The “burn after reading” letter that Brian Laundrie’s mother sent to him before he died by suicide has been released to the public.
Prior to Brian and Gabby Petito’s cross-country vacation, which started in June 2021 and concluded several months later when Petito was killed and Brian came home, Roberta Laundrie told Fox News that she had written the letter to Brian. Previously, Roberta stated in her affidavit that she had written the letter “to reach out to Brian while he and I were experiencing a difficult period in our relationship.”
In the letter, which was made public on Wednesday, Roberta tells Brian: “If you’re in jail I will bake a cake and put a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body. I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.”
She added: “If you fly to the moon, I will be watching the skies for your re-entry. If you say you hate my guts, I’ll get new guts. Remember that love is a verb, not a noun. It’s not a thing it’s not words. It is actions. Watch people’s actions to know if they love you – not their words.”
Roberta claimed that she wrote the letter that contained the phrase “burn after reading” after reading Brian’s copy of “Burn After Writing,” a book given to him by Petito that encourages readers to write letters to themselves before burning them. Although Roberta wrote the letter before Petito’s murder and Brian’s confession, it has been deemed admissible evidence in the Petito family’s lawsuit against the Laundrie family. The Petito family alleges that the Laundries were aware of their son’s involvement in Petito’s death and aided him in evading authorities.
The family of Laundrie has stated that they do not regret their actions following the disappearance of Petito. Laundrie, aged 23, is suspected of committing suicide soon after he went missing following the murder of his fiancée Gabby Petito. He had admitted to killing her as per the FBI. In October 2021, his remains were discovered in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. The notebook found with his body was released by his family’s attorney in June 2022.
“I ended her life,” Laundrie wrote, according to a copy of the notebook exclusively provided to Fox News. “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.”
According to Laundrie, he allegedly strangled Petito to death after she fell and injured herself during their trip to Wyoming in order to relieve her pain. However, Pat Reilly, the lawyer for Petito’s family, criticized Laundrie’s statement as “nonsense.”
“He is writing a letter as though he wants people to feel sorry for him,” Reilly told the outlet.
