Gabby Petito’s mom Nichole Schmidt forgives killer Brian Laundrie but calls out ‘evil’ Roberta: ‘You deserve to be forgotten’
Gabby Petito’s mother stunned an auditorium packed with true-crime fanatics after she revealed she had forgiven her daughter’s boyfriend Brian Laundrie before she aimed her anger at the suspected killer’s “mastermind” mom.
Nichole Schmidt took the stage at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tenn., Friday afternoon to read a victim’s impact statement to a jam-packed auditorium at the Opryland Hotel.
“I speak for myself here when I say Brian, I forgive you,” Schmidt told the crowd, according to Fox News.
“I needed to release myself from the chains of anger and bitterness, and I refuse to let your despicable act define the rest of my life.”
However, Schmidt accused Laundrie’s mother, Roberta, of having “no remorse in your heart.”
“As for you, Roberta, and I call you out individually because you are evidently the mastermind that shattered your family and mine with your evil ways, I see no empathy in your eyes,” Schmidt said.
“No remorse in your heart and no willingness to take responsibility for your actions.”
Roberta Laundrie is suspected of helping her son sneak away while law enforcement zoned in on him as a key suspect in Gabby Petito’s murder in 2021.
She is also accused of failing to cooperate with police while they were in the early stages of their investigation.
“You do not deserve forgiveness,” Schmidt said. “You deserve to be forgotten.”
Schmidt never had the opportunity to face her daughter’s killer in court since he fled into a swamp and took his own life after police launched a missing person investigation.
Tara Petito, Gabby’s stepmother, was also among the speakers and ripped into Laundrie’s behavior after the murder.
“Only someone with true evil in their heart would do such a thing,” Tara Petito said.
Schmidt remembered her daughter as a “bright light” snuffed out too early, a talented artist and a tenacious free spirit.
“I implore you all, live by these simple words directly from Gabby: ‘Just be a nicer person,’” she concluded.
Petito’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against the Laundries in March 2022.
They believed the Laundries were aware their son murdered their daughter and allegedly tried to hide the sinister act while helping him evade justice after he had returned home by himself from a trip the two had been on.
Both of Laundrie’s parents acknowledge in depositions they had concerns about Petito’s welfare after their son seemed erratic in phone calls shortly after her murder.
Roberta Laundrie also drove to her deposition in a civil lawsuit in the same car her son snuck away in the night he shot himself.
Brian Laundrie drove to his Florida home from Wyoming, where he abandoned Petito’s remains, and went camping with his parents, sister, and her children as the victim’s family struggled to piece together what happened and where she was.
He was the only suspect in Petito’s murder, and the FBI recovered a handwritten confession preserved in a waterproof bag after finding his remains in a park near their home in October 2021.
Laundrie allegedly called his parents up to 20 times in two days after Petito’s death, telling them that his girlfriend was “gone” and that he needed a lawyer.
Although the Laundrie parents denied knowledge of the crime, they sent a $25,000 retainer to a leading Wyoming defense lawyer.
In May 2023, Schmidt bashed Roberta Laundrie for releasing a controversial “burn after reading” letter to her son — in which she promises to bring him a shovel and garbage bags to get rid of a body, which the Laundries argued was written before the cross country trip.
In the letter, Roberta Laundrie told Brian: “If you’re in jail I will bake a cake and put a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body. I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.”
Both sides “reluctantly” settled their lawsuit following a mediation session in February
After a long day of mediation, a confidential agreement has been reached … to which all parties reluctantly agreed in order to avoid further legal expenses and prolonged personal conflict,” Petito family lawyer Pat Reilly said in a statement, per WFLA.
With Post wires
