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Published 16:18 17 Sep 2021 GMT
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Published 12:11 18 Sep 2021 GMT
The attorney of Gabby Petito's family has said that the 22-year-old's boyfriend "is not missing, he is hiding."
This comes after authorities reported that 23-year-old Brian Laundrie has not been seen by his family since Tuesday.
Over the summer, Gabby and Brian had been traveling in their converted van on a cross-country trek. However, on September 1, Laundrie returned back to his parents' house in North Port, Florida, in the couple's van.
Gabby was not with him.
Her family reported her missing on September 11, and her disappearance is now part of an ongoing FBI investigation.
In a news conference on Thursday, it was revealed that Petito's last contact with her family was on August 30 via a text message - but her mother has since told the Daily Mail that she believes the message was fake and not from her daughter.
She was last seen on August 30 while traveling in the couple's white van with Laundrie, the New York Post reports.
On Friday (September 17), North Port police spokesperson Josh Taylor told CNN's Chris Cuomo that Brian is now missing. "We've been trying all week to talk to his family, to talk to Brian, and now they've called us here on Friday, we've gone to the home, and they're saying now they have not seen their son," Taylor said.
The 23-year-old's disappearance was also confirmed by the Laundrie family's attorney.
In an accompanying statement, Taylor said: "We are not currently working a crime investigation. We are now working a multiple missing person investigations."
Prior to his disappearance, it was reported that Laundrie had not been cooperative when speaking with authorities regarding his girlfriend's disappearance. North Port police chief Todd Garrison said: "The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation. The answers will eventually come out."
Now, in response the Laundrie going missing, the Petito's family attorney, Richard Stafford, has said in a statement to CNN: "All of Gabby's family want the world to know that Brian is not missing, he is hiding. Gabby is missing."
Jim Schmidt, Gabby's stepfather, responded to the news by telling Cuomo on Friday: "I don't know what to believe."
Schmidt says that although he's happy Brian's parents contacted the police, the news "caught him off guard".
Nevertheless, he has stressed: "All that matters is finding [Gabby] and bringing her home."
"We're still trying to get the word out there and try to find that one person that might have some details that we need," he said. "Just trying to get out there and find that person and hopefully they can help us with anything that will bring her home."
The FBI is encouraging anyone with information on Gabby Petito’s whereabouts to call its tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).Published 11:07 18 Sep 2021 GMT
In a bizarre twist to the Gabby Petito investigation, the travel blogger's boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, is now missing.
The FBI has been searching for 22-year-old Petito since she was reported missing on September 11. In a news conference on Thursday, it was revealed that Petito's last contact with her family was on August 30 via a text message - but her mother has since told the Daily Mail that she believes the message was fake and not from her daughter.
Per the New York Post, Petito was last seen on August 30 while traveling in the couple's white van with Laundrie.
Petito and boyfriend Laundrie had been traveling in their converted van on a cross-country trek. Laundrie, 23, returned to his parents' home in North Port, Florida, in the van on September 1.
It has been reported that Laundrie did not cooperate with authorities regarding the search for Petito, with North Port police chief, Todd Garrison saying: "The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation. The answers will eventually come out."
Now, as reported by CNN, Brian Laundrie is missing and hasn't been seen by his parents since Tuesday.
North Port police spokesperson Josh Taylor told CNN's Chris Cuomo on Friday: "We've been trying all week to talk to his family, to talk to Brian, and now they've called us here on Friday, we've gone to the home, and they're saying now they have not seen their son."
"So we are working through those details as we speak. It is another twist in this story," Taylor said.
In a statement on Friday, Taylor said: "We are not currently working a crime investigation. We are now working a multiple missing person investigations."
The Laundrie family lawyer has further confirmed the 23-year-old's disappearance.
Per The Independent, Gabby and Brian were childhood sweethearts who first met while growing up on Long Island.
The couple has been sharing their trips across the country together since 2019 - on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Petitio's most recent Instagram post was published on August 25. There has been nothing since.
Police in Moab, Utah, reported an encounter with the couple on August 12. Officers described the pair as having "engaged in some sort of altercation".
A report from officer Eric Pratt read: "Both the male and female reported they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn't wish to see anyone charged with a crime."
