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—The families of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie have reached a $3 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed after authorities concluded he strangled her during a cross-country trip in August 2021.
The settlement was signed Thursday by Sarasota County Circuit Judge Hunter W. Carroll. A lawyer for Petito’s parents said whatever money is received will go to the Gabby Petito Foundation dedicated to locating missing people and curbing domestic violence.
“The Petito family lost their daughter and they were also denied the opportunity to confront her killer,” said attorney Patrick Reilly in an email. “No amount of money is sufficient to compensate the Petito family for the loss of their daughter, Gabby, at the hands of Brian Laundrie.”
The lawsuit involving the estates of Petito and Laundrie, filed in May, claimed Laundrie was liable for damages because he caused her death. A separate lawsuit, still pending in Sarasota, claims Laundrie’s parents wrongly concealed that he confessed to killing Petito before he returned home in September 2021 to Florida from their trip out West in a converted van.
