Content advisory: This article contains references to intimate partner violence and homicide. Please take care while reading.
In Oct. 2021, Brian Laundrie was found dead from suicide in Carlton Nature Reserve near Sarasota, Florida. Along with Laundrie’s remains, authorities recovered a notebook in which Laundrie admitted he killed his fiancée, Gabby Petito. Petito’s remains had already been found at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Laundrie and Petito were aspiring vanlife influencers on a cross-country trip when Petito disappeared in August of that year, and was later found dead. Meanwhile, Laundrie returned home to Florida, and was immediately declared a person of interest in the case. Laundrie was the subject of suspicion because police were called over an altercation between Petito and Laundrie that witnesses thought might be a domestic violence situation.
Eventually, Laundrie also vanished and was later found dead at the Carlton Reserve. The search for Petito, her body’s discovery, and Laundrie’s subsequent suicide, along with a written confession, captured headlines worldwide.
Petito was injured, Laundrie wrote
Brian Laundrie’s remains were found submerged in water. However, the notebook containing his written confession and providing details about how Gabby Petitio died was recovered inside a plastic bag, allowing passages to be transcribed.
In the notebook, Laundrie says the couple rushed back to their car in the dark at Grand Teton when he heard a splash and scream. Laundrie wrote,
“I could barely see. I couldn’t find her for a moment, shouted her name. I found her breathing heavily, gasping [illegible.] She was freezing cold. [Illegible] the blazing hot national parks in Utah … The temperature had dropped to freezing and she was soaking wet. I carried her as far as I could from the stream toward the car, stumbling, exhausted in shock, when my [illegible] and knew I couldn’t safely carry her.”
via WFLA
Laundrie said he started a fire and “spooned” Petito near the heat, but she was thin and had been freezing too long. He realized he should have started a fire much sooner, but he wanted Petito “out of the cold back to the car. From where I started the fire I had no idea how far the car might be, only knew it was across the creek,” he added.
Laundrie said Petito begged him to end her pain
In the notebook recovered after he died, Brian Laundrie said Gabby Petito begged him to end her life and that he thought he was being merciful. She had a bump on her forehead, growing in size. Her feet and wrists hurt, and she was “shaking violently,” Laundrie claimed, adding,
“When I pulled Gabby out of the water, she couldn’t tell me what hurt. She had a small [bump] on her forehead that [eventually] got larger. Her feet hurt, her [wrist] hurt but she was freezing, shaking violently. While carrying her she continually made sounds of pain. Laying next to her she said little, [lapsing] between violent shakes, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain. She would fall asleep and I would shake her awake, fearing she shouldn’t close her eyes if she had a concussion.”
via WFLA
Laundrie then said he ended Petito’s life, writing,
“I don’t know the extend of Gabby’s injuries, only that she was in extreme pain … I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted but I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked, I was in shock. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldn’t go on without her.”
via WFLA
Laundrie hoped to be torn apart by animals
In his writings, Brian Laundrie mentioned Gabby Petito’s family and apologized. “I have killed myself by this creek in the hopes that animals may tear me apart. That it may make some of her family happy … Please pick up all of my things. Gabby hated people who litter,” he wrote.
When the contents of Laundrie’s notebook were revealed, criminal profiler and psychotherapist John Kelly spoke with Fox News about his version of events. Laundrie “tip-toed” around his confession and seemed intent on presenting what happened to Petito as a mercy killing, which Kelly had a hard time believing. Kelly said,
“He found her breathing heavily and gasping for breath, so he decided to choke her out? An ‘unexpected tragedy’ is when you get in a car accident or you slip and fall and God forbid someone gets hurt really bad.”
via Fox News
Meanwhile, private investigator Jason Jensen told Fox News, “He writes this farcical tale about her falling down and getting injured while crossing Spread Creek and describes how he couldn’t leave her behind.” Laundrie was trying to rewrite history, Jensen added.
