Gabby Petito update: Search warrant documents reveal “strange texts”, tensions in the days leading up to the disappearance



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One of the last messages Gabby Petito’s family reportedly received from her was in the form of a “strange text” sent in late August, when relatives began to worry for her well-being, according to the warrant. state search. published Monday.

Gabrielle Petito, 22, texted her mother, Nichole Schmidt, a text on Aug. 27, in which she wrote: “Can you help Stan, I keep getting his voicemails and missed calls,” the warrant says search, filed in Sarasota County Circuit Court Friday and made public Monday.

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According to the document: “The reference to ‘Stan’ was to her grandfather, but according to the mother, she never calls him ‘Stan’. The mother was worried that something was wrong with her daughter. “

The text was one of a dozen grounds for which local law enforcement claimed he had probable cause to carry out a search warrant at the home of Brian Laundrie, Petito’s fiancé, and his parents in North Port, Florida.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the home Monday morning in conjunction with local law enforcement. A spokesperson for the FBI’s Tampa field office told Fox News their search warrant was still under seal.

Local law enforcement officials were looking for and were given permission to search for a black Western Digital external hard drive, the document said.

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According to journalists on the ground, several unmarked law enforcement vehicles descended on the house as officers established it as a “crime scene”. Officers took Laundries’ parents, Chris and Roberta, in an unmarked van that was parked at the house before being returned to the house. Officers could be seen carrying several boxes out of the house and even towing Brian Laundrie’s silver Ford Mustang.

Meanwhile, two staff from the North Port Police Department were seen about 40 minutes away, entering the home of Brian Laundrie’s sister, Cassie, later Monday. They stayed for about 30 minutes before leaving.

Petito and Laundrie embarked on a cross-country trip in mid-June with the intention of visiting national parks and chronicling the trip on social media along the way, the document said.

But Schmidt told authorities that Petito had started to describe how there “seemed to be growing tension between her and Laundrie,” according to the search warrant.

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Fox News was the first to report that on August 12, Moab, Utah, police responded to a report of a marital dispute between the young couple. In a 911 call made at the time, a person can be heard telling a police dispatcher that “the gentleman was slapping the girl”.

The call appears to contradict a police report in which an officer states “no one reported that the man hit the woman”.

“The man tried to create distance by telling Gabbie to go for a walk to calm herself down, she didn’t want to be separated from the man and started slapping him,” the report continued. “He grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed herself against him and the van, he tried to lock her outside and succeeded except for her driver’s door, she l ‘opened and made its way towards him and into the vehicle before it started. “

One of the officers at the scene wrote that the incident could be “more accurately categorized as a ‘mental / emotional health’ break than a domestic assault.”

Schmidt later reported that she received a text from her daughter on August 30, in which Petito allegedly wrote: “No service in Yosemite.” But Schmidt didn’t believe the text was written by his daughter.

The search warrant describes the August 27 text message as “the last contact anyone had with the subject.” After that, according to the document, his cell phone was “no longer operational.”

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The search warrant also reveals that Brian drove home in the van – alone – just before 10:30 a.m. on September 1.

Petito’s family eventually reported his disappearance on September 11, and police seized the van under a separate search warrant three days later.

On Sunday, FBI officials said they discovered human remains in Teton County, Wyoming on Sunday that “fit the description” of Petito. A county coroner is expected to positively identify the body and perform an autopsy within the next few days.

Michael Ruiz, Paul Best, Sara Ballou and Greg Norman of Fox News contributed to this report.

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