Where Are Brian Laundrie’s Parents Now? Here’s Everything That’s Happened Since 2021 – Forbes
American Murder: Gabby Petito. (L to R) Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie in American Murder: Gabby … [+] Petito. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025Brian Laundrie’s parents became widely known during the disappearance and murder of their son’s fiancée, Gabby Petito. Their actions during the investigation—including remaining silent as authorities searched for Petito—drew intense scrutiny from both law enforcement and the media.With the case revisited in Netflix’s new three-part docuseries, American Murder: Gabby Petito, viewers may be wondering where the Laundries are today and what they have said in the years since the tragedy.Brian met Petito while attending Bayport-Blue Point High School in Long Island, New York. In the summer of 2021, the couple embarked on a cross-country road trip to explore national parks across the U.S. Petito had purchased a 2012 Ford Transit van, which they remodeled for the journey. As an aspiring travel vlogger, she planned to document their adventures through her YouTube channel, Nomadic Statik, and her Instagram account.Petito was reported missing in September 2021 by her mother, Nichole Schmidt, after receiving a suspicious text message from Gabby and losing contact with her for several days. When police arrived at the Laundrie home in North Port, Florida, they discovered that Brian had returned with Gabby’s van—but she was nowhere to be found.As authorities searched for Gabby, Brian and his parents claimed they didn’t know her whereabouts and refused to cooperate with police, directing all questions to their lawyer. On Sept. 17, Brian was reported missing—just two days before Gabby’s body was discovered in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest. A medical examiner later ruled her death a homicide by strangulation, estimating that she had died three to four weeks before her remains were found.After weeks of searching Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, authorities discovered Brian Laundrie’s skeletal remains along with personal belongings, including a backpack and a notebook. His parents were present when the remains were found, having joined law enforcement in the search that day. A forensic anthropologist later determined that Brian died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.Brian’s parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, were living in North Port, Florida, when Brian and Gabby moved in with them. Before that, they had resided in Long Island and several towns in the tri-state area, including Woodhaven, Bayport, Bohemia, Maspeth, Forest Hills, and Sayville, according to The Independent.While in North Port, Chris and Roberta founded Juicer Services Inc., a company that sells and services commercial juicing equipment. Chris is the president, while Roberta serves as vice president. The business is currently listed as “permanently closed” on Google.The Laundries’ daughter, Cassie Laundrie, was also living in Florida when Gabby and Brian resided there. In the Netflix series, Petito’s friend Rose Davis recalled Gabby struggling to get along with Brian’s family, particularly with Brian’s mother, Roberta.American Murder: Gabby Petito. (L to R) Gabby Petito and Roberta Laundrie in American Murder: Gabby … [+] Petito. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025In one instance, as show in the Netflix docuseries, Petito and her mother exchanged messages after discovering that Gabby’s address had been changed back to her parents’ home in New York—something Gabby suspected was Roberta’s doing.In the middle of their #vanlife road trip, Laundrie returned to Florida on Sept. 1, driving Petito’s van—but without Petito. When her family reported her missing on Sept. 11, his parents refused to provide any information to the police, aside from the contact details of their attorney, Steve Bertolino. Then, after Brian was reported missing days later, their lawyer told People that his parents had no knowledge of his whereabouts.”They are concerned about Brian and hope the FBI can locate him. The speculation by the public and some in the press that the parents assisted Brian in leaving the family home or in avoiding arrest on a warrant that was issued after Brian had already been missing for several days is just wrong,” the lawyer said in a statement.Brian’s remains were discovered on the same day the Laundries’ joined the search effort. At the time, their attorney said that the discovery occurred after Brian’s parents directed FBI agents and local police to an area where “some articles belonging to Brian were found.”American Murder: Gabby Petito. Brian Laundrie in American Murder: Gabby Petito. Cr. Courtesy of … [+] Netflix © 2025In the two days after Gabby was last seen alive, Brian called his parents up to 20 times, as revealed in court depositions from November 2023. He first contacted them around 4 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2021, just days after Petito’s last conversation with her mother, per call records.Another call took place at 9:20 p.m. and lasted 22 minutes, followed by a “flurry” of calls between that night and the next day, August 30, according to Petito family attorney Pat Reilly. Most of the calls were between Brian and his mother, Roberta, Reilly told DailyMail.com.During one of the calls, Laundrie told his parents that Gabby was “gone” and that he needed a lawyer. “Brian told Christopher, ‘Gabby’s gone, I need a lawyer.’ And he was frantic in Christopher’s words,” Reilly told the site. “They refused to acknowledge that that meant Gabby was dead, which flies in the face of logic. If your son calls and he’s frantic and he says she’s gone, I need a lawyer. What other explanation of ‘gone’ could there be?”However, in his deposition, Christopher downplayed the implication that “gone” meant dead, stating, “something to the effect of, well, there were times that Gabby would leave and go away for a couple of days to meet with her friends or she’d just leave for a couple of hours when she was living with us,” Reilly added.American Murder: Gabby Petito also included excerpts from a letter Roberta Laundrie wrote to her son. The letter, found in Brian’s backpack near where his remains were discovered, was inside an envelope labeled “burn after reading.” In it, Roberta stated she would help him “dispose of a body” or “bake a cake with a file in it” to help him in jail.“I just want you to remember 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 could ever divide us. No matter what we do, or where we go or what we say- we will always Love each other,” Roberta wrote in the letter.“If you’re in jail I will bake a cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body I will bring show up with a shovel and garbage bags,” it says, with a cross out over the word bring. “If you fly to the moon, I will be watching the skies for your re-entry. If you say you hate my guts, I’ll get new guts.”Roberta claimed that she wrote the letter before her son’s trip with Petito, and one of her attorneys released a statement saying it was “in no way related to Gabby.” However, Petito’s family contested that claim during a 2023 hearing, arguing that the letter was relevant to their lawsuit against Brian’s parents.American Murder: Gabby Petito. (L to R) Jim Schmidt and Nichole Schmidt in American Murder: Gabby … [+] Petito. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025In March 2022, Gabby’s parents, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, filed a civil lawsuit claiming that Brian Laundrie’s parents assisted their son in covering up Gabby’s murder and planned to help him flee the country.The Petitos originally sought at least $100,000 in damages for the mental anguish they endured due to the Laundries’ alleged deception. According to the lawsuit, obtained by WFLA, “It is believed, and therefore averred that … Brian Laundrie advised his parents, Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie, that he had murdered Gabrielle Petito.” The filing also stated that “On that same date, Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie spoke with Attorney Steve Bertolino and sent him a retainer on Sept. 2, 2021.”In May 2022, the Petitos amended their lawsuit, seeking at least $300,000 in damages and claiming that Brian’s parents not only knew about Gabby’s murder but were also aware of the location of her body during the missing persons investigation.”Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie exhibited extreme and outrageous conduct which constitutes behavior, under the circumstances, which goes beyond all possible bounds of decency and is regarded as shocking, atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” according to the filing, obtained by People.During depositions for the civil trial between the two families in February 2024, Chris and Roberta testified under oath for the first time about Gabby’s murder. According to court transcripts obtained by FOX 13, Christopher admitted that Brian called him multiple times in late August and frantically said, “Gabby’s gone.”Christopher and Roberta Laundrie have largely stayed out of the public eye in the years since Gabby’s murder. In February 2024, the families reached a settlement in the emotional distress civil lawsuit, just months before the case was set to go to trial.”Christopher and Roberta Laundrie and I participated in mediation with the Petito family and the civil lawsuit has now been resolved. The terms of the resolution are confidential, and we look forward to putting this matter behind us,” Bertolino said in a statement at the time.American Murder: Gabby Petito. (L to R) Brian Laundrie and Cassie Laundrie in American Murder: Gabby … [+] Petito. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025As for Brian’s sister, Cassie, an Instagram account that appears to belong to her frequently posts about grief and suicide prevention awareness. While it’s not confirmed to be hers, the account shared on Feb. 17 that she has been out of contact with her parents for “almost two years.”On Sept. 13, 2023, a Facebook post, screenshotted and posted by the same Instagram profile under Cassie’s name, reads: “I miss and think about my brother every day. Today marks one year I’ve been without him but it’s worse than that [and] not for Facebook. I just want to remind my friends here that they are loved always and no matter what you’re going through, life is beautiful even in the pain.”American Murder: Gabby Petito is now streaming on Netflix. Watch the official trailer below.
