Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito’s high school yearbook photos have been shared by Fox News as their friends reveal they ‘always had some drama’.
The childhood sweethearts were students at Bayport-Blue Point High School in Long Island, New York. Gabby was a sophomore while Brian was a junior.
Their friends described their relationship as on-again, off-again, saying it was difficult to know whether they were still dating or not.
Laundrie’s friend Ben Matula told PEOPLE: “One minute, they’d be all over each other, the next minute, he’d be like, ‘We’re fighting.’
“They always had some drama. There was always something below the surface where things weren’t 100 percent wonderful.”
Gabby’s friend Alyssa Chen also gave a similar account of the couple’s relationship but said that she did not observe anything alarming.
“I never saw any sort of physical abuse,” Chen explained. “They had times they were toxic and times where everything seemed a lot more healthy.
“They had very low lows and very high highs. But they really seemed to love each other.”
The couple broke up after Brian graduated in 2016 but they went back together when Gabby graduated the following year.
The pair then decided to move in with Laundrie’s parents in Florida.
Laundrie sold his digital artwork and watercolor paintings while Gabby landed two jobs as a waitress and a pharmacy technician.
According to Gabby’s Instagram posts, the couple got engaged in July 2020.
“Brian asked me to marry him and I said yes!” the post read, adding: “You make me feel unreal, and every day is such a dream with you.”
The couple then decided to raise money to buy and remodel a van and used it on a cross-country trip.
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