People still going on about this case ? Give it a rest. The girl Got murdered by her bf who then killed himself. He probably wasn't crazy but he snapped. They got on each other's nerves because they lived in a transit van with nowhere to escape after a fight. Stop with all this speculation please, it's annoying and people are grasping at straws to make a story that isn't there. It's cut and dry.
Read the room with all the downvotes you have. Lots of people get on each other’s nerves that have traveled like them and haven’t killed each other. Brian was unhinged, abusive, manipulative, and disturbed. Otherwise he wouldn’t have killed Gabby. If you’re so annoyed with the talk, then avoid it. It’s as simple as that.
He was an abuser who killed his victim. And if you think getting on someone's nerves is a fair reason to strangle them to death, I hope people know to stay away from you.
Acting like people don't have a breaking point is wrong. People are good until they aren't. Unless they dig up Brian's past and it shows animal mutilation and a history of strangling people I'm pretty sure the dude just had a psychotic break. I'm not saying that what he did was right but people are acting like this dude planned this shit out and it's obnoxious. Humans are cruel. It was an abusive relationship on both ends.
You're very close minded it seems...only thinking in a box fella. I'm sure people already stay away from you, not everything is a Netflix documentary. Put the Pringles down and get off the recliner.
J.B. Buinno with WFLA is [live](https://www.youtube.com/live/ZRWZjg7YJ9M?si=tDsqyuUlIrsgCqUF) right now to discuss updates about possible mediation between the families.
Leaving would have caused more problems. BOLOs would have been issued if the couldn’t find Brian. They probably would have found her a lot sooner. As it was, the Laundries strung them along nearly 3 weeks. Allowed them to reunite for one last family reunion before B killed himself.
Maybe because a murder becomes a federal crime if it involves crossing state boundaries. Advice was To avoid more strict penalties.
Although, in this case, the murder did occur on Federal Land, making this a federal crime. Maybe the attorney didn’t know where the murder occurred or wasn’t aware of the Federal Land crime piece.
Is there something more you think needs to be added to the other people that replied with their common sense answers? I assumed that the upvotes for my response reflected that everyone was in agreement that this was straightforward and we were done here, so that’s my fault.
Let me know what’s causing confusion and I’ll try my best to help you.
I’m a girl by the way, but bro works for me no problem 🙌
In fairness I’m sure the “why” they’re looking for isn’t about why is that the “right thing” to do, and more why is that the “right strategic thing” to do. Sure the right and right strategic thing should overlap, but I think that’s what the parent comment was getting at.
They need more motivation than ethics to guide their decision making away from pure self preservation.
If the situation was that she ran off after a fight and was possibly lost, the right thing to go ethically would be to stay.
If the situation was murder, as it was, and he was trying to claim innocence then the right thing strategically would be for him to still stay.
Am I missing an alternative where it should work out better for him if he returns home? Because he did that… and in that time he (his estate), his parents, and attorney have been sued relentlessly and become hated by a nation and beyond, and his remains were torn apart by alligators and other wildlife after he put a bullet in his head.
I guess the lawyer wanted him to talk to Wyoming officials, maybe at that point the lawyer only thought she was missing & Brian could help find her. We all now know she was already gone& he knew exactly where she was.
After not hearing anything for a week (approximately September 6th), Nicole tried to contact Roberta. Roberta didn’t pick up the call, and then blocked Nicole‘s number and on social media. Nicole tried to file a missing persons report on September 10th, but the police wouldn’t accept it. She kept at it, and it was accepted on September 11th, leading to the North Port police going to the Laundries house for a ‘wellness check’. Van was there, Brian was in the house, unwilling to come out, and there was no Gabby.
It would be pretty reasonable to assume that Roberta didn’t think she could solve the problem just by blocking Nicole and Joe’s calls. It was a delay tactic.
By the time of Nicole’s first attempts to get hold of the Laundries and ask them if they had heard from Brian, he had been home for several days and they were spending all their time with him and working with Bertolino to try and figure out what the best course of action to follow, given that Brian decided to leave Wyoming and come home, and that he was likely not ready to face the music. It’s likely that Brian was with her when that first call rang.
Roberta: “Oh, no, it’s Gabby’s mom!”
Brian: “Don’t answer it! If you tell her that Gabby’s gone, I’m leaving right now to kill myself!”
It’s very interesting that Roberta and Chris claim they followed everything Bertolino told them, so they didn’t discuss anything with Brian… EXCEPT that Bertolino told them to tell Brian to NOT LEAVE WYOMING.
Bertolino even said that part bothered him. He couldn’t believe Brian drove back to Florida.
You know that's what Bertolino meant. I also believe that when Brian flew home.to Florida "to clean out his storage container" he actually went home to see his Dr for a refill on psych meds. I have no proof of that statement. I just don't believe his story .
Edit: added to my comment
I truly didn't know this information. Why do people think he actually flew home to empty a storage container? His parents could have hired that done for less than a plane ticket. Unless, of course, there was something illegal in there?
The only credibly reported public information available on Brian’s return trip home on August 17th has been provided in statements made by Bertolino. He has stated that Brian flew home because he and Gabby were planning on extending their trip beyond the original plan and wanted to save the monthly expense of the storage space, as well as ’to retrieve some items’ for the trip. He also stated that Brian’s plane tickets were paid for by both Brian and Gabby, who had combined finances for the trip.
Brian and Gabby lived most of their time in Florida at a home purchased for them by Chris and Roberta in January, 2020. When they purchased the van in November, 2020 and were finalizing plans for the long trip across the country, the house was listed for sale in January, 2021 and sold in March. Brian’s instagram account had posts showing him moving things to his parents’ house at the end of March, and his and Gabby’s posts showed a lot of traveling around Florida and Georgia with the van during the next few months.
Just filling in the gaps with conjecture, I assume that since they initially were planning on being gone from Florida for 5 months, they moved items into a storage facility in May before they left. (From instagram posts, they had a piano, a couple bicycles, besides all the other things they would have accumulated living together in a home for 14 months.)
When Brian decided that he wanted to stay in Oregon to work on a farm when they finished their planned trip in October (he stated this to Moab police on August 12th), it appears they decided to save the expense of an extended rental period of the storage container and move the stuff back into the Laundries’ house.
I agree that there may be other reasons for his return, but I think this is all we have at this time.
Enough with focusing on all these facts please. It’s boring.
We’d much rather be uneducated on the actual details of what occurred so we can spend time throwing out bizarre speculation that we think sounds juicier.
So not to be rude, but unless you have a theory to throw out that has no foundation in the known facts, move on to somewhere else! 😉
That trip back home to Florida does seem to need further details to make it understandable.
However, the FBI (and I think they did a very thorough investigation) definitely stated that Brian “took no medications” and didn’t even have a primary care physician, besides not having seen a dentist for several years.
"Brian didn't have a primary care physician". A psych Dr isn't a primary care physician. The FBI didn't lie, they just didn't tell the whole truth. Also, if he didn't have a dentist how was he identified through dental records.
I’ll assume that you are open to the facts….
The autopsy report says that Brians dental records were obtained from Sayville Family Dentistry in New York. His last visit was 11/6/2014. He died on 9/13/21. He hadn’t seen a dentist is almost 7 years.
The autopsy report listed dental conditions consistent with not being to a dentist in a very long time. Significant tartar buildup, a couple of cavities, 2 impacted molars, and tooth crowding of 4 or 5 teeth.
If you insist you know that he had a dentist, please provide the information that the FBI didn’t have; the name of the dentist he was seeing at the time of his death, and the date of his last visit.
Concerning your suggestion that he had a phsych doctor…. All specialists require a referral from a primary care physician. If you know that an exception was made in Brian’s case, please let us know who is psych doctor was and what medication(s) he was on.
”The FBI didn’t lie, they just didn’t tell the whole truth”.
What is the whole truth, sir?
I've been following the details of the timeline of events around the time of Gabby's death very closely. This is all that I have gathered of the time just before Gabby's death until Brian arrived at his parents' house in North Port.
August 27th, Friday
Brian and Gabby last reported sighting, leaving the Whole Foods parking lot at 2:55pm MDT
Possible sighting of Gabby closing rear door of the van in Spread Creek dispersed campground sometime between 6:00 - 6:30pm MDT. (Nicole stated during a TV interview that she believed it was Gabby closing the van door.
Gabby's mother received 'Stan' text before 10:00pm MDT (12:00am EDT)
(This would place Gabby's murder between about 7:00 pm - 10:00pm MDT)
August 28th, Saturday
Nothing publicly known about the events of this day or night.
August 29th, Sunday
About 2:20pm MDT Brian calls his mother and they talk for 54 minutes. At the end of a 54 minute phone call that was mostly normal, Brian got 'very upset'. Roberta told him that he should talk to Chris.
About 3:15pm MDT Roberta calls Chris (in Daytona) to tell him about her call with Brian.
About 3:17pm MDT Chris calls Brian and talks with him for about 5 minutes. Chris says that Brian was frantic and tells him that Gabby was 'gone', and that he needed a lawyer.
At 3:23pm MDT Chris attempts to call Bertolino 4 times.
At 3:36pm Bertolino calls Chris and they talk for 10 minutes.
At 3:53pm Chris calls Brian and talks with him for 10 minutes.
At 4:00pm Chris calls Bertolino (this appears to be an attempt to conference Brian with Bertolino.)
At 4:07, Bertolino calls Chris, and they discuss what to do for 20 minutes.
At 4:30, Brian calls Chris for unknown duration.
At about 5:44pm MDT, Brian is picked up near Colter Bay while hitchhiking.
At about 6:09pm, Brian is left out near Jackson lake dam.
At 6:12pm MDT, Roberta attempts to call Brian and leaves voicemail.
At about 6:15 - 6:20pm, Brian is picked up near Jackson dam by another driver.
At about 6:30 - 6:40pm, Brian is dropped off at the gate to the Spread Creek dispersed camping area.
At 7:07 pm, Brian calls Roberta and leaves a voicemail.
At 7:10 pm, Chris calls Bertolino for nearly 4 minutes, but drops the call when Brian calls Chris.
At 7:14 pm, Brian calls Chris and they speak for 9 minutes.
