Many questions are still unanswered after Gabby Petito's body was probably found. Now a hard drive should help with the investigation. The last message the wife sent to her mother was apparently suspicious.
In the case of Gabby Petito, who is believed to have been killed, investigators have gained access to an external hard drive on which the 22-year-old's last message to her mother is stored. As the US news site "NBC New York" reported, the storage medium was found in Petito's car last week. The investigators therefore believed that there was information on the hard drive that could help clarify the case.
According to the report, the investigators discovered a message from Petito to her mother among the files: "Can you help Stan, I get voicemails and missed calls all the time," the young woman is said to have written. Petito's mother told The Sun that her grandfather's name was Stan, but her daughter never called him by his first name. For this reason, the mother said she found the message "strange".
Investigators searched the friend's family home
According to the reports, Petito's cell phone was switched off on the same day as the message. The hard drive could also contain "evidence relevant to proving a crime," the investigative file said. The storage medium was found in the same van that Petito's friend had returned to Florida alone after their vacation together. Ten days later, Gabby's parents reported their daughter missing. A woman's body, believed to be Gabby Petito, was found at a national park in Wyoming over the weekend.
After being largely certain that the 22-year-old is dead, the US authorities are increasingly targeting her missing boyfriend. On Monday, police and the FBI searched his parents' Florida home, where the couple had lived for a while.
case makes waves
The 23-year-old friend has not been found since last week. The lawyer for his family wanted to comment this Tuesday, it said. The autopsy of the body is also scheduled for Tuesday. Investigators assume that there is a high probability that it is Gabby Petito.
The case is making waves in the United States and is also attracting international attention – not least because the Florida couple shared numerous pictures and videos from their trip on social networks. The two had embarked on a trip through the United States in the summer.
Search for possible clues continues
According to previous reports, Petito's friend had refused to speak to the police about what had happened. His family announced on Friday that he had already left for a trip to a nature reserve in Florida last Tuesday. On Sunday, the police searched for him there with drones and dogs, among other things. This search operation was not continued on Monday. Instead, a large contingent of police and FBI arrived at the home of Petito's friend's parents in Florida, as shown on live television images. They stayed there for hours.
While Petito shared pictures of happy moments on social media against the scenic backdrop of American national parks, there is now increased attention to an incident in which police stopped the couple on suspicion of physical violence.
There are recordings of this from the police officer's bodycam (you can see the recordings in the video above or here). The crying Petito said in the video that she was suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder and that an altercation broke out. She slapped her boyfriend.
However, in the call that triggered the operation, the eyewitness said he saw the man hit Petito, it was revealed Monday. Among other things, the Fox News broadcaster played the recording of the phone call.
