Gabby Petito: Brian Laundrie search resuming in Carlton Reserve as autopsy due Tuesday: LIVE UPDATES
Officials in Wyoming told Fox News that an autopsy of the remains authorities discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest that may belong to Gabby Petito will be complete Tuesday. Meanwhile, a search for Laundrie has resumed Tuesday at the Carlton Reserve in Florida.
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Gabby Petito's father, Joseph Petito, spoke out about the Laundrie family in an interview with TV personality Dr. Phil.
“We called every number we could find and no phone calls were picked up, no text messages were returned," Petito said of his efforts to get in touch with a member of the Laundrie family in an attempt to help locate the missing woman.
“You’d think when someone says ‘we’re about to call the police’ to find your missing kid, you’d return a phone call. I mean, that’s just what logic would dictate for normal people. You don’t get any response, that just makes it more and more and concerning," Petito added.
Petito also addressed statements made by the Laundrie family's lawyer in response to his daughter's disappearance.
“Well, my child is nowhere to be found and I’m not getting any answers on where to even start," Petito said. “Don’t sit there and tell me how difficult it is for you because you’ve got reporters on your block.”
As authorities continue the manhunt for Brian Laundrie — and the public speculates wildly about his whereabouts — The Post has acquired property documents that reveal a string of recent home sales by the Laundrie family, as well as photos that take us inside the residence he shares with his parents.
FBI agents raided the fugitive’s Florida bedroom Monday, a day after Gabby Petito’s now-confirmed remains were found — and the day before her death was ruled a homicide.
Authorities discovered Petito’s body Sunday in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, where FBI, National Parks, and local law enforcement officials had been searching for the 22-year-old since last week. She was on a cross-country trip with her fiancé Brian, 23, when she disappeared there.
What I like about influencers is that they are the artists currently held in disdain. Actors and poets used to be warned against in polite society, now they are pillars of that society.
Influencers are the old school artists, a little dirty, what do they actually do or produce? They are thought to be a bad influence. But lo, that is the traditional role of the artist. Gabby Petito was an influencer, an artist, and that is why her loss has captured the heart of America.
There are those on the left who, as usual, want to make the media attention given to the death of Petito a symbol of America’s racism. MSNBC’s Joy Reid calls it "missing white women syndrome." CNN’s Don Lemon points to white privilege. It is reductive, dismissive, and ignorant nonsense. It also denies Petito agency for how she chose to live. It is not racism that made her disappearance a cause celebre, it is her spark and creativity.
Laundrie family lawyer Steven Bertoloni released a statement after the FBI confirmed the body discovered Sunday was Gabby Petito.
”May Gabby Rest In Peace,” Bertolino told Fox News when reached for comment.
While the world waits for autopsy results out of Wyoming telling whether a body found is 22-year-old Gabby Petito and the cause of death, Fox News is learning who she is, from the people who know her best.
"Gabby made a mark on anyone she came in contact with. Even [if] it was a quick interaction. She not only sees the light in everyone but spreads her light with everyone. At my lowest, she managed to help me keep my chin up," Petito’s best friend in Florida told Fox News.
On her Instagram account that now has more than 922,000 followers, Petito describes herself in her bio as someone who loves "art, yoga, & veggies."
A U.S. park ranger in Utah reportedly urged Gabby Petito to distance herself from fiancé Brian Laundrie just weeks before the road-tripping New York native’s remains were believed to be found near Grand Teton National Park.
Melissa Hulls, the ranger, was among several officers who responded to a 911 call reporting a possible domestic assault between downtown Moab and Arches National Park on Aug. 12.
Fox News previously obtained bodycam video from one of the male officers interviewing Petito – who appeared distraught and on the verge of tears. Officers ultimately filed no charges and said they separated the couple.
"I want to personally thank the press and news media for giving the Petito and Schmidt family time to grieve.
We will be making a statement when Gabby is home. I will contactyou to arrange a time and location," attorney Richard Benson Stafford said in the statement.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a tweet Tuesday that he has "directed all state agencies under my purview to continue to assist federal & local law enforcement as they continue to search" for Brian Laundrie.
"We need justice for Gabby Petito," he said.
This combo of photos provided by FBI Denver shows Gabby Petito. (AP/FBI Denver)
As of Tuesday, the hashtag #GabbyPetito has received more than 650 million views on the social media platform TikTok, according to the Associated Press.
Interest in the case also has been coming from Instagram, where investigators have combed over Petito's account for clues on her travels and background.
“Instagram is kind of like the photo on the milk carton, except it reaches so many people quickly,” Michael Alcazar, a former detective and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told the AP.
Jessica Schultz, a graphic designer and traveler, tells the San Francisco Chronicle that she contacted the FBI following an encounter in late August with a white van in the area where the body believed to be Gabby Petito’s was found Sunday.
Schultz says the van was traveling slowly down a one-lane road near Spread Creek and that she was forced to go off-road to get around it. When she passed, she says she looked at the van and saw a white male driving it by himself – which she now believes was Brian Laundrie.
“I’m pretty sure he got out of the van to like look around or something,” Schultz said.
The next two days, the van remained in the same area but no one could be seen around it, Schultz added.
On Sunday, before the human remains were found in the vicinity, an FBI agent told Schultz that “I’ve talked to hundreds of people, but you guys are the ones that really tipped us off to the right place, so thank you,’” she recalled.
Bodycam footage by the Moab City Police Department in Utah. (Moab City Police Department)
FIRST ON FOX: The 911 caller who reported the domestic incident between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie in Moab, Utah, believed that the couple was fighting over a phone and that Laundrie may have been trying to ditch his fiancée, according to a witness statement obtained by Fox News."
