Global Courant 2023-05-24 22:42:55
A Florida hearing on whether Brian Laundrie’s parents should hand over a controversial “burn after reading” letter to the parents of his murdered former fiancé Gabby Petito as part of a civil lawsuit stemming from the travel blogger’s 2021 strangulation in Wyoming, began Wednesday.
Chris and Roberta Laundrie have not been charged with any crime related to Petito’s death. But in the civil suit, they asked the court to deny the Petito family’s request for a copy of the letter, which mentions Roberta offering to lend her son a shovel.
Attorneys for Petito’s parents, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, want the letter turned over as part of the discovery in the lawsuit, which alleges that the laundries knew about Petito’s death before her remains were found and tried to help their son escape justice.
After months of litigation over the letter, a Sarasota County judge scheduled the hearing for Wednesday afternoon. The judge is also considering requests from the defense to dismiss the case.
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Gabby Petito’s parents Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt in a Florida courtroom on Wednesday, May 24, at a hearing in their civil lawsuit against the parents of their daughter’s suspected killer, Brian Laundrie. (Swimming pool)
“I don’t feel comfortable summarizing the letter,” Pat Reilly, the attorney for Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, told Fox News Digital earlier this year. “The content is very specific and best read when available. If my belief about the time it was written is correct, it shows that at least Roberta Laundrie knew about Gabby’s murder before Gabby’s body was localized.”
Roberta’s letter was undated, he added, but “the contents of the letter seem to indicate it was written after Gabby’s death.”
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Gabby Petito with blood on her face at a traffic stop on August 12, 2021 in Moab, Utah. A bystander called the police to report a man, later identified as Brian Laundrie, who moments earlier had publicly beaten a woman, Petito. (Parker & McConkie)
Lawyers for the Laundrie family have argued that it was written months earlier, before the pair left for a cross-country skiing trip through national parks, and had nothing to do with Petito’s death.
“While I used words that seem to relate to Brian’s actions and his deprivation of Gabby’s life, I could never have fathomed that the events that transpired months later between Brian and Gabby would mirror the words in my letter,” Roberta Laundrie wrote in filed an affidavit in a Sarasota court in March.
Trying to explain the context of the letter, she said it was inspired by children’s books “The Runaway Bunny” and “Little Bear” and a writing book Petito had given her son called “Burn After Writing,” she said.
Chris and Roberta Laundrie take a break at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park near their Florida home, minutes after finding some of their son’s belongings at the edge of a clearing on October 20, 2021. Inset: Brian Laundrie speaks to Moab, Utah, police in bodycam video from August 12, 2021. (Moab PD, Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
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“Brian, Gabby and I often joked about this book and how important it is to be able to express yourself,” she wrote of the latter.
Embarrassing ideas could be burned out, she argued.
“Somehow I didn’t want anyone else to read it because I know it’s not the type of letter a mother writes to her grown son and I didn’t want to embarrass Brian,” she wrote. “That’s why I wrote ‘Burn After Reading’ on the envelope, and I knew Brian would know what that meant. I appreciate now that he actually kept it.”
The lawsuit alleges that Laundrie, his parents and their attorney knew Petito was dead at the time of a Sept. 14 statement that Laundrie attorney Steve Bertolino gave to the media, which reads in part: “On behalf of the Laundrie family, we hope that the search to Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family.”
Fox News Digital offered the first public glimpse of a confession Brian Laundrie left in a notebook in the Florida swamp where he committed suicide in 2021. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
Her remains would be discovered on September 19 at a campground near Jackson, Wyoming. where she was last seen alive. Brian Laundrie allegedly killed her around August 28.
Fox News Digital was the first to report that the couple was involved in a public altercation weeks earlier in Moab, Utah, in which the police were called but ultimately no charges were filed.
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“Officers conducted an investigation and determined there was insufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges,” former Moab police chief Bret Edge told Fox News Digital at the time.
Fox News Digital was present at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park near the Laundrie family home in North Port, Florida, when authorities found his remains on October 20, 2021.
Chris and Roberta Laundrie at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on the morning the police discovered their son’s skeletal remains. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
According to the FBI, Laundrie died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Near his decomposed remains, they found a handwritten suicide note and confession kept in a dry bag and other personal effects.
In the note, first published by Fox News Digital, Brian Laundrie stated, “I ended her life.”
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“I thought it was merciful, it’s what she wanted, but I now see all the mistakes I’ve made,” he wrote. “I panicked. I was in shock.”
Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @mikerreports