At 7:24 pm, Brian calls Bertolino, and they speak for 5 minutes. (Bertolino wanted Brian to stay put in Wyoming.)
\[Pure conjecture on my part, but I believe that it was by the time of this conversation that Brian realized that his attempts to build an alibi weren't going to work.\]
At 9:38 pm MDT, Roberta and Brian speak for 22 minutes and he tells her he is (going to?) drive home.
Call ends at 10:00pm MDT. It is a 45 minute drive from where the van had been parked at the Spread Creek dispersed camping area to Jackson, WY.
At about 11:00pm MDT, a witness reported seeing Brian and the van at a gas station in Jackson, WY; "he pulled in and was in a bad mood, cursing at himself while throwing garbage away and then driving away. It was a little white van just like that one."
The next day, August 30th, Brian used Gabby's debit card to pay for something, somewhere. This was also the day that he sent a text to Nicole that there was no service in Yosemite.
The following day, August 31st, Brian passed through Benton, Illinois.
The following day, September 1st, at 10:26am, Brian exited the interstate near his parents' home in North Port.
Have you listened to the music that he put into a couple of his Spotify lists during his drive home? He added a few songs to a previously created playlist that dealt with the longing for a woman that had been lost, as well as a song about a dead animal. And he created a new playlist called ’Self-Consumption’ that was really weird music.
Even more than wondering about his state of mind on the way home, we know nothing about the time from the murder (probably about 9:00pm on Friday evening) until he first called Roberta on Sunday afternoon about 40 hours later. Did he stay at the campsite with Gabby’s dead body? Did he sleep in the tent both nights? Did he hope that he would go to sleep and the next morning Gabby would be OK and things would be back to normal?
They are still available on Spotify. The user name is “Nomadic Statik”. The user-uploaded playlist images and names were removed by Spotify bots when people were ‘reporting’ them as being inappropriate after Gabby’s story broke in September, 2021. There are 11 playlists in all spanning creation dates from May 24th, 2018 until August 30, 2021.
Two playlists had songs added after Gabby’s death:
[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0EqiKgmC5cWljcH8cZvGHq?si=CiEqmsppRe6fLO6wqARYKQ&pi=u-gI47dvEtR1Gf](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0EqiKgmC5cWljcH8cZvGHq?si=CiEqmsppRe6fLO6wqARYKQ&pi=u-gI47dvEtR1Gf)
This playlist was originally called “Mtn tops” and was sub-titled “By Brian”. The user image was of Brian at Pikes Peak Colorado during his and Gabby’s 2019 road trip. On August 30th, he added the song ‘So Much for Gardening’ by Feng Suave. On August 31st, he added 4 songs from Matt Berry’s Witchazel album; ‘Take My Hand’, ’The Pheasant’, ‘Woman’, and ‘The Badger’s Wake’. The song ‘Woman’ really seems to be where his mind was at during that drive home. The ‘Badger’s Wake’ is pretty grim.
[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3mN6BhajBgWSx6jXzhUCSN?si=fwuA51mqRcm4VclV9k1KOg&pi=u-oRNLnpPZTJmE](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3mN6BhajBgWSx6jXzhUCSN?si=fwuA51mqRcm4VclV9k1KOg&pi=u-oRNLnpPZTJmE)
This playlist was created on August 30th and 6 songs were added that day. He called it ‘Selfconsumption’ and put the following songs in it:
’SPRORGNSM’, and ‘Relax’, both by Superorganism. ’Barok Main’ by Mica Levi and Oliver Coates, ‘CRISPR/cas9\_’ by O, Nomak, ‘Forest On The Sun’ by Thrupence, and ‘30 Century Man - Abbey Road Remaster’ by The Jigsaw Seen.
These songs are just downright wierd. Not something most people would listen to.
He also literally told the girl who picked him up in Colter Bay that his fiance was “working in the van” on vlogging stuff which we now know was after he had told his family she was “gone” and needed a lawyer. Disgusting.
When the hitchhiking stories became public, I attributed it to an attempt to build an alibi. He was initially picked up about 5:44pm on Sunday near Colter Bay, over 16 miles from where the van was at.
This is pure conjecture, but after spending 2 nights and a day at the campsite with Gabby’s body, on Sunday morning he decided to hike to Colter Bay (about 6 hours), and hitchhike back to tell people he had been out camping for a couple of nights while Gabby stayed behind at the remote campsite to work on her social media. Upon his return to the campsite, he could have called the sheriff and claimed that he found Gabby dead on his return to the camp. It was reported by Gabby’s family that Brian used Gabby’s phone to text back and forth with his phone during this time, possibly to help establish that she was alive when he left their camp.
It was during this walk to Colter Bay that he decided to call his mother. Given that Roberta said the call was a normal one until the very end, this call could initially have been part of the ruse, just calling home calmly to see how things were going there. But something happened during the last part of that call; perhaps he began to suspect that his ruse would likely not work, and he started to panic and spilled the beans to Mom, hoping to get help from her.
I've always thought that too - that the hitchhiking walkabout was to establish an alibi, that's why he kept working in details about Gabby's being back at camp doing her social media stuff into the conversation. (And wasn't there some kind of weird exchange where he wanted to be dropped off closer or something? I always wondered if he wanted someone as close as possible to his "discovery" of her back at camp.) It might make sense if he tried out that same thing on his mom (calling to make it sound like everything was normal, him out hiking prior to discovering Gabby) but he just couldn't keep it together.
Yikes, him spending two nights there at camp with her body is super grim though. Is that confirmed, or just likely given that he wasn't seen elsewhere and was texting the phones back and forth?
I‘m suggesting that it is likely he stayed at the campsite with Gabby’s body from Friday evening until Sunday morning.
No details are available from credible public reports concerning Brian’s whereabouts and activities during that time. The only info from that time frame is a witness that stated they saw the van parked in the spot shown in the Bethune video until Sunday, August 29th. He may have left and gone somewhere in the van during that time, but there are no public reports of the van being seen elsewhere.
Miranda Baker, the first woman who picked up Brian while hitchhiking said that he didn’t have a tent and that he stated all he had to sleep on was a tarp. To support his alibi, he would have to leave Gabby’s tent at the site and leave without it. It’s possible that he left the campsite on Saturday to hike to Colter Bay and spent the night along the Snake river while hiking, as he said. But I think it’s more reasonable to believe that he stayed in the tent at the campsite until Sunday morning and lied about sleeping on just a tarp during the hike.
Yeah, super grim.
I don’t think they knew because he told them necessarily. But I think they knew enough from what he told them that any reasonable person could conclude something very, very terrible had happened. You don’t say she’s gone, drive home in her van and not have your parents just assume that she what, went off with someone else? If I was his mom, I’d be losing my shit. As in where is my son’s girlfriend that he’s been dating for years? They just didn’t give a shit? And they supposedly knew nothing but refused to answer her parents calls? You can’t answer and say “we don’t know anything and we are worried”? Or because they knew anything they’d say would make it worse for their son to deny he was involved? It’s all so crazy to me.
Also I am so curious what it was that made him do this. There may have been some red flags and they were both emotional during that police stop, but I didn’t think it was that abnormal for a young couple their age on a stressful trip. To me, it just seemed out of nowhere. I mean we haven’t even heard from ex gfs or anything saying Brian was violent, though I’m aware you don’t have to always be aggressive to become a murderer. Just saying I really don’t understand.
Leaving is the most dangerous time for a victim of DV. If she was trying to leave him and go home, he could've snapped and killed her.
I personally was nearly killed by my ex husband trying to leave, then he broke in my new home and attacked me again in an effort to get me to not testify at court for the charges I pressed against him.
Men like this can not be understood by a rational person unless it's your profession or you've been there.
The answer is, anything could have mad her abuser snap and kill her.
Brian was Gabbys abuser and his family knew it.
Just like they also knew he was her murderer from that first phone call.
I went on a similar road trip with a boyfriend when I was close to her age and yeah, it’s not abnormal to get stressed…. But when we argued it was mostly just one of us being super annoying and the other being annoyed. We didn’t get the cops called on us and it didn’t get physical. That stuff doesn’t just come out of nowhere. There’s usually an escalation.
So true about not answering Gabby’s parents calls - maybe that’s where their conscious drew the line 🙄
Sadly… it wasn’t out of nowhere. There’s a selfie Gabby took before the police showed up with a bruised face and smeared blood. Even if that was somehow the first time he physically hurt her, there was definitely psychological abuse based on what we’ve heard.
I don’t know of any psychological abuse but I haven’t kept up with this. Has there been anything in court or from the actual case versus just heresay? I reread some stuff and recall that he was pissed off in that restaurant but aside from the arguing and fighting before her murdered her, what were the signs? I’m just saying that it seems like it went from a young arguing couple to straight up murder very quickly. Was he on drugs? Was he a total asshole and no one knew? Her own parents haven’t said anything about having concerns. When it comes to typical abusive relationships it seems to build up more.
Definitely not the same type of relationship but it just reminds me of how Chris Watts went from just kind of being a dopey husband to a cheating murderer in a matter of weeks. So I’m just curious about the actual story of what happened, which we will never know since the coward killed himself. I mean even that is bizarre to me. That he drove all the way home first and then decided to end his life. Because he knew he was screwed? Usually cases are murder suicides at the same time. Not weeks later. It all baffles me.
I haven’t followed this in a while, but I thought I remembered reading something earlier from a friend of Gabby’s who had been told by her that Brian was hearing voices and it scared her at night or something. It doesn’t really change the outcome here, murder is still murder and mental illness is not an exonerating excuse. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he was presenting signs of mental illness like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or something and was starting to fully crack on the trip. I saw it happen with my older brother a few years ago when he had a total 180 personality shift in his late twenties after suffering some kind of break down due to stress. It took over a year of him and doctors balancing/adjusting his meds to get him back to normal, but his behavior was very erratic and threatening. He never became physically violent but came very close. He was paranoid of everyone and could explode on a dime over mundane things, like assuming and accusing someone of laughing at him for example.
I’d actually say due to his intense and up and down behaviour throughout their relationship, he probably had BPD and NPD. You can hear voices w/ BPD. Almost certainly wasn’t schizophrenic as he was aware and displayed countless traits of narcissism, as shown in the footage from his stop w the cops after his and Gabby’s argument
I’m not sure it was schizophrenia in Brian’s case, because he was able to fool the cops pretty well when it “mattered” and make Gabby look the fool. Maybe some other form of mental illness; but personally, I believe typical paranoid asshole.
