Fox News has confirmed that Gabby Petito's stepfather, Jim Schmidt, visited the exact site where her body was found at the Spread Creek dispersed campground in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. He placed stones in the shape of a cross and flowers on the site.
"The ground search for Brian Laundrie has been halted for the evening," North Port Police Public Information Officer Josh Taylor said in a statement. "Nothing found. Everyone will be back out Thursday, similar operation."
{{#rendered}}The neighbors of the Laundrie family in North Port, Fla. – the would-be in-laws of deceased 22-year-old Gabby Petito – told Fox News Wednesday that about a week after Petito's then-fiance Brian Laundrie returned from the Mountain West, the family packed up an "attached camper" and took what they believed to be a long-weekend camping trip.
Charlene and William Guthrie told "The Story" that it has been a "nightmare" living across from the Laundries since Petito and later Brian went missing.
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FIRST ON FOX: One of the last times Gabby Petito was seen alive involved an explosive argument between Brian Laundrie and wait staff at a Jackson Hole restaurant, according to a New Orleans couple who said they witnessed the spat.
"I have chills right now," Nina Celie Angelo told Fox News Digital Wednesday. "It's crazy because it wasn't just like we passed them on the street -- it was a full blown incident."
Angelo said she and her boyfriend, Matthew England, were in town for a wedding in late August. They were out to lunch at Merry Piglets, a Tex-Mex restaurant, between 1 and 2 p.m. on Aug. 27, when they said an agitated Laundrie began arguing with a waitress. Four and a half hours later, a travel-blogging couple passed Petito's van at a campsite north of town.
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{{#rendered}}The lawyers representing the families of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie engaged in a brief back and forth Wednesday over an image of the 22-year-old woman that appeared on a Yelp page.
Richard Stafford first issued a statement demanding Steven Bertolino – the Laundrie family lawyer – remove an image of Petito that appeared on an unclaimed Yelp business page bearing the latter's name, that was added by one of the site’s users.
“The family tried to remove their daughter’s picture from your page and were informed that only the business owner can add or remove pictures,” Stafford said. “Furthermore, the Petito and Schmidt family demand that you cease and desist posting pictures of Gabby Petito to any and all of your social media pages, web pages or advertisements in an effort to gain business."
The photo of Petito later was taken off the Yelp page.
Bertolino then issued a statement to Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones calling the entire episode “sad.”
“I have never used social media or any other electronic platform for advertising other than maintaining a website,” he said, adding that “I would certainly agree with Mr. Stafford that any such post he is referring to should be removed but advise him that I have no control over that Yelp site.”
North Port Police Public Information Officer Josh Taylor, in a statement to Fox News, says "we have received a number of questions about underwater dive vehicles entering the Carlton."
"Area resources are looking at large bodies of water, including dive teams, boats, and sonar equipment," he said. "At this time, this does not mean anything has been found. It’s a part of the overall search process."
{{#rendered}}The attorney representing Brian Laundrie’s family tells Fox News on Wednesday that Brian has been "missing for a week," as Gabby Petito’s uncle released a statement criticizing the lawyer’s past comments.
As of Wednesday, the current whereabouts of Laundrie – the person of interest in Petito’s murder – remained unknown. Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino said his "family is definitely concerned but we don’t want to speculate as to anything more."
Earlier, Gabby Petito’s uncle, Steve, spoke out against the law firm representing Brian Laundrie’s family, saying "we don’t require nor want your empathy" and "by you trying to show compassion here at this moment is beyond disgusting."
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Gabby Petito’s uncle, Steve, tells Fox News on Wednesday that her parents will be issuing a statement when her body arrives home from Wyoming.
The development comes as the Teton County coroner tells Fox News’ Jeremy Copas that the 22-year-old's remains are still in his possession as forensic testing remains ongoing, including microscopic and toxicology examinations.
The coroner said the test results could be coming back in the next few days or weeks.
However, Petito’s body will not be given back to her family until the FBI allows it, the coroner added.
{{#rendered}}Steve Petito is speaking out on Instagram Wednesday against the law firm representing Brian Laundrie’s family, saying “we don’t require nor want your empathy” and “by you trying to show compassion here at this moment is beyond disgusting.”
Petito made the comments in reaction to a statement Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertoloni gave to Fox News yesterday, in which the lawyer said “May Gabby Rest in Peace.”
“As far as the law is concerned this law firm may be immune due to attorney/client privilege,” Steve Petito wrote.
“But in the eyes of the public you are as guilty and complicit with this massive cover-up and stalling tactic,” he added, without elaborating.
The North Port Police Department has released images of dogs being deployed this morning as the resumed effort to locate Brian Laundrie within the Carlton Reserve enters its second day.
Authorities first searched the sprawling, rugged terrain for Laundrie over the weekend before pausing on Monday and resuming yesterday.
A coroner on Tuesday ruled Gabby Petito's death as a homicide, while Laundrie -- whose current whereabouts are unknown -- remains a person of interest.
The Friends of the Carlton Reserve, a nonprofit that describes itself as being "in support of one of Sarasota County's natural lands," tells Fox News' Stephanie Pagones that it has 8 to 10 trail cameras currently deployed in the area to "monitor wildlife.
