Gabby Petito: Brian Laundrie search continues as her family retrieves memorial items: LIVE UPDATES
Authorities combing the Carlton Reserve this weekend had still found no sign of Brian Laundrie as of Saturday as Gabby Petito's family retrieved items from a temporary North Port, Florida, memorial the city said needed to be removed because of exposure to the elements. A permanent memorial will replace it.
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The parents of deceased Gabby Petito, Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt, visited North Port, Florida, over the weekend to take home mementos from a makeshift memorial for their daughter at city hall.
“Goodbye Florida …thank you for showing us so much LOVE!” Nichole Schmidt tweeted Sunday with a photo of a cloud in the shape of a heart. The city is expected to take down the memorial on Tuesday but will put a permanent memorial bench in its place.
The Petito family on Saturday retrieved a handmade plaque calling Gabby “America’s daughter.”
Schmidt also posted a photo of the memorial on her Instagram page thanking her supporters.
A makeshift memorial for Gabby Petito slated for removal on Tuesday.
Visitors from out of state came to pay their respects to the makeshift memorial to Gabby Petito in North Port, Florida.
Denise Cato, who was raised in North Port and lives in Georgia, told Fox News she keeps thinking about this “horrific situation.”
"I hope that they find him alive,” Cato said. “And really most importantly, find him alive so that an investigation can continue."
Laura Schroeder, a mother who was visited the memorial with her daughter, Autumn, said Petito’s death was a sad story that “touches us all, especially people with any kids or especially a daughter, so it really does something, you know when you've got a child and especially with what's happened to her."
"It's kind of like scary being a daughter and like it's unexpected like nobody expected this to happen obviously,” Autumn said. “So, it's kind of scary for like all like young girls and stuff."
They both said Petito’s story was a “lesson.”
Memorial for Gabby Petito on Laundrie family property.
Two local women added a large photo of Gabby Petito to the makeshift memorial on the Laundrie family property in the middle of the night.
The women claimed to be neighbors who did not know the Laundries, but felt the need to add the photo of Petito, with the words “Remember me? Gabby Petito,” to the memorial.
“She was around my age, so it hits home for us,” one of the women said before the departing the property.
Former FBI agent Terry Turchie says fugitives like Brian Laundrie "tend to try to figure out" how they can reach their "comfort zone" while on the run and are often located in those places.
Laundrie, 23, is wanted on debit card fraud charges and is a person of interest in the homicide of his 22-year-old fiancée, Gabby Petito, who was reported missing on Sept. 11. Laundrie's family last saw him on Sept. 13.
"People don't change because they become a fugitive," Turchie, who spent a year in the North Carolina mountains between 1998 and 1999 leading the hunt for Olympic bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, told Fox News Digital. "They tend to try to figure out how they can land in the comfort zone."
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Fox News Digital - Michael Ruiz
On Tuesday, The city of North Port, Florida, will begin removing items from a makeshift memorial for Gabby Petito at the city center because of damage from the rain and sun.
It will will eventually be replaced with a permanent steel bench memorial that is being constructed by a man from Indiana.
Several items from the memorial are being retrieved by the Petito family, including a handmade plaque calling Gabby “America’s daughter.”
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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