Brian Laundrie’s father was seen hiking alone in Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park near where his son’s skeletal remains were found, days after a judge ordered a civil suit against him by Gabby Petito’s parents, which is being heard by a jury should be.
On Friday morning, Christopher Laundrie, 62, wearing sunglasses, shorts, a gray T-shirt and a green hat, appeared thoughtful as he walked the rugged Florida trail with a cane in the rare public sighting.
After the walk in the Big Slough Preserve, the elder Laundrie climbed into his red Dodge pickup before driving off.
Gabby Petito’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, 41, and father, Joseph Petito, 42, won the right to sue Brian Laundrie’s parents, Christopher and Roberta.
They claim the couple secretly knew their son had murdered their daughter and helped him escape, while publicly expressing hope that Petito would be taken to safety.
On Friday morning, Christopher Laundrie, 62, dressed in sunglasses, shorts, a gray T-shirt and a green hat, appeared thoughtful as he walked the rugged path with a cane in hand at the rare public sighting.
After the walk in the Big Slough Preserve, the elder Laundrie climbed into his red Dodge pickup before driving off
Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park is the site where the skeletal remains of Brian Laundrie were found. Christopher Laundrie returned to the site the day after a judge ruled in favor of Gabby Petito’s parents’ civil suit
Laundrie had killed his 21-year-old girlfriend in July 2021 after the couple set off in a van on a months-long adventure across the US.
The young woman’s body was later found in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, along with a confession in his notebook.
They were seen on police bodycam footage taken in Moab, Utah, weeks before they followed an argument in a van that turned violent, though police eventually let the couple go.
Laundrie had returned to his parents’ Florida home before disappearing and taking his own life in a Florida swamp when a massive manhunt ensued.
The elder Laundrie and his wife Roberta were ordered by a Florida judge to face a jury over a civil lawsuit filed by Gabby Petito’s parents.
The Florida judge ruled that laundry attorney Steven Bertolino had made “objectively outrageous” comments when he hoped Petito would be found alive
In the lawsuit, the petitos claim the laundries and their attorney knew their daughter was dead while they were still desperately searching for her.
Patrick Reilly, the Petitos’ lawyer, has argued that Laundrie’s lawyer created false hope and emotional distress when he testified about the search last year while allegedly knowing Petito was dead, the Sun reported.
Bertolino had then issued a statement on behalf of the Laundrie family, in which he said, in part, “We hope that the search for Miss Petito will be successful and that Miss Petito will be reunited with her family.”
Judge Hunter Carroll said Bertolino’s comments allowed Gabby’s parents to seek $30,000 in damages against Christopher, 63, and Roberta Laundrie, 56.
“Because the laundries’ statement by their attorney regarding the unique faces of this case is objectively outrageous, the court concludes that the plaintiffs [Petitos] have given grounds for lawsuits against the laundries alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress,” Carroll wrote in his decision.
Nichole and Joseph filed a lawsuit against the laundries, claiming they knew their son had murdered 22-year-old Petito after he returned alone from their overland van trip.
Reilly told Sarasota County Court, Florida, “This case is not just about the silence of Robert and Christopher Laundrie, who knew their son had brutally murdered Gabby Petito.”
He said it wasn’t about her “callous refusal, despite pleas from the Petito family,” to talk about whether Gabby was alive — or whether she wasn’t the location of her body.
“It’s about behavior that they committed when they learned on August 28, 2021 that their son had brutally murdered Gabby Petito,” he said.
Carroll appeared to agree with Reilly as he dismissed the laundry’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying its actions hadn’t helped the desperate Petitos.
‘If this case was really about non-corroborative silence by the laundries, the court would have ruled this case in favor of the laundries on the concept of legal obligation,’ the judge noted, ‘but they did not remain silent.’