Gabby Petito murder: Brian Laundrie’s notebook confession revealed, ‘I ended her life’
TAMPA, Fla. (KION-TV)-- Brian Laundrie left a confession in a notebook in the Florida swamp where he killed himself after killing his girlfriend Gabby Petito.
"I ended her life," said the note, which the FBI recovered from the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on Oct. 20, 2021. "I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked. I was in shock.
Laundrie wrote he murdered Petito after she injured herself after falling in Wyoming. "From the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldn't go on without her."
Attorneys with the Petito-Schmidt and Laundrie families met at the FBI's Tampa Field Office on Friday. Fox News Digital obtained copies of the notes scribbled by Laundrie before he killed himself.
"Please do not make life harder for my family," the notebook states, "they lost a son and a daughter and a daughter – the most wonderful girl in the world. Gabby I'm sorry."
The FBI said in January that investigators found Brian Laundrie's confession in the notebook, underwater and that it had been there for roughly five weeks.
Petito was estimated to have been murdered on Aug. 28. An FBI-led search discovered her remains in the Bridger-Teton National Forest on Sept. 19. A Wyoming coroner ruled her dead by strangulation, according to our Fox affiliates.
Brian Laundrie returned to his parents in North Port, Florida, on Sept. 1 citing a license plate reader recording of her van rolling into town, said police. According to the FBI, he also sent fake text messages from Petito's phone to cover up the crime and stole her debit card.
The Laundries went camping on the beach at Fort De Soto Park, south of St. Petersburg and said nothing of Petito's disappearance, according to our Fox affilate.
On Sept. 11, Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, reported her daughter missing to police in Long Island, New York. They contacted North Port police, who knocked on the Laundries' door, but they were not there.
On Sept. 13, Brian Laundrie snuck out, despite hidden surveillance cameras around his house. That was the last time he was seen alive.
His father turned over the family's guns to the FBI and said one might be missing. Investigators found a revolver near Brian Laundrie's skeletal remains in the swamp, according to our Fox affiliate.
Also nearby was a water bottle that likely belonged to Petito and other items belonging to the couple.
Bertolino said he shared the notes "as a matter of transparency."
"I will not be commenting further as there are still proceedings pending in court," he said.
Fox News's Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
