Laundrie sis’ story is shaky
Brian Laundrie’s sister joined her family on a camping trip days after Gabby Petito’s disappearance, seeming to contradict statements she made that she hadn’t recently seen her brother.
Cassie Laundrie saw her now-fugitive brother twice since he returned home to Florida on Sept. 1, attorney Steven Bertolino confirmed to The Post on Friday.
Brian had returned from an aborted cross-country trip with Long Island native Petito, who was found dead in Wyoming last month. Her death was ruled a homicide.
“Cassie saw her brother Brian on Sept. 1, when he stopped by her home, and again on Sept. 6 at Fort De Soto Park,” Bertolino said. “Law-enforcement agencies are well aware of these dates.”
Reality TV star Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman went public with Cassie’s visit to the camping grounds Friday, but Bertolino said cops were already aware of the dates.
“Any prior communication by Cassie that does not reflect these dates is simply a difference of relating an answer to a question misinterpreted by Cassie or poorly posed by the inquirer,” Bertolino said.
Cassie was the first, and so far only, member of the family to speak publicly about the case and said in a September interview she hadn’t spoken to her brother.
“I haven’t been able to talk to him,” she said on “Good Morning America.” “I wish I could talk to him.”
The broadcast interview doesn’t show the reporter asking the question to Cassie, so the exact phrasing of the questions aren’t clear.
The latest surprising revelation from the Laundrie family comes as North Carolina authorities investigate calls suggesting Brian, 23, is hiding out on the Appalachian Trial. It’s also a focus for the private search team led by Chapman, whose daughter Lyssa tweeted a plea for “experienced HIKING/SURVIVALIST near the Appalachian Hiking trail in North Carolina.”
The sheriffs’ offices in Watauga and Avery counties both confirmed to WSOC-TV that they had received more than a halfdozen tips
The Appalachians is understood to be an area familiar to Laundrie, who was previously reported to have once lived there “by himself for months.”
Laundrie remains the sole person of interest in the case.
He went missing on Sept. 14, according to his parents, who only reported it to police three days later.
There is an active warrant for his arrest on fraud charges for using someone’s bank card around the time Petito disappeared.