Initially learning that Netflix was producing a documentary series on Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old travel blogger who lost her life at the hands of her fiancé in August 2021, I anticipated the true crime series would contain distressing scenes that would be challenging to watch. Prepared for some of these intense moments when watching American Murder: Gabby Petito, there was one particular aspect of the 2025 Netflix original production that has stuck with me since completing it, using my Netflix subscription.
This footage you’re referring to is not the bodycam video showing Petito and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, being interrogated in Moab, Utah—which happened approximately two weeks before her death in Bridger–Teton National Forest, Wyoming. It’s neither the events following her tragic demise nor the narrative presented across the three-episode series. Instead, what the documentary does is use technology to simulate Petito’s voice as it reads through her old journal entries about her travels.
Let me explain…
The Three-Part Docuseries Doesn’t Shy Away From Disturbing Moments
The three-part documentary, titled “American Murder: Gabby Petito“, delves deeply into Gabby Petito’s life, her motivations for embarking on a fateful cross-country road trip, and the progression of events that became more alarming as they unfolded following her disappearance and tragic demise. Given it’s Netflix, the docuseries doesn’t flinch from portraying these troubling moments in thorough detail.
The series showcases gruesome crime scene images, police body cam footage, personal accounts and visuals of domestic abuse, as well as explicit details about how Petito was murdered. These elements were deeply disturbing, left me feeling powerless, and altered my perspective on the case. However, there’s one choice made by the filmmakers that I can’t seem to fathom.
But The A.I.-Generated Gabby Petito Voice Was Really Unsettling
In the early stages of the first episode, there was a voice that strongly resembled the deceased travel blogger and homicide victim. However, it seemed somewhat disconnected, leading me to suspect it wasn’t actually her reading her own writings. Indeed, it turned out that it wasn’t Petito or an actress portraying her (as in “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark”, they had Amy Ryan represent the late Michelle McNamara instead).
In an interview with Us Weekly back in February 2025, filmmakers Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro shared that they transformed Gabby Petito’s written journals and texts into a vivid narrative by employing AI technology to simulate her voice. Remarkably, the duo disclosed that they had sought approval from Petito’s family to use this tool in sharing her story.
I appreciate that everyone agreed about incorporating the artificial intelligence voice, yet it doesn’t diminish my feelings of unease about the situation. I get that advanced technology like AI is essential nowadays and we should leverage it for our advantage, but in this context, it just seems inappropriate, excessive, and frankly, a bit off-putting.
Despite the AI’s voice not being problematic enough to make me stop watching American Murder: Gabby Petito, it still managed to leave an unsettling impression on me that persists.
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2025-03-02 17:38