Latest news with #Laundries
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
Gabby Petito's Mom Shares Bombshell 'Information' About Brian Laundrie's Parents' Alleged Attempt To Protect Him
Gabby Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, has made new claims about her late daughter's killer, Brian Laundrie, and his family. During a podcast appearance, Schmidt said that Brian's room was completely renovated while Gabby was presumed missing by the police. Gabby Petito's mother has since accused Roberta Laundrie of lacking remorse and being the "mastermind" behind shielding her son, Brian Laundrie. In an appearance on Taylor Lautner and his wife Tay's podcast, "The Squeeze," Gabby Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, made a startling revelation while recounting the events surrounding her daughter's disappearance. Sharing "new information" she had only just learned, Schmidt claimed that someone who had been inside the Laundrie family home while Brian Laundrie was reportedly "missing" claimed that his bedroom had been entirely cleared out and renovated. "I actually just found out some new information a few days ago," she said, per the New York Post. "There was — I actually don't know their name, which is better — that was at the house when Brian was missing and — I would say he was hiding, he wasn't missing, but he was actually dead — but his room was completely gutted and renovated. None of his things were there anymore. It was gone." Schmidt added: "Cops were going to their house to try to get, I guess, a scent from their dogs to look for Brian, all his things were gone. The room was completely empty, just gone." According to Schmidt, the unidentified person expressed serious concern about Roberta Laundrie's behavior, describing her as visibly unwell. "They said that there's something wrong with that mother, she's clearly not mentally well, and I'm like that's just add it to the list because I didn't even know about that," she recalled. Schmidt also expressed her ongoing frustration, saying she often feels helpless when thinking about ways to hold the Laundries accountable. She shared that it drives her "absolutely insane" when she tries to think of any way to make them "pay for what they did." "There is really nothing I can do," Schmidt noted. Despite the pain of her daughter's passing, Schmidt shared a powerful message of healing while speaking at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville. Standing before the audience, she said, "I speak for myself here when I say, Brian, I forgive you." Schmidt continued, "I needed to release myself from the chains of anger and bitterness, and I refuse to let your despicable act define the rest of my life." Even though she forgave Brian, Schmidt didn't hold back when addressing his mother, Roberta. She accused her of being the driving force behind a calculated effort to shield her son after Petito's death. "Roberta, and I call you out individually because you are evidently the mastermind that shattered your family and mine with your evil ways, I see no empathy in your eyes," Schmidt said. "No remorse in your heart and no willingness to take responsibility for your actions." Schmidt and her family have long believed the Laundries knew Brian had killed Petito and actively helped him avoid facing consequences. According to court depositions, both Roberta and Chris Laundrie admitted they became concerned about Gabby's well-being after Brian called home acting strangely in the days following the murder. Brian eventually returned alone to Florida, driving the van he and Gabby had traveled in. Her remains were later discovered in Wyoming, where he had left her behind. According to the Daily Mail, Roberta wrote a letter to her son Brian, seemingly offering to help him "bury a body." The undated note, labeled "burn after reading," was discovered in Brian's backpack after his remains were found at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Florida. He died by suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after confessing to Petito's murder in a notebook found alongside his remains. Attorney Patrick Reilly, who represented the Petito family, revealed in court that the letter was in FBI custody and contained chilling language indicating Roberta's willingness to help her son evade prison. She allegedly wrote that she would "bring a shovel" and assist in hiding a body. Although Roberta claims the letter was written before Gabby and Brian left on their trip, Petito's family said the content left them "sick to their stomach." Gabby's parents have since taken steps to prevent the white camper van she traveled in with Laundrie from becoming a morbid collector's item. Speaking to NewsNation, they shared that they decided to have the van destroyed, with her father, Joe Petito, stating, "We crushed the van. We didn't want the van to be out there and someone owning the van and then saying, 'Here's the van that Gabby was…' So, we had it crushed." Despite this, he and Gabby's stepmother, Tara Petito, retained the gasoline cap and a sticker from the Great Smoky Mountains as personal mementos. Meanwhile, Gabby's mother, Nichole Schmidt, shared that she has forgiven Laundrie for her daughter's death, stating, "I have forgiven Brian, and I know that's what Gabby would have wanted, and I'm moving forward so that I can help other people." She added, "I don't think everyone has to forgive. They can when they're ready, or they might never be ready. But for me personally, I needed to forgive to let that anger go."
