‘Pure Evil’: Petito, Laundrie Parents Meet Face To Face In Court

VENICE, FL — For the first time since Gabby Petito’s murder two years ago, her parents and the parents of her fiancé — and self-confessed killer — Brian Laundrie came face to face earlier this week.

Christopher Laundrie and the family’s attorney, Steven Bertolino, were deposed in a Venice courtroom Tuesday, according to multiple reports. The deposition of Laundrie’s mother, Roberta Laundrie, took place Wednesday.

In addition to the Laundries and Bertolino, Petito’s father, Joseph Petito, and attorneys for both sides of the civil lawsuit attended the depositions in person, WFLA reported. Her mother, Nichole Schmidt, attended virtually over Zoom.

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.

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• 'I Ended Her Life': Laundrie Confessed In Notebook To Killing Petito
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“We learned a lot in the last two days that we didn’t know before,” Pat Reilly, attorney for the Petito family, told Fox 8.

Her parents described listening to the testimony as “gut-wrenching,” reports said. Joseph Petito also said the Laundries never looked in his direction.

“It was extremely hurtful to listen to someone that has no remorse and no compassion for the girl they would call their daughter-in-law,” Schmidt said Tuesday, according to NBC 6 South Florida.

In a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Joseph Petito called attending the hearings "emotional torment."

Following Roberta Laundrie’s deposition Wednesday, Schmidt said, “There is pure evil in this world. I have witnessed it firsthand.”

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

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 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.