The parents of Brian Laundrie are asking the FBI to return a notebook found near his remains, arguing through family attorney Steven Bertolino that it’s part of Laundrie’s formal estate.
The contents of the notebook remain a mystery to all but the investigators, who seized it along with a backpack after both were discovered near Laundrie’s skeletal remains in Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Florida in late October.
“I am sure everybody is waiting to find out what, if anything, is contained in the notebook,” Bertolino told People magazine after it was recovered last year, adding that Laundrie’s parents “have no inkling as to what may or may not be in there.”
It’s unclear how much of the book’s contents are even legible, having likely spent weeks underwater prior to its discovery. Nevertheless, Bertolino told WFLA Laundrie’s parents want the FBI to return it, along with other belongings of his that may be in police custody.
The 23-year-old was the sole person of interest in the homicide of his fiancée, 22-year-old Gabby Petito, whose body was discovered in Wyoming in Sept. 2021. An autopsy showed she died by strangulation.
The couple had been on an extended cross-country road trip, embracing a camper van lifestyle glamorized by social media, when Petito went missing amid amid suspicious circumstances.
Body camera footage released by the Moab Police Department in Utah after she was reported missing shows the couple had been in a fight on Aug. 12, during a visit to Arches National Park.
Laundrie returned to his parents’ home in Florida on Sept. 1 without Petito and, on the advice of his attorney, refused to speak to investigators. He himself went missing soon after.
A federal grand jury indicted Laundrie for bank fraud in late September, linking him to the unauthorized use of a debit card, with withdrawals worth more than $1,000 during the period Petito went missing.
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