Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie Case ; Exclusive Reports

Brian Laundrie

Brian Laundrie allegedly told his parents Gabby Petito was ‘gone’ and he needed a lawyer 13 days before she was reported missing ; Latest Updates

According to new court documents, Brian Laundrie allegedly called his parents almost two weeks before Gabby Petito was reported missing, telling them that his fiancée was “gone” and that he required legal representation. In the summer of 2021, Petito, 22, and Laundrie were travelling cross-country when she disappeared, sparking a case that garnered international attention. One month after Petito’s body was discovered in a Wyoming national forest, Laundrie vanished while he was listed as a person of interest in the case. He was later discovered dead in Florida. He allegedly left a note blaming himself for her passing, according to officials.

Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, Petito’s parents, claim that Laundrie’s parents and their lawyer knew that Petito was dead but misled them and the public by saying there was still hope for her to be found. In an updated complaint, which was submitted on Nov. 30, in Petito’s case against Christopher and Roberta Laundrie as well as attorney Steven Bertolino, the parents of Petito claim that on Aug. 29, 2021, Brian Laundrie informed them “in a frantic telephone call” that Gabby was “gone” and that he “needed a lawyer.”

Petito’s mother reported her missing 13 days later, on September 11, 2021. “On August 29, 2021, Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie spoke with Steven Bertolino, advising him that Gabrielle Petito was ‘gone,’ that Brian Laundrie needed a lawyer, and sent him a retainer on September 2, 2021,” according to the complaint. Bertolino allegedly entered into a fee agreement with criminal defence attorney firm Fleener Peterson LLC in Laramie, Wyoming, on September 2, 2021, to represent Laundrie. He is also accused of contacting other Wyoming attorneys to represent Brian Laundrie, including a public defender’s office in the same county where Petito’s body was eventually located.

Those charges were discovered during the Laundries’ depositions in October, according to Pat Reilly, an attorney representing the Petito family. Bertolino stated in a statement, “We have no comment to the filed allegations.” We will file our responses in the coming days.” According to the lawsuit, on August 30, 2021, Laundrie allegedly texted Gabby Petito’s mother saying there was no service in Yosemite Park in a “effort to deceive Nichole Schmidt into believing that Gabrielle Petito was still alive.” the registration

On September 1, 2021, Laundrie returned to his parents’ Florida house in Petito’s van. The complaint cites a statement Bertolino issued on behalf of the Laundrie family on Sept. 14 in support of a search for Petito near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, expressing optimism that she would be reunited with her family. “For the Laundries and Steven Bertolino to express their ‘hope’ that Gabrielle Petito was located and reunited with her family, at a time when they knew she had been murdered by Brian Laundrie was beyond outrageous,” according to the complaint.

According to the lawsuit, the attorney’s and Laundries’ statements were “intentional or reckless” and caused emotional anguish to the Petito family, and their behaviour was “odious and utterly intolerable in a civilised community.” The amended complaint follows Reilly’s deposition of the Laundries and Bertolino in October, ahead of the civil trial in May. “It was an emotional, heartbreaking, and eye-opening day for Joe and Nichole.” They discovered exactly what the Laundries and Bertolino knew while Joe and Nichole and the rest of the family were looking for any information on Gabby but refused to reveal. “Mr. Bertolino’s level of insensitivity is shocking but not unexpected,” Reilly said in a statement on the depositions.

The Whole Case Study In Detail

Killing of Gabby Petito

While on a vanlife trip across the country in August 2021, Gabrielle Venora Petito, a 22-year-old American lady, was killed by her fiancé, Brian Christopher Laundrie. On July 2, 2021, the four-month expedition was scheduled to start, but on August 27, Petito vanished. When Laundrie drove the van from Wyoming back to his parents’ Florida house after Petito vanished and refused to talk about her location, it sparked suspicions. Due to allegations that he had taken withdrawals using her debit card, he was considered a person of interest in the case, and an arrest order was issued. On September 13, he departed from his residence and was listed as missing after four days.

Petito’s remains were discovered in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest on September 19. According to an autopsy, she was manually strangled to death. On October 20, following a month of conjecture on Laundrie’s whereabouts and a thorough investigation of the neighbourhood surrounding his residence, his skeletal remains were found in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.

On November 23, an autopsy verified that Laundrie had killed himself by shooting his own head wound. Subsequently, the FBI declared that brain Laundrie had written in his notebook, which was discovered next to his body, that he had killed Petito.

The couple’s social media documentation of their travels, leaked police body camera footage, 9–1–1 emergency dispatch call records, eyewitness testimonies, Laundrie’s parents’ activities, and the case’s substantial media coverage all contributed to the case’s global notice.

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About Gabby Petito

Gabrielle Venora Petito (born March 19, 1999 — c. late August 2021) grew up in Blue Point, New York. She was the youngest of six siblings and half-siblings. Petito and her stepbrothers performed in a music video in 2013 to raise awareness about gun violence in America in reaction to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. She graduated from Bayport-Blue Point High School in Bayport, New York, in 2017 and met Brian Laundrie there.She lived in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, from September 2017 until January 2019, working as a hostess and in the kitchen of a restaurant in nearby Wilmington. She applied but did not attend Cape Fear Community College.

In March 2019, Petito started dating Laundrie and moved in with his parents in North Port, Florida. The pair was employed at a Publix in North Port, where he worked in the grocery section and she was a pharmacy technician. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, they resigned from their positions. The couple started a cross-country road trip from New York to California in late 2019 and early 2020. They stopped at Pismo Beach, Yosemite National Park, Las Vegas, and other interesting places along the route. Petito celebrated her 21st birthday in Nokomis, Florida, in March 2020. After travelling to Sope Creek, Georgia, in June 2020, she and Brian Laundrie were engaged the following month.

