Gabby Petito's Mom Says She Forgives Killer Brian Laundrie, Not His Mother

Gabby Petito's mother, Nicole Schmidt, said she's forgiven her daughter's fiancé turned killer, Brian Laundrie, but not his mother.

“I speak for myself here when I say Brian, I forgive you,” Schmidt said at the CrimeCon 2024 convention in Nashville on Friday (May 31) via PEOPLE.com.

"I needed to release myself from the chains of anger and bitterness," she added. "And I refuse to let your despicable act define the rest of my life."

Schmidt then addressed Laundrie's parents, Roberta and Christopher Laundrie, whom she said were "complicit in his cowardly flight from justice" and "have added salt" to her wounds through their actions in the aftermath of her daughter's death.

“As for you, Roberta — and I call you out individually because you are evidently the mastermind that shattered your family and mind with your evil ways — I see no empathy in your eyes, no remorse in your heart and no willingness to take responsibility for your actions,” Schmidt said. "You are the dark. You are the sociopath that everyone fears. The one who appears so innocent and kind, but harbors darkness within your soul. You do not deserve forgiveness. You deserve to be forgotten and dehumanized. You epitomize pure evil.”

Laundrie reportedly called his parents up to 20 times two days after he killed Petito, according to records recently obtained by the Daily Mail. Laundrie, who admitted to killing Petito in a note later found in the area where his body was located by authorities, reportedly made initial contact with his parents at around 4:00 p.m. on August 29, 2021, several days after Petito had last spoken to her mother, according to phone records obtained by the website.

The call between the Laundries lasted 55 minutes and was followed by a separate 22-minute conversation at around 9:20 p.m., the data showed. Laundrie then made several more calls between August 29 and August 30, most involving his mother, according to attorney Pat Reilly, who is representing the Petito family in an ongoing lawsuit against the Laundries claiming they knew that Brian murdered Gabby.

Laundrie supposedly notified his father that Petito was "gone" and that he needed an attorney during a call to his mother's phone.

“Brian told Christopher, 'Gabby’s gone, I need a lawyer.' And he was frantic in Christopher’s words,” Reilly told the Daily Mail. “They refused to acknowledge that that meant Gabby was dead, which flies in the face of logic. If your son calls and he’s frantic and he says she’s gone, I need a lawyer. What other explanation of ‘gone’ could there be?” Reilly added.

Christopher Laundrie claimed that he believed his son was referring to "'something to the effect of, well, there were times that Gabby would leave and go away for a couple days to meet with her friends or she’d just leave for a couple hours when she was living with us.’”

Petito's death occurred when the couple was taking a cross-country trip in 2021. Witnesses in Utah, where the couple was stopped for an alleged domestic violence incident during their cross-country roadtrip, told police that they saw Laundrie -- believed to have later strangled and bludgeoned Petito to death in the Bridger-Teton National Forest several weeks prior to his own death -- hitting the 22-year-old in public.

Officers made contact with the couple near Arches National Park, but no charges were filed, despite a Utah statute that requires police to make an arrest or issue a citation in relation to potential domestic incidents.

Petito, who appeared to be visibly shaken while speaking to police, told officers that Laundrie had grabbed her face while gesturing toward her neck, but authorities deemed her to be the aggressor and didn't appear to view Laundrie as a potential suspect at the time, despite witnesses calling 911 alleging that he had hit her in public.

On September 30, 2021, police released bodycam footage which showing Petito telling an officer that an argument with Laundrie got physical on August 21, 2021.

Officers pulled over the van Laundrie and Petito were traveling in on their cross-country trip and Petito told officers that she initially slapped Laundrie before he retaliated.

"I guess, but I hit him first," Petito said when asked by an officer if Laundrie hit her in the face.

"Where did he hit you? Don’t worry. Just be honest," the officer asked.

"Well, he grabbed my face," Petito said.

"Did he slap your face? Or what?" the officer responded.

"Well like, yeah he grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that’s why I definitely have a cut right here because I can feel it when I touch it, it burns," she said, while holding her jaw and crying.

The video then shows Laundrie recanting his side of the incident.

"She gets really worked up, and when she does she swings, and she had her cellphone in her hand, so I was just trying to push her away," Laundrie said.

The Parker & McConkie law firm, which represents Petito's parents in a lawsuit against Laudrie's parents, shared a selfie taken by Gabby in which she appears to have blood, swelling and visible marks on her face just prior to the traffic stop. On October 12, 2021, Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue -- who performed an autopsy on Petito -- announced her death was ruled as a death by strangulation and the manner of death to be a homicide during a press conference.

Dr. Blue said Petito's death is believed to have occurred 3-4 weeks prior to her remains being found on September 19, 2021 and confirmed to match her days later. Dr. Blue confirmed the ruling was made while working alongside local and federal authorities.

Laundrie, the lone person of interest in connection to Petito's disappearance and death, was discovered weeks later at the Carlton Reserve campsite near his family's Florida home and confirmed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, his family's attorney, Steve Bertolino, confirmed to TMZ. Laundrie was the center of a publicized search by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local authorities at the Carlton Reserve prior to his remains being discovered.

Police later confirmed that a confession letter written by Laundrie was also found. Petito's parents had previously been rewarded $3 million in relation to a wrongful death lawsuit against Laundrie's parents in November 2022, CNN reported at the time.