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The owner of a surf shop in Gabby Petito’s hometown of Long Island said Tuesday the 22-year-old was a long-time customer and “the cutest girl ever.”
“It’s terrible,” the owner, who wishes to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the matter, told Fox News on Tuesday. “We only knew her as this smiling, really sweet girl. She never walked into the store without a big smile on her face.”
Petito’s remains were found in Wyoming’s Teton-Bridger National Forest on Sunday after he went missing on a cross-country trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie, late last month.
The Teton County coroner said his death was a homicide on Tuesday and the cause of death will be determined after the autopsy results, the FBI said.
GABBY PETITO: RESEARCH BY BRIAN LAUNDRIE IN THE CARLTON RESERVE AS AUTOPSY DELIVERED ON TUESDAY
In June, Petito and Laundrie set out on their trip in a white 2012 Ford motorhome, first from Florida to New York, then out west to visit national parks.
Just before leaving Long Island in early July, Petito stopped for the last time in the surf shop.
“She’s been coming since she was 12, she came all the time. We haven’t seen her for a little while,” the store owner said on Tuesday. “Before leaving on a trip, she stopped to buy a shirt for her boyfriend.”
The remains of Gabby Petito, 22, were found in Wyoming on Sunday after she went missing on a trip across the country with her fiance, Brian Laundrie, last month.
(Steve Petito)
LIVE UPDATES: HUNTING BRIAN LAUNDRIE IN THE MYSTERY OF GABBY PETITO
Laundrie returned to North Port, a town on Florida’s Gulf Coast, where their journey began, on September 1 without Petito but with his white van.
The van was seized from the Laundrie family’s home in Florida on September 11 after her family officially reported her missing earlier the same day, and Laundrie was named a person of interest in her disappearance on September 15.
Laundrie himself went missing on September 14. A team of FBI agents then raided the family’s home on Monday and authorities searched for him at a nearby nature preserve as well as other places in Florida.
Gabby Petito’s mother described her daughter as “so creative and artistic and talented and sweet”.
(Steve Petito)
Other friends and family of Petito echoed the surf shop owner’s feelings about him.
“She’s so creative and artistic, talented and sweet,” Petito’s mother Nichole Schmidt told Fox News last week before her daughter’s remains were found.
“She’s a typical 22-year-old girl who just wants to live life, go on an adventure, create a YouTube account, travel and teach others how to do it.”
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Petito’s best friend in Florida said she “left a mark on everyone she came in contact with.”
“Same [if] it was a quick interaction. Not only does she see the light in everyone, but she spreads her light with everyone, “the friend told Fox News.” At the bottom, she managed to help me keep my chin up. “
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