"The locations of the cameras are kept secure and are not used for security purposes," the group wrote in an email. "Until recently we kept a continuous database that accumulated over 17,000 still images whose data were entered to include date, time, location, species, and other information relevant to the tally."
The group would not comment on whether they have provided any material captured by the cameras to law enforcement. Investigators are searching the Carlton Reserve for Brian Laundrie.
{{#rendered}}Gabby Petito's father, Joe, revealed during an interview with Dr. Phil that he used to call Brian Laundrie -- the person of interest in his daughter's homicide -- Brianne.
“I’ve never liked any of Gabby’s boyfriends, let's be real. I’ve never actually called one of her boyfriends by their real name, ever. I always made up names for them," he said.
"I always tried to use the female version of the boyfriend's names, just to intimidate them a little bit," Joe Petito added. Petito says Laundrie "laughed" when he first heard the name.
The detail emerged as an attorney for Petito’s family reportedly told CBS News last week that "Gabby's family was instructed by law enforcement to not discuss the details of Gabby and Brian's relationship.”
The owner of a surf shop in Gabby Petito's Long Island hometown said Tuesday that the 22-year-old was a longtime customer and "the sweetest girl ever."
"It's terrible," the owner, who wishes to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the case, told Fox News on Tuesday. "We've only known her as this smiley, really sweet girl. She's never come into the store without a big smile on her face."
Petito's remains were found Sunday in Wyoming's Teton-Bridger National Forest after she went missing while on a cross-country road trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie, late last month.
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A rainbow forms over the Carlton Reserve in Florida where authorities continue to search for Brian Laundrie on Wednesday.
{{#rendered}}Residents in Petito’s hometown of Blue Point, N.Y., reportedly lit candles in front of their homes Tuesday night to pay tribute to the 22-year-old who was confirmed dead yesterday after her body was found earlier this week in Wyoming.
‘She was a beautiful girl, but beyond the outside beauty. She was always happy… she was a lot of fun. Always had a smile on her face. Happy-go-lucky, just a really bright spirit,” Jennifer McNamara, a family friend, told NewsNation Now.
The Johnny Mac Foundation, a nonprofit formed by McNamara – who is the widow of an FDNY firefighter who passed away from 9/11 related cancer – also lined the streets of Blue Point with teal ribbons prior to the coroner’s announcement Monday, according to News 12 Long Island.
That color was chosen by Petito’s mother as it resembled her daughter’s eye color, McNamara told the station.
A witness statement contends that Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie fought over a phone and argued “aggressively” outside a store in Utah last month, according to a report.
“Something seemed off,” a witness identified as Chris said of the Aug. 12 incident between Petito and Laundrie in Moab, the New York Post reported.
The couple argued over the phone at Moonflower Community Cooperative just before 5 p.m., Chris wrote in the statement to the Moab Police Department, according to the paper.
“They were talking aggressively @ each other & something seemed off,” the statement read. “I think the male took the females (sic) phone. It appeared that he didn’t want her in the white van.”
“At one point she was punching him in the arm and/or face & trying to get into the van,” the statement added. “I wasn’t sure how serious this was – it was hard to tell if they were sort of play fighting, but from my point of view something definitely didn’t seem right.”
{{#rendered}}North Port Police took to Twitter late Tuesday to announce that the search for Gabby Petito’s boyfriend at wetlands near his family’s home will continue. Authorities confirmed that the body found in the Teton-Bridger National Forest belonged to Petito.
The North Port Police Department has focused on Sarasota County’s Carlton Reserve during their search for Brian Laundrie, who was named as a person of interest in the Gabby Petito disappearance. Police said the search on Tuesday was unsuccessful, but the “current plan is to return Wednesday with a similar operation.”
Police have been using drones and K-9s search for Laundrie, but the terrain is challenging and is about 75% underwater.
North Port police are joined by several agencies, including the FBI and the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Gov. Ron DeSantis said that the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has been assisting in the search. “I have directed all state agencies under my purview to continue to assist federal & local law enforcement as they continue to search - we need justice for Gabby Petito,” he tweeted.
The FBI on Tuesday afternoon confirmed that the remains investigators discovered on Sunday in the Teton-Bridger National Forest belonged to missing 22-year-old woman Gabby Petito. "Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue confirmed the remains are those of Gabrielle Venora Petito, date of birth March 19, 1999.
Coroner Blue’s initial determination for the manner of death is homicide. The cause of death remains pending final autopsy results," the FBI tweeted Tuesday with a statement from the Jackson, Wyoming, coroner. Brian Laundrie, Petito’s fiancé, has been reportedly missing since Sept. 14, with his parents filing a missing persons report on Sept. 17.
The couple has otherwise largely remained quiet following the missing persons report for Petito, avoiding questions whenever they made a brief appearance outside their home. The Laundries said they picked up Brian Laundrie's Ford Mustang Tuesday from the nature reserve where the search was taking place, though they did not report him missing until police showed up at their home Friday.
Coverage for this event has ended.