Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - GABBY PETITO FAMILY: LAUNDRIES KNEW OUR GIRL WAS DEAD.

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Gabby Petito's parents have long believed that Chris and Roberta Laundrie knew Gabby was dead long before her body was found. In trying to prove it, Gabby's mother, Nichole Schmidt, and father, Joe Petito, have sued the Laundries and their attorney Steve Bertolino for intentional infliction of emotional distress. They are claiming that the trio was aware that Gabby Petito was dead but chose to do nothing.   In depositions for the upcoming civil trial, we learn two days after Brian Laundrie is believed to have killed Gabby Petito, he makes a frantic call to his parents. In the August 29, 2021, call, Laundrie tells his parents that Gabby is "gone" and he needs a lawyer. According to Petitio family attorney Pat Reilly, Chris and Roberta Laundrie did not admit to knowing Gabby was killed, only that they were told by Brian that she was "gone."  A retainer was sent to attorney Steve Bertolino six days later. Reilly, however, believes the family was told more than they are now admitting. Reilly has filed a motion to force Bertolino into revealing what Brian Laundrie told him.   Joining Nancy Grace Today: Patrick Reilly -  Attorney for Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt; Snyder and Reilly Trial Lawyers Caryn Stark – NYC Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and Consultant; Twitter: @carynpsych, Instagram: carynpsych, and FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice Bill Garcia – Private Investigator: “Bill Garcia Investigative Services;'” Part of Search Team for Sherri Papini JoScott Morgan – Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University; Author, “Blood Beneath My Feet;” Host: “Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;” Twitter: @JoScottForensic   Melissa Ratliff - ABC7 Sarasota's Digital Content Manager & Journalist; TikTok: @ABC7MySuncoast, Facebook: MelissaontheSuncoast  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Is it real? According to sources, the FBI finally reveals that Brian Laundrie admitted to murdering Gabby Petito in a notebook. And not only that, a bombshell. Did Brian Laundrie tell his parents that Gabby was dead. And yet they continued to pretend to Gabby Petito's family that they didn't know where she was. Not answering phone calls, not telling them the truth. While her body decomposed and dispersed camping out in the wilderness. Is this real? Well, according to the Petito family

and their lawyers, it's very real. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories and on Sirius XM 111. Let's just take it back to the beginning when Gabby Petito was beaten by Brian Laundrie. And there were multiple witnesses that saw it happening literally on Main Street. was deemed the aggressor, was let go by Moab police, and ends up dead and decomposing. I want you to hear, let's just start with the Moab police department body cam footage. I was just apologizing, but I guess I said it in a mean tone, and he got really frustrated footage major more upset didn't help calm you major more upset yeah then what happened so I'm here and come refill our water are you guys living out of the van right now on travels yeah okay remember gabby petito had set off with her then boyfriend brian laundry

now we know her killer on a cross-country trip in her ford transit that she had restored using her credit cards and let me understand this with me in All-Star Panel, but first to Melissa Ratliff, ABC7 Sarasota's digital content manager and journalist. Melissa, thank you for being with us. Let me understand this. So she gets beaten in the face. Two witnesses see it, and she's saying, I was apologizing, but I guess I apologized in a mean tone did I hear that

right you did uh we were all kind of stunned when we watched this footage uh together at the news when we got an open records request and got it from the Moab police department and what we saw even though it was said that Brian had marks on him, was Gabby was utterly terrified. And we watched her. She was shaking. She was apologizing as though it were her fault. And ultimately, that's kind of what it seemed Moab landed on, although there were no charges pressed. So what we saw was a terrified young woman. And what we saw were the cops sending her off with who would eventually be her killer. And it was absolutely devastating to watch and knowing that we couldn't reach through the screen to help her. I mean, Karen Stark joining me, a renowned psychologist, TV, radio trauma expert.

