In particular, the cause of death was “manual strangulation / strangulation,” according to the coroner’s verdict, a legal document that Blue filed Oct. 5 with the clerk of the Teton County District Court. At a press conference, Blue said the cause of death was strangulation, but he did not go into details.
The autopsy included a whole-body CT scan, forensic and forensic anthropologist examination, and toxicology analysis, Blue said.
He declined to provide further details about Petito’s autopsy or a potential suspect, saying he was limited in the information he could legally disclose.
Petito family attorney Richard Stafford reiterated on Tuesday that the family were not commenting at this time.
“Gabby’s family don’t make any statements until they bring Gabby home,” Stafford said. “I’ll let you know when that happens.”
The coroner said Petito’s remains were in a Wyoming morgue.
How we got here
The announcement of the autopsy results came about a month after Petito, 22, was reported missing following a road trip with her 23-year-old fiancé, Brian Laundrie.
At Tuesday’s press conference, the coroner did not identify Laundrie as a suspect in the case, although he called Petito’s case “only one of many deaths in the country of people involved in domestic violence “.
In a statement Tuesday, Laundrie’s family attorney Steve Bertolino said Laundrie used a debit card that belonged to Petito, but noted he was not a suspect in his death.
“Gabby Petito’s death at such a young age is a tragedy,” Bertolino told CNN.
“While Brian Laundrie is currently charged with unauthorized use of a debit card belonging to Gabby, Brian is not considered a person of interest in relation to Gabby Petito’s death,” he added. “Brian is still missing at this time and when he is located we will deal with the pending fraud charge against him.”
What we know about the last days of Petito
Petito called his mother regularly, and these conversations seemed to reveal that there was “more and more tension” in Petito’s relationship, according to a police affidavit for a search warrant for an external hard drive found in the couple’s van.
On August 27, a “strange text” from Petito worried his mother that something was wrong, according to a search warrant.
“Can you help Stan, I keep getting his voicemail messages and missed calls,” the message read, according to the affidavit. Stan was referring to Petito’s grandfather, whom his mother said Petito never referred to in this way, according to the affidavit.
“We walked past and the gentleman was slapping the girl,” said the caller. “Then we stopped. They ran on the sidewalk. He started hitting her, jumped in the car and they drove away. “
CNN obtained audio recordings of a dispatch from the Grand County Sheriff’s Office last month, which shed light on what Moab police said about “some kind of altercation.”
And on August 27, a witness described “commotion” as they left the Merry Piglets Tex-Mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming.
Petito was in tears and Laundrie was visibly angry, entering and leaving the restaurant on several occasions, showing anger towards the staff around the hostess booth, witness Nina Angelo said.
The couple’s waitress was also visibly shaken by the incident, said Angelo, who told CNN she had not seen any violence or physical altercation between Petito and Laundrie.
A Merry Piglets official, who declined to give her name, saw “an incident” at the restaurant and called the FBI, she told CNN. The manager declined to describe what happened and said the restaurant did not have surveillance video of the incident.
Laundry research
Investigators said Laundrie’s parents told them on September 17 that he had left home a few days earlier and was heading to the nearby Carlton Preserve – sparking a search for the 25,000 acres of the nature reserve. Initially his parents said he left on September 14, but last week Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino said: “We now think the day Brian went for a hike in the reserve was Monday, September 13. ”
At the time, Laundrie was not wanted for a felony, but North Port Police spokesman Josh Taylor said Laundrie was under “enormous pressure” to provide answers. on the disappearance of Petito.
Attention then turned to the Carlton Nature Reserve, where authorities scoured swamps filled with snakes and alligators, using drones, dive crews and bloodhounds.
Laundrie’s father has been involved in a search of the nature reserve for him, but he does not intend to assist with the police search and the couple will not take a polygraph test, Bertolino said.
CNN’s Rob Frehse, Jennifer Henderson, Christina Maxouris, Kari Pricher, Leyla Santiago, Jenn Selva, Amir Vera, and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.
