Judge denies request to withhold letter from Brian Laundrie’s mom where she offers to help him ‘dispose of a body’
A Florida judge on Wednesday denied a request to withhold a “burn after reading” letter Brian Laundrie’s mother sent him, where she offers to help him break out of jail and “dispose of a body,” the latest development in the lawsuit related to the murder of Gabby Petito.
The parents of Petito, the 22-year-old woman whom Laundrie is believed to have murdered, are suing his family for emotional distress. On Wednesday, a judge in Sarasota County, Florida, denied a motion by the Laundries to withhold a letter Roberta Laundrie sent her son.
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Roberta Laundrie had previously summarized the letter, which she says was sent before Petito was missing.
But the letter, which was made public by the Petitos, and likely shared to media by the Laundries as well, according to Fox News, shows a more sinister tone than what was described in the affidavit.
“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 bring show up with a shovel and garbage bags,” she writes. “If you fly to the moon, I will be watching the skies for your re-entry. If you say you hate my guts, I’ll get new guts.”
The letter was posted online by several journalists, including Fox News reporter Michael Ruiz. It’s undated, and titled “burn after reading,” which Roberta Laundrie says was an inside joke between her and Brian.
“... I am certain that neither death nor life, nor angels nor the ruling spirits nor things present nor things to come, nor powers from above nor powers from below, nothing in the entire created world can separate our love,” the letter reads.
Petito’s remains were found in September 2021 near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, weeks after she was declared missing. Her cause of death was ruled manual strangulation. Laundrie, her fiance, was later found dead by suicide. In a notebook found near his remains, he admitted to killing Petito.
The couple was on a cross-country road trip that included stops in Utah, where the couple was confronted by Moab Police outside of Arches National Park over a domestic incident. Petito’s parents are also suing the Moab Police Department over how they handled the call.
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The letter is central to the Petitos’ claim that the Laundries knew about Petito’s death before her remains were discovered — they say the letter was written after her death, according to the Wednesday proceeding which was streamed by “Law & Crime.”
But the Laundries say the letter was written before the couple left on their road trip.
“I never would have fathomed the events that unfolded months later between Brian and Gabby would reflect the words in my letter,” Roberta Laundrie wrote in an affidavit in March.
