(NewsNation) — The parents of Gabby Petito say 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.
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 murdered by her travel companion, Brian Laundrie, in Wyoming before he took his own life in Florida.
Gabby’s family felt uneasy about the vehicle, which they did not wish to keep.
“We crushed the van,” Gabby’s father, Joe, told NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian 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.”
Joe and Gabby’s stepmother, Tara Petito, 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 was checking in with the family as a Netflix docuseries about Gabby began streaming. The program includes new information about the case, including claims by a former boyfriend that the 22-year-old New York woman was planning to leave Laundrie shortly before her death.
Entin also talked with Gabby’s mother, Nichole Schmidt, and her husband, 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.”