You can find her at Karen Stark dot com. Karen with a C if you try to find her. Karen, I actually feel sick inside having represented so many battered women, taken their calls on the battered women hotline. And I hear Gabby Petito apologizing and saying, and I quote, I guess I apologized in a mean tone and it frustrated him even more. What? She just got beat in the face and nobody did a damn thing about it. And Nancy, it's so symptomatic of someone who's been abused where they are terrified of not being in the relationship. They become convinced that they're not worthwhile,

that they're causing all the problems. This could not be more typical and heartbreaking because she said it in a mean tone. I could just hear him saying to her, well, that's not an apology. It's in a main tone. And always the threat of losing the person who she's become convinced she must have in her life. Instead of projecting what I think about it, let me have you listen to it. Listen to more. I told him to drive and get water. Yeah. Is there something on your cheek here? Looks like, did you get hit in the face? Kind of looks like something like hitting you get did you get hit in the face kind of looks like something like

hitting you in the face and then over on your arm shoulder right here that's new huh just have a new mark oh yeah i don't know can i see the other side of your face so what happened here and here so the cops actually see marks on her face, on both sides of her face and on her arm. Let's hear it. Here's some more. So there's two people that came to us and told us that they saw him hit you. There's two people saying that they saw him punch you. We're just independent witnesses by Moonflower. Well, to be honest, I definitely hit him first. Where'd you hit him? I slapped him. You slapped him first? So two people see Brian Laundrie punching her in the face. And she says, well, I definitely started it. I slapped him.

But isn't it true, Melissa Ratliff, that's when he locked her out of her own van and was going to take off without her? And she had to try to get in through the window of her own transit. Yeah, there was a struggle over being locked out of the vehicle. And at which point they were eventually separated when Moab arrived on scene. I mean, I'm so angry. I'm so angry, Melissa. This is her transit. She's out in the middle of nowhere.

I don't think she had her phone. I think the phone, her phone was in her transit. She's out in the middle of nowhere. I don't think she had her phone. I think the phone, her phone was in the car. She had nothing, no ID, no credit cards, no phone. And he's taking off in her car and leaving her out in the middle of nowhere. She's trying to jump in the window and somehow she's the bad person. And she's a little girl. She's a little girl. And they're saying saying she's saying she slapped him like that means anything at all. Melissa, is that what happened? That is what the police report seems to indicate, that there was a shuffle of getting in and out of the vehicle. They were driving when they were pulled over. But prior to that, there had been a lot of shuffling.

And we know we saw the footage of them in the store prior to. They seemed okay at the store. But there was just so much tension. And I don't know how it wasn't obvious from Gabby's body language and how she was shaking. And the marks were very visible. So it felt like she was taking the brunt of his anger and putting the blame on herself. And it's heartbreaking to watch because she just gets sent off. You know, you're giving me so many flashbacks, Melissa Ratliff.

Melissa joining us from ABC7 Sarasota's digital content. She's the manager and also investigative journalist. I've got an all-star panel. I'm going to try to get to them right now. But I just want to say that this is giving me so many flashbacks of domestic violence, victims I represented in court, and women I would speak to on the Better Women's Center hotline when I manned that, that somehow they always thought it was their fault. Like one woman was beaten so badly. This one really sticks out in my mind.

She was in intensive care. And there's always a quote reason. And for the others of you who can't see me, I'm doing air quotas for the beating. And this time her husband called and said he wanted Mexican food for dinner. And she made tacos instead of enchilada. So he beat her into the ICU. Yeah. And she actually thought it was her fault because she made the tacos and not the enchiladas or vice versa. But I hear Gabby Petitti going, well, I guess I apologized in the meantime. So, you know what? I'm going to get to whether or not his parents knew she was dead

and did they lie about it to Gabby's parents, knowing her body was decomposing somewhere. But one last time, take a listen to more of the Moab Police body cam footage. We made it clear that she was the primary aggressor and that she was striking you and you received injuries. You have admitted to striking her. She has not admitted to you striking her. The witness did not see you strike her. So at this point, you're the victim of a domestic assault. Now, I don't want to take this small 20, what is she?

Yeah, she's a 22-year-old. 22-year-old female in jail. Who I have to jail. You could definitely defend yourself against, but at the same time, tomorrow, if you want to, it's up to you. Can I go to jail? You can't because we don't have a charge for you. Now tomorrow, if you wanted to be with her again tomorrow.

