Brian Laundrie’s Parents Didn’t Participate in Gabby Petito Netflix Doc. Now They’re Slamming It as ‘One-Sided’

In a statement, Chris and Roberta Laundrie say, “The documentary was what we expected”

The parents of Brian Laundrie, who killed his fiancée Gabby Petito on a cross-country van trip in 2021, are criticizing a new Netflix documentary about the case.

In a statement provided to PEOPLE by Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino, Chris and Roberta Laundrie say the new three-part documentary series American Murder: Gabby Petito was one-sided.

“The documentary was what we expected. One perspective depicted as the ‘truth’ as seen through their lens. Similar to Republicans and Democrats fighting it out lately. Hard to see through the lens of the other with all the noise and distrust.”   

“The documentary contained many inaccuracies, incorrect juxtapositions of timelines, and misstatements and omissions of fact — perhaps deliberate to capture their ‘truth’, perhaps due to simple error,” the statement continued. 

The statement also acknowledged the reality of what happened to Petito at Laundrie’s hands: “We all know Brian took Gabby’s life and Brian then took his own as well. Let the parents of both Gabby and Brian mourn and remember them in peace.”

The credits of the documentary note, however, that the Laundries refused to participate in the series, and in a pre-release interview with Today, Julia Willoughby Nason, one of the film’s directors, confirmed, “[The Laundries] didn’t want to participate, and we respect that.”

Brian Laundrie’s older sister has also spoken out about the documentary and her parents. In a Feb. 17 Instagram post, Cassie Laundrie claimed she hadn’t been in contact with her parents in almost two years, writing: “If you’re new here. And just starting to attack me today. I’ve been non contact with my parents for almost two years. Have fun.” 

Petito, 22, an aspiring van-life YouTuber, was traveling across the country in a van with Laundrie, her fiancé, when she was reported missing on Sept. 11, 2021.

A little over a week later, her body was discovered at Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area just outside of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

Petito had died from “blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation,” according to an FBI Denver report in January 2022. 

Laundrie later died by suicide and claimed responsibility for Petito’s death in a written confession that investigators discovered with his remains, per FBI Denver. His skeletal remains were found in Florida’s Carlton Reserve, along with his backpack and a notebook.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.