The parents of Gabby Petito, a Long Island woman who was killed by her fiancé Brian Laundrie in a Wyoming forest in 2021, file a lawsuit Newly released documents from a pain and suffering lawsuit reveal what happened in the hours after she was killed.
In testimony released Monday, Landry’s parents detailed “the day everything went to hell” when their son frantically called them to say his fiancée was “gone” and that he needed their Help came to find him a lawyer as he drove across the country home without taking anything with him. she.
The murdered woman’s parents, Joe Petitto and Nicole Schmidt, are suing Landry’s parents, Chris and Roberta Landry, claiming they knew their son killed Gabby and deliberately concealed it This message.
A Florida judge has ruled against Laundrie’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit against the estate of Brian Laundrie, awarding $3 million. But a trial scheduled for May could determine the amount of damages Petito’s parents should be liable for pain and emotional distress.
The young couple embarked on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, which Petito, an aspiring social media influencer, planned to document. Police responded to an Aug. 12 domestic violence incident involving the couple in Moab, Utah, which is now the subject of a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit. Days later, Roundry strangled Petito in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest before returning to Florida.
Petito’s body was discovered nearly three weeks later on September 19. Roundry later disappeared into a Florida nature preserve. His body was found a month later. Investigators determined he died by suicide and found writing nearby in which he admitted to killing his fiancée.
In Roberta Laundrie’s testimony, she told the Petitto family’s attorney that her son called her on the afternoon of August 29, 2021. Their conversation started out as an ominous chase, but by the end of it, his tone “completely changed.”
“His voice was very depressed and I didn’t know why,” Roberta Roundry said in her testimony. “I didn’t want to rush him, so we said goodbye… When I hung up the phone, I told Chris, you know, ‘Brian sounds frustrated. Maybe you should give him a call.'”
When asked what she thought her son meant when she said Petito was “gone,” Roberta Roundry said she considered several possibilities, including that the couple had a fight and Petito Urgent charges may be being considered.
“I didn’t know what to think,” she said, but later admitted that the possibility that her son might have killed Petito “probably crossed my mind.”
Later, when Landry’s father, Christopher, called him, he heard his son “go crazy.”
Brian Laundrie had said, “Gabby was gone,” but Christopher Laundrie said in testimony that he did not kill Petito. He said his son asked him for help and that he might need a lawyer. “I asked him why. He wouldn’t tell me.”
Christopher Roundry added that when he said Petito was “gone,” he never thought his son would kill her, but he “didn’t know what to think.”
But Landry’s parents said they made no attempt to contact Petito or her parents after receiving the call. “My lawyer told me not to talk to anyone, so I didn’t talk to anyone,” Roberta Roundry said.
When Petito’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, contacted her, she did not return her call. “I was told not to ask, so I just kept Brian close, kept him home and safe, didn’t talk to him about anything and hoped for the best,” she said.
According to CNN, investigators later found a letter in an envelope in Landry’s backpack that said “burn after reading.” Petito’s parents said the letter “mentioned bringing a shovel to help bury the body if Brian Roundry went to jail and baking a cake with a knife in it” and should be included in their lawsuit.
But Roberta Roundry insisted she wrote the note before her son left for the van trip, saying in her testimony that she “never imagined the future.” “It was a poor choice of words. When I read the article later, I thought, ‘This sounds terrible,'” she said.
