I see some people on reddit claiming this story only got so much coverage due to her being a cute white girl. Maybe there's some truth to this, but it's definitely not the main reason. It's not like she just went missing hiking in the woods and her boyfriend couldn't find her. Missing people stories always pick up traction when there's hope the person can be found. People spread the word hoping to help bring awareness. etc. Eventually the story will lose steam once the person is found (or never found).
This story though....The story had drama from the start, and continued to build up leading up to the body being found today. From Brian arriving in Florida without Gabby, not calling the police, then the police chief lashing out on live stream, the cops lying about knowing where Brian was, Brian and his family not helping at all, etc. Oh, not to mention the body cam footage with Gabby expressing fear that Brian was going to leave her stranded. Talk about foreshadowing.
On top of it all, you have various communities scrambling to work together to find anyone who may have seen Gabby and Brian. Trying to figure out where exactly Brian had been before he ran back to Florida. Everyday, more and more details came out that made this case interesting, such as a witness recalling picking up Brian and him acting strange, or the Florida couple who's dashcam footage found Gabby's van parked off the road and her flipflops in the dirt. Etc.
Point is, this case didn't blow up because Gabby is a cute white chick. It blew up because it started out absurd and continued to grow even more whack every time something new was discovered. The same thing happened with the Gannon Stauch case.