Wyoming coroner revealed on Tuesday that Gabby Petito was strangled to death by “human force” after oversaw the 22-year-old Long Island native’s autopsy. Few hours after it was revealed Gabby died by strangulation, Teton County Coroner Brent Blue revealed additional details in the investigation into Gabby’s cause of death during an appearance on CNN.
Paperwork specifically listed Gabby’s death as “manual strangulation/throttling.”
“Throttling means that someone was strangled by human force,” Blue said on Anderson Cooper 360. There was no mechanical force involved. People can be strangled by other means. We have seen people on snowmobiles who run into a wire – that would be strangling by a mechanical event. But this was, we believe this was strangling by a human being.”
When asked how he knew Gabby was strangled by a human, Blue said:
“Mainly because only humans have opposable thumbs. There is no evidence that this was done by any animal as far as the cause of death.”
Gabby had been dead for about three to four weeks by the time her remains were discovered in Bridger-Teton National Forest on Sept. 19. Although her death has been ruled a homicide, Gabby’s cause of death wasn’t revealed until Tuesday afternoon after Blue briefed members of the media on the results of the autopsy. However, Blue said under Wyoming statute; it wouldn’t release further details.
Moreover, he didn’t go into details about the exact time of Gabby’s death, neither did he disclose details such as Gabby’s body condition when it was discovered – or whether or not her remains were found buried.
The results of the autopsy did not speculate about the potential involvement of fugitive Brian Laundrie. However, Blue said that Gabby’s death was one of many people who are involved in domestic violence, and it was unfortunate others don’t get as much attention.
When asked if Gabby’s death was a result of domestic violence, Blue said:
“That’s an assumption. That was strictly an assumption.”