Officers suggested that the couple separate for the night, adding that each individual had their own cell phone in case of an emergency. Laundrie was brought to a hotel, while Petito stayed in the van. Both were told to "take advantage of this time apart to relax their emotions, and regain control of their anxiety."
Petito was described as "confused and emotional", and reported "serious anxiety" that was made worse by "little arguments she and Brian had been having all day".
Laundrie claimed that Petito had become "manic" from fear that he would leave her stranded in the desert. During the argument, Petito reportedly scratched Laundrie's face and arms. He said that he felt safe and did not appear to have hurt his fiancée physically — as concluded by law enforcement.
"After evaluating the totality of the circumstances, I do not believe the situation escalated to the level of a domestic assault as much as that of a mental health crisis," officer Daniel Robbins said.
No charges were filed, and the altercation was labeled as a "mental [or] emotional break".
Published 15:19 18 Sep 2021 GMT
As the search for missing 22-year-old travel blogger Gabby Petito continues, her friends have spoken out about her relationship with 23-year-old Brian Laundrie.
Per The Independent, Gabby and Brian were childhood sweethearts who first met while growing up on Long Island.
Since 2019, the couple has been sharing their trips across the country together on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. However, on September 11, Gabby's family reported her missing after Brian returned to his parents' home on September 1 without her.
The couple had been on a road trip in their converted van around the Grand Teton National Park area, with Petito's last post being shared to Instagram on August 25.
She was last seen on August 30 while traveling in the couple's white van with Laundrie, the New York Post reports.
On Friday, North Port police spokesperson Josh Taylor told CNN's Chris Cuomo that Brian is also missing, and has not been seen by his family since Tuesday.
However, the Petito's family attorney, Richard Stafford, has responded in a statement to CNN saying: "All of Gabby's family want the world to know that Brian is not missing, he is hiding. Gabby is missing."
Speaking to Insider, the couple's former co-worker, Nicole Kalanich, has said that she is shocked by Petito's disappearance. She went on to say how she had met the couple back in February, and spent time with them outside of work.
She described them as "happy and cheerful", adding that they "never complained." Kalanich went as far as to tell Insider: "They were couple goals for me."
Nikki Passannante and Steven Evans, two of Petito's friends, told News Nation host Ashleigh Banfield that although they had never met Brian, the couple seemed happy.
"I never got the chance to meet him," Passannante said. "They moved to Florida pretty early in their relationship and we're in Long Island and unfortunately we never got to know a lot. But from what she says and what she posts, they seem to be pretty in love."
Evans even revealed that he had been asked to be the photographer at their wedding after Gabby and Brian got engaged.
When Banfield asked if Gabby could have gone missing of her own accord, Passannante shook her head and Evans said: "I wish that could be a possibility, I do, she's not a person that would just go off on her own like that."
He continued: "She's an independent person, but not like that. She wouldn't just fall off the grid and not come in contact with family. She would call her parents every day, sometimes a couple of times a day, so this is just very, very out of the ordinary."
Petito's "best friend", Rose Davis, shared another side of the couple's relationship with the Daily Mail, telling the publication: "I'm [Gabby's] only friend in Florida to my knowledge and that's not because she can't make friends, [Brian] just didn't want her to have friends."
Davis alleged to the Daily Mail that Brian once took Gabby's ID so that she wouldn't be able to go out with her.
Rose added: "He's got these jealousy issues and he struggles from what Gabby called these 'episodes', where he would hear things and hear voices and wouldn't sleep. Gabby had to stay at my house a bunch of times because she just needed a breather and didn't want to go home to him."
Speaking about her friend's disappearance, Davis - who lives roughly 30 minutes from the couple's North Port home - said: "When I saw that Brian was back from the trip, that was the first thing that popped into my mind - that Brian had one of his episodes - and I was just hoping he didn't have a snapping moment."
Gabby Petito is described as 5ft 5" tall, weighing 110 pounds, and has a tattoo saying: "Let it Be".
The FBI is encouraging anyone with information on Gabby Petito’s whereabouts to call its tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).Authorities are still searching for 22-year-old Gabby Petito, who was reported missing by her family this past weekend.
The travel blogger had been on an extended road trip through the western United States with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie — who has since returned, and is refusing to talk to authorities, per law enforcement.
