The father of a man who killed his fiancée during a cross-country road trip in 2021 said he didn’t know what his son meant during a frantic phone call placed after the murder.
Chris Laundrie, whose son, Brian Laundrie, admitted to killing his fiancée Gabby Petito in a case that gained national attention, acknowledged during a deposition in October that the phone call took place, People Magazine reported. He stated, however, that he had “no idea” what Brian meant during the call when he said “Gabby’s gone.”
“I asked him, you know, how is he doing, and he — you know, he was not calm and he got very excited and told me things had — you know, ‘Gabby’s gone’ and he got very frantic,” Chris said in the deposition, according to transcripts reviewed by WFLA. “Everything was frantic and quick. So, you know, Gabby’s gone.”
Chris was then asked what else Brian had said during the phone call.
“Well, it was quick,” Chris replied. “He said, you know — and he was very panicked and he said he didn’t know what to do. He said, you know, ‘Can you help me,’ you know, and he might need a lawyer, you know. And I would — I asked him why he wouldn’t tell me. He was very frantic. Everything was frantic and I started to not really comprehend, and then he said just, you know, ‘Can you help me?’ And I said, ‘Okay. I’ll help you.’ And I calmed him down and I said — I don’t know.”
“It was — it was all mumbled and I still don’t remember everything that happened, but, you know, he said he needed help and to get an attorney,” Chris continued. “And I told him, ‘Yeah, I’ll help you. I’ll call Steven Bertolino, and just stay put.’ And then I asked him again, and he just said, ‘Just help me.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to, so stay calm. Stay put.’ And he hung up.”
The deposition, which was just made public, is part of a lawsuit against the Laundrie family filed by Petito’s family, alleging the Laundries helped their son escape law enforcement. A civil trial for the lawsuit is scheduled to begin in May.
Petito’s parents are seeking $100,000 for pain and suffering due to the alleged actions of the Laundries.
Laundrie is believed to have committed suicide after he went missing following the murder of his fiancée, whom Laundrie admitted to killing, according to the FBI. His remains were found in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in October 2021, and his family’s attorney released the notebook found with his body in June 2022.
“I ended her life,” Laundrie wrote, according to a copy of the notebook exclusively provided to Fox News. “I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked. I was in shock.”
Laundrie went on to claim that Petito, who was 22 when Laundrie strangled her to death, had injured herself in a fall while they were visiting Wyoming and that he killed her to take “away her pain.”
“Rushing back to our car trying to cross the streams of spread creek before it got too dark to see, to [sic] cold. I hear a splash and a scream,” Laundrie wrote, adding that he carried her as far as he could but had to stop to make a fire to keep them warm when he couldn’t make it back to the couple’s van.
He claimed Petito “had a small bump on her forehead that eventually got larger” and that she “continually made sounds of pain, laying next to her she said little lapsing between violent shakes, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain.”
Laundrie also referred to Petito’s death as his “mistake” and insisted that he was not ending his life “because of a fear of punishment but rather because I cant [sic] stand to live another day without her.”
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Petito and Laundrie were driving across the country visiting national parks when Petito went missing. She was last seen alive in late August before her family reported her missing in early September after Laundrie returned to his parents’ home in Florida without her. Laundrie’s family then reported him missing on September 17.
Petito’s body was found in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19, 2021. Laundrie’s remains were found on October 20.