Gabby Petito‘s mother once delivered a blistering message to the parents of the man who killed her daughter: You deserve to be forgotten.
Roberta and Christopher Laundrie faced years of fury over allegations that they helped protect their son, Brian, and stayed quiet as authorities searched for Petito.
The once infamous couple may have largely faded from public view, but in their own backyard, their neighbors have neither forgotten nor forgiven.
The Daily Mail has learned that the pair have become pariahs in their quiet Florida neighborhood, where residents exclude them from gatherings, ignore them on the street and even deliberately allow their dogs to relieve themselves on the Laundries’ lawn.
‘I let the dog s*** speak for itself,’ one neighbor told the Daily Mail just outside the Laundrie home.
Leash in hand, she insisted that she usually cleans up after her dog, but makes an exception for the Laundries.
‘It’s my little way of remembering Gabby,’ she said. ‘That’s what they deserve.’
Residents of North Port have largely ostracized the pair from the community surrounding their modest, single-story home that became the center of the 2021 search for Petito.
When the Daily Mail visited the Laundries’ quiet, middle-class neighborhood, the couple appeared to be home.
Brian Laundrie’s parents (pictured) have become pariahs in their Florida neighborhood, the Daily Mail has learned
The Laundries have never explained why they went camping with Brian during the search for Petito
Lights were on and cars were parked in the driveway, but no one answered the door.
The surrounding streets were largely quiet, with neighbors exchanging smiles as they went about their days.
Residents claim, however, that such pleasantries are rarely extended to the Laundries, with no one ever dropping by except for the occasional reporter or protester.
Neighbors claimed to keep their distance, avoiding eye contact and refusing to wave.
The Laundrie property is also routinely targeted by vandals, residents said, with eggs, shaving cream or garbage frequently thrown onto the lawn.
‘Oh I’ve seen a lot of stuff thrown on their lawn,’ Donna Hawley, who lives around the corner, told the Daily Mail. ‘I know it’s petty and immature, but I’ve seen dirty diapers and McDonald’s bags just tossed on their lawn.
‘I don’t even know if they know that it’s intentional or not. They must know. No one else has that problem.’
There is little indication that the Laundries are interested in discussing the hostility they are facing in their own neighborhood, but silence is hardly a new strategy for Christopher and Roberta.
It was their refusal to speak during the frantic search for Petito that helped turn the grieving parents of a killer into objects of national fury.
Brian Laundrie, then 23, returned to his parents’ Florida home on September 1, 2021, after a cross-country trip with his 22-year-old fiancée, Gabby Petito.
He was driving her van and had used her credit card. But Petito was nowhere to be found.
Roberta Laundrie pictured outside their home in North Port, Florida
Christopher and Roberta Laundrie faced fierce scrutiny for refusing to speak during the search for their son’s fiancee, Gabby Petito
Christopher Laundrie pictured mowing his lawn. A neighbor told the Daily Mail that she purposefully leads her dog to relieve himself on his grass
As Petito’s increasingly desperate family tried to figure out where their daughter was, Laundrie and his parents remained silent.
Five years later, questions remain about what Christopher and Roberta knew – and when they knew it.
Depositions would later reveal that Brian made frantic calls to his parents after Petito’s death, telling them that she was ‘gone’ and that he needed a lawyer. Christopher Laundrie contacted longtime family attorney Steven Bertolino.
The Laundries have maintained that they did not know Brian had killed Petito and did not understand his use of the word ‘gone’ to mean she was dead. They said they were merely following the advice of Bertolino when they refused to give any insight into Petito’s fate.
Neither Bertolino nor the Laundries have responded to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
When Petito’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, desperately tried to contact Roberta Laundrie while searching for her daughter, Laundrie refused to respond, Schmidt previously told the Daily Mail.
Days after Brian returned home without Petito, the Laundries went camping with their son and other relatives to Fort De Soto Park near St. Petersburg.
To a public watching Petito’s family desperately search for her, the optics were devastating: Brian was camping with his parents while his fiancee was missing.
Nichole Schmidt holds up a photo of her daughter Gabby Petito during a 2021 press conference
Body cam footage later emerged of the aftermath of a domestic incident in Moab, Utah, where police determined that the couple had gotten into a physical altercation (Petito pictured)
‘That’s where they lost me,’ said Chuck Malina, who lives near the family home. ‘I get trying to protect your son, really I do. I’d do anything for my kids. But not at the expense of someone else’s kid. That’s just sociopathic.
‘If I see them, I usually just look away,’ Malina continued. ‘I think they’re a**holes for what they did. I don’t need to be their friend.
‘Let’s just say they’re not coming to any block parties anytime soon.’
Neither Christopher nor Roberta have faced charges in connection with Petito’s death or the investigation. The Laundries have never explained why they went camping with Brian during the search for Petito.
Petito was officially reported missing on September 11, 2021. Days later, Brian Laundrie disappeared.
While Laundrie was missing, Petito’s remains were discovered in Wyoming on September 19. A medical examiner determined she had been strangled.
Body cam footage later emerged of the aftermath of a domestic incident in Moab, Utah, where police determined that the couple had gotten into a physical altercation. Laundrie became the prime suspect in Petito’s murder.
But he never faced justice. His remains were found the following month in a wilderness area near North Port. He had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Investigators recovered a notebook near his body in which he admitted responsibility for Petito’s death.
Also among Laundrie’s belongings was an extraordinary handwritten note from his mother in an envelope bearing the instruction: ‘Burn after reading.’
Laundrie (seen in police body cam footage) was the prime suspect in Petito’s murder, but he never faced justice
Inside, Roberta wrote about the lengths she would go to for her son, including bringing a shovel and garbage bags if he needed help disposing of a body and helping him escape from prison.
But Laundrie’s death didn’t end the scrutiny of his parents.
Petito’s parents sued Christopher and Roberta, accusing them of knowing their son had killed Petito while her family was still desperately searching for her and withholding that information.
The Laundries have denied the allegations.
Roberta insisted the letter was written before Laundrie and Petito left on their trip and had nothing to do with the killing. She later described it as a ‘jokey, stupid letter’ filled with humor that looked appalling when read through the lens of what subsequently happened.
The case was settled in February 2024 before it could go to trial for an undisclosed amount of money. The case is sealed, so it is unclear whether any wrongdoing was admitted.
Petito with Brian’s mother Roberta Laundrie, who said she would provide her son with a shovel if he needed to dispose of a body
Speaking at CrimeCon in 2024, Petito’s mother said she had forgiven Brian but had not forgiven his mother.
‘You do not deserve forgiveness,’ Schmidt said, addressing Roberta. ‘You deserve to be forgotten.’
She accused Roberta of lacking empathy and remorse and called her the ‘mastermind’ whose actions had compounded the devastation suffered by both families.
Christopher and Roberta have largely retreated from public view since then.
And while America may be forgetting Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, their neighbors have a daily reminder.
‘I think about Gabby every time I walk past the house,’ says Hawley. ‘I get angry all over again.
‘This is a nice neighborhood, full of good people. They just don’t fit in.’