New York Post
22-04-2025
- New York Post
Gabby Petito's mom claims Brian Laundrie's room was ‘gutted' soon after he went missing: ‘All his things were gone'
The parents of murderer Brian Laundrie allegedly 'gutted and renovated' their son's room while he was missing, as Gabby Petito's loved ones were still searching for the missing 22-year-old, her mother claimed. Nichole Schmidt sat down with Taylor Lautner and his wife, Tay, on their podcast, The Squeeze, this week to discuss her daughter's story, and said she recently came across the stunning claim against the Laundries. 'I actually just found out some new information a few days ago,' Schmidt claimed. Advertisement 4 Nichole Schmidt sat down with Taylor Lautner and his wife, Tay, on their podcast, The Squeeze, this week to discuss her daughter's story. Youtube / The Squeeze 'There was — I actually don't know their name, which is better — that was at the house when Brian was missing and — I would say he was hiding, he wasn't missing, but he was actually dead — but his room was completely gutted and renovated. None of his things were there anymore. It was gone.' She claimed that the week her daughter was missing, 'cops were going to their house to try to get, I guess, a scent from their dogs to look for Brian, all his things were gone.' Advertisement 'The room was completely empty, just gone,' Schmidt said. The unidentified individual, who claimed to have been in the house during that time, told Schmidt that it was obvious something was 'wrong' with Laundrie's mother, Roberta. 'They said that there's something wrong with that mother she's clearly not mentally well, and I'm like that's just add it to the list because I didn't even know about that,' she said. Schmidt said it drives her 'absolutely insane' when she tries to think of any way to make them 'pay for what they did.' Advertisement 4 An Instagram story video shows the inside of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie's camper van. Instagram 'There is really nothing I can do,' she said. Roberta Laundrie is suspected of helping her son sneak away while law enforcement zeroed in on him as a key suspect in Gabby Petito's murder in 2021. His parents also refused to cooperate with authorities and give any information about their son's whereabouts. Advertisement Schmidt took the stage at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tenn., in June and said she forgave her daughter's killer for what he did. 4 Roberta Laundrie is suspected of helping her son sneak away while law enforcement zeroed in on him as a key suspect in Gabby Petito's murder in 2021. William Farrington 'I speak for myself here when I say Brian, I forgive you,' she said. 'I needed to release myself from the chains of anger and bitterness, and I refuse to let your despicable act define the rest of my life.' However, as for Roberta, she believed she had 'no remorse in your heart.' 'As for you, Roberta, and I call you out individually because you are evidently the mastermind that shattered your family and mine with your evil ways, I see no empathy in your eyes,' Schmidt said. 'No remorse in your heart and no willingness to take responsibility for your actions.' 4 Petito's body was discovered in Grand Teton National Park on Sept. 19, 2021, with investigators ruling her cause of death as strangulation. Gabby Petito Instagram Advertisement Petito's family believes the Laundries were aware their son had murdered their daughter and allegedly tried to hide the sinister act while helping him evade justice after he had returned home by himself from a trip the two had been on. Both of Laundrie's parents acknowledged in depositions that they had concerns about Petito's welfare after their son seemed erratic in phone calls shortly after her murder. Laundrie drove to his Florida home from Wyoming, where he abandoned Petito's remains. Advertisement After returning home, he went camping with his parents, sister, and her children as the Petitos' loved ones struggled to piece together what happened and where she was. The 22-year-old's body was discovered in Grand Teton National Park on Sept. 19, 2021, with investigators ruling her cause of death as strangulation. Laundrie, 23, subsequently killed himself, and his remains were discovered in a Florida nature park alongside his backpack and notebook with a confession about killing Petito.
USA Today
20-02-2025
- USA Today
Brian Laundrie's parents faced protests amid search for Gabby Petito. Were they charged?
