Gabby Petito: Police ramping up search at Carlton Reserve in Brian Laundrie case: LIVE UPDATES
A sizeable law enforcement presence has descended on the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, Florida, on Wednesday in the search for Brian Laundrie.
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Florida fugitive Brian Laundrie’s attorney said Wednesday that Christopher Laundrie would begin assisting authorities in the search for his son – who was last seen on Sept. 13, just days after his fiancée Gabby Petito officially became a missing person.
The FBI later uncovered Petito’s remains at a remote Wyoming campsite on Sept. 19.
"Chris Laundrie was asked to assist law enforcement in their search for Brian at the preserve today," Steve Bertolino, the family's attorney, told Fox News Wednesday night. "Since the preserve has been closed to the public, Chris has not been able to look for Brian in the only place Chris and Roberta believe Brian may be."
"I want to see him in a jail cell for the rest of his life."
That was Joe Petito's message on Wednesday to Brian Laundrie if the former fiancé of his slain daughter had anything to do with her death
Joe sat down with Dr. Phil McGraw for the second part of a wide-ranging interview that aired Wednesday, along with Gabby Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, and her stepparents, Tara Petito and Jim Schmidt.
They discussed their desire for Brian Laundrie to be apprehended alive, what they are planning with the Gabby Petito Foundation, and their reaction to a 911 call for a domestic incident between the couple.
Gabby Petito told a police officer on Aug. 12 that her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, didn't believe in her dream to create a website and blog, but she was apparently able to edit and publish an eight-minute video when Laundrie left her for nearly a week in Salt Lake City while he flew home to Florida.
The video, entitled "VAN LIFE | Beginning Our Van Life Journey," was posted to her YouTube channel, "Nomadic Statik," on Aug. 19, two days after Laundrie traveled to Florida to close a "storage unit to save money," according to his lawyer, Steven Bertolino. During an interview with Dr. Phil, Petito's family attorney Richard Stafford suggested Laundrie stole Gabby's credit card to fund the flight.
This undated photo shows Robert "Bob" Lowery, of Houston, Texas. (Courtesy the Lowery family)
The Teton County coroner has released the cause and manner of death for Robert "Bob" Lowery, the missing hiker found dead in Wyoming near where authorities found the remains of Gabby Petito last month.
Lowery, a 46-year-old father of two from Houston, Texas, died by suicide from a gunshot wound to the head, according to Dr. Brent Blue."
Bob has been a wonderful father, son, brother and friend," his family said in a statement last week. "Our family wants to thank the news media and others involved in the search for our privacy at this difficult time."
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Law enforcement have returned to the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County on Wednesday in the search for Brian Laundrie.
Florida fugitive Brian Laundrie, the fiancé of slain van life blogger Gabby Petito, has arguably become the most wanted man in America after slipping into hiding following reports of her disappearance on Sept. 11.
But the so-called outdoorsman is only "a mediocre survivalist," according to his sister, Cassie Laundrie, who urged him to surrender to authorities in an interview with ABC News this week.
"I'd say Brian's a mediocre survivalist," she told the outlet. "It wouldn't surprise me if he could last out there a very long time. But also, I don't think anything would surprise me at this point."
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After multiple potential sightings of Brian Laundrie, wanted posters have been put up in Cary, N.C., where some of his relatives reportedly live.
"We are aware of the posters that have been disseminated at a few locations in our area. With that said, we have not received any reported sightings of Mr. Laundrie,” a spokesperson for the Cary Police Department told Fox News on Wednesday.
About 250 miles west of Cary, there have been multiple potential sightings of Laundrie in Haywood County, but the sheriff’s office there said Sunday that their investigations of the sightings turned up nothing.
Dennis Davis, a Florida man who is hiking the Appalachian trail, also said that he saw Laundrie on Saturday in Tennessee near the North Carolina border.
Gabby Petito’s father, Joe, has revealed if Brian Laundrie was involved in her death, “I want to see him in a jail cell for the rest of his life.”
Joe Petito's comments came during an interview with Dr. Phil airing Wednesday. The first part of the emotional sit-down with Petito, Gabby's mother Nichole Schmidt and stepparents, Tara Petito and Jim Schmidt, ended Tuesday with a plea from Dr. Phil for Laundrie to turn himself in.
“Brian, if you are listening to me right now – let me tell you something. You may have done the wrong thing then, do the right thing now,” McGraw said.
“Because you’re not helping yourself at this point, you are alienating more people and when you're in a hole, stop digging.”
“They are not going to stop looking at you,” he added.
The sister of Brian Laundrie is speaking out about the Moab, Utah bodycam footage of officers interacting with Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito on Aug. 12.
“It's definitely painful to see everybody just be upset,” she told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’. “It was pretty typical of them to argue and try and take space from each other,” she added.
“But people saying they saw public domestic violence, I've never seen anything like that from either of them.”
Former federal fugitive Seth Ferranti says Brian Laundrie should turn himself in and "face the music." (Seth Ferranti/Moab Police)
A former federal fugitive who spent two years on the lam is urging Florida’s Brian Laundrie to surrender to authorities following the homicide of his fiancée Gabby Petito.
"You just gotta turn yourself in man — you gotta face the music," said Seth Ferranti, an ex-con turned writer and producer. "And if you did do something to that girl, you gotta pay the price. And if you didn’t do anything to that girl, you’ve got to present it to the jury and trust in your innocence."
Ferranti was on the U.S. Marshals’ Top 15 Most Wanted list from 1991 to 1993, on the run from a 25-year sentence for nonviolent drug trafficking charges during the height of the government’s War on Drugs. So he knows what it takes to avoid arrest.
"You got to have money, money, money," Ferranti told Fox News Monday. "If you have money, as long as you have money, you can stay hidden."
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Brian Laundrie’s sister, Cassie, said in a statement to NBC News on Wednesday that “we’re here for him if he needs us and we just want the right thing to be done for everybody’s family.”
The remark comes as Cassie appears to be distancing herself from Laundrie family attorney Steve Bertolino, challenging some of his statements on her interactions with Brian after Gabby's disappearance.
As for her parents, she told ABC’s "Good Morning America" Tuesday that she doesn’t know if they are involved in his disappearance, but added, "I think if they are, they should come clean."
The parents of Gabby Petito described in heartbreaking detail the moments when they heard the news that their 22-year-old daughter’s remains were believed to have been found in Wyoming after she had been missing for weeks, and say they believe her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, is still alive during an interview on "Dr. Phil."
Joe Petito and Nichole Schmidt, Gabby’s mother and father, and her nearly lifelong step-parents, Tara Petito and Jim Schmidt, covered topics ranging from Nichole Schmidt’s early inkling that her daughter was not OK, the text messages Gabby’s parents sent to Laundrie's parents and their belief that he is hiding out.
The Gabby Petito Foundation announced on its website Tuesday night that it will hold its inaugural fundraiser later this month at a venue on New York's Long Island.
The foundation was created by her parents shortly after her death and is intended to assist families with missing loved ones.
The Petito case has gripped the country after her body was discovered last month in a remote area in northwestern Wyoming. Brian Laundrie, her boyfriend, has subsequently vanished and has been on the lamb for over three weeks.
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