Gabby Petito's Dad Combats 'Missing White Woman Syndrome' with TV Series Focused on Marginalized Communities

Mar. 15, 2025

The Petito & Schmidt Families

Joe Petitobecame upset when he first heard the term “Missing White Woman Syndrome.”

“When I first heard Missing White Woman Syndrome, I didn’t like the phrase and I didn’t know anything about it, to be honest,” Joe tells PEOPLE in an interview.

However, Joe quickly realized that it was “a real thing," he says.

“You start looking at stories that go mainstream, and they always seem to look the same — and that needs to change,” he says. “Everyone deserves the same attention, and every story deserves the same type of assistance.”

Joseph Petito/Instagram

Now, Joe is hoping to shine a spotlight on cases that have too often been ignored. He’s collaborating on a television series featuring those cases calledFaces of the Missing, a Backlot Productions and Boundless Films collaboration with executive producers Dana Richie, Francesco Lucarelli and Elaine Aradillas. (The sizzle reel for the series is shown below.)

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Joe and Tara Petito; Nichole and Jim Schmidt.Diana King

Diana King

In recent months, the foursome have begun using their platform to raise awareness about the thousands of missing and unsolved murders of and people of color and Indigenous people whose cases often get too little attention.

“I understand what it takes, the heartaches and the anxiety and the hopelessness. But I only had to endure it for a little over a week and a half,” he said. Others have “had to endure lifetimes, years of not knowing. And I don’t know how people deal with that. And it breaks my heart when I see that.”

The Petito and Schmidt Families

Joe, a warehouse store chain manager in Florida, says he hopes that his daughter is proud of his family’s new mission.

“I hope she’s proud. I really hope us as a family, my wife, Jim and Nikki and the kids are showing her that we’re trying to carry on what she started," he says. “She’s probably laughing at us at the same time, ‘Stop crying over it!' But we can’t. We’re just going to help out. One day I’m going to get to see her again and hopefully when I ask her, ‘Did I make you proud?’ She’ll say ‘Yes.’”

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source: people.com