Brian Laundrie’s family release statement following confirmation of Gabrielle Petito’s death | Channel

This 12 August 2021, still image from a police bodycam released by the Moab City Police Department in Utah, shows Gabrielle Petito speaking with police.

• Brian Laundrie’s parents have released a brief statement following confirmation of Gabrielle Petito’s death.
• Brian Laundrie was engaged to the YouTuber and travelling cross-country with her when she was reported missing.
• Laundrie has since also gone missing, as the FBI confirm Petito’s death by homicide.

The human remains found in a Wyoming forest was indeed that of missing YouTuber Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito.

The 22-year-old woman was reported missing on 11 September, 10 days after her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, returned home from their cross-country trip without her.

He has since been named a “person of interest” and has gone missing himself.

Now, following confirmation of Petito’s death by homicide, Laundrie’s parents have released a statement.

“May Gabby rest in peace,” a Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino said in a brief statement, People reports, on behalf of Roberta and Christopher Laundrie.

The two lived with the couple before they embarked on their trip.

ALSO READ | Missing YouTuber Gabby Petito’s final texts revealed after human remains found

The couple’s seemingly idyllic adventure, captured in a video shared on YouTuber, was anything but perfect. Police officers responded to a 911 call of a domestic dispute between the couple, in which the caller indicates he’d seen a man slapping a woman.

Now, one of the Utah park rangers called to the scene, Melissa Hulls, says: “I was probably more candid with her than I should’ve been. I was imploring with her to reevaluate the relationship, asking her if she was happy in the relationship with him, and basically saying this was an opportunity for her to find another path, to make a change in her life.”

She tells Deseret News, Petito expressed “a lot of anxiety” about separating from Laundrie.

“It’s hard to think about now because I feel like I could’ve said more to help her,” she adds. “It’s hard not to second-guess myself, and wish I said more, or wish I had found the right words to make her believe that she deserved more.” 

TIMELINE: The events leading up to the mysterious disappearance, death of YouTuber Gabrielle Petito