Her boyfriend, named a person of interest, has not been seen since Tuesday.
September 19, 2021, 10:16 PM
• 4 min read
A body “consistent with the description of” Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing while on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, was discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The FBI Denver, the National Park Service and law enforcement made the announcement during a news conference Sunday evening in Grand Teton National Park. Charles Jones, the FBI’s supervisory senior resident agent, said that a full forensic identification hasn’t yet been completed, but investigators did notify Petito’s parents.
A cause of death was also undetermined. Jones declined to comment further on the investigation.
“We continue to seek information from anyone who utilized the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area between the dates of August 27 and August 30. Anyone that may have had contact with Gabby, or her boyfriend or who may have seen their vehicle in that area, please share any new information with the FBI,” Jones said.
North Port Police tweeted that it will be working with the FBI in its investigation.
“Our focus from the start, along with the FBI, and national partners, has been to bring her home,” the department tweeted.
The Teton County coroner confirmed to ABC News on Sunday afternoon that the agency dispatched resources to a body found in the national forest. No further details were disclosed.
The development came as a search for Brian Laundrie, Petito’s boyfriend, resumed in Florida.
Petito’s parents reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not speaking with her for two weeks.
Laundrie had been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. The 23-year-old Laundrie, who returned home more than two weeks ago without Petito and has refused to speak to police, has not been seen since Tuesday, according to law enforcement officials.
The Laundrie family attorney said in a statement Sunday evening, “The news about Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family prays for Gabby and her family.”
Mystery surrounding the whereabouts of 22-year-old Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito deepened late on Friday, after police in Florida said they were working with the FBI to locate 23-year-old Brian Laundrie, Petito’s fiance who is described as “a person of interest” in her disappearance.
Petito and Laundrie had been on a “van life” trip across the south-western US, living in their vehicle. Petito’s family reported her missing last week, after Laundrie returned to Florida alone.
Police in North Port said Laundrie’s family told officers they had not seen him since Tuesday, but had not told authorities he was missing for three days. The conversation on Friday evening, police said, was the first time they had spoken to Laundrie’s family in detail, and came at the family’s request. An attorney for the family called FBI investigators and said they wanted to talk, police said.
In a separate statement, police said Laundrie was a person of interest but was not wanted for any crime. The investigation was now a “multiple missing persons” case, they said.
In a statement late on Friday, Richard B Stafford, an attorney for the Petito family, said: “All of Gabby’s family want the world to know that Brian is not missing, he is hiding. Gabby is missing.”
On Thursday, police in Utah released video showing 22-year-old Petito and Laundrie after an argument in the tourist town of Moab. Authorities and Petito’s family then appealed to Laundrie’s family to cooperate with investigators.
The body-cam footage, dated 12 August, shows an officer pulling over the van in which Laundrie and Petito were travelling after it was seen speeding and hit a curb near the entrance to Arches national park. Petito is visibly upset.
“We’ve just been fighting this morning,” she tells an officer. “Some personal issues.”
She adds: “Some days, I have really bad [obsessive compulsive disorder], and I was just cleaning and straightening up and I was apologising to him, saying that I’m so mean because sometimes I have OCD and get frustrated.”
Laundrie says the couple got into a minor scuffle that began when he climbed into the van with dirty feet. He says he does not want to pursue a domestic violence charge against Petito, who officers deem to have been the aggressor.
“I’m not going to pursue anything because she is my fiancee and I love her,” he says. “It was just a squabble. Sorry it had to get so public.”
Moab police separated the couple for the night, Laundrie checking into a motel and Petito remaining with the van.
A month later, Petito’s family reported her missing. She is now the subject of a nationwide search. Before his family reported him missing, Laundrie had not cooperated with investigators.
The case has attracted intense attention, in part due to Petito’s large following on Instagram. Her last post was dated 25 August.
Investigators became frustrated by Laundrie’s refusal to meet. “Two people left on a trip and one person returned!” the North Port police chief, Todd Garrison, tweeted on Wednesday.
The couple were childhood sweethearts on Long Island then moved to Florida in 2019 to live with Laundrie’s parents in North Port, about 34 miles south of Sarasota. They set off on their “van life” trip in July, planning to reach Oregon by Halloween, according to their social media accounts.
Authorities have said Petito’s last known contact with her family was in late August and from Grand Teton national park in Wyoming.
Laundrie drove the Ford Transit van back to Florida on 1 September. Petito’s family filed a missing persons report with police in Long Island and released a letter to Laundrie’s parents.
“We believe you know the location of where Brian left Gabby,” the letter said. “We beg you to tell us. As a parent, how could you let us go through this pain and not help us? As a parent, how could you put Gabby’s younger brothers and sisters through this?”
