Brian Laundrie’s family shunned 5 years after Gabby Petito’s death: ‘They deserve’ dog poop, trash on lawn
Brian Laundrie’s parents have been ostracized by their Florida neighbors who still accuse them of helping protect their son after he murdered girlfriend Gabby Petito five years ago — even going as far as leaving dog poop and dirty diapers on their front lawn, according to a report.
Roberta and Christopher Laundrie have been excluded from local gatherings and are treated with disdain in their middle-class North Port neighborhood, which became the center of the frantic search for Petito in 2021, the Daily Mail reported.
Five years after Laundrie strangled Petito and then took his own life in a wild case that gained national attention, the property is still regularly targeted by vandals with eggs, shaving cream and trash.
“Oh, I’ve seen a lot of stuff thrown on their lawn,” Donna Hawley, who lives around the corner, told the Daily Mail. “I know it’s petty and immature, but I’ve seen dirty diapers and McDonald’s bags just tossed on their lawn.”
Another neighbor walking her dog by the Laundrie’s home told the paper she lets “the dog s–t speak itself,” and refuses to clean up her dog’s mess if it’s on their property.
“It’s my little way of remembering Gabby,” the unidentified woman said. “That’s what they deserve.”
The home was the center of the investigation into Petito, who went vanished in Aug. 2021 while on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie.
Petito’s parents reported their 22-year-old daughter missing on Sept. 11, 2021 – 10 days after Laundrie, 23, already reached his parents’ house in Florida alone in the van he and Petito had left in.
Days later, the family went camping together and then released a statement that suggested Petito might be alive.
Laundrie’s parents were accused of stonewalling investigators as they scrambled to track down Petito — which they have denied.
It’s unclear how much they really knew at the time before Petito was found strangled to death near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on Sept. 19.
Laundrie’s parents later revealed in legal papers they were concerned about Petito’s well-being after their son called them in panic to tell them she was “gone,” but that they didn’t think it meant she was killed.
“He [Brian] was not calm and he got very excited and told me things had — you know, ‘Gabby’s gone’ and he got very frantic. Everything was frantic and quick,” father Christopher Laundrie recalled.
The Laundries have claimed that they did not know their son had killed Petito and did not understand his use of the word “gone” meant she was dead.
“That’s where they lost me,” Chuck Malina, who lives near the Laundries, told the Daily Mail.
“I get trying to protect your son, really I do. I’d do anything for my kids. But not at the expense of someone else’s kid. That’s just sociopathic.”
“If I see them, I usually just look away,” Malina said about the family. “I think they’re a–holes for what they did. I don’t need to be their friend.
“Let’s just say they’re not coming to any block parties anytime soon.”
Brian sneaked out of his family’s house and into a Florida swamp, where he later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities found with his body a backpack and a notebook with a written confession claiming he “ended her life.”
“I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made,” Laundrie wrote in the notebook recovered by the FBI.
Inside Laundrie’s backpack was a note from his mother labeled “burn after reading” in which she promised to bring her son a shovel and garbage bags to get rid of a body. Roberta Laundrie later claimed the note was written months before her son and Petito left on their trip.
Petito’s parents and step-parents filed a civil lawsuit in Florida against the Laundries and their lawyer, alleging they were aware of Gabby’s slaying but stayed mum about the case.
In 2024, the Petito and Laundrie families “reluctantly” reached a secretive legal settlement.