American Murder: Gabby Petito, the new documentary series on Netflix, follows the life of Gabby Petito and her fiancé Brian Laundrie as they take off in a van to explore the world. Gabby hoped to record their adventures for her YouTube channel “Van Life”. It’s easy to understand what happened. Anyone with eyes could see Gabby was out of Brian’s league. No doubt his insecurities were tormenting him from the start. Throughout the documentary we see him shifty and nervous, afraid he might say or do the wrong thing at any moment. And that is when, I believe, he stumbled into a bug in Gabby’s system. Whenever he felt she was leaving him behind he would moan, cry, and bully. Initially, Gabby responded with showers of affection and assurance. But once Gabby realized this was all he had to offer, the jig was up. Young men often suffer through insecurity of one variety or another. I’ve been there. I can sympathize. But few people do what Brian Laundrie did. Why did he kill her? Probably for the same reason he killed himself. This was his story and his alone. When his life lost purpose so did everybody else’s. It is precisely at this point where my sympathy ends, cold and hard.

Crime docs fascinate me. The trouble is, I’m mostly attending to the ugly perpetrators. Their victims fade into the background, and I feel a touch of shameful neglect. After all, isn’t this supposed to be about the wonderful, beautiful Gabby? Sorry, I just don’t believe, at 22 years of age, she’d developed anything in her life that could command my attention more than the train wreck she attached herself to.

As the story concludes and credits begin to roll, there is a clip of Gabby frolicking along the beach. It is the only video she posted of her “Van Life”. In one sense, it’s a video of an immature girl performing for an imaginary crowd. But in another, touching way, it stands for more than silly dancing and mugging. This is Gabby’s vision of The Good Life. Fun, free from ordinary, routine obligations. Smiling and playing with friends. It is a youthful dream. And that, more than anything else, is the real tragedy. A young life is invaluable. In time, she would have grown out of sunny videos. She would have developed a fuller image of good living. But there, on the beach with Gabby Petito, is limp, little Brian Laundrie. And unfortunately, since this was always his story, her story ends there too.