Laundrie’s attorney, Steven Bertolino, said the family was hoping for Petito’s safe return, but he had asked them not to speak to investigators.
Garrison, the police chief, told ABC: “I can’t speculate as to why he’s not talking, but he has the pieces to the puzzle that we need to find Gabby.”
Laundrie’s sister, Cassie Laundrie, said she wanted Petito to be found and for this “to be just a big misunderstanding”.
Garrison told reporters the investigation remains a missing persons case. No searches had been initiated because authorities were unclear where they should begin to look.
“We’re still trying to nail down geographic areas,” Garrison said. “There’s a lot of information we are going through. Our focus is to find Gabby.”
At the same news conference, Petito’s father, Joe Petito, said: “Whatever you can do to make sure my daughter comes home, I’m asking you to help. Nothing else matters right now.”
Police in North Port said they had not ruled out a connection with the murder of two women at a campsite near Moab in August, though they did not know of any link.
The bodies of Kylen Schulte, 24, and Crystal Turner, 38, were found on 18 August. The women told friends they feared a “creepy man” might harm them.
New police body camera footage captured a visibly distraught Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito and her fiancé after an alleged physical altercation between them on a cross-country road trip in Utah.
The video, released Thursday by the Moab City Police Department, was from Aug. 12 — less than a month before the New York woman’s family reported her missing.
Gabrielle Petito.Suffolk County Police Department
It showed an officer talking to Brian Laundrie and an emotional Petito after authorities pulled over their white van near a grocery store in the city, about 140 miles southeast of Provo.
The footage captured the officer separating the couple as they individually described the incident that prompted the report of a potential domestic incident. Petito could be seen wiping away tears as she told the responding officer she was struggling with her mental health.
“I’m sorry,” Petito said after the officer asked her why she was crying. “We’ve just been fighting this morning. Some personal issues.”
Laundrie added: “It was a long day. We were camping yesterday.”
In the nearly hourlong video, the couple admitted to arguing all morning. When the officer asked Laundrie about scratches on his face, he responded: “She had her phone and was trying to get the keys from me. I said, ‘Let’s just step back and breathe,’ and she got me with her phone.”
Petito’s family says it lost contact with her in late August and reported her missing Saturday. Laundrie is now a person of interest in the investigation into her disappearance, police said.
On Thursday afternoon, an attorney for Petito’s family, Richard Stafford, read a letter from her parents that was written to Laundrie’s parents. In it, they begged for information that would lead to their daughter’s discovery.
“We are writing this letter to ask you to help find our daughter. We understand that you are going through a difficult time and your instinct is strong to protect your son,” the letter stated. “We ask you to put yourself in our shoes. We haven’t been able to sleep or eat, and our lives are falling apart.
“We believe you know the location of where Brian left Gabby. We beg you to tell us. As a parent, how could you let us go through this pain and not help us? As a parent, how could you put Gabby’s younger brothers and sisters through this?”
The family went on to talk about how excited the Laundries were when Petito and Brian Laundrie got engaged.
“Gabby lived with you for over a year. She’s going to be your daughter-in-law. How can you keep her location hidden?” the letter said. “Please if you or your family have any decency left, please tell us where Gabby is located. Tell us if we are even looking in the right place. All we want is for Gabby to come home. Please help us make that happen.”
Through their attorney, Steven P. Bertolino, Laundrie’s family declined on Thursday to comment on the latest development in the case.
In a police report released Wednesday, a responding officer wrote Petito slapped Laundrie after an argument, but the two told the officer neither wanted to press charges and they love each other. The officer spoke with Petito, Laundrie and a witness whose name was partially redacted in the report.
“All three individuals gave me a similar and consistent story, consisting of the basic idea that the driver of the van, a male, had some sort of argument with the female, Gabbie,” the report said.
“The male tried to create distance by telling Gabbie to take a walk to calm down, she didn’t want to be separated from the male, and began slapping him. He grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed upon him and the van.”
The incident appeared to be more a mental and emotional “break” than a domestic incident, police said.
“No one reported that the male struck the female, both the male and the female reported they are in love and engaged and to be married and desperately didn’t wish to see anyone charged with a crime,” according to the report. “There were no significant injures reported and both agreed that Gabbie suffers from serious anxiety.”
Petito said she had hit Laundrie in the arm to get his attention as the officer was trying to pull them over, which caused the van to swerve into the curb, according to the report. But Laundrie said he thought Petito was trying to grab the wheel while he was driving, resulting in the swerve. The officer said Laundrie’s account “was not consistent with Gabrielle’s statement” and reported he saw scratches on Laundrie’s arm.