They were talking aggressively [at] each other [and] something definitely seemed off," the witness, identified only as Christopher, wrote. "At one point, they were sort of fighting over a phone – I think the male took the female’s phone. It appeared that he didn’t want her in the white van."
The male, believed to be Laundrie, got into the driver’s seat, according to Christopher, and the woman, believed to be Petito, followed. It happened outside the Moonflower Cooperative – an organic grocery store in downtown Moab.
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EXCLUSIVE: A Moab City Police Department statement obtained by Fox News’ Michael Ruiz on Tuesday – which contains remarks from a 911 caller about what he saw on Aug. 12 – says “something seemed off” and “it appeared that he didn’t want her in the white van.”
“I heard her say ‘why do you have to be so mean’” the witness said in describing the dispute between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie.
“It was as if the guy was trying to leave her, and maybe take her phone? Not sure but wanted to help out,” the witness added.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office in northwestern Florida said Tuesday that it is "actively" looking into a report about a trail camera capturing an image of a man resembling Brian Laundrie, the person of interest in the Gabby Petito case.
"I’m not saying this is the guy but whoever was on my trail camera this morning in Baker, Fl strongly fits the description of Brian Laundrie, authorities have been contacted but people in the North West Florida area be on the look out," a Facebook user named Sam Bass wrote last night about the picture taken at 6:17 a.m. local time Monday morning.
"Obviously we will keep everyone in the loop if and when there is anything to report," the sheriff's office added.
The Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, Fla. on Tuesday. (Fox News/Stephanie Pagones)
Francine Smetts, who says she has lived near the Carlton Reserve for more than a decade, described the area Tuesday as being "like a swamp right now because of all the rain we had.
"You can go maybe a mile in and then it's just water everywhere, lots of water," she told Fox News' Stephanie Pagones. "It's swampy. There are alligators out there, there are snakes out there, there are mosquitos -- they are relentless."
The Friends of the Carlton Reserve, a nonprofit that describes itself as being "in support of one of Sarasota County's natural lands," said in a Facebook message that "staff has notified us that effective Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021, the Carlton Reserve is closed until further notice."
The search for Brian Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve has resumed after the FBI spent hours with his parents at their home in nearby North Port, Fla., on Monday.
Vehicles from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office block the entrance of the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, Fla. (Fox News/Stephanie Pagones)
Dozens of law enforcement vehicles from all around the state are at Carlton Reserve Monday, which is now blocked off at the entrance.
Search teams held a briefing at about 8:30 a.m. local time, according to Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones.
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The North Port Police Department said in a tweet Tuesday that the search for Brian Laundrie -- the person of interest in the Gabby Petito investigation -- will start up again in the Carlton Reserve, a 25,000-acre reserve located roughly five miles from the family’s home.
"We join the FBI in asking for continued public assistance by sharing any information through the tip lines," the department added.
The search is resuming there after the North Port Police Department told Fox News on Monday that it "currently has no plans to conduct a major search of the Carlton Reserve today."
Authorities were looking for Laundrie in the reserve over the weekend, but as of Tuesday, his whereabouts remain unknown.
Gabby Petito, left, and Brian Laundrie are seen in bodycam footage released by the Moab City Police Department in Utah. (Moab City Police Department)
Melissa Hulls, a ranger at Arches National Park who responded to the Aug. 12 altercation in Utah between Petito and Laundrie, told the Deseret News that she warned Gabby her relationship had the markings of being “toxic.”
“I was imploring with her to reevaluate the relationship, asking her if she was happy in the relationship with him, and basically saying this was an opportunity for her to find another path, to make a change in her life,” Hulls said to the newspaper .
“She had a lot of anxiety about being away from him, I honestly thought if anything was going to change it would be after they got home to Florida,” she added.
Laundrie later stayed in a hotel that night, while Petito stayed with the van, according to a police report.
"We thought we were making the right decision when we left them," Hulls said.
Fox News’ Paul Best contributed to this report.
The attorney for Brian Laundrie canceled a press conference that was scheduled for Tuesday after speaking with the FBI, Fox News has learned.
Laundrie, 23, is the boyfriend of Gabby Petito, the missing Florida woman whose body may have been discovered Sunday in Wyoming.
A reporter from the New York Post, citing the attorney, tweeted that the press conference was not canceled at the behest of the FBI but rather because he said it is not in his clients’ ‘best interest.’
He has been named a person of interest in the case.His family told police that they have not seen him since last Tuesday.
The autopsy of the remains found in the investigation is set to be completed on Tuesday, which could confirm that the body belonged to Petito.
An apparent stone memorial has been discovered near where the likely remains of Gabby Petito were found by authorities, according to a report.
A cross made of rocks was seen on the ground in the area of the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, where the body was also found, according to KSTU-TV.
It was unclear who placed it there, according to the station.
Petito’s family reported her missing on Sept. 11, weeks after she last spoke with her mother in late August.
The camping area had reopened after the body was discovered and investigators left the scene, the report added.
Grand Teton County, Wyoming, Coroner Brent Blue on Monday confirmed to Fox News that an autopsy of the remains authorities discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest on Sunday would be complete by Tuesday.
The body found in the Moran Vista dispersed camping area in Moose, Wyoming, was consistent with a description of Gabby Petito, the FBI said Sunday, adding that the remains matched the description of the missing woman as the search for her fiancé intensified.
No other information about the body, such as the physical state of the remains discovered, have been released. The 22-year-old blogger was one of three people missing near Grand Teton National Park this summer.
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