Gabby Petito case: FBI agents search Brian Laundrie’s Florida home and seize his Mustang



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NORTH PORT, Fla .– FBI agents and police raided Brian Laundrie’s family home on Monday, searching the property and seizing a Mustang belonging to the missing man who is wanted for questioning in the death of Gabby Petito.

The court-authorized search warrant was executed at the North Port, Florida home where Laundrie lives with her parents.

Over the weekend, Petito’s body was apparently discovered in a Wyoming national park months after the couple left in a van for a hike across the country. Authorities have said the remains found in Grand Teton National Park match Petito’s description, but a full examination is still pending.

The FBI escorted Laundrie’s parents out of their home in a van waiting in their driveway at 10 a.m. Monday.

They were in the car for about 10 minutes before heading back inside.

Investigators were inside the house with the family all day.

At approximately 2:30 p.m. they towed Laundrie’s silver Mustang from the driveway.

Laundrie and Petito lived with her parents before making the trip on which she died.

Petito and Laundrie hit the road in July in a converted van to visit Western National Parks. They argued along the way and Laundrie was alone when he got into the van at his parents’ house on September 1, police said.

Laundrie has been named a person of interest in the case, but it is unclear where he is in recent days.

Petito’s cause of death remains unknown.

“We continue to seek information from anyone who used the scattered Spread Creek camping area between the dates of August 27 and August 30. To share any new information with the FBI,” Jones said.

An attorney for the Petito family released a statement on Sunday evening asking for privacy to be filed and also thanking the agencies that helped with the search.

“Your tireless work and determination helped bring Gabby back to her parents,” the statement read. “The family and I will be forever grateful.”

Petito’s father, Joseph, tweeted a heartbreaking message in the wake of the discovery, claiming “it touched the world.”

The development came as the search for Brian Laundrie, Petito’s boyfriend, resumed in Florida.

Petito’s parents reported his disappearance on September 11 after not speaking to him for two weeks.

Laundrie had been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. Laundrie, 23, who returned home more than two weeks ago without Petito and refused to speak to the police, has not been seen since Tuesday, according to the police.

The Laundrie family attorney said in a statement Sunday night: “The news regarding Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family is praying for Gabby and her family.”

Search for summaries of ‘large’ stash for boyfriend of missing 22-year-old man

Laundry research resumed Sunday on a 24,565-acre reserve in Florida.

North Port, Fla., Police said a team of officers searched for Laundrie on the Carlton Reservation north of Laundrie’s home in North Port. The search began on Saturday but was suspended overnight due to darkness.
“A team of more than 50 people looking for something important after his parents (from Laundrie) said that was where he had been,” North Port police said in a message on Twitter Sunday morning.

North Port police accompanied by FBI agents, drones, K-9s and bloodhounds are involved in the search for Laundrie, police said in a briefing on Saturday afternoon. Authorities took clothes from the family home on Friday to help the canine units, North Port Police spokesman Josh Taylor said.

Laundrie’s family told police on Friday they last saw him on Tuesday with a backpack and he told them he was heading to the huge reserve, which he frequented for hikes , according to Taylor.

Responding to the news that it was not known where Laundrie was, a lawyer for the Petito family said in a statement: “Gabby’s whole family wants the world to know that Brian is not missing, he is in hiding. . Gabby is missing. “

The search for Laundrie is the latest twist in the case that has garnered national attention as the couple have traveled across the country since June in Petito’s 2012 Ford Transit and documented the trip on social media. Laundrie returned home in Petito’s van in North Port on September 1 without his girlfriend, police said.

Taylor confirmed investigators spoke to Miranda Baker, a college student who posted a TikTok video over the weekend claiming that she and her boyfriend picked up Laundrie around 5:30 p.m. on August 29 while doing Hitchhiking alone in Colter Bay Village at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. In the video, Baker said Laundrie offered her and her boyfriend $ 200 to drive him to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

“He told us he had been camping for several days without his fiancée. He said he had a fiancée and she was working on their social media page in their van,” Baker said in the video.

She said that during the ride, Laundrie “panicked” and asked to get out of the vehicle.

“He’s like, ‘No, I have to get out right now. You have to stop,'” Baker said in the video and later in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Baker said she and her boyfriend let Laundrie hang out near the Jackson Lake Dam shortly after 6 p.m.

“For someone who was camping for several days, it didn’t look dirty. It didn’t smell dirty,” Baker said.

Asked about Baker’s alleged meeting with Laundrie, Taylor told ABC News on Sunday: “We spoke to him. His timing is plausible.”

The FBI has specifically said it would like to speak to anyone who was in the scattered Spread Creek camping area from August 27-30 who may have seen the couple or their van. The agency said it would not comment on details of the information in its investigation.

Schmidt received two texts from his daughter’s phone in the days following his conversation, but it was not clear whether they were actually sent by Petito.

“A lot of people are wondering why Mr. Laundrie wouldn’t make a statement or speak to law enforcement in the face of Ms. Petito’s absence,” said lawyer representing the Laundrie family, Steven P. Bertolino, in a statement last week. “In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focuses their attention on in cases like this, and the warning that” any statement will be used against you “is true. whether or not my client has anything to do with Ms. Petito’s disappearance. As such, on the advice of the lawyer, Mr. Laundrie is not speaking on this matter. “

ABC News contributed to this report.

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