Gabby Petito’s Mom Reveals Red Flags over Brian Laundrie.
Gabby Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, has revealed that she unknowingly observed "red flags" in her daughter's relationship with Brian Laundrie in the days leading up to Gabby's tragic murder in 2021. "People often ask me, 'Did you have any idea what was happening? Did you notice any warning signs?' I tell them now, 'I didn't realize it back then. I just thought she was feeling overwhelmed,'" Nichole explained during an interview on the "CONNECT with Jonathan Mark" podcast, which is set to premiere on Tuesday, January 28. E! News has shared a clip from the interview.
Gabby “wasn’t herself” during her summer 2021 road trip across the western United States with 23-year-old Brian, where the pair lived out of a van. Nichole said her 22-year-old daughter’s mood was “bipolar, almost.”
“It was just anger and aggression. She would call me up crying,” Gabby’s mom recalled. “She was off, and that is a red flag.”
The disappearance and subsequent murder of Gabby Petito captivated the nation in the late summer and early autumn of 2021.
Gabby was reported missing by her family on September 11, 2021, after her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, returned to his parents' home in Florida without her. The last communication Gabby had with her family was on August 30, 2021, when she sent a message while in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest with Brian, saying, “No service in Yosemite.”
On September 15, 2021, police in Moab, Utah, released bodycam footage from an incident involving Brian and a visibly distraught Gabby during a traffic stop on August 12, 2021. A 911 caller had alerted authorities after allegedly witnessing Brian slap Gabby outside a food co-op. Despite the concerning nature of the incident, both Gabby and Brian chose not to press charges, and they were allowed to continue with their trip.
“After evaluating the totality of the circumstances, I do not believe the situation escalated to the level of a domestic assault as much as that of a mental health crisis,” Officer Daniel Robbins wrote in his report.
On September 16, 2021, after Brian Laundrie failed to engage with Gabby Petito’s family regarding her location, their attorney, Richard Stafford, publicly appealed for assistance. “Please, if you or your family have any decency left, tell us where Gabby is. Let us know if we are searching in the right area,” Stafford said. “All we want is for Gabby to come home. Please assist us in making that happen.”
The following day, September 17, 2021, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie informed authorities that they had not seen their son for three days, prompting a search operation in a nearby nature preserve in North Port, Florida, to begin on September 18, 2021.
On September 19, 2021, human remains later identified as Gabby Petito’s were discovered near a campsite in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue confirmed on October 12, 2021, that Gabby’s death was a homicide caused by strangulation.
On October 20, 2021, investigators discovered Brian Laundrie’s skeletal remains in Florida’s T. Mabry Carlton, Jr. Memorial Reserve and Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. Personal items, including a backpack and a notebook, were also found at the scene. Dental records confirmed the remains as those of Brian Laundrie the following day. An autopsy concluded that Brian died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The FBI closed the case in January 2022, determining no one else but Brian was involved in Gabby’s death.
All logical investigative steps have been concluded in this case,” said FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said in a statement on January 21, 2022. “The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito. The FBI’s primary focus throughout the investigation was to bring justice to Gabby and her family. ”
In June 2022, a lawyer representing the Laundrie family shared parts of Brian's notebook, which seemed to contain a confession regarding her murder.
“If you were reading Gabs’ journal, looking at photos from our life together, flipping through old cards you wouldn’t want to live a day without her. Knowing that everyday you’ll wake up without her, you wouldn’t want to wake up. I’m sorry to everyone this will affect, Gabby was the love of my life, but I know [adored] by many,” he wrote. “I’m so very sorry to her family because I love them. I’d [consider] her younger siblings my best of friends … I am sorry to my family, this [is] a shock to them as well a terrible grief.”
“They loved as much, if not more than me. A new daughter to my mother, an aunt to my nephews. Please do not make this harder for them, this [occurred] as an unexpected tragedy. Rushing back to our car trying to cross the streams of [illegible] before it got too dark to see, too cold. I hear a splash and a scream. I could barely see. I couldn’t find her for a moment, shouted her name. I found her breathing heavily, gasping [illegible.] She was freezing cold. [Illegible] the blazing hot national parks in Utah,” he continued.
Brian stated that he discovered Gabby in a stream, noting that she had a swelling on her head that was increasing in size.
“She would wake in pain, start her whole painful cycle again [illegible] furious that I was the one waking her. She wouldn’t let me try to cross the creek, thought like me that the fire would go out in her sleep and she’d freeze. I don’t know the extent of Gabby’s injuries, only that she was in extreme pain. I ended her life, 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. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldn’t go on without her,” he wrote.
