Tracking a fugitive
Searchers combing wilderness for Brian
Search teams combed Florida’s Carlton Reserve for an eighth day Saturday in the hunt for Brian Laundrie, the fugitive boyfriend of Gabby Petito, whose family spent the day preparing for her funeral Sunday on Long Island.
Dozens of law-enforcement agents returned to search the swampy, 25,000-acre nature preserve where Laundrie’s parents said he went for a hike Sept. 14. He never returned, and his family reported him missing three days later.
Police said Saturday’s search of the alligator-infested preserve was scaled down, but maintained the effort was still worthwhile.
“We’re not wasting our time out here,” North Port Police Commander Joe Fussell told a local NBC affiliate. “We are doing our due diligence to find Brian in an area that intelligence has led us that he could possibly be in.”
The search has shifted south to the center of the pre- serve, after starting on the northern edge where Laundrie’s car was left for several days before his family moved it to their house.
“It’s upon us to make sure we search this area as best we can, as massive as it is, with the resources that we have, to try to find Brian,” Fussell said. “We’re looking through wooded areas, bodies of water, swampy areas, and we’re deploying the resources to be able to do that. We have air units, drones, swamp buggies, airports, multiple law-enforcement agencies and more.”
The search crew even got help Saturday from TV personality Duane Lee Chapman (inset) , better known as “Dog the Bounty Hunter.”
Given Laundrie’s outdoor skills, they’ll need all the help they can get.
Petito’s best friend, Rose Davis, reportedly said that Laundrie, 23, once “lived in the Appalachians by himself for months.” Dog told The Post of tips coming into his hotline, “That is the most leads coming in right now that say that. That’s what he does. He’s a wilderness guy.”
Laundrie vanished as the FBI searched the Wyoming wilderness looking for Petito. Her family reported her missing Sept. 11, after she went silent during a crosscountry van tour of national parks with Laundrie.
Her body was found Sept. 19 at a campground in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, and her death was ruled a homicide Tuesday.
An arrest warrant for Laundrie, who drove the van registered to Petito from Wyoming to Florida, was issued Wednesday, accusing him of using her debit card.
Petito’s body was reportedly cremated prior to the funeral service, which will be held at Moloney’s Funeral Home in Holbrook Sunday. It will be open to the public from noon to 5 p.m.