• FBI agent Loretta Bush participated in Netflix's new docuseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito."
• Bush's appearance on the docuseries went viral when she got visibly choked up talking about her job.
• Viewers, and particularly lesbian viewers, were immediately captivated by Bush. Here's what to know.

Netflix's latest true-crime docuseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito" digs deeper into the story of the 22-year-old aspiring travel influencer who was killed by her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, while on a cross-country road trip in 2021.

As the many true crime fans who have long followed the Petito case know, it's a bleak and upsetting story. But viewers have already found light in the darkest of places: by thirsting after FBI agent Loretta Bush, who was featured in the doc.

Bush works out of the bureau's Tampa division, which covers 18 counties in central and southwest Florida, including where Petito and Laundrie lived with Laundrie's parents in North Port, Florida. She appears toward the end of the second episode of the three-part series, at the point when Petito's 2021 disappearance in Wyoming became a federal investigation.

The first shot of Bush instantly establishes that she's, quite frankly, cool as hell: She strides across the screen wearing black sunglasses with her badge on her hip and tattooed arms visible. The first words out of her mouth are about how she takes her job in law enforcement very seriously and how important it is to her to get closure for victims' families.

If the dozens of thirsty TikTok videos and hundreds of comments on them are any indication, it was love at first sight for many viewers. Bush is the subject of fancam edits set to Ethel Cain's "Crush" and Usher's "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)," where commenters are talking about getting lost in her blue eyes and how they hope she doesn't end up getting fired by Elon Musk and DOGE.

"I felt so bad falling in love with Loretta while watching this sad documentary but OH MY GAWD 🥵 😍," one commenter wrote.

There's a whole subgenre of self-identified straight women who joke that they're now questioning their sexuality because of their attraction to Bush.

Some are also campaigning for Bush to get her own Netflix show. About what? Anything, really; her newfound legion of fans just wants to see more of her.

It's not all about physical attraction. Many of the comments also reference a moment near the end of the docuseries in which Bush gets visibly choked up talking about her work on missing persons cases and how many of them remain unsolved despite the outsized attention to Petito's case in particular.

"This story is unique, but I will tell you that there are so many other people out there missing and they are important too. My work is important. Victims' lives are important," Bush says in her final appearance in the docuseries.

Bush herself doesn't appear to have publicly available social media profiles, at least not any that her dedicated fans have been able to track down.

Several commenters on TikTok have identified themselves as friends of Bush's in real life. They say that Bush isn't on social media but that she's aware of her newfound viral fame and they've been sharing all the videos with her. They also said that Bush is married. (Netflix declined Business Insider's requests for comment for more information on Bush.)

Another person who knows about Bush's TikTok fame agrees that she's a gem: Petito's father, Joe Petito.

"I told her that she is a TikTok sensation. 😎😎😎 She really is such an amazing person. We love her," Joe Petito commented on a video about Bush.

• Gabby Petito disappeared while on a cross-country road trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie.
• After Laundrie returned home without Petito, he and his parents did not cooperate with police.
• Petito's remains were found, and Laundrie then died by suicide. Her parents have sued his parents over the death.

The disappearance of Gabby Petito gripped the world in 2021. Now, it's the focus of a new Netflix docuseries.

Petito, a 22-year-old New York native and aspiring vlogger who had set off on a cross-country road trip to build a career as a Van Life influencer, was reported missing by her parents after they hadn't heard from her.

Petito's parents also hadn't heard from their daughter's fiancé, Brian Laundrie, who was on the trip with her. Unbeknownst to them, Laundrie had returned home to Florida with their van — but without Petito.

Suspicion quickly fell on Laundrie, who refused to cooperate with police. He ultimately vanished as well, days before Petito's remains were uncovered in Wyoming. Laundrie's body was ultimately found in a Florida nature reserve near his parents' home.

According to the FBI, Laundrie's notebook, in which he took responsibility for Petito's death, was found near his remains.

Though the perpetrator himself was dead, the case didn't end there. Netflix's three-part docuseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito" explores the allegations that Laundrie's parents, Roberta and Christopher Laundrie, knew he killed Petito and kept silent to protect their son.

The Laundries have denied the claims.

Here's what happened to Laundrie's parents after the couple's deaths, according to BI's previous reporting.

Gabby Petito was killed while on a road trip with her fiancé Brian Laundrie

Petito and Laundrie started dating in 2019 and later moved to North Port, Florida, to live near Laundrie's family. The two got engaged in July 2020 and set off on a cross-country road trip in their 2012 Ford Transit van in July 2021.

On August 12, 2021, Petito called her parents after getting into a physical altercation with Laundrie in Moab, Utah, where the police were called by a witness who reported a man slapping a girl. The police officers didn't pursue charges against either, instead advising Laundrie to check into a hotel to separate from Petito for the night.

Police bodycam footage from the Moab incident showed a distraught and crying Petito interacting with the officers.