Petito's family — who have not heard from their daughter since late August — have pleaded with Laundrie and his family to cooperate in a bid to bring her home.
Laundrie is a person of interest in the case after it was reported that police officers in Moab, Utah, responded to a dispute between the pair in mid-August. For his part, an attorney for the Laundrie family said in a Tuesday statement that they are "remaining in the background at this juncture and will have no further comment."
Authorities from the North Port police in Florida to the FBI are investigating the case.
Here is everything we know so far...
In a Thursday news briefing, North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said that Petito and her fiancé, Laundrie, left for a cross country trip in June, per CNN.
Originally from Blue Point, New York, Petito lives with Laundrie and his parents in North Port. The travel blogger has been documenting their trips across the country together since 2019 — on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
According to Garrison, the pair traveled in Petito's white Ford van to the West Coast, where they would visit state national parks. He added that she was excited to share the journey with her family, friends, and social media followers.
"She maintained regular contact with her family members during her travels, however, that communication abruptly stopped around the end of August," he said.
On July 2, Petito and Laundrie left Long Island, and continued to post pictures of national parks and hot springs using the hashtag, "van life".
Her most recent Instagram post was published on August 25. There has been nothing since.
Police in Moab, Utah, reported an encounter with the couple on 12 August. Officers described the pair as having "engaged in some sort of altercation".
"Both the male and female reported they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn't wish to see anyone charged with a crime," a report from officer Eric Pratt said.
Officers suggested that the couple separate for the night, adding that each individual had their own cell phone in case of an emergency. Laundrie was brought to a hotel, while Petito stayed in the van. Both were told to "take advantage of this time apart to relax their emotions, and regain control of their anxiety."
Petito was described as "confused and emotional", and reported, "serious anxiety" that was made worse by "little arguments she and Brian had been having all day".
Laundrie claimed that Petito had become "manic" from fear that he would leave her stranded in the desert. During the argument, Petito reportedly scratched Laundrie's face and arms. He said that he felt safe and did not appear to have hurt his fiancée physically — as concluded by law enforcement.
"After evaluating the totality of the circumstances, I do not believe the situation escalated to the level of a domestic assault as much as that of a mental health crisis," officer Daniel Robbins said.
No charges were filed, and the altercation was labeled as a "mental [or] emotional break" rather than domestic assault.
Petito's family told North Port police that they were last in contact with their daughter during the last week of August. Before this communication, the 22-year-old is believed to have been in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
In a news conference on Thursday, Richard Stafford — the Petito family's lawyer — detailed that the last contact they had with her was on August 30. However, they did not believe that the message they received was from Petito herself.
Stafford declined to share what the message said, or why her family did not believe it came from their daughter.
On September 1, Laundrie returned to his and Petito's North Port home, per law enforcement.
Police later recovered Petito's vehicle — which the couple had been traveling in — at the home they share with Laundrie's parents.
After being processed, it was discovered that "there was some material in there", which authorities are currently going through, per North Port police spokesperson Josh Taylor.
Petito's family, who live in New York, reported her missing on Saturday evening to the Suffolk County, New York, police department. While North Port authorities visited the Laundrie's home on Saturday night to speak to them, they were "essentially handed the information for their attorney", per Taylor.
"That is the extent of our conversation with them."
In a letter read by the Petito's family attorney during the law enforcement's Thursday news briefing, her family pleaded with Laundrie's family for information.
"Please, if you or your family have any decency left, please, tell us where Gabby is located," they said. "Tell us if we are even looking in the right place. All we want is for Gabby to come home. Please help us make that happen. We haven't been able to sleep or eat, and our lives are falling apart."
The lawyer said that the family contacted Laundrie's family earlier this month for information, but they refused to answer.
On September 15, North Port police said that Laundrie had neither "made himself available to be interviewed by investigators," nor "provided any helpful details."
In a statement, North Port police chief, Todd Garrison said: "We are pleading with anyone, including Brian, to share information with us on her whereabouts in the past few weeks.
"The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation. The answers will eventually come out. As a father, I can imagine the pain and suffering Gabby’s family is going through."
Laundrie's attorney, Steven Bertolino said in a statement to CBS2 New York:
"In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focuses their attention on in cases like this and the warning that 'any statement made will be used against you' is true, regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms. Petito’s disappearance.
