The parents of Gabby Petito, a US blogger strangled by her lover, revealed a disturbing letter from the suspected killer's mother.
On Wednesday, a court allowed the case to include Roberta Laundrie's letter to her son.
National attention was drawn when 22-year-old Gabby Petito died in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park two years ago. After discovering her corpse, Brian Laundrie committed suicide, according to People.
The presence of a notebook next to Laundrie's remains that had a confession written in it in which he accepted responsibility for Petito's demise was made public by the FBI in January 2022, the BBC reported.
The Petito family sued Brian Laundrie's parents in civil court for emotional distress damages.
The letter was asked to be excluded from the case by Brian Laundrie's parents, even though they have not been prosecuted as being associated with Petito's death.
What's in the Letter?
In the letter, Mrs. Laundrie promises, "If you're in jail, I'll bake a cake and put a file in it," and "If you need to dispose of a body, I'll show up with a shovel and garbage bags." The message was placed inside an envelope with the message "Burn after reading."
Mrs. Laundrie previously characterized the letter as "quirky" and written before her son's cross-country journey with Petito.
Lawyers for the families of Petito and Laundrie argued in court over the letter's admissibility and applicability to the emotional distress claim. The Petito family's attorney Patrick Reilly maintained that the letter was written after Petito's murder, while the Laundries claimed it was written earlier.
The judge has yet to decide whether Roberta Laundrie's letter is admissible. The plaintiff's attorneys should obtain a copy of the letter since it could be relevant to the lawsuit, but the court decided that a secrecy order was not required to seal it.
Patrick Reilly stressed the significance of the letter at the hearing for the Petito family's suit filed against the Laundrie family, pointing out that the connections to burying a corpse and bringing a shovel represented possible crimes that Roberta Laundrie promised she would conduct, according to CNN.
Roberta Laundrie's lawyer, Steven Bertolino, advised people to read the letter thoroughly after stressing that it was written before the fatal journey.
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