Brian Laundrie manhunt: Gabby Petito reported missing 1 month ago today
Brian Laundrie’s parents emerged from their North Port, Florida, home late Sunday night to clear their front lawn of white laundry bins and a tribute poster dedicated to Gabby Petito, according to an exclusive video obtained by Fox News.
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NORTH PORT, Fla. - Teton County, Wyoming, coroner Brent Blue on Tuesday will hold a virtual press conference regarding the final autopsy report for deceased Gabby Petito, officials said Monday.
The FBI on Sept. 19 discovered Petito's remains at a dispersed campground in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Blue later identified the remains and ruled Petito's death a homicide in his preliminary autopsy report.
The press conference will be held at 12:30 MT and is limited to members of the press, according to a Teton County spokesperson.
Florida police on Sept. 15 named fugitive Brian Laundrie a person of interest in their investigation into the disappearance of his now-deceased fiancée, 22-year-old Gabby Petito.
Laundrie, 23, has not been charged in her death, nor is he a suspect in Petito's homicide because authorities have not disclosed any information about evidence linking him to the crime, according to Ajay Pallegar, a criminal defense attorney in Tampa, Florida.
"A person of interest is somebody who may have information pertinent to a crime," Pallegar told Fox News. "They may not rise to the level as a suspect yet, whereas a suspect is a person who…authorities believe committed a crime."
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Brian Laundrie is probably not hiding out in a bunker in his parents’ backyard, a pair of experts in the industry tell Fox News — but there’s a small chance there's one somewhere else on the property.
Ron Hubbard, CEO of Texas-based Atlas Survival Shelters, said it’s common to build a bunker with a secret entrance for safety concerns, and despite the Laundries’ soggy Florida soil, contractors could easily construct a subterranean chamber that would stay put and keep the water out.
"It’s not a problem," agreed Gary Lynch, who runs the Rising S Company that is also based in Texas. "You just have to make them heavy enough that they don't float out."
Drone video taken above the Laundrie property showing Roberta Laundrie tending to her backyard garden sent Internet investigators down a literal rabbit hole, with some claiming they saw a hand poke out of the soil to take something from the gardening mother.
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Brian Laundrie in Moab, Utah, on Aug. 12. (Moab Police Department)
Some social media users are suggesting the manhunt for fugitive Brian Laundrie is already becoming a "cold case," meaning law enforcement has no new leads on his location.
The National Institute of Justice defines a "cold case" as a case in which officials have exhausted all "probative investigative leads," which could occur within a matter of months, according to NIJ's website.
"There is no official or legal definition of a cold case. Each jurisdiction determines when their cases are 'cold,'" Ryan Backmann, founder and executive director of a Florida-based cold case advocacy group called Project: Cold Case. "However, I can tell you that the overwhelming majority or law enforcement agencies don’t use an amount of time but instead consider a case cold when all the evidence has been tested, all the witnesses interviewed and all leads exhausted."
He added that "most agencies would not consider a case cold only a month in" regarding the search for Laundrie and that "there is still a lot that investigators can be doing.
"As long as leads and tips are coming in, I am confident the case is not cold," he said.
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Kristin Smart, left, and Gabby Petito, right (FBI; Instagram)
Some who are following the investigation involving Gabby Petito and her fugitive fiancé, Brian Laundrie, are drawing parallels between the case and the murder of Kristin Smart from 25 years go.
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Chris and Roberta Laundrie were seen on their front lawn late Sunday night clearing about 10 white laundry bins that were left there in an apparent protest.
Brian Laundrie’s parents emerged from their North Port, Florida, home late Sunday night to clear their front lawn of white laundry bins and a tribute poster dedicated to Gabby Petito, according to an exclusive video obtained by Fox News.
The home has been the focus of intense media attention in the weeks following the disappearance of the 22-year-old woman who once lived there with the family and her fiancé, who has since vanished.
Brian Laundrie is wanted on debit card fraud charges and is a person of interest in the killing.
The Laundrie family has faced public scrutiny over claims they may know more about their son’s whereabouts than they let on.
On Sunday night, Chris and Roberta Laundrie were seen on their front lawn clearing about 10 white laundry bins that were left there in an apparent protest.
The father and mother refused to answer questions when they picked up the baskets and removed a poster of Petito. They also retrieved a package in their mailbox.
At one point, the father said, “Just let me do it.”
Chris Laundrie joined the FBI on Thursday in the search for his son. He "accompanied members of law enforcement into the [T. Marby Carlton Jr. Memorial] reserve to show them the trails and places Chris and Brian have hiked and which Brian was known to frequent," Laundrie family attorney Steve Bertolino said in a Thursday statement. - Michael Ruiz and Stephanie Pagones
Former FBI agents Terry Turchie and Bryanna Fox say Chris Laundrie's efforts to help law enforcement search for his fugitive son on Thursday may signal more attempts to assist authorities.
Brian Laundrie is wanted on debit card fraud charges and is a person of interest in the killing of his 22-year-old fiancée, Gabby Petito.
"Watch and listen for any indication that he's continuing to help them," Turchie, who spent a year in the North Carolina mountains between 1998 and 1999 leading the hunt for fugitive Olympic bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, told Fox News. "That would be indicative of a breakthrough. … If [Chris Laundrie] is really sincere in wanting to help the law enforcement … and the FBI, and he has nothing to fear, then he's going to sit down and start just talking."
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