We’re honored to welcome Nichole Schmidt to Toxic today — a friend of the pod and a fierce advocate for survivors, especially young survivors of dating violence. In 2021, her 22-year-old daughter, Gabby Petito, was murdered by her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, during what was supposed to be an idyllic cross-country van trip — and instead became a national tragedy.

This past February, Netflix released American Murder: Gabby Petito, a docuseries featuring never-before-seen details about how Gabby’s story unfolded. Ultimately, she became yet another preventable victim of dating violence, strangulation — and, yes, femicide.

Just two weeks before her death, police in Moab, Utah, pulled the couple over after a witness saw Brian hit Gabby. Despite clear signs of abuse — and officers even identifying it as assault — Laundrie wasn’t arrested. Instead, they named Gabby the primary aggressor and gave Brian a hotel room usually reserved for domestic violence victims. The incident laid bare just how much law enforcement — and society — still doesn’t understand about abuser tactics.

A little over a month later, Brian strangled Gabby to death in Wyoming. He later scribbled a confession in a notebook before dying by suicide — because, of course, accountability was never on his itinerary.

Today, Nichole shares what life has been like since Gabby’s death — and how she’s working to keep her daughter’s memory alive, one survivor at a time.

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If you’re experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please reach out to someone you trust. You can also connect with a trained advocate near you through DomesticShelters.org.

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