Brian Laundrie's parents faced protests amid search for Gabby Petito. Were they charged? Show Caption Hide Caption Gabby Petito's parents reach settlement The parents of Gabby Petito have reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit against Brian Laundrie's parents and their attorney, Steve Bertolino. Fox - 10 Phoenix A new docuseries on the investigation into the 2021 killing of Gabby Petito has brought a fresh wave of attention on the parents of her alleged killer and their controversial actions amid the search for Petito. The docuseries, "American Murder: Gabby Petito," showed Christopher and Roberta Laundrie stonewaling investigators and Petito's family amid a high-profile search for the 22-year-old who went missing while on a cross-country roadtrip with Brian Laundrie. Petito was reported missing after Laundrie returned, without Petito, to his Florida home, where he was living with his parents. As the search for Petito gained national attention, the Laundries mostly ignored relentless protesters assembled outside their house amid constant surveillance from law enforcement. "Speak up!" demanded one protest sign seen at their North Port, Florida, home. The documentary showed evidence that Laundries retained a lawyer before the search for Petito began and refused to cooperate with police as they started to investigate Petito's disappearance. Though speculation over the extent of their involvement was rampant, the Laundries were never charged with a crime. (Petito's parents filed suit against the Laundries for emotional distress and settled last year out of court.) Legal experts in Florida consulted by USA TODAY were unsurprised by the lack of charges. The Laundrie parents were not legally obligated to speak to authorities or to Petito's family even if they did know something, said University of Miami law professor Craig Trocino, who also directs the school's Innocence Clinic. "There are a lot of facts that don't look good," he said. "It's a bad case. It's horrible any way you dice it... but the law is the law." The documentary also depicts the events leading to Brian Laundrie's death. While authorities searched the country for Petito, Brian Laundrie also went missing. Petito's body was found near a Wyoming campground on Sept. 19, 2021, and investigators said she had been strangled. The documentary shows a massive, weekslong search for Laundrie that only ended with the discovery of his body when his parents joined the search. Authorities believe Laundrie died by suicide. The Laundries' attorney, Steven Bertolino, issued a statement to USA TODAY that was critical of the documentary, saying it "contained many inaccuracies, incorrect juxtapositions of timelines, and misstatements and omissions of fact - perhaps deliberate to capture their 'truth,' perhaps due to simple error. The statement continues: "We all know Brian took Gabby's life and Brian then took his own as well. Let the parents of both Gabby and Brian mourn and remember them in peace." The right to remain silent Any person generally has the right to remain silent when speaking with police, which can lead to some moral quandaries, experts said. "If I'm walking down the street and I see you shoot somebody, morally, I'm compelled to call the police and say, 'I just saw this.' Legally, I don't believe you have any obligations to do that," Trocino said. "Especially if it puts you in the crosshairs, if it implicates you." In the Laundries' case, it's also unclear what the parents knew about Gabby Petito's death, said Randolph Braccialarghe, a law professor at the Nova Southeastern University College of Law, in an email. "The difficulty with charging the parents was that the police did not know what Brian Laundrie had told his parents," Braccialarghe wrote. (The issue came up in a deposition for the civil suit, where the Laundries said they weren't sure that Petito was dead when a panicked Brian contacted them on Aug. 29 and asked them to call a lawyer.) But questions of "who knew what, when?" aren't the most important legal consideration, according to Trocino, who said the parents would have been within their rights to withhold information from police and direct questions to their lawyer. That's exactly what footage in the documentary shows, when Florida officers starting their investigation asked to speak with Brian. "He's not going to talk to anybody," Christopher Laundrie told Florida officers. "Goodbye for now. You can call our attorney." Law enforcement may have considered charges like being an accessory to the crimes their son allegedly committed, Trocino said. But those charges would have required evidence they had helped him evade capture while knowing he had killed Petito. What about the 'burn after reading' letter? The docuseries also highlighted a letter Roberta Laundrie acknowledged she wrote to her son, contained in an envelope that said "burn after reading." "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," she wrote in the letter that was undated. See the letter: Brian Laundrie's mom wrote him letter saying she would help 'dispose of a body' Roberta Laundrie said in statements through a lawyer she wrote the letter months before Petito's death, but Petito's family argued in court documents in their civil suit that it was evidence the Laundrie parents knew about their daughter's death. "It is really bad. That's kind of a messed up thing for a mother to write to a son, even jokingly. But is it criminal?" Not by itself, Trocino said. What happened to Gabby Petito? Petito and Brian Laundrie, 22 and 23 at the time, were an engaged couple who set out on a cross-country road trip in a van in July of 2021. Petito's friends and family said in the documentary that she wanted to build a large following on social media by making "van life" videos, and her footage and posts to social media depict a blissful couple in love and on the adventure of their lives. But the next