'WE KNOW HOW SHE DIED'
GABBY Petito's mom broke down in tears as she ripped Brian Laundrie, declaring his notebook confession an "absolute" lie.
Nichole Schmidt appeared on the Today show on Thursday almost a year after her daughter's tragic death.
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"It's hard. We're trying, we're trying to do good for Gabby and for everybody else," Schmidt said as she fought back tears.
Schmidt slammed Laundrie's notebook confession, calling it an "absolute" lie and part of his "character" to look like the "good guy".
"That was his character even in his last moments he wanted to make sure he looked like the good guy," Gabby's mom said. "That's ridiculous. We know how she died."
"Our story begins because of domestic violence and we don't want it to happen to anybody else," Schmidt said as she revealed that the Gabby Petito foundation donated $100,000 to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
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The hotline receives calls from thousands of people each year, mostly from women looking for help leaving physically or emotionally abusive relationships.
“I think Gabby’s story touched a lot of people and she’s saving lives. I get people messaging me all the time that they were inspired by her to get out of a relationship,” Schmidt told the Associated Press.
Gabby, a van life vlogger, was found strangled to death last September in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Investigators believe Gabby’s boyfriend, Laundrie, 23, killed her last August while the couple was on a cross-country trip.
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Laundrie’s remains were found in the Carlton Reserve in North Port on October 20, 2021.
FINAL ADMISSION
Laundrie admitted to “ending” Gabby’s life, calling it a “merciful murder” in a journal found along with his skeletal remains.
In the journal, obtained by The Sun, Laundrie claimed Gabby was dealing with some sort of injury and would "wake in pain".
He wrote that he "ended her life, mercifully" because that was "what she wanted."
"She would wake in pain, start her whole painful cycle again, while furious that I was the one waking her," the 23-year-old wrote.
"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."
"From the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldn't go on without her," Laundrie concluded.
Laundrie also alluded to seeing his family after killing the young vlogger, and asked the public not to "make life harder for his family."
"I am sorry to my family. This is a shock to them as well as a terrible grief. They loved as much, if not more than me.
"A new daughter to my mother, an aunt to my nephews (sic).
"Please do not make this harder for them. this occurred as an unexpected tragedy," Laundrie is believed to have written.
Laundrie also revealed in the journal that he was actually considering having two people kill him.
"I wanted to drive north and let James or TJ kill me, but I wouldn't want them to spend time in jail over my mistake, even though I'm sure they would have liked to," it read.
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However, he eventually decided to kill himself via a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
"I have killed myself by this creek in the hopes that animal may tear me apart. That it may make some of her family happy," Laundrie is believed to have written.
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