Before-and-after, zoomed-in stills, seconds apart, from Red, White & Bethune's footage that appear to show the rear van door closing.
Before-and-after, zoomed-in stills, seconds apart, from Red, White & Bethune's footage that appear to show the rear van door closing. Stills marked up by Insider.
Red, White & Bethune/YouTube/Insider
  • YouTube footage purporting to show Gabby Petito's van also appears to shows the rear door closing.
  • YouTubers Jenn and Kyle Bethune said they believed the van was unoccupied as they passed.
  • A zoomed-in view of the van shows the door move while the camera is still distant.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Close-up views of footage taken by a family of YouTubers appear to show the door of Gabby Petito's van closing as they approached.

Jenn and Kyle Bethune, part of a vlogging family known as "Red White & Bethune" on YouTube, posted footage early Sunday showing a white van on their travels.

They say was taken on August 27 near Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

The van closely resembles the converted 2012 Ford Transit van Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie were traveling in before she went missing.

Jenn Bethune told Insider's Connor Perrett that the family were driving through Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area, Wyoming, at around 6 p.m. on August 27.

Their GoPro, affixed to the front of their vehicle, captured the footage.

The Spread Creek camping area is where a body, believed to be Petito's, was found Sunday.

Petito was reported missing on September 11 after she did not return from a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie.

In their footage, the Bethunes said they hoped to say hello to the occupants of the van, having noticed their Florida plates. But as the passed, they thought the van was unoccupied, so kept driving.

"The van looked pretty much abandoned, we figured maybe they were out hiking, they were just chilling inside, there were no doors open," Kyle Bethune says in the voiceover.

But when zoomed-in, it appears to show the van's rear door closing as the Bethunes' vehicle approaches. The moment is not easy to spot in the footage, at around the 1 minute 34 seconds mark:

The van in the Bethunes' footage has not been confirmed as Petito's, and as of Sunday the FBI had not responded to the tip Jenn Bethune submitted concerning the video, she said.

A photo of Petito's van released by the FBI on September 16 shows several stickers on the rear. Close-ups of the van in the Bethune footage reveals, albeit in low resolution, stickers that appear to match.

However, some of the stickers - notably a distinctive black triangular one - do not appear in the Bethunes' footage.

A side-by-side comparison of the rear of the white van in the Bethunes' footage and Petito's van image released by the FBI. Arrows point to locations where stickers in the Bethune footage match those on Petito's van.
A side-by-side comparison: (L) The white van in the Bethunes' footage, and (R) Petito's van image released by the FBI.
Red, White & Bethune / FBI / Insider

Authorities continue to search for Laundrie, who was reported missing as of September 14, following days of refusing to speak to police as part of the search for Petito.

Read the original article on Insider