Petito's last Instagram post was shared on August 25, 2021. Her family continued receiving texts from Petito's phone number until August 30. However, as the Netflix docuseries notes, authorities and Petito's family later came to believe that those were messages sent by Laundrie from Petito's recovered phone after he had already killed her in order to cover up the crime.

Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, became alarmed when her daughter, who'd meticulously posted updates about the trip on her Instagram account and regularly called home, stopped responding to her. After failing to get her on the phone, Schmidt finally reported Petito missing on September 11.

The Suffolk County Police Department, where Petito lived, coordinated with the North Port, Florida authorities, where Petito and Laundrie had been living with Laundrie's parents, in their initial investigation. They ultimately recovered the van at Laundrie's parents' residence. They learned Laundrie had also returned home without his fiancée, prompting immediate suspicion.

Brian Laundrie's parents refused to speak with authorities, the press, or Gabby Petito's family

A North Port police spokesperson previously told Business Insider that their officer had made "an attempt to talk with Brian, and his family declined to make him available," instead telling them to speak with their attorney.

Laundrie's lawyer made several public statements to the press throughout the search for Petito, maintaining that Laundrie and his parents would not speak to the authorities, even as Petito's parents pleaded for their help at news conferences for their missing daughter.

Laundrie's family informed North Port police on September 17 that they hadn't seen Laundrie since he left for a solo hiking trip at Carlton Reserve near their home several days earlier. Two days after that, Petito's remains were found in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. A coroner later determined Petito's cause of death to be strangulation.

A federal arrest warrant for Laundrie was issued on September 22, and the Laundrie family's attorney told the press that his parents didn't know where he was amid speculation that they were concealing his location, which they denied.

Skeletal remains were found on October 20 after his parents joined search efforts. It was quickly confirmed to be Laundrie's. His cause of death was ruled a suicide in November 2021.

Laundrie took responsibility for Petito's death in a notebook found near the remains, according to authorities. As shown in the docuseries, Laundrie claimed that he'd found Petito injured and ended her suffering, a story that was inconsistent with the autopsy report on her cause of death.

Brian Laundrie's parents were sued over Gabby Petito's death but didn't face criminal charges

As the Netflix docuseries notes, no criminal charges were filed against the Laundries, despite the Petito family's attorney saying that prosecutors had at one point been considering whether to charge "additional individuals" in Petito's disappearance and killing.

Petito's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Brian Laundrie's estate in 2022 in Sarasota County, Florida, where the Laundries live. In November 2022, a judge ordered Laundrie's estate to pay $3 million to Petito's estate. The Petito family's attorney said in a statement at the time that any recovered money would go to the Gabby Petito Foundation established in their daughter's honor.

As of February 2025, the family's lawyer told BI via email that the $3 million hadn't been paid, as the value of Laundrie's estate was "minimal."

Petito's parents filed a separate suit against Laundrie's parents and their attorney, Steve Bertolino, for emotional distress. The suit alleged that the three knew Petito was dead before her body was found and that they'd intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Petito's family by withholding information and issuing public statements that gave them "false hope" that Petito might still be found alive.

In a statement to BI at the time, Bertolino denied the allegations and maintained that the Laundries had no legal obligation to speak to the authorities or Petito's parents during the search for Petito.

According to a statement from Petito's parents shared by their attorney, the suit was settled in February 2024 "after a long day of mediation" for an undisclosed sum.

"All parties reluctantly agreed in order to avoid further legal expenses and prolonged personal conflict," the statement read.

"Our hope is to close this chapter of our lives to allow us to move on and continue to honor the legacy of our beautiful daughter, Gabby," it continued.

In a 2023 deposition for the civil case, viewed by BI, Roberta Laundrie maintained that she didn't know Petito was dead until the news reports that her body had been recovered on September 19, 2021.

Christopher Laundrie said in a 2023 deposition for the case that Brian had called him and told him "Gabby's gone" and that he might need a lawyer. He said he hadn't known what that meant exactly, even though he subsequently retained Bertolino on his son's behalf before Brian had returned to Florida. Roberta Laundrie also addressed the phone call in her deposition and said she didn't think "Gabby's gone" had meant she was dead.

The Laundries weren't the only ones to face legal action in connection with Petito's death. The Petitos also filed a $50 million lawsuit against the Moab police department, which alleged that officers were negligent in their handling of the domestic violence incident in Moab and that Petito's death a few weeks later could have been prevented if they had taken action then.

A judge dismissed that case in November 2024. At the time, Petito's parents indicated they planned to appeal. Their lawyer, in that matter, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

The Laundrie family didn't participate in interviews for the Netflix docuseries and declined to comment to the producers through their lawyer.

Lawyers for Roberta and Christopher Laundrie, and Stephen Bertolino didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI. The lawyer who represented Nichole Schmidt and Joe Petito in their suits against Laundrie's estate and his parents declined to comment.

"American Murder: Gabby Petito" is now streaming on Netflix.