Days after Brian Laundrie confessed to strangling his girlfriend Gabby Petito to death on a cross-country trip, he exchanged text messages with a friend casually detailing the “fun” trip – but failed to mention the gruesome murder.
“The trip was good,” Laundrie wrote to her friend Ben on Sept. 4, 2021 — after she returned to Florida without Petito, but before she was reported missing to authorities by her family, according to newly revealed text messages reviewed by The Messenger.
“Me and Gab had fun. Tired now, want to sleep for a week,” he said.
“We make a lot of content,” Laundrie told Ben, referring to the couple’s YouTube travel channel. “It’s once in a lifetime.”
Petito, 22, and Laundrie, 23, were traveling across the country together in a van and filming their trip when he went missing in August 2021. On September 1, Laundrie returned to his family’s home in Florida, but without his girlfriend.
Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito began their ill-fated journey west in July 2021. Laundrie killed it in late August, 2021.Instagram
Laundrie strangled Petito to death, officials said. His body was found on September 19.
The Long Island native was reported missing on Sept. 11, and Laundrie was named a person of interest in the case. Petito’s strangled body was found in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park after an intensive search on September 19.
Authorities confirmed he was killed around August 28.
Dobi fled into the Florida wilderness before he could be caught. He was found dead in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on October 20 after a massive manhunt. An autopsy determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
He was found with a letter in which he confessed to killing Petito.
“I ended his life,” he said in the note, which was found by the FBI. “I thought it was mercy, that’s what he wanted, but now I see all the mistakes I made. I panicked. I was surprised.”
He claims he killed her to put her out of her misery after she was injured in the wilderness as an act of “mercy.”
Laundrie’s body was found in Florida on Oct. 20. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.instagram
Petito was crying and bleeding as he spoke to Utah police officers after he and Laundrie were pulled over near the entrance to Arches National Park.AP
“From the moment I made the decision, to take away his pain, I knew I couldn’t go on without him,” she wrote.
A few days before the murder, the couple was pulled over for speeding in Moab, Utah. Officers found Petito covered in blood and crying after an apparent fight. The police separated them for the night, but took no further action.
Petito’s family has sued the police department for allegedly treating Laundrie like a victim during the stop.
The Petito family is also suing Laundrie’s parents — Chris and Robert Laundrie — in civil court in Florida, claiming they knew their son killed their daughter but chose to remain silent during the investigation.
Earlier this month — and more than two years after Petito’s death — an attorney representing the Laundrie family reportedly made a settlement offer to Petito’s family ahead of a civil trial scheduled for next year. The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
