Gabby Petito's mom reveals bombshell 'new information' about Brian Laundrie and his family
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Gabby Petito's mother revealed that Brian Laundrie's parents had already cleared out his room during the time he was allegedly missing while they searched for their daughter.
Gabby, 22, was strangled to death on August 27, 2021, by her fiancé Brian, 23, in Wyoming during a cross-country road trip.
He then drove back to his parents' home in North Port, Florida on September 1 in her 2012 white Ford Transit van - leaving Gabby behind.
Brian then vanished when police started investigating his partner's death. Gabby's remains were found on September 19 and investigators determined she died by manual strangulation and had been dead for three to four weeks.
About a month later, Brian's remains were discovered after he killed himself with a gunshot to the head. A notebook was found near him, in which he confessed to murdering Gabby.
During a recent appearance on The Squeeze podcast - hosted by Taylor Lautner and his wife Tay - Gabby's mother, Nichole Schmidt, revealed during that time Brian was missing, his parents had already cleared out his room.
'I actually just found out some new information a few days ago,' she said. 'There was [someone] that was at the house when Brian was missing – and I would say he was hiding, he wasn't missing, but he was actually dead – but his room was completely gutted and renovated. None of his things were there anymore. It was gone.
'So that very same week, Gabby was missing and cops were going to their house to try to get, I guess, a scent from their dogs to look for Brian, all his things were gone. The room was completely empty, just gone.'
Schmidt has previously said she has to forgive Brian for what he did to her daughter, but the family is still upset with his parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie.
His parents have been accused of trying to help him cover up the murder before he went into the Florida wilderness and shot himself dead.
Christopher and Roberta repeatedly refused to speak to authorities as Gabby's family desperately searched for her.
The Netflix documentary notes that Roberta wrote her son a chilling 'burn after reading' letter in which she said she would help him bury a body because she loved him so much.
While she claims the note was written before the young couple went on their trip, the undated note left Petito's family 'sick to their stomach.'
The Petito and Laundrie families reached a $3 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit in 2022.
'They said that there's something wrong with that mother, she's clearly not mentally well. And I'm like, 'just add it to the list', because I didn't even know about that. That was crazy to hear,' Schmidt said.
'It drives me absolutely insane – that's the one thing I can't let go of, because I'm trying to figure out what can I do to make them pay for what they did, but there is really nothing I can do.'
Lautner questioned why things had been allowed to be 'stripped and cleaned and thrown away.'
Schmidt replied, 'The van was cleaned out, the mattress was never recovered, and then all the things were packed away in a closet – Gabby's stuff was packed away in a closet.
'I mean, I don't understand, I don't get it. Just strange behavior.'