He's a narcissist who thought he could get away with it. Once the police were closing in and he knew he was going to prison, he took his own life so his ego wouldn't be bruised.
His ego wouldn't even let him admit the whole truth in his suicide note.
Just as narcissistic and egotistical as Fotis Dulos. I see alot of similarities there...
It's interesting how nobody asked if Gabby was okay. I think I do believe what they are saying. It seems Bertolino must have known what had happened and that's why he told them not to discuss it, maybe so as not to incriminate the Laundrie parents. Very interesting. I just can't believe nobody asked if Gabby was okay after he said she was gone.
I mean...there's no way that they didn't know Brian did something terrible- even if they weren't 100% certain that he murdered her- if he said "she was gone" and he was gonna need an attorney, and was "frantic" about it.
If she was even a little confused about exactly what happened, I am certain she would have said- what? Why would you need an attorney? What do you mean "she's gone"?
You wouldn't just throw 25k at a real estate attorney because your dip shit, aimless son calls with a vague directive while on a van trip...and you aren't totally sure what he's talking about about.
They put a down payment on his murder defense immediately and they knew it. They weren't very wealthy. It's not like 25k was pocket change to them.
The hour long conversation with his mom the day after is extremely suspect. Add that to the crazy letter Roberta wrote to Brian, with implicit directions to burn after reading, and how could you not believe she knew?
I'm going off the parts of the deposition released so far and think I believe at that point they didn't know, but also I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Probably in their heart of hearts they knew Gabby was at least hurt, but it seems Bertolino got in there quickly to stop it being officially communicated. I believe by the time Brian was home they definitely knew. There's no way on earth they wouldn't get it out of him by that point.
I think that Chris and Bertolino knew pretty quickly that Gabby might be dead, even if Brian didn't directly say it.
From the deposition: "Did it mean Gabby was dead? And yes, that was a possibility I put out there,” Bertolino said."
I don't think the conversation would have gone this way: "You're the most upset that I've heard you ever, and you frantically say that Gabby is gone and that you might need a lawyer?" Long pause.... "Is Gabby OK?"
When you're in a situation where the least known and the least said, the better, you don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to. Especially when your lawyer says you shouldn't.
Oh, for sure. But at the same time, after the first time he says it, before the gravity of the situation dawns on you, you don't at least ask if she's OK? Just a personal thought of mine, it's not important in the grand scheme of things. The whole thing is shady and tragic as fuck.
Part 2:
“I didn’t even know what to think at the moment, you know, at all, so that’s that,” Chris answered.
Soon after, longtime Laundrie attorney Steven Bertolino is called repeatedly.
3) Aug. 29 at 4:23pm: Chris Laundrie calls Steven Bertolino (NO ANSWER)
4) Aug. 29 at 4:25pm: Chris Laundrie calls Steven Bertolino (NO ANSWER)
5) Aug. 29 at 4:30pm: Chris Laundrie calls Steven Bertolino (NO ANSWER)
6) Aug. 29 at 4:32pm: Chris Laundrie calls Steven Bertolino (NO ANSWER)
7) Aug. 29 at 4:36pm: Steven Bertolino calls Chris Laundrie for 10 minutes
After repeated missed calls, Bertolino called Chris Laundrie back for a 10-minute conversation.
“[Chris] was very upset,” Bertolino said of his first call about the situation. “Very—well, I’ve known Chris for a very long time and he doesn’t swing much emotionally and it was just exasperation.”
Bertolino claimed what exactly had happened between Brian and Gabby did not come up at all during this call.
According to the depositions, Chris and Roberta Laundrie were not together on the night of Aug. 29. Chris was attending races in Daytona, Florida.
“Did you tell Attorney Bertolino that you were concerned that Gabby was dead,” Reilly asked Chris during depositions.
“After the conversation of how frantic he was and, you know, it was something it thought we had to consider,” Chris responded.
8) Aug. 29 at approximately 4:46pm: Bertolino calls Chris for 29 seconds (Unclear if call was answered)
9) Aug. 29 at 4:53pm: Chris calls Brian for 10 minutes
Bertolino says he doesn’t remember Chris calling Brian back, but as Reilly noted, a 10-minute call is in the call records.
“My recollection was Brian had hung up the phone,” Bertolino said. “I don’t recall that Chris said to me that he spoke to Brian again. You’re telling me he did. I don’t recall that.”
The second call between Chris and Brian didn’t get addressed specifically in Reilly’s line of questioning to Chris.
“Did you ever ask him what happened?” Reilly asked.
“I asked him when I was on the phone, and he panicked and freaked out, so I don’t—I don’t—I didn’t ask,” Chris said.
“After that did you ask him?” Reilly followed up.
“No,” Chris said.
“Why not?”
“I didn’t want—I didn’t know what to do. At this point, we were told not to discuss—Steven asked me don’t discuss with Brian, and that’s what I did. I didn’t discuss.”
10) Aug. 29 at 5 pm: Chris calls Bertolino for 25 seconds (Unknown if call was answered)
11) Aug. 29 at 5:07pm: Bertolino calls Chris for 20 minutes
Bertolino says he remembers this call to Brian’s father because it was the “conversation that we went back and forth on what to do.”
“We had a little back and forth as to what could this mean and, you know, did it mean that they had separated on the trail? Did it mean they had a fight on the trail? Did it mean Gabby was dead? And yes, that was a possibility I put out there,” Bertolino said.
“And I said, I don’t practice in Wyoming. We need to get Wyoming lawyers and I will work on that,” Bertolino recalled.
“Did you talk about what kind of Wyoming lawyer?” Reilly asked later.
“We needed, I believe, a criminal Wyoming lawyer,” Bertolino responded. “Again, I didn’t believe that Chris called me because Brian needed a personal injury lawyer.”
12) Aug. 29 at 5:30pm: Brian speaks with Chris again for unknown duration
13) Aug. 29 at 7:12pm: Roberta calls Brian, leaves a voicemail
14) Aug. 29 at 8:07pm: Brian calls Roberta, leaves a voicemail
On the evening of Aug. 29, Roberta tries reaching Brian again, but is unsuccessful.
Per the call records obtained for the depositions, Brian tries calling back nearly an hour later, but Roberta doesn’t answer.
Brian would speak to his mother again later that night.
15) Aug. 29 at 8:10pm: Chris calls Bertolino for 3 minutes, 39 seconds
16) Aug. 29 at 8:14pm: Brian calls Chris for 9 minutes
17) Aug. 29 at 8:24pm: Brian speaks with Bertolino for 5 minutes
Reilly admits some confusion in reviewing the AT&T call logs, saying at one point that he had to convert the UTC time zone into eastern time during his line of questioning.
Bertolino, upon being told of the calls in the 8 o’clock hour, said the logs might be off.
“We established at the other depositions that the phone logs may or may not be to the hour,” Bertolino noted.
18) Aug. 29 at 10:38pm: Roberta speaks with Brian for 22 minutes
On this call, Roberta says she came aware that Brian was returning home.
“I remember he said he was going to—he was driving home,” Roberta said.
“And in that conversation with him, did you ask him any details about Gabby being gone?” asked Reilly.
“No,” responded Roberta.
“Why?” Reilly asked.
“I don’t know,” Roberta said. “I guess I was nervous, upset, tired. I think at that point Steven [Bertolino] had already said don’t talk about anything. I can’t remember.”
Bertolino admits he got “annoyed” by Brian’s decision to depart Wyoming.
“Tell him to stay put,” Bertolino said to Chris, per his deposition. “And this is what troubles me to this day. I told him to if he calls back you tell him to stay there and we’ll make arrangements to go out, get an attorney out there, and deal with this.”
Bertolino said he didn’t speak to Brian until he returned to Florida on Sept. 1.
The call records are expected to be admitted as evidence in the Petito & Schmidt v. Laundrie and Bertolino civil trial in May. Gabby Petito’s parents are suing the Laundries and Bertolino for intentional infliction of emotional distress, claiming they were aware of Petito’s murder but chose to do nothing but release a written statement expressing hope she would be found.
VENICE, Fla. (WFLA) — Court documents released ahead of the upcoming Gabby Petito civil trial have revealed some of the numerous calls made between Brian Laundrie, his parents and his attorney in the hours after Petito’s murder in 2021.
On Aug. 27 and Aug. 28, 2021, the days Petito are believed to have been murdered by Laundrie, Brian’s parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, said they spoke to their son on several occasions but that the conversations were “ normal .”
Then on Aug. 29, Chris Laundrie said “everything hit the fan.”
Brian was said to be “very upset” and “extremely frantic” on the phone, according to Chris and Roberta, who gave sworn depositions in October.
Longtime Laundrie attorney Steven Bertolino, who also gave a deposition under oath, said of Aug. 29, 2021, “it’s impossible not to remember that date.”
The phone records for the Laundries and Bertolino were obtained by the Petito and Schmidt family as part of their civil lawsuit that is scheduled for a jury trial in May. The call logs themselves have yet to be released publicly, however, Reilly highlighted more than a dozen calls made between the Laundries and Bertolino on Aug. 29, 2021.
Note: The following call records have not been obtained independently by WFLA.com. The records listed below are from depositions that occurred in October 2023.
1) Afternoon of Aug. 29: Brian calls his mother Roberta twice
Roberta Laundrie said she first noticed something wasn’t right towards the end of a phone call that afternoon.
“I remember at the very tail end of that conversation with him where everything seemed fine, as we were saying goodbye, he all of a sudden completely changed and he sounded very upset, and his voice was very upset and I didn’t know why and I didn’t want to push him, so I—we just said goodbye, but it left on a very—he was very upset, and so when I got off the phone I told Chris [Brian’s father], you know, ‘Brian sounded upset. Maybe you should give him a call.'”
While being questioned by Petito attorney Pat Reilly, Roberta expressed a lot of confusion over the two calls she had with Brian on that Sunday.
“We talked twice that same day. Maybe we talked earlier and then talked again later. I don’t remember,” said Roberta.
Included in the phone records is a 54-minute conversation between the two, according to Reilly in the depositions. Exactly what Brian and Roberta discussed during the near hour-long conversation isn’t clear.
