Experts slam 'FARCICAL' entry in Brian Laundrie's notebook claiming Gabby Petito's murder was EUTHANASIA
In newly-unearthed claims in Brian Laundrie's diary, the deceased man wrote that he killed his fiancee, Gabby Petito, out of mercy. Laundrie claimed in his diary that he killed Petito, 22, after she fell into a creek and inured herself at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The tragedy took place when the two were on a country-wide road trip last summer.
Laundrie began with writing a personal message to Petito in his notebook. "I wish I could be at your side, I wish I could be talking to you right now. I'd be going through every memory getting even more xxx for the future. But we've lost our future," he wrote.
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"I can't be without you. I've lost every day we (indistinct) spent together… I'll never get to play with (indistinct) again. Never go hiking with T….I can't bear to look at our photos, to recall great times because it is why I cannot go on," Laundrie added. "When I close my eyes I will think of laughing on the roof of the van, falling asleep to the sight of a (indistinct) at the crystal geyser. I will always love you."
The Daily Mail obtained pages of the notebook, in which he said that he struggled to comfort Petito, who was quickly deteriorating. Petito, according to Laundrie, crying in pain and shivering from the cold when he decided to kill her. Petito's death was ruled a homicide by manual strangulation. Laundrie later died by suicide.
Medical Examiners Michael Baden and Cyril Wecht has now told Fox News that they are doubtful of these claims. Wecht said that signs of hypothermia are difficult to detect on a corpse. However, he noted that violent shaking is not a symptom. "Hypothermia, at the beginning, you'll be cold as hell," he said. "But then when the hypothermia becomes significant, you don't shiver, you don't move. In fact in surgery, that's why they bring patients down to a hypothermic state." Wecht was previously involved in investigatons of onBenet Ramsey and former President John F Kennedy's death.
Baden, who was involved in the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's death. Baden explained that Petito's autopsy did show signs of hemorrhaging as a result of severe hypothermia, but it is unclear if she was suffering from the condition. "In general, hypothermia does not cause injuries that are easily found at autopsy," he noted. "There is some information that there can be small hemorrhages in the stomach in the very severe cold depths - but that's in the weeds. That's the weeds of forensic pathology."
John Kelly, a criminal profiler and psychotherapist, and Jason Jensen, a private investigator, said that Laundrie's claims were "farcical". They noted that even if Laundrie did kill Petito out of mercy, euthanasia is not legal and it was thus murder.
"He wanted to serve it up as a mercy killing," Kelly said. "That's the thing that's bugging me more than anything. He found her breathing heavily and gasping for breath, so he decided to choke her out?" He added that it made no sense that instead of dragging Petito back to the van and seeking help, he decided to kill her on the spot.
"I don't believe in all this accident stuff, because how can you say you love somebody so much, you can't go on without her, you love her so much you're willing to commit suicide like a Romeo and Juliet?" he said. "She's hurt, and will not go and get help for her. And not only will you not go the extra mile,' he said, 'you will not even report her missing."
Calling Laundrie's claims "an attempt to rewrite history", Jensen said, "He writes this farcical tale about her falling down and getting injured while crossing Spread Creek, and describes how he couldn't leave here behind." He added, "The truth is he killed her because he was a domestic abuser,' Jensen said,. 'He strangled her, and had done so before."
Brian Laundrie's "farcical" tale
Laundrie's notebook was found in a dry bag beside his body on October 20 last year. "I am sorry to my family, this is a shock to them as well as a terrible greif (sic)….," he wrote in the notebook. "Please do not make this harder for them, this occurred as an unexpected tragedy."
"Rushing back to our car, trying to cross the steam of spread creek before it got too dark to see, to (sic) cold. I hear a splash and a scream. I could barely see, I couldn't finder her for a moment, shouted her name," Laundrie wrote. "I found her breathing barely, gasping, any (indistinct as the ink is waterlogged) she was freezing cold, we had just come from the blazing hot national parks in Utah. The temperature had dropped to freezing and she was soaking wet. I carried her as far as I could down the stream towards the car, stumbling, exhausted in shock, when my (indistinct) and I knew I couldn't safely carry her."
