Police and FBI agents on Wednesday kicked off the fifth day of a search for the fiancé of travel blogger Gabby Petito, who died in a Florida wilderness after dark Wednesday, saying they still haven’t found any sign of the man they’ve “tagged with.” person of interest”. If.
North Port Police Department spokesman Josh Taylor said efforts to find 23-year-old Brian Laundry in the swampy Carlton Reserve would resume Thursday.
Officials have not explained why they are convinced Laundry may still be in the crocodile-infested reserve for more than a week after he told family members he was going there for a hike. North Port Police say the family did not report his disappearance for the next three days.
The case has gripped Americans since 22-year-old Petito was reported missing on September 11. Ten days earlier, Laundry had returned home from a cross-country road trip to North Port without being chronicled in a social media post.
Petito’s body was discovered on Sunday in a remote area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming, less than 1,000 feet (300 meters) from where, on the evening of August 27, another pair of travel bloggers recorded on video what appeared to be the couple’s white Ford Transit van parked on the side of a dirt road.
In identifying his remains, the Teton County coroner’s office ruled Pettito’s death a homicide, but did not make his cause of death public.
‘Van Life’
Petito and Laundry left their home state of New York in July, heading west on what they called a “van life” trip, with plans to visit US national parks and document the trip on social media.
Witnesses last saw Petito on August 24 when she left the Salt Lake City hotel. She posted her last picture the next day.
Petito’s family believes she was on her way to Grand Teton National Park when they last heard from her. His body was found on the edge of the park, near the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping area.
On Monday, investigators issued a search warrant at the Laundry family’s home in Florida. He was seen loading cardboard boxes in a van and carrying a silver Ford Mustang.
In seeking a search warrant, investigators cited an August 27 text from Petito’s phone to his mother, Nicole Schmidt, which described receiving calls and voice messages from Petito’s grandfather, “Stan”.
Schmidt told investigators that the text was strange because his daughter did not usually call her grandfather by his first name. Petito’s family said a second text message saying only “no service in Yosemite” also sounded suspicious.
Last week, police in Moab, Utah, released body camera video of an August 12 encounter with two officers Petito and Laundry during a traffic stop.
In the video, Petito cries as she describes a fight with the laundry, and admits that he slapped her. Authorities did not take the couple into custody, but insisted that they spend the night separately – Petito in a van and laundry in a hotel.
That same day, a caller told emergency dispatchers that he had seen Laundry slapping and hitting Petito, according to audio from a 911 call released by police.