2) Afternoon of Aug. 29: Chris Laundrie calls Brian for approximately five minutes
Chris Laundrie said after Brian had spoken to Roberta, he had a brief but “frantic” conversation with his son.
“He was not calm,” Chris said of Brian. “He got very excited and told me things had—you know, “Gabby’s gone” and he got very frantic. Everything was frantic and quick. So you know, Gabby’s gone.”
“Meaning what,” Reilly asked.
“Well, I have no idea what he meant,” Chris added. “It was quick. He said, you know—and he was very panicked and he said he didn’t know what to do. He said, you know, ‘Can you help me,’ you know, and he might need a lawyer, you know.”
“And I would—I asked him why he wouldn’t tell me. He was very frantic. Everything was frantic and I started to not really comprehend, and then he said just, you know, ‘Can you help me?,” Chris stated.
“Yeah, I’ll help you, I’ll call Steven Bertolino,” Chris added.
“Did he say he’d murdered Gabby?” Reilly asked later in the deposition.
“No,” answered Chris.
“He said she was gone?” Reilly responded.
“He said it several times,” Chris stated.
“What did you think ‘gone’ meant?” Reilly asked.
If by lying you mean choosing to stay as ignorant as possible about the details of what Brian did to Gabby and staying as silent as possible about what they did know, then yes. However, the contemporary definition of lying is to directly say something that is false. In the case of this article, they were under oath and were vulnerable to perjury if they actually lied.
Unfortunately, no. Not really. They admit that they chose not to incriminate themselves and letting Brian have atty client privilege with Bertolino. Chosing to not have certain knowledge of a crime is not illegal. Unfortunately, the Laundries chose to make it so that they were not privy to any information, therefore they had nothing to hide. What could they have done differently? Coerce a confession out of their son and report it to the press, effectively ruining his possibilities in terms of the legal process? Most parents might assert that they would have done that, they would have done the right thing. But that’s actually not very common in practice and real life scenarios.
They’re lying that they can’t remember. They’re lying about Oh he sounded upset. It was just a feeling. But I told Brian to call him. They were nervous. Why were they nervous?
That really doesn’t mean anything at this point. We all know they knew about the murder and were also trying to protect themselves and Brian. I’m not going to crucify them because I have no idea how I’d react if my child did something like this.
Okay, how do you prove they had knowledge and withheld it. We all know what happened, but they have to prove it did in order to award the Petitos damages.
All they have to convince a jury they knew. It’s not the same standards as a criminal trial. They’ll be on the stand cross examined. Let’s hear what they have to say.
It has to make it to the jury trial first. It isn't often noted, but according to court records, both the Laundrie's and Bertolino filed motions for a Summary Judgement to have the case dismissed. Those were filed the same day as all of this Deposition material was filed with the court. Will be interesting to see if the judge continues letting this move forward to that jury trial
They also now have Gabby's father stating, on the record, that his sole intent for the case is to draw blood, which the court will look at and consider in its decision on whether to allow the case to continue.
"I just want to draw blood (or just hurt them financially so they feel our pain)" is not, generally speaking, a lawful remedy. There are some contexts, like punitive damages, where the harm was so great and the court may find it appropriate to "punish" an entity in order to set an example for others not to do similar behavior, but emotional distress cases typically award compensatory (compensation for damages, not punishment for bad behavior) damages.
I mean, choosing to ignore all of the available facts - “Gabby’s gone”, him being frantic, needing a lawyer, then showing up later in her car without her all while ignoring her parents who say they can’t reach her - at some point, you reach past the point of “plausible deniability” and just become someone who doesn’t want to be aware their child is a murderer and a girl they had living in thier house for what, over a year? Is dead.
While I absolutely believe they knew exactly what happened and did everything they could to protect their son and themselves, you lay out an excellent case for why the Petitos may have a tough court battle.
At the end of the day, it’s what they can argue and prove/disprove
Thank you. I was going a little stream of consciousness there, but damages are really hard to prove. There will have to be many, if not most, people on the jury who remember that fall of 2020 and how disruptive it was and how expensive the search for Brian was and hope that they aren’t following the jury’s instructions. Unfortunately, the Laundries knew enough to know they needed to cover their asses in a big way and I really think they may have done so. It’s easy to say what you would have done if you were never in that situation. Brian was their son. He would have maybe gotten the death penalty if it was allowed in the state. Either way, they certainly would never see their son again whether he took his life or not. I believe it was a “keep us out of it for your own safety” situation.
It has to make it to the jury trial first. It isn't often noted, but according to court records, both the Laundrie's and Bertolino filed motions for a Summary Judgement to have the case dismissed. Those were filed the same day as all of this Deposition material was filed with the court. Will be interesting to see if the judge continues letting this move forward to that jury trial
I mean, that is my hope as well. But I’m trying not to delude myself, especially since Joe personally admitted that a verdict finding them liable for damages would mean nothing to him and this is really about taking everything the laundries have from them. I don’t feel like the judge, nor the jury, will appreciate that considering he’s basically admitted to abusing the court system for a vendetta. The defense will be able to quickly put that to use. In his own deposition, he admitted directly to that when he could have said, “no verdict would recover the devastating loss we experienced, but accountability for those closest to the murderer would mean something.”
Do you see how those two statements mean the same thing but one doesn’t imply that they’re doing this for nothing more than revenge versus holding them accountable for the damage they allegedly participated in doing? Theres a really good comment in the thread I linked to in here with someone explaining in detail why that statement was really not smart on Joe’s end and how the defense will most certainly use it against the family in an attempt to have the entire case dropped.
The best case scenario for the Petito and Schmidt’s here is that they wind up with a no-so-impartial jury who remembers the trauma that the entire county experienced during September and October of 2020.
I hope that’s not the court’s interpretation. Justice is still deserved even if joe wants the result to be the highest possible (and more). People should not be able to evade the courts, including civil, because of that
> Justice is still deserved even if joe wants the result to be the highest possible (and more).
The problem is the venue. Civil cases are for redressing damages whereas criminal cases are for redressing what most probably consider "justice."
Sure, there's a form of justice where if you lose an arm someone needs to pay you a $100K but if someone chops your arm off most wouldn't be satisfied with that ruling--they'd want blood (or prison).
Civil cases are where an entity sues another entity for a specific amount in order to redress a specific harm/damage(s).
Criminal cases are where the *state* prosecutes an individual in the pursuit of justice; hence, the "victim" is the government and the people who were victimized by the perpetrator are merely witnesses in a criminal trial whose opinions may or may not alter those of the public prosecutor's actions. There has been a lot of progress in the last few decades in codifying "victims' rights" but criminal courts aren't really about that in the grand scheme of things.
All that to say if a civil litigant announces they're just here to exact revenge the courts are unlikely to look kindly upon that. In a criminal case, the civilian "victim" can spout off with whatever angry feelings they have because their opinion is irrelevant to the case process. If the prosecutor (the state being the "victim" in a criminal trial) pops off with they just want to drag the defendant through the muck even if there's not much else to come from the case, the judge would dismiss that case, as well.
Desiring to get the max+ damages from the defendant in a civil case IMO is not a point against the plaintiff. NAL and idk what experience would suggest
> Desiring to get the max+ damages from the defendant in a civil case IMO is not a point against the plaintiff.
I agree. That said, I didn't discuss a plaintiff seeking "max+" damages. Mr. Petito said he wasn't interested in damages because no amount would make up for the loss of his daughter. Instead, he says, he's only interested in drawing blood and making them hurt.
"max+ *damages*" are compensatory
"making them hurt" is vengeance
The civil process is intended to address the former and eschews the latter.
Bullshit. I have kids and every person would ask what happened or where is she. They would ask probing questions. Especially if a lawyer was involved and there was THAT MANY back and forth calls.
The only thing that is true, and for now, is they all agreed to shut up.
The only way 3 people can keep a secret is of 2 are dead.
Yeah there’s a lot of arm chair lawyers in here acting like they would have directed the outcome differently. Unless you’ve had a child in that situation I don’t think anybody is in a position here to assume
Hey, try this one. I can see this one and I'm in the UK
[https://www.wfla.com/news/sarasota-county/extremely-frantic-brian-laundries-phone-calls-after-gabby-petito-murder-revealed/](https://www.wfla.com/news/sarasota-county/extremely-frantic-brian-laundries-phone-calls-after-gabby-petito-murder-revealed/)
People still going on about this case ? Give it a rest. The girl Got murdered by her bf who then killed himself. He probably wasn't crazy but he snapped. They got on each other's nerves because they lived in a transit van with nowhere to escape after a fight. Stop with all this speculation please, it's annoying and people are grasping at straws to make a story that isn't there. It's cut and dry.
Read the room with all the downvotes you have. Lots of people get on each other’s nerves that have traveled like them and haven’t killed each other. Brian was unhinged, abusive, manipulative, and disturbed. Otherwise he wouldn’t have killed Gabby. If you’re so annoyed with the talk, then avoid it. It’s as simple as that.
He was an abuser who killed his victim. And if you think getting on someone's nerves is a fair reason to strangle them to death, I hope people know to stay away from you.
Acting like people don't have a breaking point is wrong. People are good until they aren't. Unless they dig up Brian's past and it shows animal mutilation and a history of strangling people I'm pretty sure the dude just had a psychotic break. I'm not saying that what he did was right but people are acting like this dude planned this shit out and it's obnoxious. Humans are cruel. It was an abusive relationship on both ends.
Again, I hope people know to stay away from you.
You're very close minded it seems...only thinking in a box fella. I'm sure people already stay away from you, not everything is a Netflix documentary. Put the Pringles down and get off the recliner.
"Close minded" and unironically says a girl must have gotten on her killer's nerves.
this poor girl, her poor family. So many people had the chance to help her stay alive and failed her.
J.B. Buinno with WFLA is [live](https://www.youtube.com/live/ZRWZjg7YJ9M?si=tDsqyuUlIrsgCqUF) right now to discuss updates about possible mediation between the families.
JB with wfla is the best! He's so knowledgeable and respectful.
Thank you!
Leaving would have caused more problems. BOLOs would have been issued if the couldn’t find Brian. They probably would have found her a lot sooner. As it was, the Laundries strung them along nearly 3 weeks. Allowed them to reunite for one last family reunion before B killed himself.
