Crime & Justice

Petito Lawyer Seeks to Force Laundrie Family Attorney to Testify

DEMANDING ANSWERS

Gabby Petito’s loved ones are keen to know what Brian Laundrie told his lawyer about her death.

A makeshift memorial for Gabby Petito is seen near North Port City Hall in North Port, Florida, Sept. 22, 2021.
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

A lawyer representing the family of Gabby Petito’s parents filed a motion on Thursday evening seeking to force the testimony of an attorney for the family of Brian Laundrie. Petito was found dead from strangulation in Wyoming in September 2021. Her family now want to know what Laundrie, her fiancé, told his lawyer Steven Bertolino after her death. The motion demanding Bertolino’s testimony attached the letter discovered in Laundrie’s notebook after his suicide in which he confessed to killing Petito. Her family say the confession means that attorney-client privilege was “waived by the client,” the documents say. “Part of our case is our allegation that the Laundries and Bertolino knew Gabby was deceased and where her body was located,” Pat Reilly, an attorney for the Petito family, told WFLA. “I believe Brian Laundrie told Bertolino both of those things.” The Petito family have accused both Bertolino and the Laundries of knowing that Petito was dead and where she was buried when they released a statement saying they “hope that Gabrielle Petito would be ‘reunited’ with her family,” according to the documents.

Read it at WFLA