Notebook Found Near Laundrie's Remains In FBI Custody; His Parents Want It Back: Report

NORTH PORT, FL — Brian Laundrie’s parents have asked the FBI for ownership of their late son’s notebook, which was found near his remains at a Sarasota County park in October, Brian Entin, a reporter for News Nation Now, tweeted Tuesday.

Authorities haven’t released the contents of the notebook since it was found.

The family’s attorney, Steven Bertolino, told Entin that the request “is part of a formal proceeding to administer Brian’s estate.”

His parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, filed a court petition Dec. 8 seeking access to their son’s estate. His assets are listed as $20,000 in Bank of America checking/savings accounts.

Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in the death of his fiancée, Gabby Petito, died in September after shooting himself in the head, authorities said.

Bertolino told Entin that Petito’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, has filed to obtain her daughter’s “belongings that are in the Laundrie home or in police custody.”

The attorney added, “Rick Stafford and I are trying to work this out cordially.”

Stafford is the lawyer for Petito’s family.

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The couple — Long Island, New York natives who had been living with Laundrie’s parents in North Port, Florida — were traveling throughout the Western United States in a van this summer, visiting national parks, when Petito disappeared at the end of August.

Her body was found weeks later near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. An autopsy concluded that she died of strangulation and that her death was a homicide.

Laundrie returned home alone to Florida in Petito's van Sept. 1 and was reported missing by his parents Sept. 17.

Authorities searched for Laundrie for more than a month. His skeletal remains, including a portion of his skull, were found Oct. 20 in the Carlton Reserve and the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Sarasota County, along with a notebook and other items that belonged to him, after more than a month of searching for him. The FBI used dental records to match the remains to Laundrie.

No cause of death could be determined after an Oct. 22 autopsy, and Laundrie's bones were sent to a forensic anthropologist for further examination.

The medical examiner's office ultimately determined that Laundrie died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.