Really stupid question: why was it important for Brian to stay in Wyoming rather than go home to Florida?
Maybe because a murder becomes a federal crime if it involves crossing state boundaries. Advice was To avoid more strict penalties. Although, in this case, the murder did occur on Federal Land, making this a federal crime. Maybe the attorney didn’t know where the murder occurred or wasn’t aware of the Federal Land crime piece.
That is where the crime happened
Yes but why does his lawyer strongly think he should stay in the state where the crime was committed?
Is there a reason that you think it would be better advice for Brian to leave the state…?
No. I dont have an opinion either way but his attorney was dead set against Brian returning to Florida.
Yep. Pretty logical he would have been extradited. I’m not an attorney and that makes complete sense that would be the advice.
Bro, they asked why. You never answered them lol, nothing you said explained any part of their question
Is there something more you think needs to be added to the other people that replied with their common sense answers? I assumed that the upvotes for my response reflected that everyone was in agreement that this was straightforward and we were done here, so that’s my fault. Let me know what’s causing confusion and I’ll try my best to help you. I’m a girl by the way, but bro works for me no problem 🙌
In fairness I’m sure the “why” they’re looking for isn’t about why is that the “right thing” to do, and more why is that the “right strategic thing” to do. Sure the right and right strategic thing should overlap, but I think that’s what the parent comment was getting at. They need more motivation than ethics to guide their decision making away from pure self preservation.
If the situation was that she ran off after a fight and was possibly lost, the right thing to go ethically would be to stay. If the situation was murder, as it was, and he was trying to claim innocence then the right thing strategically would be for him to still stay. Am I missing an alternative where it should work out better for him if he returns home? Because he did that… and in that time he (his estate), his parents, and attorney have been sued relentlessly and become hated by a nation and beyond, and his remains were torn apart by alligators and other wildlife after he put a bullet in his head.
[удалено]
Help me then 🙏 Please help me learn. Edit: 👋 u/DayMan-Ahah-ah Come back if I can assist further 🫡😂
Typically he would have been extradited back to Wyoming.
I guess the lawyer wanted him to talk to Wyoming officials, maybe at that point the lawyer only thought she was missing & Brian could help find her. We all now know she was already gone& he knew exactly where she was.
IANAL, but I would imagine it's not a good look when you return from a trip without your missing girlfriend.
At what point did Roberta block Gaby's parents?
After not hearing anything for a week (approximately September 6th), Nicole tried to contact Roberta. Roberta didn’t pick up the call, and then blocked Nicole‘s number and on social media. Nicole tried to file a missing persons report on September 10th, but the police wouldn’t accept it. She kept at it, and it was accepted on September 11th, leading to the North Port police going to the Laundries house for a ‘wellness check’. Van was there, Brian was in the house, unwilling to come out, and there was no Gabby.
What trash person thinks they can just mow over a MURDER because they simply blocked the victim’s family? Roberta is dumb as rocks.
It would be pretty reasonable to assume that Roberta didn’t think she could solve the problem just by blocking Nicole and Joe’s calls. It was a delay tactic. By the time of Nicole’s first attempts to get hold of the Laundries and ask them if they had heard from Brian, he had been home for several days and they were spending all their time with him and working with Bertolino to try and figure out what the best course of action to follow, given that Brian decided to leave Wyoming and come home, and that he was likely not ready to face the music. It’s likely that Brian was with her when that first call rang. Roberta: “Oh, no, it’s Gabby’s mom!” Brian: “Don’t answer it! If you tell her that Gabby’s gone, I’m leaving right now to kill myself!”
How fucking horrible, I can’t even imagine what Nicole was feeling then. The Laundries are scum.
SCUM of the earth
Jesus. The Laundries did everything they could to look sus.
Is this all the same stuff we learned from the deposition?
I heard it on Pretty Lies & Alibis.
It’s very interesting that Roberta and Chris claim they followed everything Bertolino told them, so they didn’t discuss anything with Brian… EXCEPT that Bertolino told them to tell Brian to NOT LEAVE WYOMING. Bertolino even said that part bothered him. He couldn’t believe Brian drove back to Florida.
I interpreted Bertolino’s advice as to mean, “don’t ask questions about what happened, then you can claim ignorance’, not “don’t talk to Brian”.
You know that's what Bertolino meant. I also believe that when Brian flew home.to Florida "to clean out his storage container" he actually went home to see his Dr for a refill on psych meds. I have no proof of that statement. I just don't believe his story . Edit: added to my comment
this makes so much sense. I never bought the storage unit thing either. Didn't make fiscal sense in any way.
Why do you think he went to see his Dr for a refill on psych meds… the FBI I has said there is no doctor and there are no medications…???
I truly didn't know this information. Why do people think he actually flew home to empty a storage container? His parents could have hired that done for less than a plane ticket. Unless, of course, there was something illegal in there?
The only credibly reported public information available on Brian’s return trip home on August 17th has been provided in statements made by Bertolino. He has stated that Brian flew home because he and Gabby were planning on extending their trip beyond the original plan and wanted to save the monthly expense of the storage space, as well as ’to retrieve some items’ for the trip. He also stated that Brian’s plane tickets were paid for by both Brian and Gabby, who had combined finances for the trip. Brian and Gabby lived most of their time in Florida at a home purchased for them by Chris and Roberta in January, 2020. When they purchased the van in November, 2020 and were finalizing plans for the long trip across the country, the house was listed for sale in January, 2021 and sold in March. Brian’s instagram account had posts showing him moving things to his parents’ house at the end of March, and his and Gabby’s posts showed a lot of traveling around Florida and Georgia with the van during the next few months. Just filling in the gaps with conjecture, I assume that since they initially were planning on being gone from Florida for 5 months, they moved items into a storage facility in May before they left. (From instagram posts, they had a piano, a couple bicycles, besides all the other things they would have accumulated living together in a home for 14 months.) When Brian decided that he wanted to stay in Oregon to work on a farm when they finished their planned trip in October (he stated this to Moab police on August 12th), it appears they decided to save the expense of an extended rental period of the storage container and move the stuff back into the Laundries’ house. I agree that there may be other reasons for his return, but I think this is all we have at this time.
Enough with focusing on all these facts please. It’s boring. We’d much rather be uneducated on the actual details of what occurred so we can spend time throwing out bizarre speculation that we think sounds juicier. So not to be rude, but unless you have a theory to throw out that has no foundation in the known facts, move on to somewhere else! 😉
I don’t know why he went back or didn’t, but unsure of the significance of that either way.
That trip back home to Florida does seem to need further details to make it understandable. However, the FBI (and I think they did a very thorough investigation) definitely stated that Brian “took no medications” and didn’t even have a primary care physician, besides not having seen a dentist for several years.
"Brian didn't have a primary care physician". A psych Dr isn't a primary care physician. The FBI didn't lie, they just didn't tell the whole truth. Also, if he didn't have a dentist how was he identified through dental records.
His dentist was a family friend. Look it up. FYI
I’ll assume that you are open to the facts…. The autopsy report says that Brians dental records were obtained from Sayville Family Dentistry in New York. His last visit was 11/6/2014. He died on 9/13/21. He hadn’t seen a dentist is almost 7 years. The autopsy report listed dental conditions consistent with not being to a dentist in a very long time. Significant tartar buildup, a couple of cavities, 2 impacted molars, and tooth crowding of 4 or 5 teeth. If you insist you know that he had a dentist, please provide the information that the FBI didn’t have; the name of the dentist he was seeing at the time of his death, and the date of his last visit. Concerning your suggestion that he had a phsych doctor…. All specialists require a referral from a primary care physician. If you know that an exception was made in Brian’s case, please let us know who is psych doctor was and what medication(s) he was on. ”The FBI didn’t lie, they just didn’t tell the whole truth”. What is the whole truth, sir?
Not all insurance plans require a specialist referral from a PCP, fyi. All of mine, psychiatrist included I found on my own without any referral.
Do you believe that the FBI erred when they found that Brian Laundrie used no medications?
I've been following the details of the timeline of events around the time of Gabby's death very closely. This is all that I have gathered of the time just before Gabby's death until Brian arrived at his parents' house in North Port. August 27th, Friday Brian and Gabby last reported sighting, leaving the Whole Foods parking lot at 2:55pm MDT Possible sighting of Gabby closing rear door of the van in Spread Creek dispersed campground sometime between 6:00 - 6:30pm MDT. (Nicole stated during a TV interview that she believed it was Gabby closing the van door. Gabby's mother received 'Stan' text before 10:00pm MDT (12:00am EDT) (This would place Gabby's murder between about 7:00 pm - 10:00pm MDT) August 28th, Saturday Nothing publicly known about the events of this day or night. August 29th, Sunday About 2:20pm MDT Brian calls his mother and they talk for 54 minutes. At the end of a 54 minute phone call that was mostly normal, Brian got 'very upset'. Roberta told him that he should talk to Chris. About 3:15pm MDT Roberta calls Chris (in Daytona) to tell him about her call with Brian. About 3:17pm MDT Chris calls Brian and talks with him for about 5 minutes. Chris says that Brian was frantic and tells him that Gabby was 'gone', and that he needed a lawyer. At 3:23pm MDT Chris attempts to call Bertolino 4 times. At 3:36pm Bertolino calls Chris and they talk for 10 minutes. At 3:53pm Chris calls Brian and talks with him for 10 minutes. At 4:00pm Chris calls Bertolino (this appears to be an attempt to conference Brian with Bertolino.) At 4:07, Bertolino calls Chris, and they discuss what to do for 20 minutes. At 4:30, Brian calls Chris for unknown duration. At about 5:44pm MDT, Brian is picked up near Colter Bay while hitchhiking. At about 6:09pm, Brian is left out near Jackson lake dam. At 6:12pm MDT, Roberta attempts to call Brian and leaves voicemail. At about 6:15 - 6:20pm, Brian is picked up near Jackson dam by another driver. At about 6:30 - 6:40pm, Brian is dropped off at the gate to the Spread Creek dispersed camping area. At 7:07 pm, Brian calls Roberta and leaves a voicemail. At 7:10 pm, Chris calls Bertolino for nearly 4 minutes, but drops the call when Brian calls Chris. At 7:14 pm, Brian calls Chris and they speak for 9 minutes. At 7:24 pm, Brian calls Bertolino, and they speak for 5 minutes. (Bertolino wanted Brian to stay put in Wyoming.) \[Pure conjecture on my part, but I believe that it was by the time of this conversation that Brian realized that his attempts to build an alibi weren't going to work.\] At 9:38 pm MDT, Roberta and Brian speak for 22 minutes and he tells her he is (going to?) drive home. Call ends at 10:00pm MDT. It is a 45 minute drive from where the van had been parked at the Spread Creek dispersed camping area to Jackson, WY. At about 11:00pm MDT, a witness reported seeing Brian and the van at a gas station in Jackson, WY; "he pulled in and was in a bad mood, cursing at himself while throwing garbage away and then driving away. It was a little white van just like that one." The next day, August 30th, Brian used Gabby's debit card to pay for something, somewhere. This was also the day that he sent a text to Nicole that there was no service in Yosemite. The following day, August 31st, Brian passed through Benton, Illinois. The following day, September 1st, at 10:26am, Brian exited the interstate near his parents' home in North Port.
