I Found American Murder: Gabby Petito To Be Quite Disturbing, But There's One Thing That Bothers Me The Most

When I first heard that Netflix was making a docuseries about Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old travel vlogger killed by her fiance in August 2021, I knew that the true crime series would be full of traumatic, hard-to-watch, and gut-wrenching moments. I was prepared for some of those moments in American Murder: Gabby Petito more than others, but there was one aspect of the 2025 Netflix original series that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since finishing it with my Netflix subscription.

No, it’s not the police bodycam footage of Petito and her fiance, Brian Laundrie, being questioned in Moab, Utah, roughly two weeks before she was killed in Bridger–Teton National Forest, Wyoming. No, it’s not the aftermath of her death. And it’s not all the stories told through the three-episode series. Instead, it’s how the documentary recreated her voice to read old journal entries from her life on the road.

Let me explain…

The Three-Part Docuseries Doesn't Shy Away From Disturbing Moments

Split up into three episodes, American Murder: Gabby Petito goes into great detail about Petito’s life, everything that led to her ill-fated cross-country road trip, and the increasingly shocking series of events that followed her disappearance and death. Considering this is Netflix, the docuseries doesn’t shy away from chronicling these disturbing moments in great detail.

Crime scene photos, police body cam footage, stories and pictures of domestic abuse, and graphic descriptions of how Petito was killed are all featured throughout the series. There were stories that shook me to my core, left me feeling helpless, and changed the way I thought about the whole case. But, those don’t even come close to one decision made by the filmmakers that I just don’t understand.

But The A.I.-Generated Gabby Petito Voice Was Really Unsettling

Not long into the first episode, I heard a voice that sounded just like the late travel vlogger and murder victim, but something felt off. Yeah, the voice reading Petito’s journal entries and text messages sounded similar to her, but came off a little detached, as if it wasn’t Petito reading her own words. Well, it turns out it wasn’t her, or even an actress hired to read her words (I’ll Be Gone in the Dark took this route by having Amy Ryan stand in for the late Michelle McNamara).

When chatting with Us Weekly in February 2025, filmmakers Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro revealed that they brought those journal entries and texts to life by using A.I. technology to recreate Petito’s voice. The pair even told the outlet they had reached out to Petito’s family and had received permission to use the tool to tell her story.

While I’m glad to hear that the family was on board with the inclusion of the computer-generated voice, it doesn’t make the whole thing any less unsettling. I understand that A.I. tech is here and that we should use it for our benefit, but in this case, it feels wrong, unnecessary, and kind of gross.

Though the A.I. voice wasn’t enough to ruin American Murder: Gabby Petito and force me to turn it off (I watched it in one sitting), it left me with a feeling that I haven’t been able to shake.