I'm going to take your radio. Did I hear laughing at the end of that? I did. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Patrick Riley joining me, high profile lawyer representing the dad, Joseph Petito, and the mom, Nicole Schmidt, with Snyder and Riley trial lawyers. You can find them at SnyderandRiley.com. Patrick Riley, did you hear that? They actually said to Brian Laundrie, the murderer, they say to him, and I quote, you have done nothing wrong. You're the victim i did hear that nancy and in the past i have represented victims of domestic violence as well um and it's the story sounds

eerily similar to things i've heard in the past the the and you always hear the story well i wish something had been done and we should step in because we want to prevent future harm. And this is the perfect example of why there needs to be proper education and training of law enforcement to step in at times like this, recognize the danger involved and who the true victim is and take action. licensed private investigator at Bill Garcia investigative services and renowned professor of forensics Jacksonville State University author of blood beneath my feet host of body bags with Joseph Scott Morgan just got Morgan joining me Joe Scott uh did you hear at the end where the cop is saying hey tomorrow you can pick her up if you want to, if you want her back. And they all start laughing, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Just tell me about Gabby Petito's murder and how her body was found, what condition in which it was found. The setting is, or the Grand Teton, is the Grand T Tetons National Park. And it's this beautiful, beautiful, yet very isolated location in Wyoming, Nancy. Arguably, by some, one of the most beautiful, you know, federal parks in the U.S. Everywhere you look is just this, it's grandeur. Can I tell you something, Joe Scott? Yeah, sure. My parents had their, I think, 50th wedding

anniversary. We all flew out there. And this is before I had the twins. And I got off the plane. I was coming from New York, LaGuardia. I flew out there. I got off the plane and I looked up and I went, oh, it literally, I gasped, it was so beautiful. I've never seen anything like it before. It just seems like it goes on and on forever. What a contrast between there and Manhattan. But it goes to the isolation of it. This location where this poor, fragile young woman's remains were found.

And Nancy, the thing that's so haunting to me about it, having covered this case now, lo these many months and years now, is the fact that she was out there, her remains, her mortal remains were out there all alone. And, you know, I sit back and I think about, was there a plan all along to take her to this location and dispose of her in this manner? What was going on?

You know, she didn't have the opportunity to appreciate the beauty out there. All she saw was the terror and the fact that she's with an individual that has obviously abused her over probably a protracted period of time. You've got these marks that were visible on her body at, you know, when she's first assessed by the police there. And she's so diminutive, Nancy. I mean, she's very fragile. She reminds me of my daughter, who approximates her age, looks a lot like her, you know, very thin, willowy, beautiful, very gentle. And, you know, she's at the hands of this guy and they're riding around in her own van. And, you know, if you find her remains all these months later, all these weeks later, Nancy, after he's done this deed to her at this point in time, and yeah, she's decomposing

out there. Let's just let's say it like it is. You know, you're talking days upon days upon days that her body is left out there in this literal wilderness. When you say decomposing, as a matter of fact, Brian Laundrie had murdered Gabby and left her body out there to be torn apart by animals. When we say they were in dispersed camping, for our families, very big campers, RVers, outdoor people. Dispersed camping, there's no porta potty, there's no electric hookup, there's no water faucet, nothing. You are out with the animals and there's nobody and nothing as far as the eye can see remotely akin to civilization. That was where her body was, Joe Scott. And it was, in fact, torn apart by animals. Yeah. And here's the other thing. He disregarded her, you know, discarded her rather like garbage. That's the way he treated her in this location after.

