NATIONAL NEWS

Mother of man who killed Gabby Petito said in letter she would help son ‘dispose of a body’

May 26, 2023, 1:03 PM | Updated: 4:46 pm

FILE - Gabby Petito's mother Nichole Schmidt, wipes a tear from her face during a news conference o...

FILE - Gabby Petito's mother Nichole Schmidt, wipes a tear from her face during a news conference on Nov. 3, 2022, in Salt Lake City. A letter written by Roberta Laundrie to her late son Brian Laundrie can be used by the attorney for Gabby Petito’s parents in preparation for their negligence lawsuit filed against Laundrie’s parents and their New York-based attorney in their high-profile case involving Petito’s death. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The mother of the man who killed Gabby Petito told her son in an undated letter that she would “dispose of a body” if needed because she loved him so much, according to copies of the note shared publicly for the first time this week by attorneys for Petito’s parents.

The handwritten note by Roberta Laundrie that says “burn after reading” on the envelope was released after a Florida judge ruled on Wednesday that the letter could be used as evidence in a lawsuit. The Petitos sued Brian Laundrie’s parents, accusing them of knowing that their son had murdered Gabby Petito and helping him with the coverup for nearly a month before her body was found in western Wyoming in September 2021, causing mental anguish, pain and suffering.

The letter reads in part: “We will always love each other. If you’re in jail, I will bake a cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.”

Whether the letter was written before or after Brian Laundrie strangled Petito is in dispute between the parents.

Roberta Laundrie claims in a sworn statement in the Florida case that she gave it to her son just before he and Petito left on a cross-country van trip in early June 2021.

Roberta Laundrie and her son were having difficulties in their relationship at the time, three months before Brian Laundrie, 23, killed Petito, 22, the court-filed statement said.

“I was trying to connect with Brian and repair our relationship as he was planning to leave home,” the statement said. “I had hoped this letter would remind him how much I loved him.”

The Petito family expressed doubt about Roberta Laundrie’s claimed timing of her letter, suggesting it was in fact written after Petito’s death.

A “reasonable inference” may be made from the letter that Roberta Laundrie knew of Petito’s demise when the Laundries issued a statement Sept. 14, 2021 — five days before her body was found — saying they hoped she would be reunited with her family, the Petito family said in a statement Thursday.

“We look forward to having a jury determine when the letter was written,” the statement reads.

A search for Brian Laundrie ended with his suicide and discovery of his body in a Florida nature preserve in October 2021.

The letter “may appear to be unfortunately worded, but that was never its intention,” the Laundries’ attorney, Matthew Luka, wrote in a March motion trying to persuade the judge not to allow the letter to be used in the case.

Along with the statements about disposing of a body and “a cake with a file in it,” Roberta Laundrie’s letter tells her son she would “get new guts” if he said he hated hers, and watch the skies for his return if he ever flew to the moon, Luka pointed out in an emailed statement Friday.

The statements were written before the van trip and “demonstrably not intended to be serious” because they “are not events that would realistically occur,” Luka said.

Roberta Laundrie added Friday in a statement through her attorney: “Although I chose words that I thought would be impactful with Brian given our relationship, the letter was in no way related to Gabby.”

Brian Laundrie and Petito were engaged and traveled by van across the U.S. in the summer of 2021, visiting scenic places in Colorado and Utah before heading north. They documented their trip in detail, in real time, on social media.

Police in Moab, Utah, pulled over the van after it was seen speeding and hitting a curb at the entrance to Arches National Park in August 2021. Petito told police she and Laundrie had been fighting. Officers separated the couple for the night and didn’t pursue charges.

Searchers coroner determined she’d been strangled a few weeks earlier.

___

Associated Press writer Terry Spencer in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.

National News

Associated Press

Georgia joins states seeking parental permission before children join social media

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia could join other states in requiring children younger than 16 to have their parents’ explicit permission to create social media accounts. Lawmakers on Friday gave final approval to Senate Bill 351, which also would ban social media use on school devices and internet services, require porn sites to verify users are […]

6 hours ago

Associated Press

Cranes arriving to start removing wreckage from deadly Baltimore bridge collapse

BALTIMORE (AP) — The largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard was being transported to Baltimore so crews on Friday can begin removing the wreckage of a collapsed highway bridge that has halted a search for four workers still missing days after the disaster and blocked the city’s vital port from operating. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore […]

7 hours ago

Associated Press

Georgia House approves new election rules that could impact 2024 presidential contest

ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia House of Representatives on Thursday approved new rules for challenging voters and qualifying for the state’s presidential ballot that could impact the 2024 presidential race in the battleground state. The House passed Senate Bill 189 by a vote of 101 to 73. It now goes to the state Senate for […]

7 hours ago

Associated Press

Ex-Caltrain employee and contractor charged with building secret homes with public funds

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A former employee of Caltrain, a mass transit system that connects Silicon Valley with San Francisco, and a former contractor for the transit agency allegedly used public funds to build two small apartments for themselves inside two train stations, authorities said Thursday. San Mateo County prosecutors charged Joseph Vincent Navarro, a […]

8 hours ago

Associated Press

Oregon city can’t limit church’s homeless meal services, federal judge rules

BROOKINGS, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that a southern Oregon city can’t limit a local church’s homeless meal services. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke found that an ordinance passed by the small city of Brookings, on the southern Oregon coast, violated the religious freedom rights of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, KGW reported. […]

8 hours ago

Associated Press

Baltimore bridge collapse puts the highly specialized role of ship’s pilot under the spotlight

The expert pilots who navigate massive ships in and out of Baltimore’s port must often maneuver with just 2 feet (0.6 meter) of clearance from the channel floor and memorize charts, currents and every other possible maritime variable. The highly specialized role — in which a pilot temporarily takes control of a ship from its […]

11 hours ago

Mother of man who killed Gabby Petito said in letter she would help son ‘dispose of a body’