But we also need to focus on raising boys differently-too many entitled, narcissistic men grow up without accountability. The documentary also highlights Brian's unsettling relationship with his mother, which adds another layer to his behavior.

Overall, this documentary is informative, heartbreaking, and necessary. DV is no joke, and more people need to see that.

As Episode 1 of "American Murder: Gabby Petito" (2025 release; 3 episodes ranging 39 to 48 min) opens, it is "August 12, 2021, Moab, Utah", and based on an anonymous tip, Utah police pulls over a van to question a couple. Turns out to be Brian and Gabby, a young couple on a cross-country road trip. When Gabby is questioned outside the van and away from Brian, she crumbles. We then go back to "March 19,1999, Long Island, NY", when Gabby is born, and we get to know her background an upbringing. At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: I was vaguely familiar with these events, but to now see it laid out as clearly and as detailed as this documentary mini-series does, only brought a sense of immense sadness and a disgust of the cruelty with which one person murders another, and for what? The mini-series is helped immensely by the fact that so much footage was filmed by Gabby in particular (she was prepping to start a vlog about their cross-country travels). This mini-series also focuses on the role of Brian's parents in all of this. How these people sleep at night, I have no clue.

"American Murder: Gabby Petito" has just started streaming on Netflix. Not sure why this is presented in 3 short episodes, as opposed to a feature-length documentary. I watched this in a single setting, and I suspect I will not be the only one. If you are interested in true crime documentaries, I readily recommend you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

Most of the true crime shows are cases that are from decades ago. This one is from 2021, so it's pretty fresh for this kind of documentary. This is a case I never heard about, so I found it quite interesting.

The production quality is good and there is a lot of original footage shot by the couple that this is about. The producers do throw in some short reenactments, but they work well with the overall flow of the narrative.

If you like true crime, this is definitely worth watching, because it's not an old story where DNA testing hadn't been invented, or some cold case. This is modern times, with a young, attractive couple.

Best documentary to date on this sad story; there have been a few.

The length of the documentary (3 episodes each under an hour long) was the perfect length to cover the story comprehensively, without being redundant.

The criticism of Utah police's handling of the Moab incident is unwarranted. What else were they supposed to do?? These are ADULTS. Do you want Daddy Government making personal decisions for everyone? As if that hasn't gone far enough already. They handled the situation professionally, and did all they could, which was to advise these two to go their seperate ways for the night and cool off. The only alternative would have been to arrest BOTH of them (they both had physical fight marks on them). Most arrests do nothing except create lasting arrest records, which can and do destroy lives. So no, Moab police did nothing wrong.

Brian's parents are human garbage, and I'm truly surprised aiding and abetting charges weren't filed against them. No words.

Solid documentary about a very sad story.

This 3 part documentary will bring tears to your eyes.

And make you hate not just another coward killer, but hate that cowards parents as well. You will witness the sorrow and anguish as these well filmed documentaries elicit way too well. What makes it sadder is as you watch it, you begin to wonder why the coward killers despicable mother and father where never charged for their part in this murder case. You will wish those maggots a painful experience. But also makes you wonder about the fragility of life of all ethnicities of the many thousands of missing people who never got the same coverage. The overall feeling will leave you hating so many people but also make you wonder about people around you.