"I ended her life": Brian Laundrie's diary finally released
Sinister details of Gabby Petito’s murder have been revealed in the form of handwritten notes made by her fiance Brian Laundrie. He offered an apology, along with his confession for killing Petito out of ‘mercy’.
The notebook – which was recovered from the Florida nature preserve where Laundrie's body was found after the 23-year-old took his own life in October 2021 – has been shared by the Laundrie family’s attorney, Steven Bertolino.
“I ended her life,” Laundrie wrote in the notebook, which was recovered near his body, before going on to detail his version of events of the day that Petito died.
Pages of Brian Laundrie’s diary released. On this page Laundrie appears to say he killed #GabbyPetito out of mercy…because she had injured herself.
The diary doesn’t explain why he didn’t call for help #nbc4ny pic.twitter.com/Dhps2JdEwr
— Pei-Sze Cheng (@PeiSzeCheng4NY) June 24, 2022
“Rushing back to our car trying to cross the streams… before it got too dark to see… I hear a splash and a scream," the notebook pages read.
“When I pulled Gabby out of the water she couldn’t tell me what hurt, she had a small bump on her forehead that eventually got larger.
“Her feet hurt, her wrist hurt, but she was freezing, shaking violently.
“Gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain.”
Laundrie then describes trying to keep her warm and awake while Petito was in “extreme” pain, but his entries do not explain any effort made to find medical attention.
“I don’t know the state 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.”
Police encountered the pair during their trip in Moab on August the 12th
2021, after reports of domestic violence. The couple were on a cross-country road trip and sharing their adventures on social media.
Bertolino said Laundrie flew home to Florida alone on August the 17th, and that Laundrie then returned to Utah six days later to “rejoin Gabby”.
On September the 1st, Laundrie drove back to his parents' Florida home, again without Petito. He had been sending text messages from her phone to fool people into believing that she was still alive.
Petito’s body was later found on September 19 in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, with an autopsy later revealing she had been strangled by someone’s bare hands, and likely died three to four weeks before she was found.
The notebook was found in October 2021, along with human remains, a backpack and a revolver, and a month later the remains were identified as Brian Laundrie’s.
Bertolino said he met with the FBI in Tampa, along with the Petito family attorney, where personal items belonging to Laundrie and Petito were handed back to their families.
Image: Getty