Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito update: Petito’s relatives reunite in New York for memorial as the search for her fiancé continues

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Sunday’s public memorial visit to Moloney’s Holbrook funeral home comes as authorities continue their search – now for more than a week – for Petito’s fiancé, Brian Laundrie, who returned home to Florida after a trip to across the country without Petito on September 1st.

Richard Stafford, an attorney for the Petito family, told CNN in a statement Friday that the family is asking for donations from a future Gabby Petito foundation in lieu of flowers.

The last memorial was on Saturday night, when members of the North Port, Florida community – where Petito lived with Laundrie and his parents – gathered at town hall to hold a candlelight vigil and release butterflies. in her honor and express their support for her family. Most didn’t know Petito, CNN affiliate WFTS reported, but they still felt a connection to her.

“I have daughters of my own, as well as granddaughters,” Lisa Correll, who organized the memorial, told WFTS after hearing Petito’s story. “So it was very moving at first.”

“At least she’s home with her family and they have their closure and their peace,” Correll said.

$ 30,000 in rewards available for tips leading to Laundrie’s arrest

Petito and Laundrie took a trip across the country in June and were visiting national parks. They regularly posted their trips online with the hashtag #VanLife, but those posts abruptly ended in late August.

Van's life looks idyllic on social media. But for couples it can be difficult

Petito was reported missing on September 11 – 10 days after Laundrie returned home with her van – after her family were unable to contact her. She was found dead eight days later near a campground in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming.

Meanwhile, authorities are looking for Laundrie, who faces a federal arrest warrant for his “use of unauthorized devices” resulting from his actions after Petito’s death. The laundromat allegedly used a debit card and PIN for accounts it did not own for charges over $ 1,000 between the dates of August 30 and September 1, according to a federal indictment.

Laundrie’s parents told authorities on September 17 that the 23-year-old had left their home a few days earlier with his backpack and said he was heading to the reservation, which has since been subject to extensive research by local and federal officials.

Now, two separate awards totaling $ 30,000 have been offered to anyone who provides law enforcement with the location of the laundry.

Boohoff Law, a personal injury law firm, said in a statement posted on its website that it was offering a reward of $ 20,000 to be “paid once the body responsible for enforcing the law. law will have provided “the cabinet with” written verification that a tip helped locate “Laundrie.

The law firm, which has multiple offices in Florida, including North Port, said its award “will remain open for two months from receipt of the tip” by law enforcement.

Meanwhile, a second reward was offered by Jerry Torres, who said in a tweet Wednesday that he was a neighbor of Petito’s family.

Torres wrote that he and his daughter “offer our deepest condolences to Gabby Petito’s family,” adding: “We are offering a reward of $ 5,000 for tips leading to an arrest.”

Torres said on Friday that the reward he was offering had been increased to $ 10,000, in part with the help of people like Steve Moyer, the former deputy police chief of Sarasota, Fla.

“Money gets people talking,” Moyer told CNN affiliate WZVN on Friday.

What we know about Gabby Petito's last days

A lawyer for Laundrie’s family stressed in a statement that the warrant did not relate to Petito’s death but related to activities that allegedly took place afterwards.

“I understand that the arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie is linked to activities that took place after Gabby Petito’s death and not to his actual disappearance,” said Steve Bertolino. “The FBI is focused on locating Brian and when that happens, the details of the charges covered by the indictment will be dealt with in the appropriate forum.”

The marshy wilderness remains at the center of research

The Carlton Reservation, located in Sarasota County, not far from Laundrie’s parents’ house in North Port, is an inhospitable environment covering nearly 25,000 acres.

“Please note that the Carlton Preserve is at times a vast and unforgiving place. It is currently (waist deep) in the water in many areas,” North Port Police said in one of their updates. day last week. “It’s dangerous work for search teams as they wade through alligator and snake infested swamps and flooded hiking and biking trails.”

The search for Gabby Petito's fiancé, Brian Laundrie, continues. Here's why it was so hard to find him

Dozens of law enforcement personnel from several agencies combed the reserve for signs of laundry, using drones and bloodhounds as part of the search, the department spokesperson said. North Port Police, Josh Taylor.

A scuba diving team from the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office that is “called in to search for evidence of crimes and victims of drowning, water accidents and criminal acts” was also brought in mid-week, according to the sheriff’s office.

“We are looking through wooded areas, we are looking through bodies of water, we are looking through swampy areas,” North Port Police Commander Joe Fussell said in a video shared online Friday. “And we are deploying the resources to be able to do that. We have air units, we have drones, we have swamp buggies, airboats, several law enforcement agencies, we have ATVs, we have UTVs. and we have standing officers too. ”

Law enforcement is expected to be back in the reserve searching throughout the weekend, with a focus on “most likely areas,” according to a statement from Taylor, a police spokesperson. from North Port, Friday.

Unless “something notable” is found, Taylor said North Port Police will not be providing regular updates over the weekend.

CNN’s Leyla Santiago, Sara Weisfeldt, Christina Maxouris, Jenn Selva, Steve Forrest, Taylor Romine, Laura Ly, Amir Vera and Gregory Lemos contributed to this report.

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