Gabby Petito wrote a heart-wrenching love letter to her boyfriend — and her future killer — Brian Landrie before their fateful road trip in which she shared her excitement for their cross-country drive, but also begged him to stop verbally abusing her.
Petito, 22, asked Landrie, 23, to stop crying and calling her names in the opening of the handwritten letter, which was released in a trove of FBI documents obtained by The Post last week.
“Brian, You know how much I love you, so (and I’m writing this with love) just please stop crying and stop calling me names because we are a team and I’m here with you,” she wrote in the undated letter.
Petito referenced an argument the pair had without sharing more details, apologizing for getting “upset over a dumb piece of paper.”
“Yes, I can be a child sometimes, I know, but it’s cause you give me this energy and I just love you too much, like so much it hurts,” she wrote. “So you in pain is killing me. I’m not trying to be negative but I’m frustrated there’s not more I can do.”
It’s unclear from the two-page letter what was causing Landrie to be in pain.
Petito also wrote that when she came back from New York, she would work with him on the van — which the couple drove across the US on the trip that ended with Landrie killing her and later himself.
“We can work on the van together and they are OUR dreams now,” she penned.
“So I hope you understand when I’m upset it’s cause I love you too much,” she added. “Now, stop crying!!! And come home and say you love me with a big hug.”
Petito would later be reported missing while the couple was touring the country in their van and sharing their trip progress on social media.
Laundrie suddenly returned home to his parents in Florida without Petito near the end of August 2021, sparking a nationwide search that gripped the country’s attention.
Petito’s body was found strangled and dumped in a remote Wyoming camping area the next month with authorities confirming she was killed sometime around Aug. 28.
The letter was part of a 366-page document of writings and other evidence the FBI collected and photographed during a raid of Laundrie’s Florida home after investigators found Petito’s body.
The FBI searched the family home before Laundrie was discovered dead by suicide in a nearby national park.
Other documents included in those obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information request include bizarre and concerning scribblings and writings from the killer himself detailing manic episodes he experienced and his desire to kill himself.
Brain Stewart, the Petito family’s lawyer, said that the newly released writings show that Laundrie “was clearly a narcissist and manipulator capable of violence.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788.
