EXCLUSIVE: Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman is investigating a tip that alleges Brian Laundrie, the fugitive fiancé of Gabby Petito, went into a Florida campground 75 miles away with his parents in early September — but only two of them were seen leaving.
Chapman announced Saturday he was entering the search for Laundrie, and tips quickly poured in. He told Fox News he received a tip on Monday that Laundrie’s parents spent the night in Fort De Soto Park with their son twice in early September from Sept. 1-3 and Sept. 6-8.
"They were registered, went through the gate. They’re on camera. They were here," he told Fox News exclusively on Monday evening. "We think at least if he’s not here right now, we are sure he was caught on camera as he went in the gate — that he was here for sure. Not over in the swamp."
Moab Police Chief Bret Edge is taking federal Family Medical Leave Act time for unclear reason, according to the Moab Times.
Edge has faced heavy criticism over his department's handling of an Aug. 12 traffic stop of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie after the duo were reported for a domestic violence incident.
The two were split up for the night, but Petito was later reported missing and then found dead last week.
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Multiple people have had flowers sent to the Laundrie family home and placed at a makeshift memorial to Gabby Petito in the family's front lawn.
Brian Laundrie showed telltale signs of a domestic abuser and control freak in his erratic public behavior around fiancée Gabby Petito in the weeks before her death – and he may have had help evading authorities before investigators found her body, according to an expert criminal profiler.
"I think he’s a coward on the run," John Kelly, a longtime criminal profiler and psychotherapist, told Fox News. "Knowing that he’s a coward, where would we think he would go? Do we think he’s macho enough to go off to Mexico? I don’t know about that."
Laundrie's parents told police on Sept. 17 that they hadn't seen him since three days prior – so he had a potential head start toward wherever he may be now. The FBI said search teams found Petito’s remains at the Spread Creek dispersed camping area, just north of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Sunday, Sept. 19.
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FIRST ON FOX: "Dog the Bounty Hunter" called it "a shame" that Brian Laundrie’s mother Roberta Laundrie called 911 Saturday rather than answer his knock on the family’s front door.
Police were already in the immediate area when Robert Laundrie made the call, and Chapman told Fox News that he spoke with North Port police before he arrived at the property.
"It’s a shame they wouldn’t speak with us," he said Monday. "The police said we were welcome to knock on the door so we did. I wanted to tell the Laundries that our goal is to find Brian and bring him in alive."
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Audio has emerged Monday indicating that Brian Laundrie’s parents called 911 to report the presence of Duane "Dog" Chapman – known as “Dog the Bounty Hunter” -- outside of their property.
“The female, Roberta... called in on 911,” a dispatcher is heard saying , adding that the caller “referenced a situation with the male.”
“It’s a shame they wouldn’t speak with us,” Chapman told Fox News’ Michael Ruiz on Monday. “The police said we were welcome to knock on the door so we did. I wanted to tell the Laundries that our goal is to find Brian and bring him in alive.”
“We've been called to the house numerous times for all sorts of issues. Media, protestors, celebrity searchers,” added North Port Police Public Information Officer Josh Taylor. “It's not something normal. If the family calls and is concerned, we will respond like we would for anyone.”
Duane "Dog" Chapman said on "Fox & Friends" Monday he's received more than 1,000 tips since joining the search for Brian Laundrie.
"We've gotten over a thousand leads… So we're going through all those leads," said the famed bounty hunter. "It's incredible pictures of him here, they're here. We're going through all those leads right now."
"I would say within 48 hours, we probably will have a location where we start the tracking at," he added.
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A pair of megaphone-wielding protesters are demonstrating outside the Laundrie home in North Port this morning, saying messages like "your silence is guilt" and "if you got nothing to hide, you would come out and tell the truth."
Brian Laundrie's whereabouts remain unknown Monday as he remains a person of interest in Gabby Petito's death.
Petito family neighbor Jerry Torres and former Sarasota Deputy Chief of Police Steve Moyer speak about the incentives being offered to locate Gabby Petito's fiancé.
After more than a week of searching for Brian Laundrie in Florida's Carlton Reserve without much success, law enforcement plans to scale back their efforts in the coming days, according to police."I don’t think you’re going to see those large scale types of efforts this week," Josh Taylor, a spokesman for the North Port Police Department, told Fox News on Sunday night. "The FBI is now leading the search. I’m told, It will be scaled back and targeted based on intelligence. Hopefully, water will lower in areas hard to currently access."
The Carlton Reserve is a 24,000-acre expanse of woods and swamps about 15 miles from the Laundries' home, has been the focus of the search since Laundrie was reported missing on Sept. 17. Florida cattle rancher Alan McEwen said Sunday that "there’s no surviving" in the reserve, which is home to alligators, panthers, black bears, wild boar, and poisonous snakes. "I have learned a lot in my life, and one thing I know is no one is gonna survive out there for two weeks on foot," he told Fox News' Paul Best.
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NORTH PORT, Fla. – Minutes after Utah police were told about a report of a man striking a woman and taking off in a white Ford Transit van with Florida plates, officers pulled over Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito and appeared to zero-in on her as the aggressor, dispatch radio recordings show.
"RP (reporting party) states seeing a male hit a female, domestic," the dispatcher states at around 4:38 p.m. MT on the day of the incident. "He got into a white Ford Transit van, has a black ladder on the back, Florida plate."
The dispatch audio, first obtained by the investigative unit at FOX 13 Utah, shows the dispatcher did in fact inform the officers of allegations that Laundrie had been the aggressor – shedding new light on a situation that initially seemed like police didn't know about the witness' claims.
Coverage for this event has ended.