Brian Laundrie’s mother wrote him a letter promising to help him bury a body and escape from prison before he sets off on his fateful road trip with his fiancée Gabby Petito.
Roberta Laundrie claims she wrote it before the start of the June 2021 road trip the couple were on across the country that would end with Petito’s death two months later.
It has drawn fury from Petito’s parents, who say it is proof she helped her son plot to cover up their daughter’s brutal murder.
The undated letter, which Roberta asked her son to “burn after reading”, revealed that she had offered to bake her son a cake with a folder if he was sent to prison.
Petito, 22, was strangled by Brian in Wyoming and her remains were found in Grand Teton National Park on September 19 after her boyfriend killed her on or around August 28 before killing himself out of guilt .
Roberta Laundrie (pictured) claims she wrote her son Brian Laundrie a letter promising to help him bury a body ahead of his fateful Gabby Petito road trip
Petito, 22, was strangled by Laundrie in Wyoming while on a road trip around August 28, 2021. Her remains were found in Grand Teton National Park on September 19.
Roberta offered to help her son get rid of a corpse as proof of her love for him in the letter
She also said she would bake her son a cake with a lime in it if he was sent to prison
Roberta also offered to help her son get rid of a corpse as proof of her love for him.
A judge has yet to rule on the admissibility of the letter in a civil lawsuit filed by Petito’s family against the laundries for his death.
“I just want you to remember that I will always love you and I know you will always love me. You are my boy. Nothing can make me stop loving you, nothing will or can ever divide us ‘, Roberta wrote in the letter.
“No matter what we do, where we go or what we say, we will always love each other.”
“If you’re in jail, I’ll bake a cake with a lime in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I’ll bring you a shovel and garbage bags. The word “bring” has been crossed out in the sentence.
She added: “If you fly to the moon, I will watch the skies for your reentry. If you say you hate my guts, I’ll get new guts.
“Remember that love is a verb and not a noun. It’s not a thing, it’s not words, it’s actions. Look at people’s actions to find out if they don’t love you their words.
‘Therefore I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor ruling spirits, neither things present nor things to come, neither powers above nor powers below, nothing in any created world can separate our love.
“Neither hostile powers, nor messengers from heaven, nor monarchs of the earth. Nothing has the power to separate us…’
Roberta also wrote: ‘Romans 8:38 (extended version!) (Nothing can separate us: “neither hatred, nor hunger, nor homelessness, nor threats, nor even sin, nor the thinkable nor the ‘unthinkable cannot come between us.) Not time Not miles and miles and miles.
The letter was recently made public following a hearing in the civil lawsuit brought by the Petitos against the Laundries.
But Roberta claimed the letter was written before her son’s trip with Petito and her lawyer released a statement saying it was “in no way related to Gabby”.
“The letter to Brian was written before Gabby and Brian left my house for their trip. Previously, I submitted an affidavit to the court for very limited purposes, but that’s not all,” she said.
She asked Brian to burn the letter after reading it on the envelope
Roberta claimed the letter was written before her son’s trip with Petito and her lawyer released a statement saying it was “in no way related to Gabby”.
Roberta said in March that she had written to her son using “quirky” references to books they loved in a bid to mend their “strained” relationship.
“Now that the letter has been shared, I ask that you read it in its entirety and understand that the letter contains more phrases than those highlighted by Pat Reilly (Petitos’ attorney) for sensationalism and to bolster his case.”
“I really loved my son and just wanted to tell him how much he meant to me and how much I loved him. I’m sure people use phrases all the time to express to their loved ones the depth of their love.
“Although I chose words that I thought would impact Brian given our relationship, the letter was in no way related to Gabby.”
Petito was killed by her fiancé Brian in Wyoming while they were on a road trip in the summer of 2021.
Investigators determined that she died by manual strangulation and had been dead for three to four weeks and her death was ruled a homicide.
Brian killed Gabby after she injured herself on their trip and believed she wanted to die, according to her notebook obtained by authorities.
He later killed himself out of guilt and his skeletal remains were found in October 2021 in a Florida park following a massive manhunt when he disappeared while police were investigating the death by Petito.
He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a nature reserve near his parents’ house. His notebook was found with the suspicious letter from Roberta Laundrie.
Roberta said in March that she had written to her son using “quirky” references to books they loved in a bid to mend their “strained” relationship.
She claimed it had nothing to do with Gabby’s murder and said she wrote the letter months before Brian and Gabby left for their cross-country trip.
“Although I don’t know the exact date I wrote the letter, I do know that I wrote it and gave it to Brian before Brian and Gabby left Florida for New York, either June 2, 2021,” Roberta said.
In her statement to the court, Roberta admitted that her letter contained references that some would think relate to her son and Gabby, but she maintained that there was “no connection” between her letter and the deaths.
“Although I used words that appear to be related to Brian’s actions and his taking of Gabby’s life, I never imagined that the events that unfolded months later between Brian and Gabby would reflect the words of my letter.
Laundrie later killed himself out of guilt and his skeletal remains were found in October 2021 in a Florida park
Roberta and her husband Chris Laundrie at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park the morning authorities found the skeletal remains of their son
“The words of the letter could never have been a commentary on this tragic situation, as they were written so many months before.”
Lawyers for The Laundrie previously filed a motion to stop Gabby’s parents, Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt, from making the letter admissible as evidence in court.
The civil trial between the two families is due to begin in August.
The lawsuit alleges that Laundrie, his parents and their attorney knew Petit was dead at the time of a September 14, 2021 statement released to the media by Steve Bertlino – the family’s attorney.
In part, the statement read: “On behalf of the Laundrie family, we hope that the search for Miss Petito will be successful and that Miss Petito will be reunited with her family.”
It comes after Petito’s parents filed a civil suit against Laundries’ parents late last year and were awarded $3 million.
