Before Brian Laundrie murdered his fiancée Gabby Petito in August 2021, he lived in Florida with his parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie.
It’s understood the pair were initially reluctant to speak to officials when they came looking for answers regarding the disappearance of the 22-year-old vlogger who had lived with them for a spell.
Instead of providing information on their missing son’s whereabouts or the reason that the van Petito and Laundrie had been travelling in across the US together was sitting on their drive, they handed over a contact for their lawyer.
At the time, their representative, Steve Bertolino, told People that the couple did not know where their child was.
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It was later revealed that while Laundrie - who began dating Petito in March 2019 - was on the road trip with his fiancée in a Ford Transit Connect van, he’d talked to his parents on the phone and informed them that Petito had ‘gone’.
On 1 September, he returned to his parents’ home without his partner, and the family went camping at Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County.
Days after Laundrie was named as a person of interest in Petito’s missing person investigation, he also vanished.
On 20 October, his remains and some of his belongings were found in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, with his cause of death later being concluded as a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
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A notebook was found next to his remains, which contained a spine-chilling entry admitting he had killed Petito.
Why did Gabby Petito’s parents file a civil lawsuit against Brian Laundrie’s parents?
Months after their daughter’s death due to blunt-force injuries and ‘manual strangulation’, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt filed a lawsuit against Christopher and Roberta, as per People.
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They claimed in the lawsuit that the murder of Petito - whose remains were located in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming - had allegedly been covered up by the pair.
"It is believed, and therefore averred that … Brian Laundrie advised his parents, Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie, that he had murdered Gabrielle Petito," states the lawsuit.
"On that same date, Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie spoke with Attorney Steve Bertolino, and sent him a retainer on Sept. 2, 2021."
The suit goes on to claim that Roberta blocked Schmidt on social media and that it’s believed they were ‘making arrangements’ for their kid to ‘leave the country’.
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"Christopher and Roberta Laundrie exhibited extreme and outrageous conduct which constitutes behaviour, under the circumstances, which goes beyond all possible bounds of decency and is regarded as shocking, atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community," the lawsuit reads, as per WFLA.
What was in Roberta Laundrie’s ‘burn after reading’ letter?
It’s also reported that Roberta wrote an undated ‘burn after reading’ letter to her son.
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Patrick Reilly, an attorney for the Petito family, shared the letter with NBC News, which read: "I just want you to remember I will always love you, and I know you will always love me.
"I just want you to remember I will always love you, and I know you will always love me. You are my boy. Nothing can make me stop loving you, nothing will or could ever divide us no matter what we do, or where we go or what we say - we will always love each other.
"If you’re in jail, I will bake a cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags. If you fly to the moon, I will be watching the skies for your re-entry. If you say you hate my guts, I’ll get new guts."
After including a verse from the Bible, Roberta added: "Nothing can separate us: not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not threats, not even sin, not the thinkable or unthinkable can get between us.) ~ Not time. Not miles and miles and miles. ~"
Roberta later claimed she wrote the letter to her son months before Petito’s death due to having a ‘difficult’ and ‘strained’ relationship with him.
"I was trying to connect with Brian and repair our relationship as he was planning to leave home - and I had hoped this letter would remind him how much I loved him," she wrote, as per NBC.
"While I used words that seem to have a connection with Brian’s actions and his taking of Gabby’s life, I never would have fathomed the events that unfolded months later between Brian and Gabby would reflect the words in my letter."
It’s understood the undated letter was discovered by the FBI in a box in the Laundries’ Florida home and not on the man’s body when he died.
Gabby Petito’s family came to an agreement with the Laundries
In the wake of the lawsuit, the Laundries' lawyer told People: "Assuming everything the Petitos allege in their lawsuit is true, which we deny, this lawsuit does not change the fact that the Laundries had no obligation to speak to law enforcement or any third-party including the Petito family.
"This fundamental legal principle renders the Petitos’ claims baseless under the law."
As per the BBC, the case against the Laundries did not go to court. It was settled in February 2024, but the details of the solution were kept private.
"Christopher and Roberta Laundrie and I participated in mediation with the Petito family and the civil lawsuit has now been resolved," their representative told Fox News at the time.
"The terms of the resolution are confidential, and we look forward to putting this matter behind us."
Where are Brian Laundrie’s parents now?
Following the reported civil lawsuit settlement between the Laundrie family and the Petitos, Roberta and Christopher continued to live privately in Florida as per The Sun.
Neither has addressed the media about the murder-suicide of Petito and Laundrie.
Gabby’s mother Nichole has recently spoken out following the release of American Murder: Gabby Petito on Netflix.
She told NewsNation: "I don't think we'll ever know why, the only two people that will know why are the two people that were there when this happened.
"I think we have the answers we needed. We know that things were known. I don't want to talk about them or say their names."
Nichole continued: "I have forgiven Brian, and I know that is what Gabby would have wanted, and I’m moving forward so I can move on.
"That is my personal experience. I don’t think everyone has to forgive. They can when they are ready if they are ever ready. But for me personally, I needed to forgive to let that anchor go."
Topics: Gabby Petito, Crime, True Crime, US News
Ella Scott