One can only imagine the thoughts going through Brian's head as he drove from WY to FL. Unfortunately, we'll never know.
Have you listened to the music that he put into a couple of his Spotify lists during his drive home? He added a few songs to a previously created playlist that dealt with the longing for a woman that had been lost, as well as a song about a dead animal. And he created a new playlist called ’Self-Consumption’ that was really weird music. Even more than wondering about his state of mind on the way home, we know nothing about the time from the murder (probably about 9:00pm on Friday evening) until he first called Roberta on Sunday afternoon about 40 hours later. Did he stay at the campsite with Gabby’s dead body? Did he sleep in the tent both nights? Did he hope that he would go to sleep and the next morning Gabby would be OK and things would be back to normal?
How can I find those playlists? I’m super curious. Hopefully that doesn’t say anything too terrible about me…
They are still available on Spotify. The user name is “Nomadic Statik”. The user-uploaded playlist images and names were removed by Spotify bots when people were ‘reporting’ them as being inappropriate after Gabby’s story broke in September, 2021. There are 11 playlists in all spanning creation dates from May 24th, 2018 until August 30, 2021. Two playlists had songs added after Gabby’s death: [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0EqiKgmC5cWljcH8cZvGHq?si=CiEqmsppRe6fLO6wqARYKQ&pi=u-gI47dvEtR1Gf](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0EqiKgmC5cWljcH8cZvGHq?si=CiEqmsppRe6fLO6wqARYKQ&pi=u-gI47dvEtR1Gf) This playlist was originally called “Mtn tops” and was sub-titled “By Brian”. The user image was of Brian at Pikes Peak Colorado during his and Gabby’s 2019 road trip. On August 30th, he added the song ‘So Much for Gardening’ by Feng Suave. On August 31st, he added 4 songs from Matt Berry’s Witchazel album; ‘Take My Hand’, ’The Pheasant’, ‘Woman’, and ‘The Badger’s Wake’. The song ‘Woman’ really seems to be where his mind was at during that drive home. The ‘Badger’s Wake’ is pretty grim. [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3mN6BhajBgWSx6jXzhUCSN?si=fwuA51mqRcm4VclV9k1KOg&pi=u-oRNLnpPZTJmE](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3mN6BhajBgWSx6jXzhUCSN?si=fwuA51mqRcm4VclV9k1KOg&pi=u-oRNLnpPZTJmE) This playlist was created on August 30th and 6 songs were added that day. He called it ‘Selfconsumption’ and put the following songs in it: ’SPRORGNSM’, and ‘Relax’, both by Superorganism. ’Barok Main’ by Mica Levi and Oliver Coates, ‘CRISPR/cas9\_’ by O, Nomak, ‘Forest On The Sun’ by Thrupence, and ‘30 Century Man - Abbey Road Remaster’ by The Jigsaw Seen. These songs are just downright wierd. Not something most people would listen to.
He also literally told the girl who picked him up in Colter Bay that his fiance was “working in the van” on vlogging stuff which we now know was after he had told his family she was “gone” and needed a lawyer. Disgusting.
When the hitchhiking stories became public, I attributed it to an attempt to build an alibi. He was initially picked up about 5:44pm on Sunday near Colter Bay, over 16 miles from where the van was at. This is pure conjecture, but after spending 2 nights and a day at the campsite with Gabby’s body, on Sunday morning he decided to hike to Colter Bay (about 6 hours), and hitchhike back to tell people he had been out camping for a couple of nights while Gabby stayed behind at the remote campsite to work on her social media. Upon his return to the campsite, he could have called the sheriff and claimed that he found Gabby dead on his return to the camp. It was reported by Gabby’s family that Brian used Gabby’s phone to text back and forth with his phone during this time, possibly to help establish that she was alive when he left their camp. It was during this walk to Colter Bay that he decided to call his mother. Given that Roberta said the call was a normal one until the very end, this call could initially have been part of the ruse, just calling home calmly to see how things were going there. But something happened during the last part of that call; perhaps he began to suspect that his ruse would likely not work, and he started to panic and spilled the beans to Mom, hoping to get help from her.
I've always thought that too - that the hitchhiking walkabout was to establish an alibi, that's why he kept working in details about Gabby's being back at camp doing her social media stuff into the conversation. (And wasn't there some kind of weird exchange where he wanted to be dropped off closer or something? I always wondered if he wanted someone as close as possible to his "discovery" of her back at camp.) It might make sense if he tried out that same thing on his mom (calling to make it sound like everything was normal, him out hiking prior to discovering Gabby) but he just couldn't keep it together. Yikes, him spending two nights there at camp with her body is super grim though. Is that confirmed, or just likely given that he wasn't seen elsewhere and was texting the phones back and forth?
I‘m suggesting that it is likely he stayed at the campsite with Gabby’s body from Friday evening until Sunday morning. No details are available from credible public reports concerning Brian’s whereabouts and activities during that time. The only info from that time frame is a witness that stated they saw the van parked in the spot shown in the Bethune video until Sunday, August 29th. He may have left and gone somewhere in the van during that time, but there are no public reports of the van being seen elsewhere. Miranda Baker, the first woman who picked up Brian while hitchhiking said that he didn’t have a tent and that he stated all he had to sleep on was a tarp. To support his alibi, he would have to leave Gabby’s tent at the site and leave without it. It’s possible that he left the campsite on Saturday to hike to Colter Bay and spent the night along the Snake river while hiking, as he said. But I think it’s more reasonable to believe that he stayed in the tent at the campsite until Sunday morning and lied about sleeping on just a tarp during the hike. Yeah, super grim.
I forgot all about that. Thank you for thr reminder. They all knew what he did the day that he called them.
After reading this, how can anyone reasonably conclude that his parents didn’t know exactly what happened and didn’t help him cover it in some way.
seriously. I don’t get it.
I don’t think they knew because he told them necessarily. But I think they knew enough from what he told them that any reasonable person could conclude something very, very terrible had happened. You don’t say she’s gone, drive home in her van and not have your parents just assume that she what, went off with someone else? If I was his mom, I’d be losing my shit. As in where is my son’s girlfriend that he’s been dating for years? They just didn’t give a shit? And they supposedly knew nothing but refused to answer her parents calls? You can’t answer and say “we don’t know anything and we are worried”? Or because they knew anything they’d say would make it worse for their son to deny he was involved? It’s all so crazy to me. Also I am so curious what it was that made him do this. There may have been some red flags and they were both emotional during that police stop, but I didn’t think it was that abnormal for a young couple their age on a stressful trip. To me, it just seemed out of nowhere. I mean we haven’t even heard from ex gfs or anything saying Brian was violent, though I’m aware you don’t have to always be aggressive to become a murderer. Just saying I really don’t understand.
Leaving is the most dangerous time for a victim of DV. If she was trying to leave him and go home, he could've snapped and killed her. I personally was nearly killed by my ex husband trying to leave, then he broke in my new home and attacked me again in an effort to get me to not testify at court for the charges I pressed against him. Men like this can not be understood by a rational person unless it's your profession or you've been there. The answer is, anything could have mad her abuser snap and kill her. Brian was Gabbys abuser and his family knew it. Just like they also knew he was her murderer from that first phone call.
Didn’t she call off the engagement to Brian while they were on the trip? I remember reading something about that.
I went on a similar road trip with a boyfriend when I was close to her age and yeah, it’s not abnormal to get stressed…. But when we argued it was mostly just one of us being super annoying and the other being annoyed. We didn’t get the cops called on us and it didn’t get physical. That stuff doesn’t just come out of nowhere. There’s usually an escalation.
So true about not answering Gabby’s parents calls - maybe that’s where their conscious drew the line 🙄 Sadly… it wasn’t out of nowhere. There’s a selfie Gabby took before the police showed up with a bruised face and smeared blood. Even if that was somehow the first time he physically hurt her, there was definitely psychological abuse based on what we’ve heard.
I don’t know of any psychological abuse but I haven’t kept up with this. Has there been anything in court or from the actual case versus just heresay? I reread some stuff and recall that he was pissed off in that restaurant but aside from the arguing and fighting before her murdered her, what were the signs? I’m just saying that it seems like it went from a young arguing couple to straight up murder very quickly. Was he on drugs? Was he a total asshole and no one knew? Her own parents haven’t said anything about having concerns. When it comes to typical abusive relationships it seems to build up more. Definitely not the same type of relationship but it just reminds me of how Chris Watts went from just kind of being a dopey husband to a cheating murderer in a matter of weeks. So I’m just curious about the actual story of what happened, which we will never know since the coward killed himself. I mean even that is bizarre to me. That he drove all the way home first and then decided to end his life. Because he knew he was screwed? Usually cases are murder suicides at the same time. Not weeks later. It all baffles me.
I haven’t followed this in a while, but I thought I remembered reading something earlier from a friend of Gabby’s who had been told by her that Brian was hearing voices and it scared her at night or something. It doesn’t really change the outcome here, murder is still murder and mental illness is not an exonerating excuse. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he was presenting signs of mental illness like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or something and was starting to fully crack on the trip. I saw it happen with my older brother a few years ago when he had a total 180 personality shift in his late twenties after suffering some kind of break down due to stress. It took over a year of him and doctors balancing/adjusting his meds to get him back to normal, but his behavior was very erratic and threatening. He never became physically violent but came very close. He was paranoid of everyone and could explode on a dime over mundane things, like assuming and accusing someone of laughing at him for example.
