gabby-petitos-disappearance-led-fake-gofundme-page-being-setup

Gabby Petito’s Disappearance Led to ‘Fake’ GoFundMe Page Being Setup

New developments in the Gabby Petito case revealed heartbreaking information yesterday. The FBI and coroners confirmed they found a body that matches Gabby Petito’s description in a remote area of Grand Teton National Park– her last known location. A beautiful beaming rainbow appeared shortly after, watching over the same area and potentially signaling some closure.

Since her family reported her missing on September 11th, Gabby Petito’s disappearance garnered national attention from the media. Several Facebook groups even popped up for the general public to swap their theories about her disappearance. Unfortunately, with that comes a lot of speculation and the spread of misinformation. Actually, it seems that there are some people even trying to profit off the tragedy. In the wake of everything her family has been through, scammers reportedly set up ‘fake’ GoFundMe pages.

Gabby Petito Case Draws in Hoards of Scammers

With the help of their lawyer, Gabby Petito’s family started a “Find Gabby” Facebook page when they first reported her as missing. By the very next day, scammers got to work. The family issued a statement September 12th, which they’ve updated since. Here’s the most updated version:

“The family has only authorized TWO Fundraising efforts to help with our search. This GoFundMe & The effort by our long-time friends at the John MacNamara foundation. Which can be found at https://www.johnnymacfoundation.org/

We are aware of other illegitimate requests for donations, please be aware. Any questions or tips please contact our Attorney Rick Stafford (631) 589-7999.Thank you We have started a GoFundMe to help raise money to find Gabby. Please donate and share- any help is deeply appreciated by the family. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-find-gabby…

The legitimate GoFundMe organized by Gary Rider stands at nearly $70k with a goal of $100k. Rider made this statement on the page regarding the allocation of donations:

“While we are working with the FBI, multiple law enforcement agencies, and outside resources to pursue any and all leads the family will need funds and resources to travel and pay for expenses related to an investigation and search on the other side of the country, any help is appreciated.”

He went on to describe how the family and their closest friends split their time between Florida and Wyoming to bring Gabby Petito back home.

Just to reiterate: the provided links are the only two legitimate sources to donate to the Petito family. NBC2 reports at least 4 active pages that are operating under fraudulent circumstances.

Next Steps

The FBI and North Port Police Department continue their search for person of interest Brian Laundrie. Yesterday marked the second day of their search in the Carlton Reserve, where his family reported his last known location. He set off sometime Tuesday night. Unfortunately, the North Port Police shared that the search came back inconclusive with nothing to report.

In the mean time, an autopsy is underway on the recovered body and authorities also obtained cell phone records that may assist in providing some answers to the bizarre timeline. On that note, we will also be releasing a fact-checked, updated timeline of the events leading up to now.