“Missing white woman syndrome”: the crime of influencer Gabby Petito and the phenomenon of online detectives

The disappearance and death of influencer Gabby Petito, and the search for her boyfriend by the police, have not ceased to make the news in the media, but also on the Internet. Millions of people on TikTok, Youtube and Instagram have become amateur detectives: They share clues, theories and even videos that may have helped the cause that has been around the world.

Since he disappeared the hashtag #GabbyPetito has accumulated nearly a billion views on TikTok. And a couple traveling and filming in the United States reportedly found the truck in a national park.

Today, the American justice issued an arrest warrant against Brian Laundry, the boyfriend of the young boy found dead On a reservation in Wyoming, they both hiked. But there are also many specialists who wonder if we are not facing a new case that reflects missing white woman syndrome

What is missing white woman syndrome

This phrase was coined by African-American journalist Gwen Ifill at the Black Journalists’ Convention held in Washington in 2004. Ifill launched his theory, a little jokingly and a little seriously: “If there is a missing white woman, you need to follow up daily.”

Or in other words, white woman gets much more media and public attention than the disappearance of one who is part of a minority.

The reason, reproduced in many countries, is that for the collective imagination a white and heterosexual person is linked to a quiet life. His disappearance is an anomaly. On the other hand, when he performs with someone from a minority, for “the people”, he is associated with “complicated neighborhoods where things happen” or with his “way of life”.

In the same condition that Petito was found, The disappearance of at least 710 indigenous people was reported between 2011 and the end of 2020. “There are a lot of women of color, and especially immigrant women, who get it all the time, and we never hear about it,” said Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Miami.

This affair got even more exposure due to the couple’s profile and its media content. “A lot of it has to do with the trip across the country they were documenting, posting this great adventure on social media,” said Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University. and authority over murder. . And “they are young, attractive,” he added.

Youtubers and detectives

Red White & Bethune, a couple who travel with their children in a motorhome and film it, shared a video on their YouTube channel in which they allegedly stumbled upon the truck used by Gabby and her boyfriend. They posted a photo with a big red arrow pointing at the vehicle and the words: “We found Gabby Petito’s van”. They claimed this was what led investigators to the site where the body was found.

The FBI did not say what led to the discovery of the body or whether other leads by “Internet sleuths” helped the case.

Although in this specific case the discovery of the content creators could have been a key clue for the police to search for Brian Laundrie, the truth is that particularly On TikTok, there are more and more users doing analysis, sharing theories and looking to profit from the trend behind the hashtag to add followers and reproductions.

Theories and observations have gained traction on Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter. The risk? As always on social networks, fake news and the most unlikely assumptions have the most impact.

How was Gabby Petito

The body of 22-year-old Petito was found last Sunday in the Grand Téton National Park (Wyoming) after several days of intense search for the young woman.

The FBI noted this week that the Teton County Coroner’s Office provisionally classified the cause of death as “homicide” Petito, while evaluating the final results of the autopsy.

In July, Laundrie and Petito boarded a van on a trip through national parks and reservations in the western United States. The young influencer told the daily of the excursion on her social networks to her thousands of followers.

But on September 1, the young man got into the vehicle without his partner at the family home in Florida, where the couple also resided.

They are looking for Gabby Petito’s boyfriend

The laundry is gone since the start of last week. He is wanted in a large area of ​​Northwest Florida, near where he resided with his parents and Petito. So far, he had only been named as a “person of interest” in the case.

However, a Wyoming federal court issued a to guarantee based on a federal grand jury indictment on a charge related to laundry activities after Petito’s death, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Meanwhile, a personal injury law firm in North Port, Florida, Boohoff Law, offered a $ 20,000 reward for any information leading to the location of Laundrie.