Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito are tragically gone after the headline-grabbing search that followed Petito’s murder and Laundrie’s suicide. But according to The Blast, the former couple’s parents are not about to stop battling over the tragedy.
Laundrie’s parents, Chris and Roberta, are pushing for a lawsuit filed by Petito’s parents, Joseph and Nichole, to be dismissed. Petito’s parents claim that Laundrie was assisted by his parents, and they allegedly knew more than they admitted about their son’s location and their daughter’s murder.
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Laundrie family lawyer Steven Bertolino confirmed the motion in a statement to CBS News on Wednesday, slamming the lawsuit and expanding on their decision to rely on counsel to speak on their behalf. “A motion to dismiss the baseless and frivolous lawsuit commenced by Gabby Petito’s parents was filed in court,” the statement reads. “The Laundries have exercised their constitutional right to refrain from speaking and have relied on counsel to speak for them. This is not only common practice in our civilized society but it embodies the exercise of fundamental rights under the United States and Florida Constitutions. The Laundries’ rights are inalienable and the Laundries can never be liable for exercising their legal rights in a permissible way.”
Laundrie’s body was discovered around a month after Petito’s body was discovered across the country in Wyoming. The former fiance of the late blogger admitted to murdering her in his journal that was discovered in a backpack along with the corpse. Medical examiners confirmed that Laundrie had died from a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, though not everybody is convinced this is the final theory related to the situation.
The Petitos claim in their lawsuit that the Laundrie family was aware of their daughter’s death before their son returned home without her. The lawsuit also alleges that Chris and Roberta Laundrie were “conspiring” with their son and helping him hide while concealing his confession from authorities.
“In doing so, Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie acted with malice or great indifference to the rights of [Petito’s parents] Joseph Petito and Nicole Schmidt,” the lawsuit reads, calling the behaving “shocking, atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”
