Brian Laundrie Texted 'Gab And I Had Fun' Days After Her Death

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — Days after strangling his fiancée, Gabby Petito, to death at a Wyoming campsite, Brian Laundrie texted a friend about their “fun” cross-country trip.

Laundrie, 23, had already returned to Florida alone when he texted his friend, Ben, on Sept. 4. At that point, Petito, 22, hadn’t been reported missing.

"Trip was good," he wrote in a text viewed by The Messenger. "Gab and I had fun. Tired now, gonna sleep for a week."

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The couple, aspiring travel vloggers, spent the summer of 2021 traveling together, visiting national parks throughout the western United States in Petito’s white van.

“We made a lot of content,” Laundrie texted his friend. “It was once in a lifetime.”

Petito was last seen alive in August 2021. Her mother, Nichole Schmidt, reported her missing Sept. 11, 2021.

After strangling her, Laundrie left her body at a campsite in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, where it was found nearly a month later.

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.

Laundrie 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 remains were found Sept. 19, 2021.

Petito’s parents have filed a civil lawsuit against Laundrie’s parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, and their attorney, Steven Bertolino, for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Her parents, Nichole Schmidt and Joseph Petito, claim the Laundries and Bertolino knew that their daughter was dead and where her body was during a national search for her.

The lawsuit is set to go to trial in Sarasota County next summer, though Bertolino has proposed a settlement with Petito’s family.