And let's keep in mind about the cause of death that was rendered by the corner. By the way, the corner did a fantastic job in this area of isolation and how they handled this case. He, he wrapped his hands around her neck, her very thin dainty neck and squeezed the life out of her, Nancy. And I have very few doubts in my mind that he's looking her in the eye as he's doing this. And he is literally squeezing the life out of her to the point she can no longer breathe. And she just

gives way and dies right there in his hands. And now we learn that all along, while his parents were fending off calls from Gabby's family, desperate to find out where is Gabby, they knew. Take a listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com. Two days after he is believed to have killed his fiance, Gabby Petito, Brian Laundrie makes a frantic call to his parents on August 29, 2021. In this call, Laundrie tells his parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, that Gabby is gone and he needs a lawyer. During depositions for the upcoming civil trial between the Petitos and Laundries, Brian Laundrie's parents admitted what their son told them in the days after killing his 22-year-old fiance in August of 2021.

According to Petito family attorney Pat Riley, Chris and Roberta Laundrie did not admit to knowing Gabby was killed, only that they were told by Brian that she was gone. And joining me right now, in addition to Bill Garcia, private investigator, Patrick Riley, the lawyer for the Petito family. Patrick Riley, this is really reverberating with me. When my fiance was murdered, I was in school in a statistics exam. I walked across campus. I didn't have a cell phone. I stopped at a pay phone to call my job, which was the university library, to tell them I was on foot and I was going to be

about 10 minutes late. And they said, call Keith's sister. Well, I knew right then that something was very wrong. But when I called Keith's sister, I said, is Keith gone? And she said, yes. And I dropped the phone and I knew he was dead. Explain to me in what world when you say Gabby's gone and you're driving home in her Ford Transit using her cell phone, how could they not know Gabby was dead? Well, Nancy, first, I'm sorry for that experience that you went through. I'm sure this sounds horrifyingly similar. I don't know how we could do that. And I don't know how the parents, with a straight face as they did, could say that she was gone but refused to acknowledge that they knew that she was no longer living. And in court proceedings, when we have had a conversation about that

statement made by Attorney Bertolino on September 14th of 2021, where he said that there was a search in the Grand Teton National Park for Gabby. We hope the search is successful and this family is reunited. They had the audacity to argue that reunited could mean reunited with her remains. And candidly, I remember thinking to myself at that time, I hope they say that to a jury. Could you explain that one more time? I just want to make sure I understood that correctly. Sure. The statement that was made on September 14th by attorney Stephen Bertolino on behalf of himself and the Laundrie family was that they understand that there was a search going on in Grand Teton National Park for Gabby. They hope that the search is successful and that she is

reunited with her family. And my argument is, well, isn't that giving false hope to the family, saying that they're hoping that she's reunited with the family, it's going to be a big happy occasion? And their response is, well, it could also have meant that they were reunited with her remains, just like soldiers' remains are reunited with their family when they come home from war. Okay, I've never heard of soldiers' remains being reunited with the family. I've heard of families taking possession of the soldiers' remains, but not reunited. I mean, Bill Garcia with me, licensed PI at Bill Garcia Investigative Services.

What does that mean to you? Reunited with her family? To me, it would be an attempt to try and calm things and give unwanted response to the family, knowing what they knew at the time. And they were hoping to, you know, make it make it seems better than what they knew it was. And so I think it was simply an excuse to. Pretend that everything was going to be fine and that and that Gabby would be reunited with his family. Well, what's curious, Melissa Ratliff joining me, ABC7 Sarasota, wouldn't they have expected at some point we all find out that Gabby is dead, that Gabby was killed? I mean, didn't Laundrie, Brian Laundrie, tell his parents, I need a lawyer? There was so much vagueness, if I can use that term, in those initial days.

I was here from the day one when we still thought Brian Laundrie, that we're at Northport Police, knew where Brian Laundrie was. So we were watching this, and every press release I noticed came out with these very, very vague sort of flowery, we hope this will all be all right. But then later on, as we continue to follow it and we got the full story it became very clear it was very enigmatic trying to keep it very very vague and I feel it's hard not to assume that that's for a reason and it felt like everything

was done just to confound these terms to be obtuse so that it would be confusing for everyone involved. And that was just heartbreaking to watch, especially when we saw Nicole Schmidt and Joseph Petito come to Northport to try to get answers. And it was just met with this obtuse silence and vague language that we kept had to keep watching and trying to decipher until we got what we got from brian's notes later on which i'm still torn up about that because it still was putting the blame back on gabby what do you mean by that well when we got the uh the the suicide confession that was found with brian's remains um he went into a great it felt like he was putting in great effort to put it as Gabby was asking for me to make this a mercy killing on her. She was hurt. I did this. And by my death,

