by Michael Ruiz via Fox News at New York Post
Brian Laundrie retained a high-powered defense team in Wyoming with his parents’ money more than a week before his fiancée Gabby Petito was reported missing, according to the latest amended complaint filed in the Petito family lawsuit against Laundrie’s parents and their attorney.
Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt allege Chris and Roberta Laundrie and their attorney Steve Bertolino knew Petito was dead as well as the location of her remains but gave Petito’s parents false hope she’d be found alive, all while attempting to protect their son, causing severe emotional distress.
The new document, filed Thursday after Petito lawyer Pat Reilly deposed the Laundries and Bertolino, claims that Laundrie told his parents in a “frantic” phone call on Aug. 29, 2021, “that Gabby was ‘gone’ and he needed a lawyer.”
On Sept. 2, 2021, according to the document, Laundrie’s parents relayed that information to Bertolino and sent him a retainer. That same day, the filing states, “Bertolino entered into a fee agreement with Fleener Peterson LLC,” a criminal defense firm in Laramie, a six-hour drive from where Petito’s remains were found. She had been bludgeoned and strangled.
Just two weeks before Petito’s murder,…
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