A Florida judge denied a motion by Brian Laundries parents to withhold a letter Laundries mother wrote him that said burn after reading on the envelope, which a lawyer for Gabby Petitos family called a potentially damning piece of evidence in their civil lawsuit.

Laundrie was accused of killing Petito, his fiancee, as they were on a cross-country road trip that Petito was documenting on Instagram as an aspiring #vanlife influencer. As her disappearance and death were under investigation, Laundrie then disappeared into a nature reserve near his parents home in Florida, where he was later found dead himself.

In March, Petitos parents, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, sued Laundries parents , Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, for emotional distress, and accused them of knowing about their daughters death weeks before her body was found near a Wyoming campground.

At the center of the ongoing civil suit is a letter Roberta Laundrie wrote to her son that Pat Reilly, the Petitos attorney, has argued may reveal that the Laundries were aware that Petito had been killed and helped their son escape authorities. Roberta Laundries letter made references to lending her son a shovel, helping bury a body and helping him get out of prison, Reilly said.

The letter references burying a body, baking a cake and putting a shiv in it, Reilly said in court on Wednesday.

The letter is undated, and the Laundries and their attorney have said it has nothing to do with Gabby Petitos death.

Reilly has argued, in contrast, that because the letter is undated, it could have been written following the young womans death, and it should be up to a jury to decide if its relevant evidence.

With Wednesdays ruling, the letter will be included in discovery, the evidence that parties in a lawsuit exchange with each other.