NetflixAmerican Murder: Gabby Petito has placed renewed focus on the parents of Brian Laundrie, with neighbors now reportedly targeting their Florida home with soiled diapers and dog waste.
The new documentary series dropped on Netflix this week, featuring interviews with Gabby’s family and friends, as well as law enforcement who were assigned with solving Gabby’s disappearance in August 2021.
The FBI investigation later found that, after murdering Gabby, Brian had an hour-long conversation with his mother Roberta Laundrie. Shortly after, Brian’s father, Christopher Laundrie, called an attorney.
Both the parents and Brian’s sister Cassie Laundrie were described as uncooperative, refusing to provide straight answers about what happened. Now, they’re facing the ire of not only the online community, but the local one too.
Roberta and Christopher Laundrie face backlash from neighbors
NetflixA number of Christopher and Roberta’s neighbors in North Port, Florida have revealed that while the parents were already ostracized after the case made headlines, this has intensified since the release of American Murder: Gabby Petito.
In a conversation with the New York Post, Miriam Woodby, who lives near the Laundrie household, said, “The more I watched, the more pissed I got. When I pass their house, I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I hate them, and I’ve never even met them. I wish they’d just leave.”
Another neighbor, who chose to remain anonymous, told the outlet, “Just horrible people, in my belief. It’s unanimous. No one wants anything to do with them.” But ill feelings towards them aren’t the only way they’re being shunned by locals.
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NetflixJorge Ruiz, who lives near the Laundries, said some residents have even thrown trash into their yard, including dog waste and soiled diapers. On at least two occasions, he’s seen people shouting insults at Roberta as she exited her house to get into her car.
“That’s what you get. That’s what you get when you prolong the pain of innocent people to protect someone you know is guilty. You reap what you sow,” he added.
A different neighbor said, “I wish them nothing but the worst. Seriously. I hope they know how much we all hate them here. I hope they know they don’t have any friends.”
“That family destroyed her,” another local told the outlet. “And it all happened across the street from me.”
Why American Murder viewers are angry
Even before Gabby’s murder, Roberta is accused of icing out Gabby when she and Brian went to live with the Laundrie family in Florida.
Gabby’s mom, Nichole Schmidt, says in the Netflix documentary, “Her jealousy was definitely very odd.
“Gabby told me that one night at the dinner table, Brian’s mom was freaking out that nobody was focusing on her pie. I think she got mad and wasn’t even talking to them. I thought that was really strange.”
The parents are also seen speaking with police when Gabby was reported missing. Rather than answer their questions, they refuse to speak without their lawyer present.
What transpired is that Brian had gone home after murdering Gabby, without telling her family or law enforcement.
Text messages shown in American Murder see Nichole desperately asking for any information they or Brian might have about where her daughter was, but the Laundries didn’t respond.
NetflixDespite their behavior in the case, a lawyer told Dexerto that it’s unlikely they’ll face legal consequences as “there simply was not enough evidence to prove otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt.”
This is true even for the ‘burn after reading’ letter the FBI found, in which Roberta wrote to her son, “If you’re in jail, I will bake a cake with a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags.”
Ben Michael, Attorney, M & A Criminal Defense Attorneys, told us, “With that letter, for example, where Roberta Laundrie wrote to her son statements like ‘if you need to dispose of a body, I will show up with a shovel and garbage bags’, the date in which that letter was written couldn’t be proven.”
American Murder: Gabby Petito is streaming on Netflix now. For more on the doc, read about what Brian Laundrie confessed in his notebook, his autopsy results, and why you can’t find the heroic FBI agent Loretta Bush online.