NORTH PORT, Fla. (Court TV) — Body camera video depicting Brian Laundrie’s parents refusing to help police on the day Gabby Petito was reported missing has been released. Court TV acquired a copy of the three year old footage in which Christopher and Roberta Laundrie turn police away from their Florida doorstep.
Before the police got involved, Gabby had been on a cross-country trip with Brian, who was her fiancé. She’d been chronicling their journey on her “Van Life” YouTube channel when she disappeared. Brian returned to his parents’ Florida home on Sept. 1, 2021 in Gabby’s van, but without Gabby.
FILE – This Aug. 12, 2021, file photo from video provided by the Moab, Utah, Police Department shows Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito talking to police officers after police pulled over their van near the entrance to Arches National Park in Utah. (The Moab Police Department via AP)
Gabby’s parents reported her missing on Sept. 11, 2021. In video from that night, Officer Ramirez with the North Port Police Department in Florida pulls up to the Laundrie home as Suffolk County, New York Det. Tracey Barry speaks to him remotely on speaker phone.
‘WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?’
Ramirez spots Gabby’s van in the driveway. The detective tells him she spoke to Laundrie’s sister, Cassie Laundrie. According to Cassie, Brian told her he flew home and left Gabby at a hotel in Wyoming. The officers wonder aloud how Gabby’s van got there.
“What are they hiding,” Barry says. “If she’s (Gabby) there then just tell me that she’s there and we can call it a day. But I don’t understand why she wouldn’t reach out to her parents…I have her phone records. On average she calls one of them every day. And now the phone’s been off and now he’s (Brian) magically home?”
Ramirez, outfitted with the body camera, approaches the home at 9:42pm and knocks on the door. Roberta and Christopher open after several knocks:
OFFICER RAMIREZ: “Hi, Sir, I apologize for bothering you. I have the detective on the phone.”
CHRISTOPHER LAUNDRIE: “I’m not talking to anybody.”
RAMIREZ: “You don’t want to talk to us? Okay, she’s on the phone, do you want to talk to her now?”
CHRISTOPHER: “No.”
RAMIREZ: “When was the last time you saw Brian and Gabrielle?”
Body cam footage of Brian Laundrie’s parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, at their doorstep in 2001. They refused to speak to police the day Gabby Petito was reported missing. (North Port Police)
CHRISTOPHER: “Well, Brian is here.”
RAMIREZ: “Brian is here?”
CHRISTOPHER: “Yeah, and that’s all I’m gonna say to you.”
RAMIREZ: “And that’s all that you’re saying?”
CHRISTOPHER: “Yeah we have an attorney. They’ve (police) been calling. That’s all I wanna say. I don’t know why. So my attorney’s aware that they’re calling, so I can give you his number.”
RAMIREZ: “Whose number? The attorney’s number?”
CHRISTOPHER: “Yeah.”
RAMIREZ: “Okay I would like that, please, so I can give it to the detective. Thank you.”
Christopher goes into the house, comes back and hands a slip of paper to Ramirez.
RAMIREZ: “Thank you, I appreciate it. And just to let the detective know, is Gabrielle here?”
CHRISTOPHER: “No.”
RAMIREZ: “She’s not here? Okay.”
CHRISTOPHER: “She — I answered. A fella was here last night.”
RAMIREZ: “Okay, so, is this her vehicle? Her van?”
CHRISTOPHER: “It’s both of theirs.”
RAMIREZ: “Both of them? Okay, I appreciate it.”
‘I DON’T KNOW IF THAT VAN’S A CRIME SCENE’
Ramirez walks back to his squad car, and can be heard on the phone with Barry recapping his chat with the Laundries. Barry tells Ramirez that Gabby’s phone has been off for 10 days and that her parents haven’t heard from her since Aug. 27, 2021.
“I don’t know if that van’s a crime scene,” says the detective. “How did it return there if he supposedly flew home? There’s definitely some issues going on.”
At 10:33pm, Sgt. Jason Selzer with the North Port Police Department knocks on the Laundries’ door, and Christopher answers.
‘DON’T KNOCK ON MY DOOR’
SGT. SELZER: “Chris, this is Sgt. Selzer with the police department. Hey, let me, I hate to bother you. I know you’ve already said you don’t want to speak, or don’t wanna help us. I’m trying to figure out something for her parents. You guys, as parents, you know all they want is their daughter to [let them] know that she’s safe. So I don’t know where it all started before. I don’t know what’s transpired. I don’t know anything about that. I’m here to know if you guys know anything, it would let the parents at ease, and go from there.”
CHRISTOPHER: “We don’t know anything. That’s all.”
SGT. SELZER: “I mean, anything that you guys would be able to give them…any type of help — the last time your son saw her, anything like that?”
CHRISTOPHER: “No.”
SGT. SELZER: “Am I able to talk to your son?”
CHRISTOPHER: “He’s not gonna talk to anybody.”
SGT. SELZER: “I’m gonna lay it out for you if you want. The New York detectives are a little pissed, and they want me to do a bunch of things that I’d rather avoid.”
CHRISTOPHER: “Well, you have to do what ya gotta do, and we’re not gonna…and that’s that.”
SGT. SELZER: “Okay, I mean, as a parent you wouldn’t want to know what happened with your.”
CHRISTOPHER: “I understand what you’re saying but thank you.”
SGT. SELZER: “It makes it very odd, don’t you think? From my point of view?”
CHRISTOPHER: “Well goodbye for now. You can call our attorney. I gave him the phone number.”
SGT. SELZER: “I don’t have your attorney’s — and an attorney’s is not going to answer at 11 o’clock at night!”
CHRISTOPHER: “I’m not speaking to anybody.”
ROBERTA LAUNDRIE: “Yeah, we’re not comfortable talking to anybody…”
CHRISTOPHER: “…without an attorney. So that’s that.”
SGT. SELZER: “Okay. So the van is only registered to her.”
CHRISTOPHER: “Well, I’m not really sure.”
SGT. SELZER: “Well, I’m gonna tell you. I’m telling you, the title on the State of Florida is, it’s only hers. So it’s not supposed to be here.”
CHRISTOPHER: “Okay.”
FILE- In this image taken from police body camera video provided by The Moab Police Department, Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito talks to a police officer after police pulled over the van she was traveling in with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, near the entrance to Arches National Park on Aug. 12, 2021. (The Moab Police Department via AP, File)
SGT. SELZER: “So I’m gonna take a tow truck and get it. Is a car in the way?”
CHRISTOPHER: “That’s my car. I can move it.”
SGT. SELZER: “I mean, so you don’t have any issue with us taking the van?”
CHRISTOPHER: “If that’s what you’re saying you gotta do, you gotta do. Right now, I’m not speaking anymore.”
ROBERTA: “Yeah, without our attorney. But I can move the car for you.”
SGT. SELZER: “Okay. You don’t find that odd? That you guys, really?”
CHRISTOPHER: “Goodnight. Don’t knock on my door.”
SGT. SELZER: “Okay, are you gonna move the car?”
CHRISTOPHER: “I’ll move it.”
SGT. SELZER: “Okay.”
The video ends at that point, and the story took an even more tragic turn when Gabby’s body was found eight days later in Wyoming. Brian had strangled her to death, dumped her body and slinked back to Florida in Gabby’s van. He was found dead in a nature preserve near his parents’ home. He had shot himself in the head, and left behind a notebook wherein he confessed to Gabby’s murder.
