An attorney representing the parents of Gabby Petito, the Long Island woman who died on a cross-country trip with her fiancé Brian Laundrie last year, said Tuesday to expect another confession with a different scenario in the near future.
The comments from lawyer Pat Reilly come in response to questions posed to the Petito family about the release of contents from Laundrie's notebook, which was recovered along with his body in the swampy Florida preserve where authorities say he is believed to have taken his own life amid a multi-state manhunt in October.
Excerpts from the notebook were shared by Laundrie family attorney Steve Bertolino. The eight pages of hand-written notes offer some insight into the tragic deaths of the young couple and a confession from Laundrie -- "I ended her life" -- about Petito.
Reilly says the woman's parents, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, had been aware of the notebook contents and a letter Brian Laundrie received from his mother Roberta for some time. The FBI shared it with them and Bertolino, Reilly said.
According to Reilly, Bertolino allegedly cherry-picked certain parts of the notebook to share "to garner sympathy for Brian Laundrie and his parents."
"The words of that notebook lack contrition and contain a false narrative of the circumstances of Gabby's passing," Reilly said. "We expect in the near future that at least one other confession with a different scenario will be released."
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Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, had only two words: "FED UP."
As for the letter Roberta Laundrie sent to Brian Laundrie, Reilly says Bertolino wouldn't provide the Petito family with a copy. While the letter is undated, Reilly says it appears to have been written after Petito's death but before Laundrie's, which the attorney says shows Roberta Laundrie had prior knowledge of Petito's killing.
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The Laundrie family has consistently denied any wrongdoing in Petito's case.
Investigators had long hoped the notebook, which its contents be salvageable after weeks in the preserve, could provide some answers to the ravaged families involved.
And it certainly tells a story. Laundrie writes he decided to end Petito's life after she allegedly suffered some kind of injury while the two were camping at night. The 23-year-old writes about trying to keep her warm and awake while Petito was in "extreme" pain, but his entries don't reference any effort to find her medical help.
Laundrie also wrote he couldn't go on without Petito after she died.
The confession had been reported to the public by the FBI in January, though details on exactly what it said -- and visual evidence of it -- weren't shared until now. Bertolino had said he was releasing the details he did as a matter of transparency.
The notebook was found in October along with human remains, a backpack and a revolver. In November, the remains were identified as Laundrie's.
Petito's remains were found on Sept. 19 in a remote area of a Wyoming national park she and Laundrie had visited during their months-long trip. The county coroner ruled her death a homicide and later revealed chilling details from the autopsy results.
Petito was strangled by someone's bare hands, and likely died three to four weeks before she was found. Laundrie had returned to his parents' home in Florida and remained quiet as the search for Petito was underway. He went missing Sept. 13, when his parents told cops he said he was going for a hike in the Carlton Reserve.