I'm making up for it. That's not the exact, that's definitely a paraphrase, but it was very much putting the blame back on her. And it felt very, very reminiscent of the Moab stop to me that this was still kind of in some ways her fault and that he hoped his death where he would be eaten by animals like Gabby would bring some peace, but there's no peace because there's still so much confusion and we aren't getting answers. The deposition was the first time we've had any acknowledgement from Roberta and Chris Laundrie that they even had an inkling of what happened. So in his notebook, he says Gabby Petito wanted to die and wanted him to do a mercy killing. He was saying she was suffering and she begged him to kill her. Okay. I guess she begged him to beat her in the face too. After killing Gabby Petito, Patrick Riley, Brian Laundrie called home. He says, at least this is

what they're admitting to, that Gabby is gone and I need a lawyer, isn't it true that Gabby Petito's family, says Brian Laundrie's parents, admit what their son told them, and within days they hire a lawyer for their son, Steve Bertolino. Isn't that true? That is absolutely correct. I don't recall if it was on the 29th of August or if it was the next day that they called, but they immediately

contacted Attorney Bertolino on behalf of their son. And Attorney Bertolino took over from that point, advised everyone to remain silent and say nothing. And so they all remained quiet except for Attorney Bertolino until the 14th when they issued that statement. Issued the statement about reunification? Correct. They chose not to speak up prior to that. They chose to say nothing prior to that and leave the Petito family hanging, wondering where their daughter was. And then they chose to express, I would regard as false sympathy, giving false hope to the family. It's just, it's horrendous conduct. Guys, we are talking about a specter looming over the murder of an innocent young girl, Gabby Petito. That specter did her killer's parents know all along she was dead

as they fended off, ignored calls from her family, begging for information, and then actually giving a statement that they hope she's found soon and that she is reunified with her family. I mean, Melissa Ratliff joining me, ABC 7 Sarasota, to what extent did the laundries go to avoid the potatoes? We do know that in addition to the avoiding of phone calls, that I believe it was Roberta who blocked Nicole on Facebook. So there was a lot of just locking down of social media. I think Brian deleted his account. There was just such quickness done to keep everyone out of being able to contact them. And thus, when the campaign started on social media to help find her, started reaching our newsroom very, very shortly after she was reported missing. We couldn't even get a hold of Nicole Schmidt or, or it's not

Nicole Schmidt, excuse me. We could not even get a hold of Roberta Laundrie or Christopher Laundrie. We are, our attempts to get in touch with them for clarification were constantly rebuffed, but also in the fact that they're just not speaking to the parents who came all the way down here to Northport to try to get answers when no one knew where Brian was. And they were still had no clue where Gabby was. And they were begging and still just silence, silence, and making sure that they were holed up in their home away from everyone, despite there being media outside. Everything was just quiet. And then even going on a camping trip with the sister. Remember, they went on a camping trip.

You want to tell me they didn't talk about where is Gabby on the camping trip? I mean, Patrick Riley, who was representing the Petito family, isn't it true that the laundries actually blocked cell phones of the victims? They blocked the cell phone. Roberta Laundrie blocked access to her cell phone by Nicole Schmidt. Nicole reached out to her by text message on several occasions and then subsequently discovered she'd been blocked. Cut 253.

