The case surrounding Gabby Petito has garnered national attention on social media. On Sept. 19, Petito’s body was discovered after a national search for her whereabouts. She was reported missing while on a vanlife trip across the United States with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, who was named a person of interest by the FBI. Shortly after the disappearance of Petito, Laundrie’s parents reported him as a missing person. Although Laundrie was not charged for Petito’s death, a federal court in Wyoming issued an arrest warrant for him. On Oct. 20, after national frustration surrounding his disappearance, authorities found human remains most likely belonging to Laundrie. On Oct. 21, dental records confirmed that the remains found were those of Laundrie.
Along with the remains, authorities also found a backpack and notebook belonging to Laundrie. The discovery came while they were searching the Carlton Reserve in North Port, an area that had been underwater but was recently reopened to the public.
“I know you have a lot of questions but we don’t have all the answers yet,” McPherson told CBS News. “We are working diligently to get those answers for you.”
What has the conversation been like on social media? At the Social Media Listening Center, we used a search for keywords “Brian Laundrie” and “remains,” “Brian Laundrie” and “found,” and “Brian Laundrie.” While this search may not be fully extensive, it provides a glimpse into the online conversation.
On Oct. 20 when the news was announced, the search yielded 237,430 mentions discussing the topic. On Oct. 21 when Laundrie’s remains were confirmed, the search yielded 285,957 mentions. Unsurprisingly, the overall sentiment of the search was 90.8% negative and 9.2% positive. However, it is difficult to gauge audience sentiment from sentiment analysis alone when discussing serious issues such as this. To get a better look at the conversation and the sentiment surrounding this topic, we paid close attention to the word cloud capturing the most common words and phrases associated with this search:
To gain even further understanding of the sentiment surrounding this news, we looked at the most commonly used hashtags related to this search. Unsurprisingly, #brianlaundrie was at the top and had been used 5,000+ times in the span of 24 hours. Other top hashtags included #breaking, #gabbypetito, and #fbi. When searching the keyword “Brian Laundrie,” we found that some of the top themes of discussion the day the remains were found were “Search for Brian Laundrie,” “Gabby Petito,” and “Florida.”
Who is engaging in this conversation? The majority of mentions surrounding this topic are from female Twitter users in the 18-35 age demographic located in the United States. The top influencers on Twitter are predominantly news outlets, including BBC News, The New York Times, CNN, and Fox News. However, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton has been an active voice in the conversation as well.
UPDATE! Investigators just held a press conference. They confirmed human remains and items belonging to Laundrie were found. FBI did not confirm the remains are Laundrie. More details HERE: https://t.co/V6uTQ50SUM
— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) October 20, 2021
Gabby Petito: Items found in search for missing fiancé Brian Laundrie https://t.co/ABRQ3pp4jY
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 20, 2021
The keyword search also revealed that Reddit users are engaging in r/GabbyPetito, r/News, and r/InterestingAsFuck. One megathread in r/GabbyPetito received 1K+ upvotes and 5.6K+ comments. The thread sparked a conversation surrounding Laundrie’s involvement in the murder and his parents’ behavior. The post also linked to previous Reddit threads and sources covering the case.
The volume trend of the conversation has steadily declined since the news was announced. However, there will likely be more updates surrounding the investigation behind Laundrie’s mysterious death in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, we’ll continue to monitor this topic and others from the Social Media Listening Center.
Author: Kendall Phillips
