VENICE — The parents of Brian Laundrie testified in recent depositions that their son never outright said that his girlfriend was dead in 2021.
However, Christopher Laundrie said he had “a thought” that Gabby Petito might be dead by mid-September of that year.
Right up until the discovery of her body in Wyoming, however, Roberta Laundrie said she was hopeful Petito would be found alive.
“We hoped for the best,” she said in the deposition. “We hoped they would find her and she would be fine, and that was our hope.”
Depositions for both Laundries were taken earlier this week, as well as depositions from Joseph Petito and Nicole Schmidt — Gabby Petito’s parents — and the Laundries’ former attorney Steven Bertolino.
Petito and Schmidt filed a lawsuit alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress against the Laundries and Bertolino in 2022.
The lawsuit centers on communications between Brian Laundrie and his parents in August 2021, when Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito were undertaking a cross-country van journey chronicled on social media.