Gabby Petito: FBI target Brian Laundrie search with help from his father: LIVE UPDATES
Chris Laundrie, Brian Laundrie's father, accompanied law enforcement into the Carlton Reserve for the first time this week to look for his fugitive son, which former FBI special agent Ken Gray said reflects the bureau's strategy to base their search on specific targeted intelligence.
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The city of North Port, Florida will be taking down the Gabby Petito memorial on Tuesday and will attempt to find a more permanent solution.
Several items from the memorial are being gathered by the Petito family
Among the first items the family has retrieved from the makeshift memorial across from North Port City Hall is a handmade plaque in her honor emblazoned with a heartfelt poem dedicated to “America’s daughter.”
Fox News Digital - Michael Ruiz
Memorial for Gabby Petito grows near City Hall in North Port, Florida. Here are some of the heartfelt messages left in her memory.
The makeshift memorial for Gabby Petito will be removed from North Port City Hall on Tuesday and will eventually be replaced with a steel bench that is being constructed by a man from Indiana.
The North Port community has rallied around Petito, leaving flowers, cards, letters, and other things to remember her by at a tree near city hall.
"The family is grateful that their daughter’s life, their relative’s life has touched so many people. This is for her to be remembered,” North Port Mayor Jill Luke told Fox News on Saturday. "They’re grateful for people who brought things, for the gentleman who is preparing the bench, for those who are showing the respect and honor for their daughter.
"A man from Indiana is currently working with Petito’s family on creating the steel bench that will permanently be in place in honor of Petito.
"The bench will be off in between a couple of trees in the shade. Steel in the sun isn’t that welcoming, and we want people to be abel to come and sit and reflect,” Luke said.
A popular TikToker raised more than $5,000 from his followers to fly banners over Brian Laundrie's home in North Port, Fla., that say "End the silence — justice for Gabby" and "Justice 4 Gabby – Tik Tok time's up.
"It's the latest example of the massive impact that social media has had on the case, as amateur sleuths on TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, and other platforms have closely followed 22-year-old Gabby Petito's tragic death and the manhunt for 23-year-old Brian Laundrie.
Justin Shepherd collected donations from his more than 330,000 followers on TikTok through Venmo, then used the funds to pay a company to fly the banners over the house, where Brian Landrie's parents have laid low since the case began.
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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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The city of North Port, Florida, on Friday said a makeshift memorial for Gabby Petito at the city center will need to be removed because of damage from the rain and sun, but added it is looking for a location for a permanent one.
Items will start being removed next Tuesday and given to the Petito family, the city said in a tweet.
The city added, "work on a donated permanent memorial is in motion" and encouraged mourners to donate to the Gabby Petito Foundation.
Chris Laundrie accompanied law enforcement into the Carlton Reserve for the first time this week to look for his fugitive son, which former FBI special agent Ken Gray said reflects the bureau's strategy to base their search on specific targeted intelligence.
Gray was a member of the New Haven FBI SWAT team when he briefly helped search for Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph in the Appalachian Mountains in the late 1990s.
"SWAT teams came in, went out on the Appalachian trail area there in North Carolina, did a lot of searching through that area, but continued to come up empty-handed," Gray told Fox News Friday.
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