The family of a woman who was slain by her fiancée during a cross-country road trip has been awarded $3 million by a Sarasota County judge as part of a wrongful death lawsuit.
The family of Gabby Petito, whose remains were found last September in the Spread Creek campgrounds in Wyoming, agreed to the settlement this month, according to a judgment signed on Nov. 17 by Circuit Court Judge Hunter Carroll. Nichole Schmidt, the administrator of Gabby Petito’s estate, filed the lawsuit in May against the curator of the estate of Petito’s fiancee, Brian Laundrie.
Laundrie’s remains were eventually found in the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County. Authorities said he had shot himself and left a notebook confessing that he killed Petito during the road trip, which was chronicled on social media.
“The Petito family lost their daughter, and they were also denied the opportunity to confront her killer,” a statement emailed to the Florida Record by Schmidt’s attorney, Patrick Reilly, said. “No amount of money is sufficient to compensate the Petito family for the loss of their daughter, Gabby, at the hands of Brian Laundrie. Brian did not have $3 million; it’s an arbitrary number. Whatever monies they do receive will help Gabby’s family in their endeavors with the Gabby Petito Foundation.”
The foundation helps to address the needs of groups that attempt to locate missing persons while also assisting victims of domestic violence.
“Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt wish to turn their personal tragedy into a positive,” the statement says. “It is their hope that Gabby’s foundation will bring these important issues into the forefront of the public eye to the benefit of all our communities.”
The settlement means that a trial scheduled for December will not have to go forward.
Another civil lawsuit filed by the Petito family centers on the allegation that Laundrie’s parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, concealed details about the killing of Gabby Petito after Brian returned to his parents home in September of last year.