Roberta Laundrie defends shock words about burying body & putting ‘shiv in cake’ in ‘burn after reading letter’ to Brian
BRIAN Laundrie's mother has defended the shocking comments she made in a letter to her son after he killed his girlfriend, Gabby Petito.
The Petito family was awarded access to the burn after reading note that had been in the Laundries' possession for some time in court on Wednesday.
Florida Judge Danielle Brewer denied the defense's motion for a protective order on the letter.
That meant that Gabby's parents, Nicole Schmidt and Joseph Petito, were permitted to view the document ahead of their civil suit trial against the Laundrie family.
As The U.S. Sun previously reported, the contents of the undated note included messages from Roberta Laundrie, Brian's mother, that explained how nothing could make her stop loving her son, even after he strangled his fiance to death during their cross-country road trip in August 2021.
"If you’re in jail, I will bake a cake with a file in it," Roberta wrote.
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"I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags."
In parenthesis, the mom did include: "burn after reading," as well.
There has been heated debate over when the letter was written, with Gabby's parents believing Roberta wrote the note around the time of their daughter's disappearance.
However, Roberta argued that she wrote the note before Gabby and Brian left home for their trip and defended her writings in a text message to News Nation correspondent Brian Entin.
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"The letter to Brian was written prior to Gabby and Brian leaving my home for their trip..." the mom wrote.
She argued that the Petito family attorney, Patrick Reilly, was being selective about the portions of the letter revealed to support his case against the Laundries.
"Understand that the letter contains other phases besides those highlighted by Pat Reilly for sensationalism and to bolster his case."
'IT CAN BE EMBARRASSING'
Roberta said that the letter was only intended to convey the love she had for her son and claimed that her comments about a shiv and burying a body were used as phrases to express to their loved ones the depths of their love.
"Although I chose words that I thought would be impactful with Brian given our relationship, the letter was in no way related to Gabby," she noted.
"I truly loved my son and simply wanted to convey to him how much he meant to me and how much I loved him."
After the ruling on Wednesday, Matt Luka, the Laundrie family attorney, echoed Roberta's concerns about how the letter might be used.
Luka said the letter may be taken out of context and feel inflammatory - explaining that the topics appear in a series of fanciful descriptions of how much somebody will love somebody else.
However, Reilly celebrated the ruling outside the courtroom.
He told the media: "Its a victory, we're happy to have it, we've fought hard to get it, we've been fighting for over a year to get that letter."
"The whole intent of this is to get answers," Reilly continued.
"There are still many questions that the Petito family has about what the Laundrie family knew, what they did with the knowledge that they knew, and really why they didn't come forward and say anything.
"I don't know if that question will ever get answered, but there's a lot of questions that the family would like answered if you can get closure at all in a situation like this."
EMOTIONAL DISTRESS
In their civil suit, the Petito family also argues that Roberta and Christopher Laundrie inflicted emotional distress on them while Gabby was missing two years ago.
Brian's parents allegedly refused to call them back or answer any of their texts, per the suit.
The Laundries argued that they had no obligation to stay in touch with Gabby's family and have filed a motion for the civil case to be thrown out.
Judge Brewer said she would rule on the motion to dismiss at a future date.
Gabby, 22, was reported missing on September 11, 2021, while on a road trip with Brian, 23, her fiancé.
Days later, her remains were found in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19, 2021.
After an autopsy, officials confirmed that she had been strangled to death.
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Brian later confessed to murdering Gabby before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The lawsuit filed in March 2022 by the Petito family claims that Brian's parents were aware their son had murdered his fiancé and chose not to act.
