By Amanda Musa and Jamiel Lynch, CNN
the parents of petite gabby have filed a motion to add Laundrie’s family attorney, Steven Bertolino, as a defendant in an ongoing civil lawsuit against Brian Laundrie’s parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie.
Petito, an aspiring travel influencer, disappeared in the summer of 2021 on a cross-country road trip with brian laundromat. As a nationwide search took place, attention also turned to Laundrie, who returned to her Florida home and disappeared in a nature preserve.
Days in search of Laundry, Petito’s body was found in the Grand Teton National Forest in Wyoming, and a medical examiner ruled that she died from strangulation. Laundrie’s body was found in mid-October 2021 in the Florida nature reserve, along with a notebook in which she took responsibility for her death. A medical examiner determined that she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt filed the motion Tuesday in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Sarasota County, Florida, court documents show.
Petito and Schmidt first filed the lawsuit against Laundrie’s parents in March, claiming they knew their son Brian Laundrie murdered Gabby Petito and were working to help him flee the country.
The motion asserts that Bertolino, in addition to Laundrie’s parents, knew that Petito had been murdered and knew the location of his body when he issued a statement on behalf of Laundrie’s parents on September 14, 2021 regarding the search for Petito.
“We understand that a search for Miss Petito has been organized in or near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. On behalf of the Laundrie family, we hope that the search for Ms. Petito is successful and that Ms. Petito is reunited with her family,” the Laundrie family said in the statement detailed in the motion to file a second amended complaint.
Within a week of the release of the statement, the Teton County coroner confirmed that the human remains found in the Bridger-Teton National Forest were those of Petito.
The motion also states that it was “beyond scandalous” that Laundries and Bertolino “expressed their ‘hope'” that Petito would be found when they already knew she had been murdered.
CNN has reached out to Bertolino for comment but has not yet received a response.
Last month, a Sarasota County judge ruled in favor of Gabby Petito’s family in a separate wrongful death lawsuit against the estate of Brian Laundrie.
The CNN Wire
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