The couple had spent the past four or five months traveling together, which “created emotional strain between them and increased the number of arguments,” the report said.
The couple agreed to separate in lieu of police making a case against Petito for domestic assault, the report said. The officer said he needed to make sure Laundrie wasn’t a victim of “battered boyfriend syndrome.”
Petito was given the van and Laundrie was taken to a hotel, police said. The couple separated for the night and no charges were filed.
The revelation that police in Utah encountered Petito, of Blue Point, Long Island, before she went missing comes as authorities continue to look for her and piece together her whereabouts. Petito was last known to be in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming in late August when she stopped communicating with her family.
The couple had been documenting their travels in the 2012 van on YouTube under the monikers Nomadic Statik and Van Life. That van, with Florida plates, and Laundrie eventually got back to the city of North Port, south of Tampa, but without the woman, police said.
According to police, Laundrie has “not made himself available to be interviewed by investigators” and has “not provided any helpful details.” He has been named a person of interest by North Port police. The FBI is assisting with the investigation.
On Wednesday, responding to news Laundrie had been named a person of interest, Bertolino said in a statement that Laundrie will not speak on the matter because “intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focuses their attention on in cases like this and the warning that ‘any statement made will be used against you’ is true, regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms. Petito’s disappearance.”
Police Chief Todd Garrison did not provide any new details about the case during a Thursday afternoon press conference, but said authorities were continuing their search.
“We are pleading with anyone, including Brian, to share information with us on her whereabouts in the past few weeks,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation. The answers will eventually come out. We will help find Gabby and we will help find anyone who may be involved in her disappearance.”
Roughly two weeks before Gabby Petito went missing in Wyoming, she got into a physical fight with her fiance, Brian Laundrie, on a street in downtown Moab, Utah, according to a police report obtained by Fox News.
A witness called 911 around 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 12 over “possible domestic violence” near Moonflower Community Cooperative and said he saw Petito and Laundrie arguing over a phone.
“The driver of the van, a male, had some sort of argument with the female, Gabbie,” a responding officer wrote in the report, citing conversations he had with Petito, Laundrie, and the witness.
“The male tried to create distance by telling Gabbie to go take a walk to calm down, she didn’t want to be separated from the male, and began slapping him,” the report said. “He grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed upon him and the van, he tried to lock her out and succeeded except for his driver’s door, she opened that and forced her way over him and into the vehicle before it drove off.”
A responding officer initially wrote that he believes “it was reported the male had been observed to have assaulted the female,” but later wrote that “no one reported that the male struck the female.”
An officer eventually pulled the van over and said that when he approached, Petito was “crying uncontrollably” in the passenger seat.
One of the responding officers said the incident can be “more accurately categorized as a mental/emotional health ‘break’ than a domestic assault,” and that “no significant injuries” were reported.
Laundrie stayed in a hotel that night, while Petito stayed with the van, according to the report.
“Both the male and the female reported they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn’t wish to see anyone charged with a crime,” the report said.
Petito’s mom, Nicole Schmidt, said that the incident was just a result of pent-up stress from traveling together.
“Put yourself with another person in a van 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for months, and you might have an argument, right?” she told Fox News on Wednesday. “It’s irrelevant. It’s not a big deal.”
MISSING GABBY PETITO: UTAH POLICE WERE CALLED TO INCIDENT INVOLVING CROSS-COUNTRY VANNING COUPLE
The couple set out on a road trip to tour National Parks in early July, traveling through Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and eventually Wyoming.
Petito’s last known location was Aug. 25 in Grand Teton National Park. Schmidt told Fox News that she received a text from Petito’s phone on Aug. 30, saying that there was no service in Yellowstone, but she does not believe that message was sent by her daughter.
Laundrie, meanwhile, drove back to the Florida Gulf Coast town of North Port, where their trip began, on Sept. 1, and the van was recovered by police at his family’s home on Sept. 11.
The North Port Police Department named him a person of interest in the investigation on Wednesday and said he is not cooperating with authorities.
“As a father, I can imagine the pain and suffering Gabby’s family is going through. We are pleading with anyone, including Brian, to share information with us on her whereabouts in the past few weeks. The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation,” North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said Wednesday.
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Petito’s family has also expressed frustration at Laundrie’s lack of cooperation.
“This is supposed to be the love of your life, and you definitely left her in late August and were home safe on September 1st without her,” Schmidt told Fox News on Wednesday. “Why aren’t you telling us anything?”
Fox News’s Michael Ruiz and Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.