Chilling writings and drawings scrawled by Brian Laundrie with the words “kill” and “trust no one” were found among his things at his Florida home, newly released FBI files reveal.
Laundrie, 23, killed his girlfriend Gabby Petitio in August 2021 during a cross-country road trip and dumped her body in a remote area of Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. Her body was found in September 2021 after a massive search.
Weeks later, Laundrie was found dead in a nearby Florida reserve. He had a gunshot wound to his head and his death was ruled a suicide.
During a raid at Laundrie’s Florida home at the time, investigators found his disturbing writings and drawings, including diary entries year before the killing, recently obtained by The New York Post.
Laundrie wrote about his mania, describing in disturbing detail how he wanted to pour gasoline on his body and burn himself alive.
“About a year ago I went in to a type of mania where I was smashing holes in the wall with my head, kicking throug (sic) paintings, tearing whatever I was working on, pouring gasoline on myself to burn alive but getting the lighter wet, parking out in murderland listening to Mac [unclear, but may be ‘DeMarco’] with a gun to my head, wrestling alligators,” Laundrie wrote in his diary on October 26, 2018.
“I wanted to die and the weird thing is nothing’s changed, but the [timer’s] running down. Under the mattress I’m on is a loaded 357 magnum revolver. A pull of the trigger and all my problems will be over.”
Investigators also found hundreds of bullets, several magazines, and a bill of sale and handbooks for Ruger .380 and Glock 49mm pistols, and notebooks belonging to Gabby.
When the Petito family lawyer, Brian Stewart, was shown some of the graphic drawings, he told The Post, “that’s just scary.”
“In retrospect, it tells us that Brian dealt with mental health issues and was clearly a narcissist and manipulator capable of violence,” Stewart added.
In another diary entry, Laundrie describes a nightmare he had which appeared to be about Petito leaving him.
“The ocean pours out of her blue eyes and the fire is out. With one word the pain is gone. ‘Brian?,’” Laundrie wrote.
“Oh how sweet she is to say we should get together, but you know when you walk out that door she’ll be gone forever again,” he added. “Your [sic] back in the car, haunted by the eyes you’ll never look into again.
“The pain burns fresh because you know it’s just tonight. You wake up and your [sic] both free.”
Stewart said the Petito family was unaware of the disturbing diary entries.
“We know that he’s a manipulator who hid his intentions,” Stewart said. “It’s interesting seeing all these notes, knowing now how these types of domestic violence situations turn fatal.”
Also recovered in the raid was Chuck Palahniuk’s novel “Choke,” a book about a scam artist who pretends to choke on food to earn sympathy checks from others, copies of “The Watchtower,” an illustrated religious magazine published by New-York based Jehovah’s Witnesses and a slew of weapons including a compound bow fitted with a rifle scope, bolt-action rifle magazines and brass knuckles.
In 2021, Gabby’s family had reported her missing after she stopped FaceTiming with them as she regularly did.
Weeks earlier, Gabby and Laundrie had set off on a cross-country trip together, documenting their travel experiences as “van lifers” on their YouTube channel “Nomadic Statik”. But things took a turn when Laundrie returned home to Florida without her.
On September 19, 2021, investigators located Gabby’s body in Grand Teton National Park.
Laundrie himself had vanished from his Florida home as he came under scrutiny following Gabby’s disappearance.
His remains were later found in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in a Florida nature reserve on October 20. His death was ruled as suicide with his writing found nearby.
Last weekend, Gabby’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, told the crowd at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, that she’s forgiven Laundrie but slammed the killer’s mother and insisted she “deserved to be forgotten.”
“I speak for myself here when I say Brian, I forgive you,” Schmidt told the audience. “I needed to release myself from the chains of anger and bitterness and I refuse to let your despicable act define the rest of my life.”
She did not hold back, however, when speaking about Laundrie’s mother Roberta, according to Fox News.
“As for you, Roberta, and I call you out individually because you are evidently the mastermind that shattered your family and mine with your evil ways, I see no empathy in your eyes,” she said. “No remorse in your heart and no willingness to take responsibility for your actions.”
“You do not deserve forgiveness. You deserve to be forgotten,” she added.
Laundrie’s parents told authorities during deposition hearings that their son had called them in an erratic state leading them to be concerned for Gabby’s safety.
However, Gabby’s parents allege that the Laundries never reached out to them and ignored their efforts to communicate with them.
Gabby’s parents have alleged that the Laundries knew about her murder and tried to conceal it.
Even though his parents denied knowledge of the crime they had sent a $25,000 retainer to a defense attorney. The Petitos settled a lawsuit against the Laundrie family earlier this year.
