(NewsNation) — The parents of Gabby Petito said they destroyed their daughter’s white van to prevent someone from turning it into a ghoulish trophy, but they have retained at least a couple of mementos.
Petito’s family felt uneasy about the vehicle, which they did not wish to keep.
Gabby Petito and Brain Laundrie: What happened?
Petito vanished in 2021 while on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, in a converted camper van. The two became the center of a nationwide investigation after Laundrie returned home without Petito.
Petito, a 22-year-old aspiring blogger, documented their journey on social media, specifically through her YouTube channel, before abruptly stopping. Gabby’s Ford Transit Connect was a regular feature in the travel reports she posted online before she disappeared in 2021.
Authorities believe she was killed by Laundrie in Wyoming before he killed himself in Florida. Her body was found at a camping area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming on Sept. 19, 2021, days after a nationwide search was launched. His body was later found near the Carlton Reserve in south Florida on Oct. 20, 2021.
Gabby Petito’s father: ‘We crushed the van’
NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian Entin checked in with the Petito family as a new Netflix docuseries about the case began streaming. The program includes new information about the case, including claims by a former boyfriend that Petito was planning to leave Laundrie shortly before her death.
“We crushed the van,” Petito’s father, Joe, told Entin. “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.”
He and Tara Petito, Petito’s stepmother, kept some items from the vehicle, including a gasoline cap from the van’s exterior and a sticker commemorating a stop at the Great Smoky Mountains. The mementos are displayed at home in a curio case.
Entin also spoke with Petito’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, and her stepfather, Jim Schmidt.
“I have forgiven Brian, and I know that’s what Gabby would have wanted, and I’m moving forward so that I can help people,” Nichole Schmidt said.
“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.”