r/netflix Feb 19 '25

News Article Brian Laundrie’s parents shunned by Florida community over Gabby Petito’s murder following Netflix docuseries

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/brian-laundries-parents-shunned-florida-984726
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u/SgtObliviousHere Feb 19 '25

I understand loving your children. I have two I love very much. But if one came to me and confessed to committing a murder? I'm driving them to the local precinct myself. Right is right. It would haunt me for the rest of my life, but it is the ethical thing to do.

Edit. Spelling

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u/lnc_5103 Feb 20 '25

Same. I'd ask a lawyer to meet us there.

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u/thebeaglemama Feb 20 '25

I think that’s totally fair - you want to make sure they are supported and get a fair trial/deal, but also make sure they take responsibility.

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u/catjojo975 Feb 20 '25

Even more so when you know the person that your child murdered. You had a relationship with this other person. It’s just so crazy and sad.

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u/RelativePickle8333 Feb 22 '25

That's the part that gets me. How can you ignore desperate texts from the family wondering if you've heard from either of them and knowing how worried they were. They should have at least said Brian came back without Gabby, even if they didn't know (or want to share) the details

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u/OhCheeseNFingRice Feb 22 '25

There was an episode of I Am A Killer where a mother turned her son in for killing someone. He confessed to her, she called the police and told them, and then she drove her son to the police station to turn himself in. She's claimed since then that he did the right thing and turned himself in (which I guess is technically correct) but he only did so because mom had already turned him in. She was too ashamed and depressed to admit that it was her, but the son knew it was her and held no contempt for her over it. THAT'S what a good mother does when faced with that horrible situation.

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u/Odd_Result_7873 Feb 20 '25

And that's probably why your kids would never do what Brian did. Apple don't fall far from the tree.

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u/Baroqueimproviser Feb 20 '25

I don't think he told them. He had had a bit of time to think of an excuse, and that's when he came up with "an accident happened." You know, the same lie he wrote in the journal that was discovered with his body. Something about how Abby fell from the van.

Brian wasn't the sort of person who could face himself or deal with hardship very well. He could not have admitted to himself that he was a killer, so he wouldn't have told his parents.

I think when he called them he left it ambivalent enough so that they were in the dark about what happened. (They probably didn't really want too many details in their heart of hearts.)

But I think he definitely said "It might look like murder, but it wasn't." That is why they got the 25K to retain a murder attorney.

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u/VirtualMoneyLover Mar 18 '25

I completely agree. There is no way he admitted strangling her. My guess is that he presented it as an accident, involuntary manslaughter at best. Like, we argued, I pushed her and she hit her head or something similar.

So depending on what the parents were told or believed, their behaviour is more understandable. Not excusable, but easier to understand.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '25 edited Feb 21 '25

I’m not defending her, but I can understand why she didn’t

The cops are going to ask about Gabby. They’re gonna ask oh, she lives in your house? Oh so she doesn’t live here anymore. Why? How was it when she was here? Calm? Volatile? What was your relationship like with Gabby? Did everyone get along? Oh, it’s okay, you can tell ussss we know that not everyone gets along all the time, no one’s in trouble….

Next thing you know, they’re using her dislike of Gabby against her, they trick her into saying things she otherwise wouldn’t have admitted, maybe they trick her into painting Gabby as a succubus trying to corrupt her boy, steal from them, accuse gabby of having ill intentions. maybe she didn’t keep her room clean, maybe they had an argument… and so on.. which makes an already bad situation look 2000 times worse in front of a judge and a jury and a police report etc

again, not defending these people but I see why the lawyer told them to stfu. I’m sure the lawyer knew the mother was a deluded POS and was not going to bode well for her in criminal court

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u/JayOh07 Feb 20 '25

Gotta imagine the son played it off as an accident and that he was scared, didn't know what to do etc. I'm sure he knew the right buttons to push to get his parents to help him, I haven't seen the doc or followed the story very closely but I imagine if I were in a situation where I ended up accidentally killing someone both of my parents would move heaven and earth to try and protect me, who knows how much the parents actually knew about the situation. Again I didn't read the article or watch the doc, maybe that's covered in there and I'm completely wrong but that's my 2 cents, most parents would do anything for their children, at least up to a certain point, like I don't think my parents would help me cover up blatant murder but almost certainly they would have my back on accidental manslaughter.

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u/Lilithslefteyebrow Feb 20 '25

You don’t get 2 cents if you’re completely uninformed.

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u/heddalettis Mar 02 '25

No ACCIDENT bro. C’mon, watch the doc. ffs!

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u/VirtualMoneyLover Mar 18 '25

We are talking about what HE told to the parents, not what actually happened.

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u/bobcat73 Feb 20 '25

You don’t know what you would do. That’s part of being a parent.

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u/SgtObliviousHere Feb 20 '25

You're partially right. But I have a very strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. I would certainly hope I would do the right thing. But I've never been faced with anything near that. Neither of my kids have ever been in trouble with the law.

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u/bobcat73 Feb 20 '25

I don’t mean to sound like I have sympathy for the Laundries. Their actions brook none. However life in prison for your kid is tough to get your head around. Some half assed crazy plan is not out of the realm of possibilities. Hopefully neither of us ever experience anything like the Petito’s did.

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u/binkysurprise Feb 20 '25

It’s awfully easy to say that now lol

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u/SgtObliviousHere Feb 20 '25

It wasn't said without a lot of introspection.

What's your point???

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u/binkysurprise Feb 21 '25

It’s just a pet peeve of mine. People like to proclaim that they would always do the morally right thing, but it’s silly imo