FBI: Coroner identifies remains as Gabby Petito
Search for boyfriend resumes in Fla. preserve
NORTH PORT, Fla. – The FBI says a county coroner has confirmed that human remains found in remote northern Wyoming along the border of Grand Teton National Park are those of 22-year-old Gabby Petito, who disappeared while on a cross-country road trip with a boyfriend, who is now being sought by authorities in Florida.
Teton County Coroner Brent Blue determined her manner of death was homicide, but did not disclose a cause of death pending final autopsy results, officials said Tuesday. Petito’s body was found Sunday near an undeveloped camping area about 30 miles northeast of Jackson, Wyoming.
The FBI also requested for anyone with information about boyfriend Brian Laundrie’s role in Petito’s death to contact the agency.
Meanwhile, authorities renewed their search Tuesday of a swampy preserve area near the home of Laundrie, who is wanted for questioning in Petito’s death.
Police in North Port, Florida, said Tuesday morning that investigators have returned to the Carlton Reserve to look for Brian Laundrie, 23.
Investigators searched the 24,000acre nature preserve over the weekend without success. They focused on the area after Laundrie’s parents told police he may have gone there.
Authorities are using helicopters, drones, dogs and officers in all-terrain vehicles in their search. About 75% of the search area is underwater.
On Monday, the FBI went to Laundrie’s parents’ home in North Port and removed several boxes and towed away a car.
Laundrie and Petito had been living with his parents at the North Port home before the road trip. The young couple had set out in July in a converted van to visit national parks in the West. They got into a fight along the way, and Laundrie was alone when he returned in the van to his parents’ home Sept. 1, police said.
In Wyoming, the FBI announced Sunday that agents had discovered a body on the edge of Grand Teton National Park, which the couple had visited.
Laundrie has been named a person of interest in the case, but his whereabouts in recent days were unknown.
In an interview broadcast Monday on TV’s “Dr. Phil” show, Petito’s father, Joseph, said Laundrie and his daughter had dated for 21⁄ years, and Laundrie
2 was “always respectful.” During the interview, recorded before his daughter’s body was found, Petito said the couple had taken a previous road trip to California and there were no problems.
Joseph Petito said the family began worrying after several days without hearing from their daughter.
“We called Brian, we called the mom, we called the dad, we called the sister, we called every number that we could find,” Joseph Petito said. “No phone calls were picked up, no text messages were returned.”
Joseph Petito said he wants Laundrie to be held accountable for whatever part he played in his daughter’s disappearance, along with his family for protecting him.