Gabby Petito Murder Case: Parents of Suspect, Victim Reach Settlement Over Emotional Distress Lawsuit

The parents of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie have reached a settlement over an emotional distress lawsuit in relation to the murder case of the 22-year-old travel blogger.

The settlement was reached on Wednesday, which would avoid a civil trial in relation to the murder case. The parents of the victim, Nichole Schmidt and Joseph Petito, filed a lawsuit against Laundrie's parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, as well as their attorney, Steven Bertolino, for intentional infliction of emotional distress in March 2022.

Settlement Over Emotional Distress Lawsuit

Petito's parents claimed that the Laundries were aware of their daughter's murder soon after her death in August 2021 and deliberately chose to do nothing other than issue a statement through the attorney. The statement that they made expressed hope that she would be found by law enforcement.

The two sides on Wednesday came to an agreement to avoid a civil trial that would have started in May this year. A statement from Joseph and Tara Petito and Nichole and James Schmidt read that they had a long day of mediation and made a confidential resolution, as per ABC News.

It added that all of the parties involved reluctantly agreed in order to avoid further legal expenses and prolonged personal conflict. The hope was that the development would close the issue and allow them to move on and continue to honor the legacy of Petito.

In a statement, Bertolino said that he and the Laundries participated in mediation and noted that the terms of the resolution were confidential. He noted that they were looking forward to putting the matter behind them.

The victim's family first reported the travel blogger missing on Sept. 11, 2021, which was at the time that she was on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie. Officials then discovered her body roughly a week later in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest. A coroner ruled that she had died of "blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation."

Gabby Petito Murder Case

Her fiance was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Florida's Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, furthermore, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) discovered a notebook in which he allegedly confirmed that he was responsible for killing Petito.

Prior to the settlement, the parents of both parties settled a separate wrongful death lawsuit for $3 million. The recent lawsuit claimed that the Laundries, hiding their knowledge of Petito's murder, "acted with malice or great indifference to the rights of Petito's parents," according to CBS News.

Furthermore, the lawsuit called the Laundries' behavior shocking, atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community. They previously said that the last time they saw their son was two days after Petito was reported missing when Brian left their home to go hiking in the nearby Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, Florida.

The development comes a week after court documents showed that Laundrie's parents acknowledged in depositions that their son had told them that Petito was "gone" and that he would need a lawyer. This was during a frantic phone call that was made on Aug. 29, 2021, which was three weeks before the victim's strangled remains were found, said CNN.