‘No doubt I spoke to Laundrie’
NC trail hiker insists
A Florida engineer is adamant he spoke with Brian Laundrie on a deserted road near the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina Saturday morning.
Dennis Davis’ alleged encounter with the boyfriend of slain Long Island native Gabby Petito comes as police receive tips that Laundrie may be trav- ersing the trail, the world’s longest footpath.
“There is no doubt in my mind I spoke to Brian Laundrie — none whatsoever,” said Davis (inset), 53.
“Dog the Bounty Hunter’s daughter sent me an audio file of Brian’s voice and the voice was the same I heard.”
A lost and dazed man allegedly waved down Davis on Waterville Road, where the Appalachian Trail runs near the border of North Carolina and Tennessee.
The Appalachians are understood to be an area familiar to Laundrie, who was previously reported to have once lived there “by himself for months.”
The man believed to be Laundrie pulled his car up alongside Davis to ask for directions to California using only back roads and declined Davis’ suggestion to take nearby Interstate 40.
Davis, a father of four currently hiking the Appalachian Trail, said the Laundrie look-alike acted skittish and rambled about having been in a fight with his girlfriend.
Davis said he believes if the man was Laundrie, he was “wigged out” from being on the run and the situation with Petito.
“He said, ‘Man, I’m lost.’ I said, ‘What are you trying to find?’ and he said, ‘Me and my girlfriend got in a fight but she called me, told me she loves me, and I have to get to California to see her.’
“I said, ‘Well, I-40 is right there and you could take it west to California,’ and he said, ‘I’m just going to take this road into California.’
“He was worried and not making sense.”
Davis did not immediately recognize the man as the fugitive until he pulled over, took out his phone and looked up photos of the outlaw.
The man Davis sighted drove a white or lightcolored pickup truck resembling a Ford F-150 and wore a dark head bandana.
Despite the road being dark, Davis said the headlights from both idle cars were sufficient to see the man at such close range.
“Obviously, as a father with a daughter, I want to do whatever I can to help the [Petito] family find closure and get this guy off the streets,” he said.
Laundrie, 23, on Sept. 1 returned to Florida from a cross-country trip without Petito, his 22-year-old girlfriend and travel companion.
Petito was officially reported missing on Sept. 11 and later found dead in Wyoming.
Laundrie remains the sole person of interest in the case. He went missing on Sept. 14, according to his parents, who reported the vanishing to police three days later.
There is an active warrant for his arrest on fraud charges for using someone else’s bank card around the time Petito disappeared.