FIRST ON FOX: When Florida police visited Brian Laundrie’s home in 2021 after his fiancée Gabby Petito went missing across the country, his parents dodged their questions before officers eventually drove off in their truck — and more questions than answers, newly released body camera video shows.
“I'm not talking to anybody,” Laundrie's father, Christopher Laundrie, tells a North Port police officer after answering the door in a sleeveless shirt as his wife, Roberta, looks over his shoulder.
The officer, who has a New York detective on the phone who was looking for Petito, asks, “Don't you want to talk to us?”
GABBY PETITO'S PARENTS SETTLE WITH THE LAUNDRIE FAMILY AND ATTORNEY STEVE BERTOLINO IN A LAWSUIT IN FLORIDA
VIDEO: Florida police body camera shows Brian Laundrie's parents on the day Gabby Petito was reported missing
“No,” Christopher Laundrie replies, shaking his head.
The officer explains that he has a detective on the phone and asks when the parents last saw their son or Petito.
“Well, Brian is here and that's all we're saying,” his father replies. “We have a lawyer… That's all I want to say.”
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North Port police recorded the encounter on Sept. 11, 2021, the day Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, reported her missing in her hometown of New York. The video was recently made public through public records requests.
“This nightmare never ends,” Schmidt told Fox News Digital on Wednesday, just over three years after her daughter's remains were found at a campsite north of Jackson, Wyoming. Petito had last been seen alive at a grocery store in the town on Aug. 28, 2021.
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Christopher and Roberta Laundrie answer the door of their home after police knocked on the door on September 11, 2021, looking for missing Gabby Petito. Her son had returned home to North Port, Florida, without her after the FBI claimed he had murdered her at a campground north of Jackson, Wyoming, two weeks earlier. (North Port Police Department)
After authorities said Laundrie beat and strangled Petito, he dumped her body in the Bridger-Teton National Forest and drove to his parents' home in North Port, using her truck and debit card.
“Is this your vehicle, your truck?” the officer asked Laundrie's parents, pointing to their white Ford parked in the driveway.
“It's both of us,” Christopher Laundrie replied.
Gabby Petito's white Ford pickup truck is pictured in the driveway of the Laundrie family home in North Port, Florida, on Sept. 11, 2021, the day she was reported missing and weeks after she was last seen alive in Wyoming. Her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, later committed suicide and the FBI identified him as the sole suspect in her death. (North Port Police Department)
The officer returned to his patrol vehicle and put the Suffolk County detective on speakerphone as they discussed what to do and she revealed that Petito had not been in contact with his parents since August 27.
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Gabby Petito was reported missing in September 2021, about two weeks after her ex-fiancé Brian Laundrie is believed to have killed her and dumped her body at a campsite in Wyoming. (@petitojoseph/Instagram)
“His sister told me another story: he left her there and flew home, and yet you see the truck in the driveway of his house and they don't say where it is,” she says. She notes that the vehicle is registered in Petito's name and says that his family considers it theirs.
By then, Petito's phone had already been switched off for 10 days.
Brian Laundrie, as seen in body camera footage released by the Moab Police Department in Utah. (Moab Police Department)
“I don't know if that van is a crime scene,” the detective says.
A North Port sergeant later came to the door and tried to get the Laundries to help reassure Petito's parents that he was OK. They refused and said their son wouldn't talk to investigators either. She told them the van was registered only to her, that it shouldn't be there and that police would tow it.
“If that's what you say you have to do, you have to do it,” the father replies. “I'm not talking to you anymore right now.”
North Port police eventually towed Petito's truck from the Laundrie driveway to examine it for evidence. (North Port Police Department)
The family's attorney, Steve Bertolino, previously told Fox News Digital that he advised them to invoke their constitutional right to remain silent while the investigation unfolded.
Brian Laundrie himself also refused to talk to police and eventually slipped away and shot himself at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, about 10 minutes away, where his remains went undiscovered for weeks until flood waters receded.
GABBY PETITO'S MOM AND STEPMOM SEND A NOT-SO-SUBTLE MESSAGE TO ROBERTA LAUNDRIE
Fox News Digital was present when the parents discovered a waterproof bag at the scene, which they handed over to police.
The FBI eventually revealed that it contained a handwritten confession as well as personal effects belonging to Laundrie and Peitito.
A North Port detective informs Chris and Roberta Laundrie that human remains were discovered during a search for their son at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on October 20, 2021. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
“I ended her life,” reads the note, retrieved on October 20, 2021. “I thought it was a show of mercy, which was what she wanted, but now I see all the mistakes I made. I panicked. I was in shock.”
He claimed he did this after she was injured in a fall.
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The murder inspired Petito's parents to found a nonprofit foundation in her honor, helping other families of missing people and advocating against domestic violence.
Gabby Petito's parents, Joseph Petito, left, and Nichole Schmidt, center, with their attorney, Patrick Reilly, right, listen to arguments from an attorney for Brian Laundrie's parents in court in Sarasota County, Florida, on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. The parties ultimately reached an out-of-court settlement. (Mike Lang/USA TODAY NETWORK)
They have pushed for federal laws, some of which became law with bipartisan support, as well as lethality assessment laws in Florida, Utah and New York designed to give police grounds and authority to separate victims from their abusers.
The foundation donated $100,000 to the National Domestic Violence Hotline last year.
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This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233 (SAFE).
