Strangled.
On Tuesday, Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue held a press conference to discuss Gabby Petito’s autopsy.
Blue said Petito’s cause of death was strangulation. He also revealed that she was not pregnant.
Wyoming state statute dictates that no other information will be released aside from the cause of death, Blue stated.
Blue said he estimates Petito died about three to four weeks before her body was found. He said her body was outside “in the wildness” during that time. He said there would likely not be an exact date of death of Petito’s death certificate.
He said DNA samples were taken by law enforcement.
The coroner said the autopsy took so long because they were making sure “everything was right.”
Blue said a full-body CT scan, toxicology examination, forensic pathologists and anthropologists were used to determine the cause of death.
The 22-year-old woman’s body was found in September near an undeveloped camping area in remote northern Wyoming along the border of Grand Teton National Park.
The coroner previously classified Petito’s death as a homicide, but he did not disclose how she was killed pending further autopsy results.
Petito’s boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, is considered a person of interest in her disappearance and remains unaccounted for. The two had been traveling across the country together, but Laundrie returned to his parents’ Florida home on Sept. 1 without Petito, and her family was unable to get in touch with her.
Asked for his opinion on Laundrie’s guilt, Blue only said it will be up to law enforcement to determine who is responsible for the homicide.
“This is just one death of many across the country caused by domestic violence. It’s unfortunate other deaths did not get as much coverage as this one,” Blue said.