The couple’s next cross-country journey would be conducted in a 2012 Ford Transit Connect van that Petito had transformed into a camper in December 2020.While Brian Laundrie took a job at an organic juice bar, she started working 50-hour weeks at Taco Bell and as a nutritionist to save money for the trip.On social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram, Petito shared videos of her life and travels. She listed “art, yoga, and veggies” among her interests.

The day of Incident

On August 12, 2021,On August 12, 2021, a witness called 9–1–1 to report that a couple

(later identified as Brian Laundrie and Petito) were fighting in front of the Moonflower Community Cooperative in Moab, Utah

According to the caller, they witnessed a man smack a woman, after which the two of them raced along the pavement. The male then struck the woman once again before they both drove off.Police were informed by another witness that Petito and Brian Laundrie appeared to be speaking “aggressively” and that Petito “was punching him in the arm” during the altercation. According to the witness, Laundrie appeared to be attempting to leave Petito behind and take her phone with him. “Why do you have to be so mean?” she asked him as she got into the driver’s seat and then shifted to the passenger’s seat to allow him to drive before they drove off together

Latest activity and sightings reported

Laundrie left Petito behind on August 17 as she flew from Salt Lake City to Tampa, Florida. Staff members said that Petito checked out on August 24 after spending several days at a Fairfield Inn and Suites hotel close to Salt Lake City International Airport. Later, the lawyer for the Laundrie family clarified that he went on the trip in order to “obtain some items and empty and close the storage unit to save money as they contemplated extending the road trip”.On August 23, Laundrie came back to meet up with Petito and carry on with the journey.

According to Petito’s mother, she last spoke with her daughter on August 25 and was informed that the pair was visiting Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks from Utah. The last picture uploaded to Petito’s Instagram account was of her standing in front of a butterfly mural outside of an Ogden, Utah restaurant on August 25. A Whole Foods shop in Jackson, Wyoming had a CCTV camera record Petito and Laundrie on August 27. They left the store at 2:14 p.m. after entering at 2:11 p.m., and they left again at 2:30 p.m., getting back into the van.

They ultimately drove away and pulled at Highway 89, the route north to the Bridger-Teton National Forest campsite, at 2:56 p.m., after spending about twenty minutes sitting in the van. Petito was last seen alive at this point.

Petito and Brian Laundrie Both Are missing

Following Petito’s disappearance in late August, Petito’s mother filed a missing person report on September 11. Laundrie was designated as a person of interest four days later. After hiring an attorney, his parents chose to keep quiet and refused to discuss the subject with anyone, following his advise.

On September 13, when the Laundrie residence was being watched by police, he left. When his car reappeared two days later, the police assumed Laundrie was the one who got out of the car and went into the house. “We know where Brian Laundrie is at,” North Port police chief Todd Garrison told reporters the next day. Laundrie’s parents reported him missing on September 17th, stating they hadn’t seen him since September 13th. At this point on September 15, the police realised that they had mistaken Laundrie’s mother for Laundrie. The Ford Transit Connect, an external hard drive, and the Laundrie family’s Ford Mustang were taken from the North Port home by police after they obtained search warrants.

Finding of Petito’s Remains

At the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping area in Wyoming, on September 19, human remains that matched Petito’s description were discovered not far from the location where the Ford Transit Connect had previously been seen. Her identity was established, and an examination revealed that, three to four weeks prior to the body’s discovery, she had been killed by “blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation.”

Looking for Laundrie and finding remnants

The FBI collected material to match Laundrie’s DNA from his house, and on September 23, the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming issued an arrest warrant for Laundrie for his unlawful use of Petito’s debit card to obtain $1,000 or more between August 30 and September 1. In an interview with ABC News on October 5, Laundrie’s sister urged him to turn himself in to the police. Two days later, Laundrie’s father went with investigators to the T. Mabry Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, Florida, to look for him. They concentrated on sections of the reserve that he used to visit, as well as the nearby Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.

On October 20, near the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, in an area that had recently been under water owing to floods, Laundrie’s skeletal remains (identified by forensic dentistry) and some of his items were discovered. Since an autopsy was unable to ascertain the cause of his death, his remains were turned over to a forensic anthropologist for additional investigation. It was revealed on November 23 that the anthropologist had come to the conclusion that brain Laundrie had shot himself in the head.

Brain Laundrie’s admission

On January 21, 2022, the FBI disclosed that an entry from Laundrie’s notebook, discovered next to his remains, confessed his murder of Petito and his use of text messages to trick others into believing she was still alive. Authorities formally assigned him the culpability for Petito’s demise. “The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito,” the FBI Denver Division said in closing off the inquiry. Throughout the investigation, Gabby and her family’s right to justice remained the FBI’s top priority.

In June 2022, the Laundrie family’s lawyer released the full notebook entry whereby Laundrie asserts that he killed Petito following her self-inflicted injuries: “I took her life. I realised all the mistakes I made at the time, but I still felt it was kind and what she want.” “I am ending my life not because I fear punishment but rather because I can’t stand to live another day without her,” he writes in the note before revealing his plans to commit suicide. Experts assert, however, that Laundrie’s narrative differs from what the investigators discovered. According to Michael Alcazar of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Laundrie was “trying to find justification for the actions he did” and “someone who doesn’t want to own up to what he did.”

The Gabby Petito Story is a television film that Lifetime premiered on October 1, 2022, as a part of their Ripped From the Headlines series. Skyler Samuels plays Petito, Evan Hall plays Laundrie, and Thora Birch plays Petito’s mother in this Thora Birch-directed movie.

Lawsuits

Petito’s parents announced plans to sue Laundrie’s parents in June 2022, with a Florida judge allowing the suit to proceed. In November 2022, her parents filed a $50 million lawsuit against the Moab police department