The attorney for Gabby Petito's parents, Nicole Schmidt and Joe Petito, believe Brian Laundrie told his parents and lawyer more than what they will admit. So he's asking a court to compel attorney Steve Bertolino into revealing what Brian Laundrie told him in the days after he admits Gabby Petito is gone, but before Gabby Petito is listed as missing. Attorney Pat Riley tells WFLA that he wants to know what Brian Laundrie told Bertolino because he believes Laundrie admitted more. Riley also wants to know if attorney Bertolino knew where Gabby Petito's body was located. Wow. Patrick Riley, you think they actually knew

where Gabby's body was? I do. Well, really, how could they not? How could they not ask Brian Laundrie, where's her body? Well, I don't know if the Laundries knew. I highly suspect Attorney Bertolino did in his deposition when we had a conversation about hiring a lawyer. He told me that he called several law firms out in Wyoming, and he also called the public defender's office in Jackson. And I asked, why did you call the public defender's office in Jackson of all the places in Wyoming? And he refused to answer the question. And to you, Joe Scott Morgan, isn't that where the autopsy to which you were referring was conducted? Wasn't that

the jurisdiction where her body was found? Yes. Yes, it was, Nancy. And, you know, to be perfectly honest, they did a fine job, you know, and considering that they also had an uphill climb with this, because you're talking about the remains of a young woman that have been down for a protracted period of time. And though it's in the Grand Tetons, it's still a warm environment. So decomposition would have sped up during that time of year. So, yes. So how could they tell, Joe Scott, if her body had been torn apart, starting to be torn apart by animals,

she was in the midst of decomposing, this beautiful young girl. How could they tell she was strangled dead, she was asphyxiated? Dependent upon how intact the neck would have been, they would have been able to possibly appreciate what's referred to as little areas of hemorrhage in the soft tissues that remained. You mean bruises? Well, yeah, bruises, but it's a deep tissue hemorrhage because you're applying direct pressure, not you, the universal sense.

And in this case, Brian Laundrie, by his own admission, applying direct pressure into these very soft, malleable areas. And you'll have these little areas of hemorrhage that are indwelling there. And of course, we look at the other structures within the neck, the cartilage that's in the area that we would commonly refer to as the windpipe to see if it's intact. And also the hyoid bone, as everybody goes to. You look to see what the status of it is, if there's any hemorrhage around that particular area as well. So there are many things that we can look for. One of the things that you might have trouble finding in a case like this that we look for constantly in cases of

oxygen deprivation, where you're being deprived of oxygen, are particular hemorrhages in the eyes. Sometimes that's very difficult to find in decomposing bodies. If I might add, in addition to the trauma of the loss of Gabby and everything that they've gone through, there's a lasting memory in Jim Schmidt's mind, and that is that he had to identify by photograph Gabby's remains. Question. Did Brian Laundrie's parents instruct him to pretend Gabby was still alive? Take a listen to our 254 from Dave Mack. In the aftermath of Gabby Petito's murder, the Petito family alleges that Brian Laundrie used Gabby's phone to send text messages to her family in an attempt to deceive them. Among the messages Brian Laundrie is believed to have sent is a text message to Gabby's mother, Nicole Schmidt, about Gabby's grandfather.

In the text, he refers to Gabby's grandfather as Stan. Schmidt has stated Gabby never called her grandfather by his first name and that the text was highly suspicious. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To Patrick Riley representing Gabby Petito's family, is there any allegation or thought process regarding the laundries instructing him to send these fake texts? I don't remember the timing of when those texts were sent. I believe one of them was sent around the time that on the 29th when he did contact his parents. I don't know if there were any instructions or there weren't, but we haven't discussed.

You thought Brian Laundrie came up with that all on his own? That I don't know, but we haven't talked about the letter, Roberta Laundrie, that was discovered after Brian passed away. Oh, yes. The so-called burn letter. Let's talk about that to Melissa Ratliff, ABC7. Describe the so-called burn letter sent by Brian Laundrie's mother to him. This is one of the most interesting things I've ever seen. I've covered a lot of missing person cases.

