When American influencer Gabby Petito went missing during a cross-country road trip with her fiance, it sparked a search operation like no other.
The 22-year-old's remains were found in Wyoming last month, with a coroner later ruling she had been killed by strangulation.
And on Wednesday, following a hunt for her missing partner Brian Laundrie, 23, his parents' lawyer said there was a strong possibility that human remains discovered in a Florida wilderness area were his.
While cops desperately searched for the pair, they were joined by an army of social media sleuths, with controversial TikTok 'psychics' sharing their theories and YouTubers even discovering they had vital information about the case.
Meanwhile, reality TV stars like Dog the Bounty Hunter have been accused of using the disappearance as a 'publicity stunt' - and an astonishing string of other bodies have been found during the investigation.
Here is how the case caused an internet storm.
'Unethical' TikTok psychics and Instagram sleuths
Before her disappearance, New Yorker Gabby was sharing pictures of her seemingly idyllic campervan adventures with Laundrie on her Instagram account.
At that time, she had around 1,000 followers - today, the account has 1.3million.
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As the missing person case was launched, hashtags like #gabbypetito and #findgabbypetito racked up hundreds of millions of views on TikTok.
While many accounts speculated on the circumstances surrounding the case and searched for clues, some were accused of being outright "disrespectful".
In a questionable development of the 'true crime make-up' trend, YouTubers recounted facts about the investigation while doing make-up tutorials.
And just days after the disappearance, self-proclaimed 'psychics' started sharing their "visions", with one claiming: “Can’t validate any of this, these are just visions that I had last night."
Another said she had seen visions of Gabby in distress after working through her social media page.
The accounts were slammed by TikTok users, with one saying it was "truly unethical", adding: "The family didn’t ask you to. There is no consent. It’s wrong."
Over on Instagram, users have flocked to the Instagram page of Brian Laundrie, which still allows comments.
The section has become a forum for angry messages, as well as rampant speculation about the truth behind his girlfriend's disappearance.
Meanwhile, a flood of accounts have sprung up dedicated to the case, including one called gabby.petito.
With more than 100,000 followers, many have mistaken it for her official account and the person behind it has been forced to defend the decision.
“Our page is not to impersonate her,” they told Jezabel.
“We have updated our bio and linked her Instagram account. We do apologise and we encourage people to give their feedback since as mentioned, this is a community!”
Nonetheless, social media has also helped crack the case.
When a woman named Miranda Baker saw Laundrie’s image on TikTok, she realised she and her boyfriend had picked him up hitchhiking shortly after Gabby went missing.
She contacted the police who said the account was "plausible" - before sharing her story with followers.
Most crucially, YouTubers Kyle and Jenn Bethune were travelling around Bridger-Teton National Forest at the same time as the couple and realised they had filmed shots with their campervan in the background.
Days later, police found Gabby's body near where the video had placed the van.
Reality TV stars slammed for 'publicity stunts'
Alongside social media sleuths, reality TV stars including Dog the Bounty Hunter have also controversially joined the search.
Last week, Laundrie's family lawyer slammed Dog and John Walsh, the former host of America's Most Wanted, for using the case to fuel their "egos".
“Dusty relics like that Dog and John Walsh need a tragic situation like this so they can clear the cobwebs off their names and give their publicity hungry egos some food," Steven Bertolino told TMZ.
The comments came weeks after Dog joined the hunt for Laundrie, claiming he had been told by a tipster that the missing boyfriend was hiding out in Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County, Florida.
He made headlines after finding a campsite he claimed could have been used by Laundrie, which led cops to investigate the scene.
"This would be and could be a perfect spot for him to hide," Dog said in an Instagram video.
"Not too many people out here, but there's a lot of environmental things we're gonna fight... The search now is really on."
Since the discovery, however, Dog has failed to turn up any fresh leads and been accused by his own daughter of using the case as a "publicity stunt".
“It's just a publicity stunt. That's really what it is,” said Cecily Chapman. “I'm pretty sure everyone knows that this is a f***ing publicity stunt.”
Meanwhile, Walsh hosted a TV special in which he said he'd received "over a thousands solid tips" with possible sightings.
“Most of them are about my theory of his father driving him to the Mexican border and letting him go through Mexico,” he said.
“It’s a great time to be heading south, because [there are] thousands of refugees ... I mean, he could walk across the border naked with his hair on fire, and nobody would notice him.”
However, Walsh was slammed on social media after twice trying to get Teton County Coroner Dr Brent Blue to speculate on Laundrie's involvement in the case - despite him insisting it was beyond the scope of his duties.
"John Walsh should have known better than to have asked what he did. You'd think with all of his experience he would have asked a better question," one Twitter user remarked.
"John Walsh and Dog the Bounty Hunter, are here for nothing but self-promotion," said another.
String of bodies found in hunt for influencer couple
Shockingly, the national manhunts for Gabby and Laundrie have uncovered a string of other bodies.
On September 20, a body was found in a bin outside a Walmart, Alabama, sparking rumours it could be Laundrie.
The corpse was later identified as a homeless man.
Eight days later, the body of Robert ‘Bob’ Lowery, 46, was found on the Black Canyon Trail near Gabby’s remains, with a coroner ruling he died by a self-inflicted gunshot.
On October 9, three bodies were discovered across different states in cases that can be linked to the hunt for Laundrie.
In El Paso County, Colorado, the remains of Sara Bayard, 55, were found off a highway, near to where Gabby and Laundrie had shared snaps on Instagram.
The same day, the body of Josue Calderon, 33, was discovered at the Yadkin Valley Overlook in North Carolina following rumours that Laundrie was hiding there.
In the Californian desert, human remains were found during a search for missing New Jersey woman Lauren ‘El’ Cho, 30, which had received renewed coverage due to Gabby's case.
Authorities are yet to confirm whether the remains are those of Cho, who disappeared on June 28.
The cases have added to accusations of "missing white woman syndrome" - the idea that cases that receive the most attention are those of missing young, white women.
The family of college student Miya Marcano, 19, who went missing two weeks after Gabby, have highlighted the disparity between coverage of their daughter's case and the influencer's.
"I think it's very interesting that we have two of these cases happening pretty simultaneously," Daryl Washington, the attorney for the Marcano family, told Insider.
"And I think what it does is it really gives the world an opportunity to see sometimes some of the differences that you have in the coverage that each case receives.
"This is by no means anything against Gabby's family," he continued. "I do think they do deserve the type of attention that they're getting."
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