On Friday, details of Brian Laundrie’s notebook were made public. In it, he admitted to killing Gabby Petito and said she had hurt herself before the murder.
Petito was reported missing while travelling with Laundrie while the two were engaged. She was later discovered lifeless in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park in September 2021.
Officials previously stated that Petito was manually strangled to death.
Laundrie returned without Petito to his parents’ house in North Port, Florida before Petito’s body was found.
He was listed as a person of interest in Petito’s death, although his parents eventually filed a missing person report for him.
According to law enforcement officials, the T. Mabry Carlton Jr. Memorial Reserve is where Laundrie’s parents reported that their son went hiking.
The Laundrie family’s attorney, Steven Bertolino shared a copy of the journal, and it shows Brian Laundrie recounting the final days the couple spent together as part of his justification for killing Petito.
In Brian Laundrie’s notebook was recorded how Petito hurt herself during their cross-country trek by slipping into the water in Utah. Petito was “gasping in pain,” according to Laundrie, and “begging for an end to her pain.”
“I don’t know the extent of Gabby’s injuries, only that she was in extreme pain. I ended her life, I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made,” Laundrie wrote.
Laundrie regretted his actions afterwards. He claims, “I panicked, I was in shock. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldn’t go on without her.”
The FBI in Denver revealed in a statement that Laundrie admitted responsibility for Ms. Petito’s death in the journal some months after Laundrie’s body and notebook were found.
Brian Laundrie’s notebook and a few other items were found by FBI agents in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in October 2021. Laundrie was eventually determined to have shot himself in the head. Some of his remains were also discovered.