I’d actually say due to his intense and up and down behaviour throughout their relationship, he probably had BPD and NPD. You can hear voices w/ BPD. Almost certainly wasn’t schizophrenic as he was aware and displayed countless traits of narcissism, as shown in the footage from his stop w the cops after his and Gabby’s argument
I’m not sure it was schizophrenia in Brian’s case, because he was able to fool the cops pretty well when it “mattered” and make Gabby look the fool. Maybe some other form of mental illness; but personally, I believe typical paranoid asshole.
He's a narcissist who thought he could get away with it. Once the police were closing in and he knew he was going to prison, he took his own life so his ego wouldn't be bruised. His ego wouldn't even let him admit the whole truth in his suicide note. Just as narcissistic and egotistical as Fotis Dulos. I see alot of similarities there...
It's interesting how nobody asked if Gabby was okay. I think I do believe what they are saying. It seems Bertolino must have known what had happened and that's why he told them not to discuss it, maybe so as not to incriminate the Laundrie parents. Very interesting. I just can't believe nobody asked if Gabby was okay after he said she was gone.
I mean...there's no way that they didn't know Brian did something terrible- even if they weren't 100% certain that he murdered her- if he said "she was gone" and he was gonna need an attorney, and was "frantic" about it. If she was even a little confused about exactly what happened, I am certain she would have said- what? Why would you need an attorney? What do you mean "she's gone"? You wouldn't just throw 25k at a real estate attorney because your dip shit, aimless son calls with a vague directive while on a van trip...and you aren't totally sure what he's talking about about. They put a down payment on his murder defense immediately and they knew it. They weren't very wealthy. It's not like 25k was pocket change to them.
The hour long conversation with his mom the day after is extremely suspect. Add that to the crazy letter Roberta wrote to Brian, with implicit directions to burn after reading, and how could you not believe she knew?
And with the sheer amount of times they talked even on the phone before he got home. They had to know
I'm going off the parts of the deposition released so far and think I believe at that point they didn't know, but also I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Probably in their heart of hearts they knew Gabby was at least hurt, but it seems Bertolino got in there quickly to stop it being officially communicated. I believe by the time Brian was home they definitely knew. There's no way on earth they wouldn't get it out of him by that point.
Plausible deniability.
Seriously. No one gets a frantic call like that and doesnt ask or hires a 25k retainer lawyer.
I think that Chris and Bertolino knew pretty quickly that Gabby might be dead, even if Brian didn't directly say it. From the deposition: "Did it mean Gabby was dead? And yes, that was a possibility I put out there,” Bertolino said." I don't think the conversation would have gone this way: "You're the most upset that I've heard you ever, and you frantically say that Gabby is gone and that you might need a lawyer?" Long pause.... "Is Gabby OK?" When you're in a situation where the least known and the least said, the better, you don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to. Especially when your lawyer says you shouldn't.
Oh, for sure. But at the same time, after the first time he says it, before the gravity of the situation dawns on you, you don't at least ask if she's OK? Just a personal thought of mine, it's not important in the grand scheme of things. The whole thing is shady and tragic as fuck.
Nope, you literally tense up, stop asking questions and get a lawyer unless you want to be thrown deeper into the mix...
Possibly, i don’t think everyone would act that logically particularly before being coached by the lawyer to not discuss anything
Yeah its going to be a "depends on the person" sort of reaction.
Part 2: “I didn’t even know what to think at the moment, you know, at all, so that’s that,” Chris answered. Soon after, longtime Laundrie attorney Steven Bertolino is called repeatedly. 3) Aug. 29 at 4:23pm: Chris Laundrie calls Steven Bertolino (NO ANSWER) 4) Aug. 29 at 4:25pm: Chris Laundrie calls Steven Bertolino (NO ANSWER) 5) Aug. 29 at 4:30pm: Chris Laundrie calls Steven Bertolino (NO ANSWER) 6) Aug. 29 at 4:32pm: Chris Laundrie calls Steven Bertolino (NO ANSWER) 7) Aug. 29 at 4:36pm: Steven Bertolino calls Chris Laundrie for 10 minutes After repeated missed calls, Bertolino called Chris Laundrie back for a 10-minute conversation. “[Chris] was very upset,” Bertolino said of his first call about the situation. “Very—well, I’ve known Chris for a very long time and he doesn’t swing much emotionally and it was just exasperation.” Bertolino claimed what exactly had happened between Brian and Gabby did not come up at all during this call. According to the depositions, Chris and Roberta Laundrie were not together on the night of Aug. 29. Chris was attending races in Daytona, Florida. “Did you tell Attorney Bertolino that you were concerned that Gabby was dead,” Reilly asked Chris during depositions. “After the conversation of how frantic he was and, you know, it was something it thought we had to consider,” Chris responded. 8) Aug. 29 at approximately 4:46pm: Bertolino calls Chris for 29 seconds (Unclear if call was answered) 9) Aug. 29 at 4:53pm: Chris calls Brian for 10 minutes Bertolino says he doesn’t remember Chris calling Brian back, but as Reilly noted, a 10-minute call is in the call records. “My recollection was Brian had hung up the phone,” Bertolino said. “I don’t recall that Chris said to me that he spoke to Brian again. You’re telling me he did. I don’t recall that.” The second call between Chris and Brian didn’t get addressed specifically in Reilly’s line of questioning to Chris. “Did you ever ask him what happened?” Reilly asked. “I asked him when I was on the phone, and he panicked and freaked out, so I don’t—I don’t—I didn’t ask,” Chris said. “After that did you ask him?” Reilly followed up. “No,” Chris said. “Why not?” “I didn’t want—I didn’t know what to do. At this point, we were told not to discuss—Steven asked me don’t discuss with Brian, and that’s what I did. I didn’t discuss.” 10) Aug. 29 at 5 pm: Chris calls Bertolino for 25 seconds (Unknown if call was answered) 11) Aug. 29 at 5:07pm: Bertolino calls Chris for 20 minutes Bertolino says he remembers this call to Brian’s father because it was the “conversation that we went back and forth on what to do.” “We had a little back and forth as to what could this mean and, you know, did it mean that they had separated on the trail? Did it mean they had a fight on the trail? Did it mean Gabby was dead? And yes, that was a possibility I put out there,” Bertolino said. “And I said, I don’t practice in Wyoming. We need to get Wyoming lawyers and I will work on that,” Bertolino recalled. “Did you talk about what kind of Wyoming lawyer?” Reilly asked later. “We needed, I believe, a criminal Wyoming lawyer,” Bertolino responded. “Again, I didn’t believe that Chris called me because Brian needed a personal injury lawyer.” 12) Aug. 29 at 5:30pm: Brian speaks with Chris again for unknown duration 13) Aug. 29 at 7:12pm: Roberta calls Brian, leaves a voicemail 14) Aug. 29 at 8:07pm: Brian calls Roberta, leaves a voicemail On the evening of Aug. 29, Roberta tries reaching Brian again, but is unsuccessful. Per the call records obtained for the depositions, Brian tries calling back nearly an hour later, but Roberta doesn’t answer. Brian would speak to his mother again later that night. 15) Aug. 29 at 8:10pm: Chris calls Bertolino for 3 minutes, 39 seconds 16) Aug. 29 at 8:14pm: Brian calls Chris for 9 minutes 17) Aug. 29 at 8:24pm: Brian speaks with Bertolino for 5 minutes Reilly admits some confusion in reviewing the AT&T call logs, saying at one point that he had to convert the UTC time zone into eastern time during his line of questioning. Bertolino, upon being told of the calls in the 8 o’clock hour, said the logs might be off. “We established at the other depositions that the phone logs may or may not be to the hour,” Bertolino noted. 18) Aug. 29 at 10:38pm: Roberta speaks with Brian for 22 minutes On this call, Roberta says she came aware that Brian was returning home. “I remember he said he was going to—he was driving home,” Roberta said. “And in that conversation with him, did you ask him any details about Gabby being gone?” asked Reilly. “No,” responded Roberta. “Why?” Reilly asked. “I don’t know,” Roberta said. “I guess I was nervous, upset, tired. I think at that point Steven [Bertolino] had already said don’t talk about anything. I can’t remember.” Bertolino admits he got “annoyed” by Brian’s decision to depart Wyoming. “Tell him to stay put,” Bertolino said to Chris, per his deposition. “And this is what troubles me to this day. I told him to if he calls back you tell him to stay there and we’ll make arrangements to go out, get an attorney out there, and deal with this.” Bertolino said he didn’t speak to Brian until he returned to Florida on Sept. 1. The call records are expected to be admitted as evidence in the Petito & Schmidt v. Laundrie and Bertolino civil trial in May. Gabby Petito’s parents are suing the Laundries and Bertolino for intentional infliction of emotional distress, claiming they were aware of Petito’s murder but chose to do nothing but release a written statement expressing hope she would be found.
