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Nicole Schmidt, the mother of Gabby Petito, spoke about her daughter's murder during an emotional interview with NBC's Kate Snow that aired Thursday (August 4) on the TODAY show.
Schmidt, who has been critical of her daughter's killer, Brian Laundrie, in the past, said that "even in his last moments, he wanted to make sure he looked like the good guy."
Schmidt was referring to a water-logged notebook found by Laundrie's body in which he admitted to killing Petito, claiming it was an act of mercy.
"That's ridiculous," she added. "We know how she died."
Schmidt said that as she looked back on videos of her daughter from her cross-country road trip with Laundrie, she could see signs that she was in distress.
"I wanted to jump through the screen and rescue my daughter," Schmidt said. "She's hurting. She's scared."
To help ensure other women don't fall victim to domestic violence, Schmidt announced that the Gabby Petito Foundation was giving a $100,000 donation to the National Domestic Violence Hotline to assist other victims of domestic abuse.
Schmidt said she doesn't want other families to go through what her family went through after Petito was murdered.
"Our story begins because of a domestic violence tragedy, and we don't want to see that happen to anybody else."