What Brian Laundrie said happened to Gabby Petito when she died

Originally appeared on E! Online

Warning: This story discusses suicide and murder.

Brian Laundrie’s account of Gabby Petito’s 2021 death has been revealed.

In the Netflix docuseries "American Murder: Gabby Petito," which premiered Feb. 17, a handwritten letter left behind by Laundrie — in which he admitted to ending his fiancée’s life during a cross-country road trip — told his version of events in what he described as “an unexpected tragedy.”

“Rushing back to our car, trying to cross the streams,” he wrote, according to the doc. “I hear a splash and a scream. I can barely see.”

Laundrie, 23, went on to allege the van life influencer was “gasping” and “freezing cold” when he found her.

“When I pulled Gabby out of the water, she couldn’t tell me what hurt,” he continued. “While carrying her, she continually made sounds of pain.”

From there, Laundrie described the 22-year-old as “begging for an end to her pain.” But while he “thought it was merciful” to end her life, Laundrie wrote he instantly second-guessed his actions.

READ What Brian Laundrie Messaged Himself From Gabby Petito’s Phone After Her Murder

“From the moment I decided to take her pain away,” he reflected in his note, “I knew I couldn’t go on without her.”

Laundrie returned home to Florida without Petito in September 2021 and went missing days after the FBI opened an investigation into her disappearance. Shortly after her remains were discovered in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, his body was found at Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, with authorities later determining that Laundrie died by suicide.

“I have killed myself by this creek,” Laundrie shared in his letter, which investigators discovered alongside his remains, “in the hopes that the animals will tear me apart.”

While Petito’s cause of death was ruled as a homicide caused by manual strangulation and blunt-force trauma to her head and neck, Laundrie’s explanation of the events leading up to her passing only added to the mystery left for her loved ones.

“We knew at that point we weren't ever going to get remotely close to answers we were hoping for,” her stepfather Jim Schmidt said in the series, “because the only two people that truly knew what happened are now both gone.”

PHOTOSAmerican Murder: Gabby Petito, Netflix

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.