‘Extremely frantic’: Brian Laundrie’s phone calls after Gabby Petito’s murder revealed
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.”
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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.
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“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.
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“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.
“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.”
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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.”
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“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.
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“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.
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