A Florida court filing on May 5 claims that Brian Laundrie’s mother wrote a letter with an offer to bake a cake with a shiv inside, to aid him in the event that he was sent to jail for Gabby Petito’s murder.
The filing, submitted to the Sarasota County Circuit Court by attorney Pat Reilly, argued for the release of the “burn after reading” letter written by Roberta Laundrie to her son Brian, to prove that she knew of Petito’s murder in August 2021.
Reilly currently represents Gabby’s parents, Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt, in their lawsuit against the Laundries. The lawsuit alleges that Brian’s parents knew of Gabby’s death but instead of helping find her, they made plans to assist Brian in escaping culpability.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Gabby was found deceased in Wyoming on September 19, 2021, at the Grand Teton National Park, while on a cross-country road trip with Brian Laundrie. Her case was labeled a homicide, with Brian Laundrie being the sole suspect.
“A reasonable inference is that the letter was written at a time when Gabrielle Petito was as yet unburied, and Brian Laundrie could go to jail for the crime of murder,” the court filing read, according to Fox News Digital.
“If the jury were to find that letter was written after Gabrielle Petito’s murder, if is further proof that the Laundries and Bertolino were aware that she was deceased at the time the statements in question were issued.”
According to Reilly, the FBI collected the letter as evidence and returned it to the Laundries earlier this year.
Petito, Laundrie Motion by Leigh Egan
In March, Roberta Laundrie wrote a motion to the court acknowledging the existence of the letter, but she maintained that it had no connection to Gabby. The letter was written several months before Gabby and Brian embarked on their cross-country trip, she said.
“Although I do not 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 which was on June 2, 2021,” Roberta Laundrie said, according to court documents.
READ MORE: Brian Laundrie’s Mother Explains ‘Burn After Reading’ Reference She Wrote in Cryptic Letter to Son
Reilly said that it should be up to a jury to determine when the letter was written.
“If the jury were to find that the letter was written after Gabrielle Petito’s murder, it is further proof that the Laundries and Bertolino were aware that she was deceased at the time the statements in question were issued,” Reilly said.
“If it was not written at a time when Roberta Laundrie knew that her son had murdered Gabrielle Petito, it is at best an odd letter for a mother to write a son, and Roberta Laundrie’s explanation for writing it is frankly unbelievable.”
In late October 2021, Brian Laundrie’s partial skull was discovered at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Florida. The following month, the medical examiner in Sarasota County determined he died from a single gunshot wound to the head, self-inflicted.
Laundrie reportedly confessed to killing Petito in a notebook found near his partial remains.
The lawsuit claims that Gabby was found with blunt force trauma to her head and neck, although her cause of death was listed as strangulation. The Laundries are also accused of making plans to get their son out of the country while ignoring desperate calls and messages from Gabby’s family.
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