NASHVILLE– Gabby Petito’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, shocked a packed house Friday when she said she had forgiven Brian Laundrie, her daughter’s boyfriend and alleged murderer.
“I speak for myself here when I say Brian, I forgive you,” she said. “I needed to break free from the chains of anger and bitterness, and I refuse to let your despicable act define the rest of my life.”
But she took her anger out on Laundrie’s mother, Roberta.
“You don’t deserve forgiveness,” she said. “You deserve to be forgotten.”
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Schmidt, who never got the chance to face his daughter’s killer in court because he ran into a swamp and killed himself after police launched a missing person investigation , read a victim’s impact statement to a crowd at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee.
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“As for you, Roberta, and I calling out to you individually because you are obviously the mastermind who broke your family and mine with your evil ways, I see no empathy in your eyes,” Schmidt said. “No remorse in your heart and no desire to take responsibility for your actions.”
Roberta Laundrie drove to her civil trial deposition in the same car her son fled the night he killed himself rather than cooperate with law enforcement in an attempt to find Petito, whose remains were only found a few days later.
Both of Laundrie’s parents admitted in their depositions that they were concerned about Petito’s well-being after speaking with him in irregular phone calls shortly after his murder.
Petito’s parents claimed Laundries knew about the murder and tried to cover it up and help their son escape justice.
The parties settled their lawsuit earlier this year.
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Schmidt also mourned his daughter as a “shining light” extinguished too soon, a talented artist and tenacious free spirit.
“I implore you all to live by these simple words straight from Gabby: ‘Just be a kinder person,'” she concluded.
Tara Petito, Gabby’s mother-in-law, was also among the speakers. She denounced Laundrie’s behavior after the murder.
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He drove home from Wyoming, where he abandoned Petito’s remains, and went camping with his parents, sister and children, eating s’mores around a campfire as the family of the victim struggled to piece together what had happened and where she was.
“Only someone with true evil in their heart would do such a thing,” she said.
Although Laundrie’s parents denied knowledge of the crime, they had sent a $25,000 retainer to a prominent Wyoming defense attorney.
When their son’s remains were discovered in a park near their home in October 2021, he was the only suspect in Petito’s murder. The FBI also recovered a handwritten confession kept in a waterproof bag.
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Petito’s disappearance in late summer 2021 attracted international attention. She had chronicled a cross-country road trip on social media as she passed through national parks with Laundrie.
His posts stopped shortly after a domestic violence incident in Utah, in which police were called but no one was arrested.
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Petito’s family established a charity in her honor, the Gabby Petito Foundation, to combat domestic violence and advocate for missing people across the country.
They have pushed for federal legislation, some of which passed last year with bipartisan support, as well as lethality assessment laws in Florida, Utah and New York.
The foundation donated $100,000 to the National Domestic Violence Hotline last year.
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If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233 (SAFE).
Original article source: Gabby Petito’s mother forgives killer Brian Laundrie but denounces ‘evil’ Roberta: ‘You deserve to be forgotten’
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