month, a passerby called 911 to report a domestic dispute between them: "the gentleman was slapping the girl," the caller said. Police in Moab, Utah, responded and separated the couple for the night, and believing that Petito was the aggressor, found Brian Laundrie a place to stay. Brian Laundrie returned home to North Port, Florida, with the van but without Petito in early September. After she didn't respond to her parents' texts or calls for days, they reported her missing in their home state of New York. After he and his parents refused to speak to law enforcement, Brian Laundrie soon vanished as well, telling his family he was going hiking in a vast reserve near the home on Sept. 13, slipping out of the house undetected by law enforcement keeping watch. His parents reported him missing on Sept. 17. By the time Petito's body was found in Wyoming on Sept. 19, 2021, the search for Laundrie as the prime suspect turned into a massive manhunt that lasted weeks before his body was also found on Oct. 20. Authorities found a journal with his belongings in which they said he confessed to killing Petito. Contributing: Grace Pateras Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Express Tribune
19-02-2025
- Express Tribune
Netflix docuseries American Murder: Gabby Petito revisits case, raises questions about Laundrie family's role
A new Netflix docuseries, American Murder: Gabby Petito, has reignited public interest in the high-profile case of Gabby Petito's murder and the role of Brian Laundrie's parents in the investigation. The three-part series revisits the 2021 disappearance and killing of Petito, a 22-year-old aspiring travel vlogger, whose body was found in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest. Her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, was later named a person of interest before taking his own life. The series sheds light on Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, whose refusal to cooperate with authorities fueled public outrage. When police searched for Petito, they remained silent and directed all inquiries to their lawyer. Court records later revealed that in the days following Petito's disappearance, Brian made multiple frantic calls to his parents. During one call, he allegedly told his father, 'Gabby's gone, I need a lawyer,' raising questions about what they knew at the time. Another key focus of the documentary is a letter from Roberta Laundrie, found in Brian's backpack near his remains. The envelope was labeled 'burn after reading,' and in the letter, she wrote that she would help her son 'dispose of a body' or smuggle tools into jail. While Roberta claimed it was written before Brian's trip with Petito, Gabby's family disputed this, suggesting it was connected to the murder. Following Petito's death, her parents sued the Laundries, alleging they knew about her murder and withheld information. The lawsuit was settled in February 2024 under undisclosed terms. Meanwhile, Brian's sister, Cassie Laundrie, has reportedly been estranged from her parents for nearly two years. American Murder: Gabby Petito is now streaming on Netflix, offering a deeper look into a case that continues to raise lingering questions about accountability and justice.
Telegraph
17-02-2025
- Telegraph
American Murder: Gabby Petito, review: a tragedy played out in part on YouTube
On YouTube there is a video of an attractive young couple, Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie, documenting their road trip across the US in a little white camper van. They frolic on beaches and drive through national parks, sharing kisses as the sun sets. It looks idyllic. But, as someone says in the Netflix documentary American Murder: Gabby Petito (Netflix): 'The happiest people on social media usually have the darkest skeletons in their closet.' Petito and Laundrie, newly engaged, took off on their adventure in July 2021. When she fell out of contact with her parents, they reported her missing. Police visited the home of Laundrie's parents to ask if they knew of the couple's whereabouts, and the response was unexpected: Christopher and Roberta Laundrie said that their son was back home with them, the family did not want to speak to police, and any further communication should be made via their lawyer. They couldn't have looked more suspicious if they tried. The title of this three-part series gives the ending away. After a search that made headlines in the US for several weeks, Petito's body was discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. Beyond the straightforward procedural elements of the story, which take us from the early days of the couple's relationship to the manhunt for Laundrie, there are thought-provoking elements here. One is the authorities' response to victims of domestic violence. Police bodycam footage captured the moment that they pulled over the van, after a passer-by reported seeing Laundrie hit Petito in public. Yet officers sided with Laundrie when he claimed that he was the injured party, packing him off to a hotel for the night and dismissing a sobbing Petito as suffering from anxiety. You may also ask yourself how far you would go to save your child from prison. No criminal charges have been brought against the Laundries, but in a letter marked 'burn after reading'', Roberta Laundrie wrote to her son: 'You are my boy, nothing can make me stop loving you… 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.' The Laundries' appalling behaviour contrasts with the dignity and grief displayed by Petito's parents. And then there is the influence of social media. Petito was attempting to turn their road trip into a YouTube hit, part of the 'van life' trend. Outtakes from the videos she shot hint at the strain behind the scenes, but you'd never know that from the footage she posted. Before her death, it had only 500 views. Thanks to the interest in this case, it now has over seven million.
