Rose Davis: Gabby Petito's best friend says 'controlling' Brian Laundrie had ‘jealousy issues’

Gabby was reported missing by her family on September 11, 10 days after Brian returned alone to his home in Florida. She was on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend in a converted van. However, her mother filed the missing report at Suffolk County after she did not hear from her for a number of days. The 22-year-old woman last spoke to her mother on August 25 and her last known location was in Wyoming.

Davis said, “When I saw that Brian was back from the trip, that was the first thing that popped into my mind - that Brian had one of his episodes - and I was just hoping he didn't have a snapping moment.” Gabby’s pal, who met her via Bumble BFF in 2020, also said she last spoke to her in early August and was planning to see her in Yellowstone National Park in September.

About finding each other online, Davis said: “Neither of us had any friends. She had texted me, saying: ‘You seem so cool. I really want to be your friend. Can we be friends?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I'd be happy to be your friend.’ We just went everywhere together,” before adding, “We'd tell people she was my emotional service human.”

About Brian, Davis mentioned that she also became familiar with him since she often visited their home in North Port. She explained, “I used to consider him a friend, for sure, because I'd hang out with them a good amount. He had this composure as a sweet, nice, caring guy. But you could tell he's a little off, a little weird. Like, he'd set up our hammocks when we'd go to beach, but wouldn't sit with us, which I found bizarre. Brian has a jealousy issue. I'm her only friend in Florida to my knowledge and that's not because she can't make friends, he just didn't want her to have friends.”

The best friend of the YouTuber went on to say that she and Gabby were so close that they even used to share locations with each other via an iPhone app “in case we got lost”. But Brian allegedly did not like that and forced Gabby to delete it. “I didn't push the issue because I didn't want it to cause an argument with him. He was always worried she was going to leave him. It was a constant thing to try to get us to stop hanging out. He'd demand she be home for dinner, often cut our time short. He'd demand to pick her up from my house, even when I had a car and offered to drive,” Davis revealed.

She also commented on the August 12 incident in Utah between Gabby and Brian that required police to be called in. Davis said “for her anxiety to act up like that, there has to be a decent thing to trigger it. Something had to happen, or just a lot of things had to build up. I'm a little upset she didn't just call me after that fight, because she would have before.”

On their relationship, Davis commented, “There is no doubt in my mind that she loves him and from how I have always seen it he loves her. Of course, like any relationship there were arguments. She would come and stay at my house when there were arguments, to get away from it. Within the first year I want to say at least seven to ten times. I do believe that their relationship as they kept going on was getting more problematic. It just seemed like there was more and more arguments. Everything she did, I feel like he thought was wrong.”

She stated: “Even as she said in the bodycam, he didn't even support her with her blog. That's not what a fiancé or boyfriend does. That in itself made me feel that it continued to get worse. That's why he was always in the woods camping, or at the house reading or painting,” pointing out that because of Brian, Gabby was bullied by friends from New York. She added: “Her friends from New York were bullying her when she got with Brian. It was something about Brian that they didn't like her being with. She was upset about it once. I went through it with her and was like, screw them.”

Davis also went on to plead with the public to help her find her friend. She urged, “If anybody knows or receives any information, or thinks they have any information, please, please say something. We are relying on you to say something. I want to find my friend.”