It’s been over five years since aspiring American YouTuber Gabby Petito was killed by her fiancé, Brian Laundrie.
The couple had not long embarked on a cross-country road trip from New York to California, which Gabby, 22, had been documenting for her growing audience online. Her life was tragically cut short when she was murdered in August 2021.
Shortly after Gabby’s death — which authorities later determined was caused by manual strangulation and blunt-force trauma
Brian’s remains were found in a Florida wilderness park in late October 2021, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and a notebook confessing to Gabby’s murder. His death was officially ruled a suicide.
But while Brian never lived to face up to his crimes, his parents did. Roberta and Christopher Laundrie have faced years of allegations that they helped protect their son and stayed quiet as authorities searched for Gabby.
According to the Daily Mail, the couple now live a life as ‘pariahs’ in Florida, where they have reportedly been shunned by their local community.
On August 29, 2021, Brian frantically called his parents to tell them that Gabby was ‘gone’ and that he needed a lawyer.
The Laundries reportedly contacted attorney Steven Bertolino after the call, who then retained a defense lawyer for their son.
As search efforts for Gabby began, the Laundries initially released statements expressing hope that their daughter-in-law would be found. However, Gabby’s parents later claimed that the Laundries already knew she was dead.
The Laundries disputed this, claiming they took Brian’s words of ‘gone’ to mean Gabby had gone missing.
Days after Brian reportedly drove Gabby’s van back home to Florida and used her credit card — and while she was still classed as missing — the Laundries and other relatives were said to have taken their son on a camping trip to Fort De Soto Park near St. Petersburg.
Later, it was reported that Gabby’s parents (Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt) sued Christopher and Roberta, accusing them of knowing about the murder.
The lawsuit alleged that the Laundries had inflicted emotional distress on the Petito family by staying silent and offering false hope.
In February 2024, three years after Gabby’s death, both families reached a confidential settlement through mediation. This avoided a trial and further legal expenses.
The Daily Mail recently took a trip to Roberta and Christopher’s neighborhood, where residents claimed the couple are excluded from gatherings, are ignored on the street, and are even victims of ‘dirty diapers and McDonald’s bags just tossed on their lawn’.
‘I let the dog s*** speak for itself,’ one person told the outlet just outside the Laundrie home.
‘It’s my little way of remembering Gabby,’ she said. ‘That’s what they deserve.’
Another resident also said that they have seen ‘a lot of stuff thrown on their lawn,’ even though they know it’s ‘petty and immature’.
‘I don’t even know if they know that it’s intentional or not. They must know. No one else has that problem,’ they added.
Meanwhile, someone else told the Daily Mail: ‘I think about Gabby every time I walk past the house. I get angry all over again. This is a nice neighborhood, full of good people. They just don’t fit in.’
Following the discovery of Brian’s body in 2021, authorities also found a handwritten letter from Roberta which said: ‘Burn after reading.’
In the note, it was reported that Roberta said she would bring a shovel and garbage bags if Brian needed help disposing of a body and that she would help him escape from prison.
However, Roberta has always insisted that she wrote the letter before Brian and Gabby left on their road trip, and that it was not connected to the murder.
Roberta called it a ‘jokey, stupid letter’ that was meant to be filled with humor, before admitting that it looked incriminating after Brian’s crimes were exposed.
Neither Roberta nor Christopher have ever faced charges in connection with Gabby’s death or the investigation.
Speaking about the Laundries allegedly helping Brian after the murders, another neighbor told the publication: ‘That’s where they lost me. I get trying to protect your son, really I do. I’d do anything for my kids. But not at the expense of someone else’s kid. That’s just sociopathic.’
The resident continued: ‘If I see them, I usually just look away. I think they’re a******* for what they did. I don’t need to be their friend. Let’s just say they’re not coming to any block parties anytime soon.’
Aside from their neighbors, Gabby’s family has also been unable to forgive Brian’s parents — despite Nicole previously saying she had forgiven Brian for murdering her daughter.
The grieving mother sent a message to Roberta and Christopher at CrimeCon in 2024: ‘You do not deserve forgiveness. You deserve to be forgotten.’