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Gabby Petito’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against Christipher and Roberta Laudrie, arguing that they had knowledge that their son Brian he killed the young woman and they were helping them to escape from the country.
In the lawsuit, both Joseph Petito and his wife Nichole Schmidt argued that Brian Laundrie told his parents that he had murdered his girlfriend, Gabby Petito, near the 28 of August.
“While Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt desperately searched for information about their daughter, Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie were keeping Brian Laundrie’s whereabouts secret, and it is believed that they were arranging for him to leave the country“, the lawsuit alleges.
At autopsy It said that Petito’s death was due to manual strangulation, although the lawsuit also lists blunt force injuries to the head and neck.
The two young men were engaged when they decided to take a month-long road trip through the western United States when Gabby Petito was murdered by Brian Laundrie.
The demand of Petito’s parents says that she called them every day. So the last communication Gabby had with her mother was on 27 of August.
Also, they believe that was the day she was killed , citing a text message that was sent by middle of the young woman that same day in which they referred to her grandfather with “Stan”, something that Gabby Petito had never done. This message is believed to have been sent by Brian Laundrie.
In addition, in the lawsuit it says that the 30 August, Brian sent a text message to Schmidt posing as Gabby, in which he wrote that there was no signal on Yosemite Park. It is believed that this was done to make them think that she was still alive.
Then two days later, on September 1st, Brian Laundrie showed up at the house of his parents in North Port, Florida, police said.
In this sense, Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt say in the lawsuit that the Laundries refused to respond to them or law enforcement officials when questioned as to whether Gabby was alive, and if not, where her body was.
“Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie knew of the mental suffering and anguish of Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, and knew that they could alleviate, at least in part, such mental suffering and anguish by revealing what they knew about the well-being and location of Gabrielle Petito’s remains. , but repeatedly refused to do so,” the lawsuit says.
It also reads that “by doing so, Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie acted with malice or gross disregard for the rights of Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt”.
You can also read that near the September, Roberta Laundrie wouldn’t answer Schmidt’s calls or texts and blocked her from Facebook. So she reported the disappearance of her daughter to the New York police, where the couple began their journey, on 10 of September. Petito’s body was found eight days later in Wyoming.
Brian Laundrie He left his parents’ house on in September and nothing more was heard of him. His parents alleged that he went on a field trip , according to his attorney.
A week after Gabby Petito’s body was found, at a press conference the Laundrie family’s lawyer, Steven Bertolino, stated that “Chris and Roberta Laundrie don’t know where Brian is. They are worried about Brian and hope the FBI can track him down”.
“Speculation by the public and some in the press that the parents helped Brian to leave the family home or to avoid arrest by a warrant issued after Brian he had already been missing for several days is simply incorrect,” the statement continued.
In October, police found human remains and personal items, including a backpack and notebook belonging to Laundrie on Florida’s Carlton Reservation.
It was later determined that Laundrie committed suicide from a gunshot wound to the head , according to the medical examiner’s office for the Twelfth District of Florida .
In the month of January of this year, after FBI agents investigated the contents of Brian’s notebook, “written statements of Mr. Laundrie were found in the that he was responsible for the death of Mrs. Petito”.
The parents of the murdered young woman asked a judge to compensate them for “the pain and suffering, the mental anguish , inconvenience and loss of the ability to enjoy life experienced in the past and in the future”. The lawsuit does not describe a monetary amount for said compensation.
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