Newly revealed texts show that Brian Laundrie casually discussed his fateful cross-country road trip with a friend – just days after he killed his fiancée.
Within days of strangling his girlfriend Gabby Petito to death, Laundrie sent text messages to a friend saying the couple “had fun,” according to The Messenger. The texts give no indication that Laundrie killed Petito or felt any remorse or guilt.
“Trip was good,” Laundrie texted his friend Ben after he returned to Florida without Petito. “Gab and I had fun. Tired now, gonna sleep for a week.”
The text was sent before Petito was reported missing.
“We made a lot of content,” Laundrie texted his friend, referring to the couple’s YouTube travel channel they were making during the trip. “It was once in a lifetime.”
Petito was reported missing on September 11, 2021, while these text messages were sent on September 4. After Petito’s remains were found, Laundrie disappeared into the woods and was later found dead.
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 the 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.”
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Laundrie went on to claim that Petito, who was 22 when Laundrie allegedly 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.”
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.
Petito’s family is suing Laundrie’s family for their daughter’s death, believing the Laundries helped Brian escape law enforcement.