The mother of Gabby Petito has filed a new lawsuit against the curator of the estate of Brian Laundrie, who was Petito’s boyfriend prior to her death.
Nichole Schmidt filed the lawsuit in Florida seeking wrongful death damages of $30,000 and demands a trial by jury and judgment for compensatory damages.
“The Petitos will have gained nothing more than a piece of paper that tells them what everyone already knows—which is that Brian was responsible for Gabby’s death as indicated by the FBI,” he said.
Petito’s body was found on Sept. 19, 2021, in a remote area near Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. A coroner later said that strangulation was her cause of death, which occurred about three weeks before her body was found. The 22-year-old’s parents had reported her missing on Sept. 11, 2021, while she and Laundrie were on a cross-country trip together.
Barry Spivey, the curator of Laundrie’s estate, told Fox News Digital that one of his responsibilities as a limited curator is to “accept service of a summons on that lawsuit,” but that he is not obliged to respond to the suit.
“They needed somebody to accept service of process, but once that’s done, I’m done with it,” he told the outlet of the complaint.
Laundrie’s parents—Christopher and Roberta Laundrie—have denied any knowledge related to Petito’s death including knowledge of where her remains were. They also denied the allegations that they helped their son flee when he was named a person of interest in Petitio’s death.