"As such, on the advice of counsel, Mr. Laundrie is not speaking on this matter."
As a result, he and his family "will continue to remain silent on the advice of counsel."
Speaking to CBS2, Petito's father, Joseph, said: "If you’re hiking a trail and stuff like that and you see her, you can turn around: ‘That’s Gabby … Gabby, here is my phone. You need to call your folks right now."
Published 12:20 22 Sep 2021 GMT
A neighbor of Brian Laundrie and his family has spoken out about the final days leading up to his disappearance.
Yesterday, the FBI confirmed that the body found in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming, this past weekend was indeed that of Laundrie's missing girlfriend; Gabby Petito.
Preliminary results from the coroner have determined that the 22-year-old travel blogger's death was a homicide.
A tweet from the FBI Denver Twitter account shared a message from Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider. In the post, he stated that Gabby's boyfriend, 23-year-old Brian Laundrie, is still a "person of interest."
"Anyone with information concerning Mr. Laundrie's role in this matter or his current whereabouts should contact the FBI," Schneider added.
Petito first went missing while traveling across the country with Laundrie in their converted van. He returned back to the home they shared with his parents in North Port, Florida, without Petito on September 1. Petito was reported missing 10 days later.
Now, in an interview with Fox News Digital, Charlene Guthrie - who lives across the road from the Laundrie family - has spoken out about those 10 days.
Speaking about last night's tragic revelation that Gabby's body had been discovered, Guthrie said: "I’m really upset now because… [the Laundries] should have absolutely come forward now."
The neighbor then mentioned how the family "remained so normal through the whole thing" up until Brian's disappearance.
"He mowed the lawn. Him and his mother went for a bicycle ride around the block," Guthrie alleged. "I mean, everything was just normal life once he came back."
"It seemed like nothing bothered him," she added.
It is important to note that although Brian Laundrie is being treated as a "person of interest" by authorities, he has not been accused of any crimes.
Nevertheless, Guthrie said that his disappearance looks "really, really bad for him".
Speaking about Brian's parents, their neighbor pondered whether or not they were "protecting" him.
"I have children, and I know that you do what you can to protect your child," Guthrie said. "But, you know, that can go so far, and you gotta do the right thing eventually. You have to."
Brian Laundrie was last seen by his family on September 14, police say. He has yet to be found.
Published 11:27 20 Sep 2021 GMT
The family of Brian Laundrie has released a statement following the news that human remains have been found matching the description of missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito.
Last night, FBI agent Charles Jones confirmed to the press: "Earlier today, human remains were discovered consistent with the description of Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito.
"Full forensics identification has not been completed to confirm 100 percent that we found Gabby, but her family has been notified of this discovery."
Per the New York Post, the remains were discovered
As reported by CNN, an autopsy is currently scheduled for Tuesday (September 21).
Gabby, a frequent travel blogger, went missing during a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie. The two had been traveling around together in a converted white van.
Petitio was last seen on August 30 while traveling in the white van with Laundrie, the New York Post reports. On September 1, Brian arrived back at his parents' home in North Port, Florida, without her.
On Friday, North Port police spokesperson Josh Taylor told CNN that Brian is also missing, and has not been seen by his family since Tuesday.
The New York Post reports that Brian went missing after telling his parents he was going for a hike in the Carlton Reserve close to their home. Police have been searching for him since Saturday.
In response to the news that a body has been found in the search for Petito, Laundrie's family has issued a statement through their attorney, Steven Bertolino.
In a text message to the New York Post, Bertolino said on behalf of the family:
"The news about Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family prays for Gabby and her family."
Joseph Petito, Gabby's father, has also shared a tribute to his daughter. Taking to Twitter, Mr Petito shared a photo of Gabby standing in front of a mural depicting angel wings. He captioned the post: "#GABBYPETITO she touched the world."
Richard Stafford, the attorney representing Mr Petito and Gabby's mother, Nicole Schmidt, has also released a statement on behalf of the travel blogger's family, asking "the press and news media to have some decorum and sensitivity for Gabby’s family and allow them to grieve."
The FBI is encouraging anyone with information on Gabby Petito’s whereabouts to call its tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).
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