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FIRST ON FOX: When Florida police visited the home of Brian Laundrie in 2021 after the disappearance of his fiancee Gabby Petito on the other side of the country, his parents dodged their questions before officers ultimately left with her van – and more questions than answers, newly released bodycam video shows.
“I’m not talking to anybody,” Laundrie’s father, Christopher Laundrie, tells a North Port police officer after answering the door in a sleeveless shirt as his wife, Roberta, looks on over his shoulder.
The officer, who has a New York detective on the phone who was looking for Petito, asks, “You don’t want to talk to us?”
WATCH: Florida police bodycam shows Brian Laundrie’s parents on the day Gabby Petito was reported missing
“No,” Christopher Laundrie replies, shaking his head.
The officer explains he has a detective on the phone and asks when the last time the parents saw their son or Petito.
“Well, Brian is here, and that’s all we’re saying,” his father replies. “We have an attorney… That’s all I want to say.”
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He agrees to share the attorney’s phone number with police.
North Port police recorded the encounter on Sept. 11, 2021, the day Petito’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, reported her missing in her New York hometown. The video was just made public through public records requests.
“This nightmare never ends,” Schmidt told Fox News Digital Wednesday, just over three years after her daughter’s remains were found at a campsite north of Jackson, Wyoming. Petito had last been seen alive at a grocery store in town there on Aug. 28, 2021.
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Christopher and Roberta Laundrie answer their front door after police knocked on Sept. 11, 2021, looking for missing Gabby Petito. Their son had returned home to North Port, Florida, without her after the FBI says he killed her at a campsite north of Jackson, Wyoming, two weeks earlier. (North Port PD)
After authorities say Laundrie bludgeoned and strangled Petito, he left her body in the Bridger-Teton National Forest and drove home to his parents’ house in North Port – using her van and debit card.
“Is this her vehicle, her van?” the officer asked Laundrie’s parents, pointing at her white Ford parked in their driveway.
“It’s both of theirs,” Christopher Laundrie replied.
Gabby Petito’s white Ford van pictured in the Laundrie family driveway in North Port, Florida, on Sept. 11, 2021, the day she was reported missing and weeks after she was last seen alive in Wyoming. Her fiance Brian Laundrie later killed himself, and the FBI identified him as the only suspect in her death. (North Port PD)
The officer returned to his patrol vehicle and put the Suffolk County detective on speakerphone, as they discuss what to do. She revealed that Petito hadn’t been in contact with her parents since Aug. 27.
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Gabby Petito was reported missing in September 2021, roughly two weeks after her former fiance Brian Laundrie is believed to have killed her and abandoned her body at a campsite in Wyoming. (@petitojoseph/Instagram )
“His sister told me another story that he left her out there and flew home, and yet you’re seeing the van in their driveway, and they won’t say where she is,” she says. She notes that the vehicle is registered to Petito and says her family considers it hers.
By then, Petito’s phone had been off for 10 days.
Brian Laundrie as seen in bodycam footage released by the Moab Police Department in Utah. (Moab PD)
“I don’t know if that van’s a crime scene,” the detective says.
A North Port sergeant later approached the door and tried to ask the Laundries for help reassuring Petito’s parents that she was OK. They refused and said their son wouldn’t talk to investigators either. He told them the van was registered to her only, that it shouldn’t be there, and that police would tow it.
“If that’s what you’re saying you gotta do, you gotta do it,” the father replies. “Right now, I’m not speaking to you anymore.”
North Port police ultimately towed Petito’s van from the Laundrie driveway to examine it for evidence. (North Port PD)
The family’s lawyer, Steve Bertolino, previously told Fox News Digital he advised them to invoke their constitutional right to remain silent as the investigation played out.
Brian Laundrie himself also declined to ever speak with police and eventually snuck out and shot himself in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park about 10 minutes away, where his remains went undiscovered for weeks until floodwater receded.
GABBY PETITO’S MOM AND STEPMOM SEND NOT-SO-SUBTLE MESSAGE TO ROBERTA LAUNDRIE
Fox News Digital was present when his parents discovered a drybag at the scene, which they handed to police.
The FBI eventually revealed it contained a handwritten confession as well as personal effects belonging to both Laundrie and Peitito.
A North Port detective informs Chris and Roberta Laundrie that human remains were discovered in the search for their son at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on Oct. 20, 2021. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
“I ended her life,” reads the note, recovered on Oct. 20, 2021. “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.”
He claimed he did it after she injured herself in a fall.
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The slaying inspired Petito’s parents to found a nonprofit foundation in her honor, assisting other families of missing persons and advocating against domestic violence.
Gabby Petito’s parents, Joseph Petito, left, and Nichole Schmidt, with their attorney, Patrick Reilly, listen to arguments by an attorney for Brian Laundrie’s parents in court in Sarasota County, Florida, on June 22, 2022. (Mike Lang/USA Today Network)
They have lobbied for federal legislation, some of which became law with bipartisan support, as well as lethality assessment laws in Florida, Utah and New York designed to give police grounds and authority to separate victims from their abusers.
The foundation donated $100,000 to the National Domestic Violence Hotline last year.
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This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233 (SAFE).
