SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — The families of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie have reached a confidential settlement in a civil lawsuit filed in Sarasota County, avoiding a trial, according to an attorney for the Petito family said.
Laundrie strangled Petito, his fiancée, to death in August 2021 at a Wyoming campground while they were taking a cross-country trip.
Petito’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against Laundrie’s parents and their attorney, Steven Bertolino, for intentional infliction of emotional distress. They claim the Laundries and their lawyer knew that their daughter was dead and where her body was during a national search for her in 2021.
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The families entered mediation Wednesday, in a secret location in Venice, and reached an agreement later that day.
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“After a long day of mediation, a confidential resolution has been reached between the parents of Gabby Petito, the parents of Brian Laundrie and attorney Steven Bertolino to which all parties reluctantly agreed in order to avoid further legal expenses and prolonged personal conflict,” Petito’s family said in a statement sent to Patch by attorney Patrick J. Reilly, of trial lawyers Snyder & Reilly. “Our hope is to close this chapter of our lives to allow us to move on and continue to honor the legacy of our beautiful daughter, Gabby.”
Bertolino also told Fox that a deal had been made following mediation.
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“Christopher and Roberta Laundrie and I participated in mediation with the Petito family and the civil lawsuit has now been resolved,” he said. “The terms of the resolution are confidential, and we look forward to putting this matter behind us.”
No documents have been filed in Sarasota County courts regarding the settlement as of Thursday morning.
In a separate wrongful death lawsuit, the families settled for $3 million in November 2022.
The young couple, aspiring vloggers originally from New York, lived with Laundrie’s parents in North Port, Florida, before embarking on their “van life” journey during the summer of 2021.
After strangling her, Laundrie left her body at a campsite in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, where she was found nearly a month later on Sept. 19, 2021.
Laundrie returned in her van to his parents’ house in Florida, where the couple had been living before embarking on their road trip. Multiple law enforcement agencies across the country undertook a massive investigation into her disappearance, while Laundrie refused to speak with them.
He later took his own life, shooting himself in the head in a Sarasota County park in September of that year.
His remains and a handwritten confession to killing Petito were found in October 2021. He left his confession in his notebook, claiming he strangled her out of mercy after she fell into a ravine and was injured.
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