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Gabby Petito & Brian Laundrie | Paper Trail

The documents behind the reporting: what is original, what is reproduced in news coverage, and what still has not been made public.

September 2021 • reported warrant materials

Van and external digital-storage search

Investigators sought information from Gabby’s van and an external storage device. This article separates contemporaneous reporting of the warrant from an original signed search return that has not been independently examined.

Read our documentation and source boundary

September 20, 2021 • reproduced warrant

Search of the Laundrie family residence

WWSB reports categories of material FBI agents were authorized to seize, including electronics and photographs, and links a reproduced warrant. This is a residence search, not a prosecution of the parents.

Open the contemporaneous report and reproduced warrant

January 21, 2022 • official FBI statement

The final investigative update

The FBI summarizes the debit-card allegation, after-death communications, search in Florida, recovered notebook and its investigative conclusion. The statement does not supply every underlying forensic file.

Read the FBI’s official summary

June 30, 2022 • original court order

Florida order denying motion to dismiss

The signed eight-page judicial order explains why the emotional-distress pleading was allowed to proceed and explicitly distinguishes alleged facts from proved facts.

Open the original ruling PDF

November 17, 2022 • original court judgment

The Brian Laundrie estate judgment

The signed $3 million stipulated judgment names the curator of Brian’s estate as judgment defendant in a separate civil action.

Open the original judgment PDF

February 21–22, 2024 • reported settlement

Florida mediation and counsel statements

The confidential agreement itself has not been reproduced here. Our complete article links the contemporary statements from the parties and explains what the settlement did not decide.

Read the civil case receipts

October 11, 2026 • original Supreme Court order

Petito v. Moab scheduling order

Signed by Justice Jill M. Pohlman, appellate case 20241368-SC. The order grants the October 7 unopposed continuance and sets oral argument for December 9 at 10 a.m.

Open the signed Utah order PDF

Why It Matters

Primary documents are identified as original only where we have the signed document; a news report or embedded reproduction is labeled as such. A confidential agreement and full electronic forensic returns have not been independently retrieved.

Presumed innocent: A warrant, allegation, indictment or civil claim is not a criminal conviction. No homicide prosecution of Brian Laundrie reached trial.

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