Brian Laundrie exchanged callous text messages with a friend days after he strangled his fiancée Gabby Petito on a cross-country road trip.
Petito, 22, disappeared after embarking on a trip across America with her boyfriend in June 2021.
Laundrie, 23, killed her around August 28 in Wyoming before taking his own life out of guilt and her remains were found in Grand Teton National Park on September 19.
But he sent a series of text messages, seen by The messenger, on September 4th to a friend named Ben and acted like everything was fine.
“The trip was good,” he wrote after returning to Florida. “Gab and I had fun. “Now I’m tired and I’m going to sleep for a week.”
Brian Laundrie exchanged callous text messages with a friend days after he strangled his fiancée Gabby Petito on a cross-country road trip
Laundrie, 23, killed her around August 28 in Wyoming before taking his own life out of guilt and her remains were found in Grand Teton National Park on September 19
He sent a series of text messages seen by The Messenger to a friend named Ben on September 4, pretending everything was fine
The message exchange between Laundrie and his friend Ben did not indicate anything was wrong.
“We made a lot of content,” he wrote, referring to the couple’s YouTube travel channel. “It was once in a lifetime.”
Petito spent the summer traveling with Laundrie in a white van and documenting her adventures before she disappeared.
He returned to his parents’ Florida home without Petito on September 1, and her family reported her missing on September 11.
Laundrie was named by police as a person involved in her disappearance.
Petito’s strangled body was found shortly afterwards in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Before he could be arrested, Laundrie was found dead at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Florida.
A notebook was found in which he confessed to killing her, claiming he did so to ease her pain after her fall.
“I ended her life,” Laundrie wrote. “I thought it was merciful that it was what she wanted, but now I see all the mistakes I made. ‘I panicked, I was in shock.’
But days before Petito’s death, the couple was questioned by police in Moab, Utah, after a citizen called 911 and reported that a physical altercation had occurred.
Authorities separated them for the night, but no charges were filed.
Petito, 22, disappeared after embarking on a trip across America with her boyfriend in June 2021
“The trip was good,” he wrote after returning to Florida. “Gab and I had fun. Now I’m tired and will sleep for a week.
The message exchange between Laundrie and his friend Ben did not indicate anything was wrong. Pictured: Petito selfie shows beaten and injured face shortly before traffic stop in Utah
Pictured: Gabby Petito cries and is visibly distressed as police question her days before her death
Petito’s parents filed a $50 million lawsuit against the Moab City Police Department for failing to arrest Laundrie after they found Petito bloodied and in distress after a fight just days before her death.
The lawsuit cited transcripts of an interview with a Moab police officer who stopped the couple after receiving a call from Petito claiming she had been attacked by Laundrie.
Court documents name Officer Eric Pratt as a defendant and allege that both he and his department failed in their duties as peace officers by failing to make an arrest, even though Pratt later told other officers that Laundrie “raised more red flags than a communist rally in China.” ‘
A Utah law requires all officers to make an arrest or issue a citation in all domestic incidents.
When recently questioned about the incident as part of an external investigation, Pratt admitted to police that he viewed Laundrie as a threat to Petito’s well-being at the time.
Before Laundrie’s death, his mother wrote her son a letter promising to help him bury a body and escape prison.
Petito’s parents claim this is evidence that she and her son participated in a conspiracy to cover up their daughter’s brutal murder. They are suing her over claims that they knew about her murder.
A lawsuit against Christopher and Roberta Laundrie alleges the couple knew their son had murdered Petito and refused to tell their parents the location of the girl’s remains
Laundrie’s mother, Roberta, offered in a letter to help her son dispose of a body as proof of her love for him
She also said that she would bake her son a cake with a file in it if he went to prison
The undated letter, which Roberta instructed her son to burn after reading, revealed that she had offered to bake her son a cake with a file inside if he was sent to prison.
Roberta also offered to help her son dispose of a corpse as proof of her love for him.
“I just want you to remember that I will always love you and I know that you will always love me.” You are my boy. “Nothing can stop me from loving you, nothing will or could ever separate us,” Roberta wrote in the letter.
An attorney for the laundries, Steven Bertolino, filed a motion with Gabby’s parents, Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt, for an undisclosed amount.
The civil lawsuit, which also names Bertolino as a defendant, alleges they knew about Gabby’s murder and chose to remain silent, causing untold emotional harm to her parents.
Testimony in the case began last month and a jury trial is scheduled for May 2024.
