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Vlogger family's clip shows van with Florida plates just before Gabby Petito vanished

The vlogger family urged their channel's viewers to check the footage 'if you were in the area around this time,' hoping for others to find more clues

A YouTube vlogger family may have accidentally discovered the van of 22-year-old Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito and 23-year-old Brian Laundrie in the footage they collected while on a trip in the area that Petito went missing. In all likelihood, this footage coincides with one of the last times she was seen. 

On Sunday, September 19, human remains discovered in Teton County, Wyoming, that as per the FBI were "consistent with the description of" the missing woman. As of yet, a “full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100 percent” that Petito has been found, but her family has been notified of this discovery, the FBI said, adding that the cause of death has not been determined. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday, September 21.

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The YouTube channel ‘Red White & Bethune’ has more than 18,000 subscribers. The channel follows a family of two adults, three children, and six dogs, “living in our remodeled 1983 Silver Eagle Bus”. Petito was visiting the Grand Teton National Park with Laundrie when she disappeared. 

In the description of the video, the channel wrote, “We were editing our Sunday video, tonight and we were looking at footage from on August 27th, 2021 around 6:00pm to 6:30pm in Spread Creek Dispersed Camping. We had passed by a white van with Florida Plates. We noticed it because we are originally from Florida and wanted to stop and say hi.” However, the channel said that the van “was dark and it didn’t look like there was anyone there. So we kept going.” The Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area is located in the Bridger-Teton National Forest on the east boundary of Grand Teton National Park.

The channel run by Kyle and Jenn said they “didn’t think much of it, I knew we were in the Tetons area around the 25th but wasn’t sure which day. I opened Facebook and saw that @fettisonthemove had tagged me in a story asking me to check all my videos from the 25th-27th of August. I INSTANTLY got a bone-chilling feeling. I leapt up and ran to my laptop. I watched the rest of my footage and sure enough, her van was in the video. We saw the National Park Service post an update that they were looking at activity in the Spread Creek Area of the Tetons.”

“The reason why I am sharing this is because when we left to go up to the gravel lot, we got a message from someone on Instagram saying they saw us drive through the Spread Creek Area and are now following us, watching our videos. We have our logo on the back of the bus with social media stickers,” they said.

The channel also urged viewers to check their footage “if you were in the area around this time,” adding, “I thought that if other people in the area that day saw us and started watching our videos, they may watch this one and realize that they too may have seen Gabb.”

Online, many people dived in and looked for clues in the video. One person tweeted, “Another YouTube vlogger video passing by led to the discovery of Gabby Petito's body. Screenshots from the video show likely the moments after she was murdered. A cellphone and her flip-flop on the ground. The 2 pins- where he body was found and where the last video was shot.”

Another tweet read, “Looks like a person digging in the field next to where the van was parked. #gabbypetitio #BrianLaundrie #FindGabby,” alongside zoomed-in footage captured by Kyle and Jenn. One tweet said, “The internet is unbelievable, man. YouTube vlogger spotted Gabby Petito & Brian Laundrie’s van while editing footage, reported it, police searched the area & sadly (but fortunately for the investigation) found her body. That was truly a needle in a haystack found by the internet.”