Florida Neighbors Humiliate Gabby Petito's Parents With Dog Waste

Gabby Petito's mother once issued a sharp message to her daughter's killers parents: You deserve to be forgotten. Roberta and Christopher Laundrie endured years of anger over claims they shielded their son while authorities hunted for the missing woman. The couple might have faded from national headlines, yet their neighbors in Florida refuse to let them go.

The Daily Mail reports that these residents now treat the pair like outcasts within their quiet community. Locals exclude them from gatherings and turn away when they pass on the street. Some even allow their dogs to defecate directly on the Laundries lawn as a deliberate act of punishment. One neighbor told reporters she lets her pet soil the grass intentionally because that is what the family deserves for Gabby's death.

Residents in North Port have largely cut ties with the couple who live near a modest single-story house that became central to the 2021 search. When investigators visited recently, lights were on inside and cars sat in the driveway, but no one answered the door. While other neighbors exchanged smiles during daily walks, the Laundries received only silence or avoidance from their own block.

Property damage has also become routine for the family home. Donna Hawley, a neighbor living around the corner, admitted seeing dirty diapers and McDonald's bags tossed onto the lawn. She noted that while such acts seem petty and immature to outsiders, she believes the owners must know these attacks are intentional since no other property suffers similar issues.

The Laundries never explained why they went camping with Brian during the frantic search for Petito. Their decision to stay quiet then turned grieving parents into national pariahs. On September 1, 2021, Brian returned home after a cross-country trip with his twenty-two-year-old fiancée. He was driving her van and had used her credit card, yet she vanished without a trace.

Five years later, questions persist about what Christopher and Roberta knew regarding their son's actions and when they learned the truth. Depositions later revealed that Brian made frantic phone calls to them after Gabby died. He told his parents she was gone and stated he needed a lawyer immediately. The family remains silent today, but the hostility in their neighborhood shows no sign of fading away anytime soon.

Christopher Laundrie reached out to his longtime family lawyer, Steven Bertolino. The couple has always claimed they were unaware Brian had killed Gabby Petito and failed to grasp how he used the word 'gone' as code for death. They stated they simply followed Bertolino's advice when refusing to share any details about her fate. Neither Bertolino nor the Laundries have answered Daily Mail requests for comment on this matter.

When Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, frantically tried to reach Roberta Laundrie while looking for her daughter, Laundrie refused to respond back, according to previous reports from Schmidt. A few days after Brian returned home without Gabby, the Laundries went camping with their son and other relatives at Fort De Soto Park near St. Petersburg. To a public watching this family desperately search for a missing girl, the scene was devastatingly bad optics. Brian camped while his parents watched as his fiancee vanished.

Nichole Schmidt holds up a photo of her daughter Gabby Petito during a 2021 press conference. Body cam footage later surfaced showing the aftermath of a domestic incident in Moab, Utah, where police found the couple had fought physically. That is where they lost me, said Chuck Malina, who lives near the family home. I get trying to protect your son. Really, I do. I'd do anything for my kids. But not at the expense of someone else's kid. That's just sociopathic. If I see them, I usually just look away, Malina continued. I think they're a**holes for what they did. I don't need to be their friend. Let's just say they're not coming to any block parties anytime soon.

Neither Christopher nor Roberta faced charges regarding Petito's death or the investigation. The Laundries never explained why they went camping with Brian during the search for Gabby. Petito was officially reported missing on September 11, 2021. Days later, Brian Laundrie disappeared into thin air. While he was gone, Petito's remains were discovered in Wyoming on September 19. A medical examiner determined she had been strangled to death.

Laundrie became the prime suspect in Petito's murder after police found him dead the following month in a wilderness area near North Port. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators recovered a notebook near his body where he admitted responsibility for killing Gabby. Also among Laundrie's belongings was an extraordinary handwritten note from his mother inside an envelope marked with the instruction: Burn after reading. Inside, Roberta wrote about the lengths she would go to for her son. She mentioned bringing a shovel and garbage bags if he needed help disposing of a body and helping him escape prison.

Laundrie (seen in police body cam footage) was the prime suspect in Petito's murder, but he never faced justice. But Laundrie's death didn't end the scrutiny of his parents. Petito's parents sued Christopher and Roberta, accusing them of knowing their son had killed Gabby while her family desperately searched for her. They charged that the Laundries withheld this critical information from investigators. The Laundries have denied these allegations outright. Roberta insisted the letter was written before Laundrie and Petito left on their trip and had nothing to do with the killing. She later described it as a jokey, stupid letter filled with humor that looked appalling when read through the lens of what subsequently happened. The case settled in February 2024 before it could go to trial for an undisclosed amount of money.

Details remain sealed regarding any admission of guilt by the defendants. The public record shows that Petito spoke with Brian's mother, Roberta Laundrie, who told him she would hand over a shovel if he ever needed to dispose of a body. During CrimeCon in 2024, Petito's own mother stated she had forgiven Brian but withheld forgiveness from his mother. 'You do not deserve forgiveness,' Schmidt said while addressing Roberta directly. 'You deserve to be forgotten.' She accused Roberta of lacking empathy and remorse, labeling her the mastermind whose actions only deepened the devastation for both families. Christopher and Roberta have largely retreated from public view since that time. And while America may be forgetting Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, their neighbors face a daily reminder of what happened. 'I think about Gabby every time I walk past the house,' says Hawley. 'I get angry all over again.' This is a nice neighborhood, full of good people. They just don't fit in.