Gabby Petito’s mother and father destroyed the white camper van she was touring the US in when she was murdered by boyfriend Brian Laundrie to keep away from it turning into a sick memento.
“We crushed the van,” her father, Joe Petito, advised NewsNation. “We didn’t want the van to be out there and someone owning the van and then saying, ‘Here’s the van that Gabby was…’ So, we had it crushed.”
Nonetheless, he and Gabby’s stepmother, Tara Petito, did preserve a gasoline cap from the van in addition to a sticker commemorating her journey to the Nice Smoky Mountains, he revealed.
Gabby Petito, 22, was touring the US in a transformed white camper van with Laundrie in 2021 and documenting their adventures on social media when she disappeared.
Laundrie later dedicated suicide in a Florida nationwide park and penned a handwritten observe admitting to his girlfriend’s homicide.
Whereas Petito’s father and stepmother stored keepsakes from her travels to remind them of her, her mom, Nichole Schmidt, says she has forgiven Laundrie.
“I have forgiven Brian, and I know that’s what Gabby would have wanted, and I’m moving forward so that I can help other people,” Schmidt advised NewsNation.
“I don’t think everyone has to forgive. They can when they’re ready, or they might never be ready. But for me personally, I needed to forgive to let that anger go.”
After Petito’s dying shocked the nation, her household launched the Gabby Petito Basis to assist teams that help finding lacking individuals and to supply support to organizations that help victims of home violence conditions.
