Brian Laundrie Called Parents 20 Times In 2 Days After Killing Gabby Petito: Report

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — Killer Brian Laundrie made a flurry of phone calls — up to 20 times in two days — to his parents in Florida after he strangled his fiancée, Gabby Petito, to death at a Wyoming campground.

He started with a 55-minute phone call on Aug. 29, 2021, two days after Petito was last seen alive, and the calls, mostly between Laundrie and his mother, continued the next day, according to The Daily Mail. During these frantic calls, the 23-year-old told his parents that Petito was “gone” and he needed a lawyer.

Prior to this, he’d only called his parents five times during the two months he and Petito were on the road, traveling from their Florida home to national parks in the western United States, including Utah and Wyoming.

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The family retained attorney Steve Bertolino, based in Long Island, New York, not long after these conversations.

The young couple, aspiring vloggers originally from New York, lived with Laundrie’s parents in North Port, Florida, before embarking on their “van life” journey during the summer of 2021.

After strangling her, Laundrie left her body at a campsite in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, where it was found nearly a month later on Sept. 19, 2021.

Laundrie returned in her van to his parents' house in Florida, where the couple had been living before embarking on their road trip. Multiple law enforcement agencies across the country undertook a massive investigation into her disappearance, while Laundrie refused to speak with them.

He later took his own life, shooting himself in the head in a Sarasota County park in September of that year.

His remains and a handwritten confession to killing Petito were found in October 2021.He left his confession in his notebook, claiming he strangled her out of mercy after she fell into a ravine and was injured.

Petito’s parents have since filed a civil lawsuit against Laundrie’s parents and Bertolino for intentional infliction of emotional distress. They claim the Laundries and their attorney knew that their daughter was dead and where her body was during a national search for her.

In depositions, Laundrie’s father, Christopher Laundrie, didn’t acknowledge that by telling them she was “gone” that meant she was dead, the Petito family attorney Pat Reilly told the Daily Mail.

During depositions in a Sarasota County court, Christopher said that he thought his son was referring to “something to the effect of, well, there were times that Gabby would leave and go away for a couple days to meet with her friends or she’d just leave for a couple hours when she was living with us,” the lawyer said.

Reilly added, “They refused to acknowledge that that meant Gabby was dead, which flies in the face of logic. If your son calls and he’s frantic and he says, ‘She’s gone, I need a lawyer.’ What other explanation of ‘gone’ could there be?”

Court records show that the case is moving into mediation with a meeting between both sides set for Feb. 21.