OAN’s Taylor Tinsley
12:20 PM – Thursday, October 12, 2023
Gabby Petito’s parents came face-to-face with the parents of their daughter’s killer for the first time this week, after her disappearance hit national headlines back in 2021.
Christopher and Roberta Laundrie were questioned by attorneys in Florida ahead of a civil trial that is expected to kick off in May 2024.
The case of 22-year-old Gabby Petito gripped the nation after she went missing on a cross country road trip with her then-fiancé Brian Laundrie. Petito’s body was later found in Grand Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
Petito’s parents are now suing the Laundries and their attorney for intentionally causing emotional distress and conspiring with their son to escape police.
Questions at the deposition reportedly touched on a letter that Roberta Laundrie wrote to her son, labeled “burn after reading.”
“If you’re in jail I will bake a cake and put a file in it,” she wrote. “If you need to dispose of a body. I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.”
Petito family attorney Patrick Reilly asserted that the note demonstrates that Brian’s mother knew Gabby Petito was killed.
However, defense attorneys argued that the letter does not mention Gabby and was written before the trip. Reilly maintained that it is still up to the jury to decide when the letter was written.
During the deposition hearing, Joe Petito told WFLA that the Laundries refused to look in his direction during both of the proceedings.
After the proceeding Petitos mother, Nichole Schmidt, told the outlet: “It was extremely hurtful to listen to someone that has no remorse and no compassion for the girl they would call their daughter-in-law.”
Longtime Laundrie family attorney Steve Bertolino is scheduled to be deposed next week.
Brian Laundrie, 23, strangled and bludgeoned Gabby Petito, 22, to death in August of 2021.
He later returned alone to his parents’ Florida home in Gabby’s van on September 1st.
Gabby’s body was not discovered until September 19th, and the Laundries refused to work with police when she was first reported missing on September 11th.
Brian Laundrie was also reported missing two days before authorities discovered Gabby’s body, sparking a nationwide manhunt. His remains were not found until about a month later in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.
Additionally, police uncovered that Laundrie had confessed to killing Petito in a suicide note.
Wednesday’s proceeding marked the second time Petito’s parents have come face to face with the parents of their daughter’s killer since her death.
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