The lawyer for Gabby Petito’s family is doubling down on Chris and Roberta Laundrie.
Attorney Patrick Reilly is doing the most to obtain an alleged letter written by Brian Laundrie’s mother amid Gabby’s disappearance.
In the alleged letter, Roberta reportedly offered to buy a shovel and help “bury the body.”
Roberta Laundrie Allegedly Offered To Help Brian “Bury The Body”
Reilly filed a request to gain access to the letter earlier this year, but Circuit Court Judge Danielle Brewer denied the original request for the potentially explosive letter due to a technicality.
Patrick Reilly Wants Roberta’s Letter For Evidence Purposes
The original request asked for all documents exchanged between Brian and his parents between July 2, 2021 to September 1, 2021.
Gabby was murdered by Brian in late August 2021, and her body was discovered on September 19, 2021 in a Wyoming National Park.
Brian fled the scene and drove back to his parent’s home in North Port, Florida. He later committed suicide in the Carlton Nature Reserve behind Chris and Roberta’s home.
He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He admitted to killing his fiancée in a notebook entry.
Brian Admitted To Killing Gabby
The letter in question was not dated, so Judge Brewer ruled the letter would not have to be included in the request, and also ruled that a separate request for the letter could be filed.
Reilly refiled the request on February 14th.
The Laundrie’s lawyer, Steven Bertolino, has also been added to the lawsuit filed by Gabby’s parents. He has lawyered up as well.
The letter came to light in December 2022 after Bertolino referenced it in a December 5th letter to the Laundrie’s other lawyer, Matthew Luka.
Per ABC7, the letter was in response to the Laundrie’s objections to providing certain documents to the plaintiffs in advance of a civil trial, scheduled for later this year.
“(The) request … is certainly relevant because, again, it goes to the issue of knowledge on the part of your clients of Gabby’s passing and the location of her body. This request certainly would also include the note that Roberta Laundrie wrote to Brian Laundrie when she offered to bring a shovel to help bury the body. This note was released to the custody of Mr. (Steven) Bertolino on Friday, June 24, 2022 by the FBI,” the letter said.
Bertolino previously told ABC7 that Reilly’s request for the letter was his attempt to “sensationalize” old evidence to bolster the case.
“A letter was written by Roberta Laundrie and given to her son, Brian, before Brian and Gabby left Florida for New York,” Bertolino said in an email. “This information is not new. The FBI had possession of the letter and turned it over to me back in June of 2022 with the other personal items that belonged to Brian. Attorney Reilly is trying to further sensationalize the contents of this letter to bolster his case by taking the unrelated comments in the letter out of context. If Mr. Reilly’s allegations had any merit a reasonably intelligent person would think the FBI would have acted on such information. You can thus draw your own conclusions as to the legitimacy of Mr. Reilly’s allegations.”