I did Crystal Rogers in Kentucky when I was working at a television station there. So you see a lot of, you know, odd theories pop up here and there, but this letter, which eventually was released, thanks to Mr. Riley, we got that letter, and the Schmidt family helped make that public. And it was honestly a love letter in a sense, and said a mother telling her son that she would always be there for him and you know that she would have a shovel available if ever he needed to hide a body basically now out of context she says uh roberta laundry claims that this is just a burn after reading being their favorite book that's also a movie it's pretty popular but in the in the context

of everything that happened it's just an incredibly bizarre ode from a mother to a son. And that was made public eventually. And we were all scratching our head like, huh, when that came out, just because the nature of the letter is a mother who will be there for her son no matter what he does. Didn't she say, I'll show up with a shovel or help get rid of a body, something like that, and burn this letter after reading? Yeah, and the burn after reading thing she said was because that was a book they had read together. What else did the letter say, Patrick Riley, because that's pretty damning. Well, it said three things that were interesting. One said something about if he hated her guts, she'd cut her guts out.

There was, if he needs help burying a body, she'll show up and bring a shovel. And if he goes to prison, I don't recall if it was a saw or a shiv, but she would bake a cake and put it in. And to me, that almost sounds like if the letter wasn't written after Gabby was murdered, it almost sounds like permission. Whoa, when did the letter occur? Do we know? No, it's undated. Well, why would she be talking about burying a body and bringing him a knife in jail? Her answer to that is that's, you know, maybe poorly chosen words, but that's how she and her friends communicate. Okay.

I'd like to meet these friends. I really would. Karen Stark joining us. I think I need to shrink now more than ever. Karen Stark, jump in. Well, I mean, yes, we understand that a mother cares about her son. But this is outrageous, Nancy, because she is not only offering to help him do something with this body, but she is making other parents suffer. She is keeping information from these two people who are desperate to know what happened to their daughter. And you think about how could she

not put herself in that place? There she is offering to help her son get a shovel, a shiv, whatever she's saying, and not think about the fact that these parents feel the same way are really in pain about their daughter and she is not coming through. It is just outrageous. Guys, I want you to hear the crux of this lawsuit in our 255. Gabby Petito's mother, Nicole Schmidt, and her father, Joe Petito, are suing Chris and Roberta Laundrie and their attorney, Steve Bertolino, for intentional infliction of emotional distress, claiming they were aware Gabby Petito was dead, but chose to do nothing other than release a statement expressing hope Gabby would be found. The

civil trial has been postponed several times, but is scheduled to begin in May of 2024. To Joe Scott Morgan, the dichotomy of while all this is happening, the fake text that Laundrie is sending, and I was just looking at the dates, the fake text he sent from Gabby's phone, he left her body out in the wilderness to be destroyed and decomposed and eaten on by animals. He's sending these texts pretending to be her to her family on August 30. He speaks to his family, his mother and father on August 29. The fake

texts aren't the next day, August 30. He gets home on September 1 and they all go camping. Yeah. Isn't that right, Jackie? Isn't that right, Melissa Ratliff? They go out to a state park and there's the sister and there's Laundrie and there's Roberta Laundrie, the mother and the father, and they go camping, right? Yeah, if I recall correctly, yeah, they were all going out. And there seemed to be, if I recall from the sisters' interviews later, that there was just really no talk about anything. It was just sort of a, we're just going to go camping and try to forget about the world. Forget about the dead body decomposing? Yeah.

The camping trip was September 6th through 8th. So they're there in tents, in campers, and nobody talks about, where's Gabby? It doesn't sit right. It's like it all sits, it feels so intentionally ambiguous and buried in all these questions of this is not a normal response. And so, Joe Scott Morgan, what is the condition of Gabby's body when they're all out toasting marshmallows over the campfire in Florida? It's one of these circumstances where you

wish that you could just grab them by their ear and drag them out to this location and have them stand over these remains. Many remains like this that I have unfortunately stood over in my career and let them see what their little angel has done. expose them to this degree of decomposition that her body would have been at at this point when they're going out camping at this location there in southern Florida to let them see, to let them see insect activity, to let them see the activity of potential animals that are there, and also to see what was wrought at the hands of this petulant man-child that they've raised, just so that they can bear witness to it while this family is wringing their hands at home, holding out hope that their precious angel is going to come back home. And of course, she's not going to, but they're out recreating. They're on the golden shores in southern Florida.

