It has been nearly two years since Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie took off from New York for a months-long adventure across the United States to visit national parks. Petito, a one-time social media influencer, intended to document the trip on her YouTube channel and Instagram account. Petito's last post on Instagram was on August 25, 2021. Her family would report her missing weeks later, on September 11.
Laundrie reportedly returned to his parents' home in North Port, Florida, on September 1 with Petito's van but no sign of his girlfriend. As the investigation into Petito's disappearance and dash cam video from a Utah police officer alleged a domestic dispute between the pair, Laundrie became less cooperative with investigators and eventually disappeared.
Investigators found Petito's body on September 21, 2021, in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. An autopsy confirmed Petito had been strangled, and her death was ruled a homicide. Weeks later, on October 20, police located Laundrie's body at Carlton Reserve in North Port after an all-out manhunt.
Laundrie was considered a missing person for weeks, and Petito's family argued that Laundrie's family knew where he was and helped him to escape. Roberta Laundrie's newly released "burn after reading note" reportedly details how the mother planned to aid her son in covering his tracks.
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In September 2021, the Laundries reported Brian missing.
According to Brian Laundrie's parents, Chris and Roberta, he went missing from their home on September 14. He was said to have gone to meditate in a Sarasota reserve. When his parents had not heard from him by September 17, they reported him missing.
But the parents couldn't keep their story straight after an exhaustive search for their son that turned up nothing. The parents claimed they were mistaken about the last time they saw him, which must have been September 13.
They continued to be uncooperative with police, who found Brian Laundrie's body nearly a month after his disappeared.
A newly released note suggests Roberta Laundrie knew her son's location and wanted to help him.
Her note contains chilling words she claims have nothing to do with Petito. Laundrie confessed to killing Petito before reportedly taking his own life in the fall of 2021. The New York Post reported details of the note marked "burn after reading."
Roberta Laundrie wrote in the note that she would help Brian if he were in trouble: "If you're in jail I will bake a cake and put a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body. I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags."
She wrote that she loved him, no matter what.
Roberta Laundrie wrote what many mothers would write to their children in their time of need.
"I just want you to remember I will always love you and I know you will always love me. You are my boy," the note reads, via the Post. "Nothing can make me stop loving you, nothing can or ever will divide us no matter what we do, or where we go, or what we say – we will always love each other."
Roberta Laundrie alleged she wrote the note before Petito and Brian Laundrie's planned trip.
The mother told Fox News that she wrote the letter to her son while she and Brian Laundrie were struggling in their relationship. She claimed the talk of jail and a shovel just referred to his favorite childhood books, Little Bear and The Runaway Bunny. She said those phrases were common and had nothing to do with aiding him in covering up a crime.
Matthew Ludka, the Laundries' attorney, told the court that the letter was purely coincidental and "choice of words in hindsight are unfortunate, but that doesn't mean the letter is relevant," according to the Post.
Pat Reilly, attorney for Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt, Gabby Petito's parents, reportedly showed the books in court and did not find references similar to what Ludka described.
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Reilly contends the letter proves Brian Laundrie's parents knew where he was hiding.
Reilly reportedly told the court that the letter proved that Chris and Roberta Laundrie knew where their son was when they reported him missing in September 2021, according to the Post. He said when the parents released a statement that they hoped Petito might be found alive, it was a ruse to keep their son safe.
Florida Judge Danielle Brewer ruled Wednesday that the letter was admissible as evidence in the emotional distress lawsuit brought against the Laundries by Joe Petito and Schmidt. The couple is also suing the Laundries' attorney, Steven Bertolino, who they say released the allegedly false statement on behalf of the couple.
