- 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.
Netflix
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.
Netflix
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.