He continued, "I started a fire and spooned her as close to the heat, she was so thin, had already been freezing too long. I couldn't at the time realize that I should've started a fire first but I wanted her out of the cold back to the car. From where I started the fire I had no idea where the car might be. Only knew it was across the creek. When I pulled Gabby out of the water she couldn't tell me what hurt. She had a small bump on her forehead that eventually got larger. Her feet hurt, her wrist hurt, but she was freezing, shaking violently, while carrying her she continually made sounds of pain."
As an excuse of the murder he committed, Laundrie then wrote, "Laying next to her she said little, lapsing between violent shakes, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain. She would fall asleep and I would shake her awake fearing she shouldn't close her eyes if she had a concussion. She would wake in pain, start her whole painful cycle again, furious that I was the one waking her. She wouldn't let me try to cross the creek, thought like me that the fire would go out in her sleep."
"I don't know the extent of Gabby's injuries, only that she was in extreme pain," he continued. "I ended her life. I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistake that I made. I panicked. I was in shock. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain."
"I knew I couldn't go on without her," he added. "I rushed home to spend any time I had left with my family. I wanted to drive north and let James or TJ kill me, but I wouldn't want them to spend time in jail over my mistake, even though I'm sure they would have liked to."
Laundrie died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, his family lawyer confirmed on November 23, 2021. The manner of death was determined to be suicide, as per a forensic anthropologist. A gun from Chris and Roberta Laundrie's home had been missing ever since their son took off. When his parents reported him missing in September, they had turned over all of their firearms in their home to the FBI. One gun, however, appeared to be missing. There was a DNA analysis that confirmed the identity of the remains as Brian Laundrie. This was in addition to a dental comparison, and a forensic anthropologist doing a skeletal reconstruction.
Of ending his own life bu suicide, Laundrie wrote, "'m ending my life not because of fear of punishment, but rather because I can't stand to live another day without her. I've lost our whole entire future together, every moment we could have cherished. I'm sorry for everyone's loss. Please don't make life hard for my family, they lost a son and a daughter. The most wonderful (?) girl in the world I'm sorry. I have killed myself by this creek in the hope that animals may tear me apart that it might make some of her family happy."
The gunshot wound to Laundrie's head caused extensive fractures in his skull. The full autopsy and forensic report further explained that the single bullet entered his brain at the left temple and exited through the right. Authorities found the vast majority of [his] skeleton”, besides a few bones from his teeth and his face, scattered “in plain sight". His bones also showed signs of “gnawing and chewing” from “post-mortem scavenging/carnivore activity”, which includes portions of his arms and legs, said the report. However, no sign of drug use was found in his toxicology report.
"Please pick up all of my things. Gabby hated people who litter," Laundrie wrote as what appeared to be an after thought. Personal items belonging to Laundrie were also found at the scene, including a pair of green shorts, slip-on shoes, a white metal ring, a backpack and a handgun. The report said that the scene was secluded by “overgrown vegetation". The firearm that was recovered was a Windicator revolver with two live rounds and one used round of ammunition.
Animal skeletal remains, a handwritten half note and a “MOAB Coffee Roasters” hat were found at the nearby “secondary” scene. Authorities found a drybag with Laundrie’s journal, and they also recovered a wooden box with a notebook and a picture of Laundrie. Examiners said that Laundrie's body was believed to have been submerged in up to three feet of water in the Florida swamp “for an extended period of time". His remains were found only when the swamp waters receded.
The case began drawing national interest after Brian returned home to Florida on September 1 without his girlfriend after a cross-country road trip. On January 21, 2022, the FBI provided an update on the case and admitted it was closing it after learning just how Petito died. "All logical investigative steps have been concluded in this case," FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider noted.