To Patrick Riley, representing the Petitos, what exactly does your lawsuit, the Petito family lawsuit, allege? Well, it's a very, an intentional intention of emotional distress case is very limited. It's not like a typical tort of negligence or things of that nature. It's limited to a situation where someone has done something that's so outrageous that it causes emotional harm and that they knew or should have known that the conduct they were undertaking or the things that they were saying were going to cause that harm or were likely to cause that harm. In this instance, the case is based upon Attorney Bertolino's statements of September 14th and September 19th of 2021. And the 14th, again, it was the statement where he said he hoped the family was reunited.

And the result of that was the Joe Petito and Nicole Schmidt and their spouses were going through conflicting emotions and thoughts about whether she's alive or she's not alive. They're hoping that she is. They're on either end of the spectrum. And this statement gave them hope, additional hope that she was alive so that when they ultimately learned five days later that she was not, the fall was even bigger than it would have been because of the hope that had been increased. The statement on the 19th made by Attorney Bertolino, again on behalf of the Petito, of the Laundrie family, was the news is devastating, or words to that effect. Well, it wasn't news to them. They already knew. And specifically, their statement that Bertolino read is, and I quote, it is our hope that the search for Ms. Petito is successful and that Ms. Petito is reunited with her family.

And according to your lawsuit, they knew she was dead and decomposing, as Joe Scott Morgan has described. Meanwhile, the day after his call to his parents, the laundry sent a text message. Laundry sends a text message from Gabby's phone to her mother claiming there's no cell service. And now Nicole Schmidt, her mother, interprets that text as an attempt to deceive her into believing Gabby Petito was still alive. Were the parents in league trying to mislead the Petitos? To Bill Garcia, Private Eye, can we ever prove it? I think that would be extremely difficult. Fortunately, technology is such that they're able to connect the dots and see at what point these texts and calls were made,

where they were made from, and in what context, and hopefully can be all put together to be able to prove that Brian's family actually knew what was going on. I think you're right, Bill Garcia. And to Melissa Ratliff joining us, ABC7 Sarasota's DigiContent Manager. Melissa, I look at things in black and white. What can I prove to a jury? What is inadmissible? What's truth?

What's, I can't prove is truth, but I know it. I bet you if this were put to a jury, they would believe that the Laundrie family knew Gabby was dead and continued to avoid calls by the Petitos, put out this statement saying, wow, we hope they find her. We hope she's reunited with her parents. All the while knowing that Gabby was dead and that their son needed a criminal lawyer. And as Patrick Riley points out, it would be argued that they knew where her body was because out of out of all the world, they looked into a public defender in Jackson where the body was found. Melissa Ratliff.

It's been it's so infuriating to to read this because it does indeed feel like common sense, like this does not add up. What you're saying doesn't add up to silence and being obtuse on purpose. And I wonder if it's just an attempt to hide behind maybe ambiguity to try to protect the, we knew she was gone. We didn't know she was dead. And it feels like, I don't know, but I wonder if the technology will ultimately be the thing that helps put into place exactly what happened. If there's on the 29th after they get the phone call. They call Bertolino and then later he's making phone calls where the body is eventually located. It's very much, I don't know if I would say circumstantial, but you do wonder if there's more to support it

that will make it more clear that everyone involved knew what was happening or not. Patrick Riley, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it true that under the law, and this is read by judges every day to jurors as they instruct the jury as they go out for deliberation, that circumstantial evidence is to be regarded as strongly as direct evidence, such as DNA or a fingerprint or an eyewitness. It's no less valuable or powerful than direct evidence. Isn't that true? That is absolutely correct, because in circumstances like this, you don't really have direct evidence. You don't have somebody observing everything that occurs here. And candidly, I've tried cases based on circumstantial evidence in the past. I don't think it's too difficult to connect the dots in this case to show

that the laundries absolutely knew that Gabby was deceased at the time, that they had hired attorney Bertolino. Why else would he need to be hired? Why else would they need an attorney? And then made those statements. They knew at the time that was done. There's no doubt in my mind. And let me reiterate that the Laundrie family insists they did not know Gabby was dead and they have done nothing wrong. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend.