Recently, Gabby Petitio, a 22-year-old woman from New York, went missing in Wyoming. Ryan Laundrie, her fiance, returned to his Florida home with Petitio’s van but no Petitio. TikTok users took it into their own hands to find out more information. The word quickly spread about Petitio’s disappearance and it became trending across all social media platforms.
Content Creators Coming Together
As soon as the case was released and information slowly started to come out, creators took the initiative and worked together to form possible theories. TikTok, YouTube and Instagram users were all working together to figure out what exactly happened to Petitio. One important lead that changed the whole direction of the case was a clip from a video that a YouTuber was editing.
A van life couple, Jenn and Kyle Bethune, was traveling in Wyoming and were filming their trip when they noticed something strange. They saw what looked like Petitio’s van parked on the side of an isolated road and did not notice until editing their clips. They immediately reported it to the FBI and soon after, the FBI found Petitio’s body. Without the footage and the realization that the two creators had crucial information to the homicide, her body might have never been found. Click the link below to see the couple’s video.
Not only were creators finding out new information for the case, but some were keeping people up to date faster than the FBI would come out with new leads. Multiple TikTok accounts were following the case closely and would update their followers frequently with new information. One creator that was posting hourly and is still posting other missing people is Haley Toumaian. You can check out her account here.
Toumaian, along with many other creators, has taken their views and used them to boost more missing person cases. TikTok is an easy platform for people to come forward with new information and piece together clues that could be crucial in finding someone.
Social media platforms have become extremely helpful with finding clues for missing person cases. If you find more accounts like the ones above, tweet us, @VALLEYmag, so we can check them out!
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