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The Gabby Petito case armchair detectives on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram and what motivates them
- Internet users, fascinated by Petito’s disappearance and death, have been poring over online video and photos for clues as the hunt for her fiancé goes on
- In China, internet sleuths form ‘human flesh search engines’. An expert says such cases intrigue people who ‘have a fantasy about being able to solve crimes’
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The disappearance and death of American woman Gabby Petito and the police hunt for her boyfriend have generated a whirlwind online, with vast numbers of armchair internet detectives sharing tips, possible sightings and theories on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Whether the frenzy of attention and internet sleuthing has helped the investigation remains unclear, but it has illuminated the intersection between social media and the global public’s fascination with true-crime stories.
This fascination for combing through footage and images posted on the internet to try and pin down the details of crimes – from corruption to murder – has flourished around the world, particularly now when the Covid-19 pandemic has kept so many people at home.
Rather than being fed a narrative, the so-called internet sleuths feel they are part of the story.
Months before her disappearance drew more than a half-billion views on TikTok, Petito, 22, and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie, 23, set out on a cross-country road trip over the summer in a van she decorated in a boho-chic style.
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