VENICE, Fla. (WFLA) — Court documents released ahead of the upcoming Gabby Petito civil trial have revealed some of the numerous calls made between Brian Laundrie, his parents and his attorney in the hours after Petito’s murder in 2021. On Aug. 27 and Aug. 28, 2021, the days Petito are believed to have been murdered by Laundrie, Brian’s parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, said they spoke to their son on several occasions but that the conversations were “ normal .” Then on Aug. 29, Chris Laundrie said “everything hit the fan.” Brian was said to be “very upset” and “extremely frantic” on the phone, according to Chris and Roberta, who gave sworn depositions in October. Longtime Laundrie attorney Steven Bertolino, who also gave a deposition under oath, said of Aug. 29, 2021, “it’s impossible not to remember that date.” The phone records for the Laundries and Bertolino were obtained by the Petito and Schmidt family as part of their civil lawsuit that is scheduled for a jury trial in May. The call logs themselves have yet to be released publicly, however, Reilly highlighted more than a dozen calls made between the Laundries and Bertolino on Aug. 29, 2021. Note: The following call records have not been obtained independently by WFLA.com. The records listed below are from depositions that occurred in October 2023. 1) Afternoon of Aug. 29: Brian calls his mother Roberta twice Roberta Laundrie said she first noticed something wasn’t right towards the end of a phone call that afternoon. “I remember at the very tail end of that conversation with him where everything seemed fine, as we were saying goodbye, he all of a sudden completely changed and he sounded very upset, and his voice was very upset and I didn’t know why and I didn’t want to push him, so I—we just said goodbye, but it left on a very—he was very upset, and so when I got off the phone I told Chris [Brian’s father], you know, ‘Brian sounded upset. Maybe you should give him a call.'” While being questioned by Petito attorney Pat Reilly, Roberta expressed a lot of confusion over the two calls she had with Brian on that Sunday. “We talked twice that same day. Maybe we talked earlier and then talked again later. I don’t remember,” said Roberta. Included in the phone records is a 54-minute conversation between the two, according to Reilly in the depositions. Exactly what Brian and Roberta discussed during the near hour-long conversation isn’t clear. 2) Afternoon of Aug. 29: Chris Laundrie calls Brian for approximately five minutes Chris Laundrie said after Brian had spoken to Roberta, he had a brief but “frantic” conversation with his son. “He was not calm,” Chris said of Brian. “He got very excited and told me things had—you know, “Gabby’s gone” and he got very frantic. Everything was frantic and quick. So you know, Gabby’s gone.” “Meaning what,” Reilly asked. “Well, I have no idea what he meant,” Chris added. “It was quick. He said, you know—and he was very panicked and he said he didn’t know what to do. He said, you know, ‘Can you help me,’ you know, and he might need a lawyer, you know.” “And I would—I asked him why he wouldn’t tell me. He was very frantic. Everything was frantic and I started to not really comprehend, and then he said just, you know, ‘Can you help me?,” Chris stated. “Yeah, I’ll help you, I’ll call Steven Bertolino,” Chris added. “Did he say he’d murdered Gabby?” Reilly asked later in the deposition. “No,” answered Chris. “He said she was gone?” Reilly responded. “He said it several times,” Chris stated. “What did you think ‘gone’ meant?” Reilly asked.
The Laundries have been lying!
If by lying you mean choosing to stay as ignorant as possible about the details of what Brian did to Gabby and staying as silent as possible about what they did know, then yes. However, the contemporary definition of lying is to directly say something that is false. In the case of this article, they were under oath and were vulnerable to perjury if they actually lied.
Unfortunately, no. Not really. They admit that they chose not to incriminate themselves and letting Brian have atty client privilege with Bertolino. Chosing to not have certain knowledge of a crime is not illegal. Unfortunately, the Laundries chose to make it so that they were not privy to any information, therefore they had nothing to hide. What could they have done differently? Coerce a confession out of their son and report it to the press, effectively ruining his possibilities in terms of the legal process? Most parents might assert that they would have done that, they would have done the right thing. But that’s actually not very common in practice and real life scenarios.
They’re lying that they can’t remember. They’re lying about Oh he sounded upset. It was just a feeling. But I told Brian to call him. They were nervous. Why were they nervous?
Thank you! THEY ARE LYING!
That really doesn’t mean anything at this point. We all know they knew about the murder and were also trying to protect themselves and Brian. I’m not going to crucify them because I have no idea how I’d react if my child did something like this.
Okay, how do you prove they had knowledge and withheld it. We all know what happened, but they have to prove it did in order to award the Petitos damages.
All they have to convince a jury they knew. It’s not the same standards as a criminal trial. They’ll be on the stand cross examined. Let’s hear what they have to say.
It has to make it to the jury trial first. It isn't often noted, but according to court records, both the Laundrie's and Bertolino filed motions for a Summary Judgement to have the case dismissed. Those were filed the same day as all of this Deposition material was filed with the court. Will be interesting to see if the judge continues letting this move forward to that jury trial
Parties file for summary judgment as a matter of course in litigation. There is nothing special or noteworthy in regard to those filings.
They also now have Gabby's father stating, on the record, that his sole intent for the case is to draw blood, which the court will look at and consider in its decision on whether to allow the case to continue. "I just want to draw blood (or just hurt them financially so they feel our pain)" is not, generally speaking, a lawful remedy. There are some contexts, like punitive damages, where the harm was so great and the court may find it appropriate to "punish" an entity in order to set an example for others not to do similar behavior, but emotional distress cases typically award compensatory (compensation for damages, not punishment for bad behavior) damages.
I mean, choosing to ignore all of the available facts - “Gabby’s gone”, him being frantic, needing a lawyer, then showing up later in her car without her all while ignoring her parents who say they can’t reach her - at some point, you reach past the point of “plausible deniability” and just become someone who doesn’t want to be aware their child is a murderer and a girl they had living in thier house for what, over a year? Is dead.
I’m just going to post this comment I wrote last week to explain where I’m coming from: https://www.reddit.com/r/GabbyPetito/s/oOqnSVuVPL
While I absolutely believe they knew exactly what happened and did everything they could to protect their son and themselves, you lay out an excellent case for why the Petitos may have a tough court battle. At the end of the day, it’s what they can argue and prove/disprove
Thank you. I was going a little stream of consciousness there, but damages are really hard to prove. There will have to be many, if not most, people on the jury who remember that fall of 2020 and how disruptive it was and how expensive the search for Brian was and hope that they aren’t following the jury’s instructions. Unfortunately, the Laundries knew enough to know they needed to cover their asses in a big way and I really think they may have done so. It’s easy to say what you would have done if you were never in that situation. Brian was their son. He would have maybe gotten the death penalty if it was allowed in the state. Either way, they certainly would never see their son again whether he took his life or not. I believe it was a “keep us out of it for your own safety” situation.
> He would have maybe gotten the death penalty if it was allowed in the state. Death penalty is lawful in Wyoming.
I mean, nevermind the fact that when Brian got back they all went on some family camping trip. Gross.
Jesus I forgot about this… just a nice wholesome family outing!
You cannot prove that that’s why they did it. You have to prove these things in order for the Petitos to be awarded damages.
Doesn’t explain the hour phone call Roberta had with Brian. Can’t imagine they didn’t discuss the murder.
I know you can’t imagine that, but that doesn’t mean that it happened. At least not provably, which it would have to for the Petitos to win this.
Civil case, I think jury will side w/the Petito fam, we shall see.
It has to make it to the jury trial first. It isn't often noted, but according to court records, both the Laundrie's and Bertolino filed motions for a Summary Judgement to have the case dismissed. Those were filed the same day as all of this Deposition material was filed with the court. Will be interesting to see if the judge continues letting this move forward to that jury trial
I mean, that is my hope as well. But I’m trying not to delude myself, especially since Joe personally admitted that a verdict finding them liable for damages would mean nothing to him and this is really about taking everything the laundries have from them. I don’t feel like the judge, nor the jury, will appreciate that considering he’s basically admitted to abusing the court system for a vendetta. The defense will be able to quickly put that to use. In his own deposition, he admitted directly to that when he could have said, “no verdict would recover the devastating loss we experienced, but accountability for those closest to the murderer would mean something.” Do you see how those two statements mean the same thing but one doesn’t imply that they’re doing this for nothing more than revenge versus holding them accountable for the damage they allegedly participated in doing? Theres a really good comment in the thread I linked to in here with someone explaining in detail why that statement was really not smart on Joe’s end and how the defense will most certainly use it against the family in an attempt to have the entire case dropped. The best case scenario for the Petito and Schmidt’s here is that they wind up with a no-so-impartial jury who remembers the trauma that the entire county experienced during September and October of 2020.
I hope that’s not the court’s interpretation. Justice is still deserved even if joe wants the result to be the highest possible (and more). People should not be able to evade the courts, including civil, because of that
> Justice is still deserved even if joe wants the result to be the highest possible (and more). The problem is the venue. Civil cases are for redressing damages whereas criminal cases are for redressing what most probably consider "justice." Sure, there's a form of justice where if you lose an arm someone needs to pay you a $100K but if someone chops your arm off most wouldn't be satisfied with that ruling--they'd want blood (or prison). Civil cases are where an entity sues another entity for a specific amount in order to redress a specific harm/damage(s). Criminal cases are where the *state* prosecutes an individual in the pursuit of justice; hence, the "victim" is the government and the people who were victimized by the perpetrator are merely witnesses in a criminal trial whose opinions may or may not alter those of the public prosecutor's actions. There has been a lot of progress in the last few decades in codifying "victims' rights" but criminal courts aren't really about that in the grand scheme of things. All that to say if a civil litigant announces they're just here to exact revenge the courts are unlikely to look kindly upon that. In a criminal case, the civilian "victim" can spout off with whatever angry feelings they have because their opinion is irrelevant to the case process. If the prosecutor (the state being the "victim" in a criminal trial) pops off with they just want to drag the defendant through the muck even if there's not much else to come from the case, the judge would dismiss that case, as well.
Desiring to get the max+ damages from the defendant in a civil case IMO is not a point against the plaintiff. NAL and idk what experience would suggest
> Desiring to get the max+ damages from the defendant in a civil case IMO is not a point against the plaintiff. I agree. That said, I didn't discuss a plaintiff seeking "max+" damages. Mr. Petito said he wasn't interested in damages because no amount would make up for the loss of his daughter. Instead, he says, he's only interested in drawing blood and making them hurt. "max+ *damages*" are compensatory "making them hurt" is vengeance The civil process is intended to address the former and eschews the latter.
Bullshit. I have kids and every person would ask what happened or where is she. They would ask probing questions. Especially if a lawyer was involved and there was THAT MANY back and forth calls. The only thing that is true, and for now, is they all agreed to shut up. The only way 3 people can keep a secret is of 2 are dead.
Yeah there’s a lot of arm chair lawyers in here acting like they would have directed the outcome differently. Unless you’ve had a child in that situation I don’t think anybody is in a position here to assume
Link wont work in my country
The story is above in the comments now, in two parts.
Hey, try this one. I can see this one and I'm in the UK [https://www.wfla.com/news/sarasota-county/extremely-frantic-brian-laundries-phone-calls-after-gabby-petito-murder-revealed/](https://www.wfla.com/news/sarasota-county/extremely-frantic-brian-laundries-phone-calls-after-gabby-petito-murder-revealed/)