Convicted killer Brian Landry wrote about his troubled mental health on paper, scribbling about his “insanity” and doodling drawings of a skull with the phrases “Trust Nobody” and “Kill,” according to new FBI files obtained exclusively by The Washington Post.
The texts and other evidence were photographed by police during a search of the Landry family home after the body of his girlfriend, Gaby Petitot, was found abandoned in September 2021 at a remote Wyoming campsite after she was murdered.
Pettit family attorney Brian Stewart said he was shocked by graffiti and other horrifying evidence of 23-year-old Brian’s death that authorities recovered from the Landrys’ Florida home before he was found dead at a local national park.
“Looking back, we see that Brian had mental illness, was clearly a narcissist and a manipulator with potential for violence,” Stewart told The Washington Post.
“It’s just horrifying,” he added when shown the skull diagram and other of Landry’s writings, obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act.
In addition to the painting, the FBI search also uncovered Pettit’s notebooks, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, several magazines, and purchase and sale contracts and handbooks for a Ruger .380 caliber and a Glock 49 mm caliber handgun.
Authorities also recovered a compound bow with a rifle scope, a bolt-action rifle magazine, knuckledusters, a thick stack of bills and a copy of The Watchtower, an illustrated religious magazine published by the New York-based Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Landry also had in his possession a copy of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel “Choke,” about a con man who pretends to choke on food to gain sympathy from others.
Other books in Landry’s possession had been hollowed out, apparently to make room for secretly storing items or electronic devices.
Among the most shocking evidence were Landry’s own personal writings, in which she expressed desire for suicide and self-immolation, months before she began her relationship with Pettit.
“About a year ago I went into a state of insanity where I would punch holes in walls with my head, kick paintings, rip apart whatever I was working on, wet a lighter while pouring gasoline over myself trying to burn myself alive, and park in a kill zone and listen to Mac. [unclear, but may be ‘DeMarco’] “I had a gun held to my head and was wrestling with an alligator,” Landry wrote in his diary on Oct. 26, 2018.
“I wanted to die, but strangely, nothing has changed. [timer’s] “Running away,” he continued. Under the mattress where I was sleeping was a loaded .357 Magnum revolver.
“If I pull the trigger, all my problems will be over.”
According to their Instagram accounts, the chilling diary entries were written about four months before Landry and Petito began dating.
Two years later, Landry and Petitot set off on a cross-country trip in a van, documenting their adventures on social media.
But in a frightening turn of events, Landry suddenly showed up at her parents’ home and Pettit was reported missing. After a nationwide search, the 22-year-old’s strangled body was discovered in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Authorities confirmed that she was killed around August 28th.
An undated entry in Landry’s diary also describes a nightmare Landry had, in which Pettit appears to have left him.
“The ocean flooded her blue eyes and the fire was extinguished. The pain vanished with one word: ‘Brian?'” Landry wrote.
“Oh, how sweet of her to ask to meet us, but as soon as she walks out the door she’s gone again forever,” he added. “You walk back to your car and are haunted by eyes you’ll never see again.”
“The pain burns fresh because I know it’s just tonight, and when we wake up we’ll both be free,” the entry concludes.
Mr Stewart said the Pettits were unaware of the contents of the diary but that if Landry had any desire to harm himself and Gabby at the time it was written he had done a good job of concealing it.
“We know he’s a schemer with hidden intentions,” Stewart said, “and it’s interesting to see all these notes, knowing how this kind of domestic violence can lead to deadly consequences.”
