Gabby Petito’s mother has revealed disturbing new details about her daughter's killer, Brian Laundrie, three years after the tragic case gripped the nation.
Petito, a 22-year-old travel vlogger, was on a road trip across the US with fiancé Laundrie, when she disappeared in September 2021.
Her remains were found in Wyoming’s Spread Creek camping area in September, where an autopsy confirmed she had died from blunt-force injuries to her head and neck and manual strangulation.
Laundrie, the prime suspect in her disappearance, had returned home to Florida without her and refused to cooperate with authorities.
He went missing on September 13, and his remains were found a month later at Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park alongside a confession note admitting to killing his girlfriend. His death was ruled a suicide.
Despite Laundrie's confession and media attention, Petito's mother, Nicole Schmidt, has claimed in a new interview that there are still unsettling details surfacing to this day.
“I actually just found out some new information a few days ago,” she said on The Squeeze podcast, hosted by actor Taylor Lautner and his wife, Tay.
“There was [someone] that was at the house when Brian was missing – and I would say he was hiding, he wasn’t missing, but he was actually dead - but his room was completely gutted and renovated. None of his things were there anymore. It was gone.”
She continued: “So that very same week, Gabby was missing and cops were going to their house to try to get, I guess, a scent from their dogs to look for Brian, all his things were gone. The room was completely empty, just gone.
“They said that there’s something wrong with that mother, she’s clearly not mentally well. And I’m like, ‘just add it to the list’, because I didn’t even know about that. That was crazy to hear," she added.
Schmidt shared her frustration over how the Laundries handled the situation, saying: “It drives me absolutely insane – that's the one thing I can’t let go of, because I’m trying to figure out what can I do to make them pay for what they did, but there is really nothing I can do.”
When Lautner asked why belongings had been allowed to be “stripped and cleaned and thrown away,” Schmidt gave more alarming insight.
“The van was cleaned out, the mattress was never recovered, and then all the things were packed away in a closet – Gabby's stuff was packed away in a closet,” she said. “I mean, I don’t understand, I don’t get it. Just strange behaviour.”
The tragic case was spotlighted in Netflix’s recent three-part docuseries, American Murder: Gabby Petito.
The series features interviews with Petito’s loved ones, excerpts from her diaries, and chilling text messages, including the one that first raised red flags for her mother.
Since the loss of their daughter, Nichole and her husband, Jim Schmidt, have committed themselves to advocacy work, focusing on domestic violence awareness and education around coercive control. Their mission: to help prevent similar tragedies from happening to other families.
In a deeply personal revelation, the mom also shared that she has found the strength to forgive her daughter’s killer - not for him, but for herself.
“I have forgiven Brian, and I know that is what Gabby would have wanted, and I’m moving forward so I can move on," she said, per NewsNationNow. "That is my personal experience. I don’t think everyone has to forgive. They can when they are ready if they are ever ready. But for me personally, I needed to forgive to let that anchor go.”
Her husband echoed her sentiments, adding: "Forgiveness is for you. It is for your healing. For your grief. For you to be able to move on."