() — The mother of Brian Laundrie, the man who killed his fiancée Gabby Petito and later committed suicide in 2021, wrote to her son saying she would help him “dispose of a body” or “bake a cake with a lime in it.” to help him in jail, according to an undated copy of the letter obtained by .
“I just want you to remember that I will always love you and that I know that you will always love me. You are my child. Nothing can make me stop loving you, nothing can ever separate us. No matter what we do, wherever we go, or whatever we say : we will always love each other,” Roberta Laundrie wrote in the letter.
“If you’re in jail, I’ll bake a cake with a file in it. If you have to dispose of a dead body, I’ll bring you a shovel and garbage bags,” he says, with an apparent erasure over the word bring. “If you fly to the Moon, I’ll be watching the skies for your reentry. If you say you hate me to the core, I’ll buy myself some new guts.”
Roberta Laundrie said the letter was written before her son’s trip with Petito, and one of her lawyers released a statement saying she was “in no way related to Gabby,” though Petito’s family disputes those claims.
Here is the text of the undated letter from Roberta Laundrie to her son: I just want you to remember that I will always love you and I know that you will always love me. You are my child. Nothing can make me stop loving you, nothing will separate us or can ever separate us. Whatever we do, wherever we go or whatever we say, we will always love each other. If you’re in jail, I’ll bake a cake with a lime in it. If you have to dispose of a dead body, I’ll arrive with a shovel and garbage bags. If you fly to the moon, I’ll be watching the skies for your reentry. If you say you hate me to the core, I’ll buy myself some new guts. Remember that love is a verb, not a noun. It is not a thing, it is not words, it is actions. Watch people’s actions to see if they love you, not their words. That is why I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor the angels, nor the ruling spirits, nor the present, nor the future, nor the powers above, nor the powers below, nothing in the entire created world can separate our love Neither the hostile powers, nor the messengers of heaven, nor the monarchs of the earth. Nothing has the power to separate us…” –Romans 8:38 (Nothing can separate us: “Not hate, not hunger, not homelessness, not threats, not even sin, not thought, not unthinkable can come between us). Nor the time. Not miles and miles and miles. (Obtained by )
The envelope containing the letter was marked “burn after reading” and was recovered from Brian Laundrie’s backpack when his remains were found in October 2021.
The undated letter to Brian Laundrie reads “burn after reading”. Obtained by
The letter also quotes the Romans in the Bible. “Nothing can separate us; not hate, not hunger, not homelessness, not threats, not even sin, not the thinkable or unthinkable can come between us,” he reads.
The full contents of the letter come almost two years after the young couple embarked on a cross-country trip, painstakingly documented on social media, that ended in tragedy. Brian Laundrie returned home from the trip without Petito and disappeared several weeks later.
Petito’s remains were found in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest in September 2021 and his death was ruled a homicide by hand strangulation. Before taking his own life, Brian Laundrie wrote in a notebook that he was responsible for his death, according to the FBI.
The letter was the subject of a hearing Wednesday in which Petito’s parents argued that it is relevant in their lawsuit filed against Brian’s parents and former attorney for emotional distress.
The Petito family maintains that Laundrie’s parents and her attorney knew that Petito had been murdered and knew the location of her body when they issued a statement on September 14, 2021 about the search. That statement, which is the crux of the case, it said, in a fragment: “We hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family.”
The judge has not yet ruled on the admissibility of Roberta Laundrie’s letter. After a long tug-of-war in court, both sides agreed that a confidentiality order was not necessary to keep the letter secret once Judge Danielle Brewer of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit ruled that the letter could be relevant to the case and that the plaintiff’s lawyers should at least obtain a copy.
In court, Petito family attorney Patrick Reilly argued that the letter was important in his lawsuit against the Laundrie family.
“As we all know, the letter refers to burying a dead body; bring a shovel and bury a dead body,” he said. “Those are criminal acts, by the way, that Roberta Laundrie has said she would commit.”
The Laundries argued in court that they had no obligation to the Petito family.
The mother says that the letter is not related to Petito
In a statement from Roberta Laundrie’s lawyer, Steven Bertolino, she said the letter was written before the fatal trip and encouraged people to read it in its entirety.
“I really loved my son and just wanted to convey to him how much he meant to me and how much I loved him,” she said. “I’m sure people use phrases all the time to express the depth of their love to their loved ones. Although I chose words that I thought would have an impact on Brian given our relationship, the letter was in no way related to Gabby,” said.
“I ask that you read it in its entirety, and understand that the letter contains other phrases in addition to those highlighted by Pat Reilly for sensationalism and to strengthen his case,” he added.
She said something similar in court documents, saying the letter was intended “to reach Brian while he and I were going through a difficult period in our relationship.”
However, the Petito family called Laundrie’s statement “self-interested.”
“The letter is undated, and although Roberta Laundrie has suggested that it was written before Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito left on their trip, a reasonable inference is that it was written after Gabby Petito was murdered, and is evidence that the Laundrie and attorney Bertolino were aware of Gabby Petito’s passing when the statement in question was released on September 14, 2021,” the Petito family responded.
“We expect a jury to determine when the letter was written at the time of trial,” added the Petito family.
— ‘s Eric Levenson contributed to this report.
