FBI: Human remains found in Wyoming likely Gabby Petito
Investigators on Saturday continued the national search for missing woman Gabby Petito a week after she was first reported missing. The search for her fiancé Brian Laundrie, who is a person of interest in the case, has ramped up since police officers went to his Florida home Friday expecting to speak to him and were told by his parents they hadn't heard from him since Tuesday.
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Joseph Petito, the father of Gabby Petito, takes to Twitter after news that a body matching his daughter’s description was found in Wyoming.
Gabby Petito
An autopsy for the body believed to be that of Gabby Petito has been scheduled for Tuesday, according to the Teton County Coroner's Office.
The body was discovered Sunday at Grand Teton National Park, with the FBI saying the body matched the description for Petito.
The investigation is still ongoing, and the body has not been 100% positively identified.
"I am making a personal request to members of the press and news media to refrain from contacting the Schmidt and Petito family," lawyer Richard Benson Stafford said in a statement Sunday. Due to today's developments, we are asking the press and news media to have some decorum and sensitivity for Gabby's family and allow them to grieve. I will be in contact with you when Gabby's family is ready to make a public statement."
"I would also like to personally thank the FBI, the Suffolk County Police Department, the North Port Police Department and especially the Grant Teton Search and Rescue team," the statement continued. "Your tireless work and determination helped bring Gabby home to her parents. The family and I will be forever grateful."
The statement comes as authorities located a body believed to be that of Petito Sunday.
The investigation is still ongoing and a cause of death has yet to be determined.
The coroner's van was seen leaving the search area shortly after the FBI announced that a body discovered in the area was likely that of Gabby Petito, though they noted the investigation was still ongoing and 100% positive identification had yet to be obtained.
A cause of death has not yet been released.
The Laundrie family's lawyer Steven Bertolino issued a statement Sunday after the FBI revealed that a body found in Wyoming was likely Gabby Petito.
"The news about Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family prays for Gabby and her family," Bertolino said.
The FBI announced Sunday that the body found in the Wyoming park where the search for Gabby Petito was ongoing was "consistent" with the description for Petito.
The FBI also cautioned that they have not yet 100% confirmed the identity through DNA testing and that the investigation was still ongoing.
The cause of death has yet to be determined.
Police arrive to Moran Vista Camping Area
Police continue to arrive on the scene of Moran Vista camping area, the site of the search for Gabby Petito.
Authorities there discovered a body in the search area, but there has been no positive identification on the identity of the body.
Locals in Wyoming tell Fox News Digital it's unlikely Petito could have survived for three weeks with temperatures dropping below freezing at night, coupled with dangerous wildlife.
Fox News Digital confirms Teton County Coroner Brent Blue has arrived in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. A body has been found in the same area officials have been searching for Gabby Petito.
Fox News Digital can also confirm that about 10 minutes after the coroner arrived on the scene, search dogs participating in the search left the search area.
Mobile command center
The mobile command center authorities have been using during the search for Brian Laundrie has departed the search area.
Weather has hindered the search for Laundrie, while police said the search for this missing man has ended for the day.
"Our search of the Carlton has concluded for the evening," North Port Police said on Twitter Sunday evening. "Nothing to report."
Laundrie's parents say they picked up his Ford mustang from the nature reserve where the search is taking place on Tuesday, though they did not report him missing police until Friday.
So far there is no evidence that he hurt himself in the reserve, though it is a possibility.
Laundrie is considered a person of interest in the disappearance of his girlfriend, Gabrielle Petito, who was reported missing by her family on Sep. 11 after not being heard from since Aug. 25.
JACKSON, Wyo. – When Gabby Petito went missing sometime in late August and her fiancé Brian Laundrie allegedly showed up alone at his parents’ home in Florida in her van – refusing to tell police where he last saw her – critics around the country wanted to know why authorities didn’t drag him in for questioning.
"The North Port Police Department has no authority to execute a possible federal search warrant on our own," department spokesman Josh Taylor told Fox News Digital Sunday. "I don’t see how anyone without all the facts in this case can come up with a reasonable conclusion and opinion on the matter."
He said investigators have still not established whether a crime even took place – in Florida or out West. And he noted that many details about the case have been kept secret to preserve the integrity of the investigation.
North Port Police spokesman Josh Taylor pushed back on criticism that the department did not immediately obtain search warrants for the Laundrie home on Sept. 11 after Gabby Petito was reported missing.
“The North Port Police Department has no authority to execute a possible federal search warrant on our own,” Taylor told Fox News Digital. “I don’t see how anyone without all the facts in this case can come up with a reasonable conclusion and opinion on the matter.”
He noted that investigators have still not established whether a crime even took place – in Florida or out West.
Searches for Petito and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, are underway in Wyoming and Florida, respectively.
Screengrab of the van blogger say belonged to Gabby Petito
A family traveling through Grand Teton National Park posted a video Sunday morning that they believe shows Gabby Petito’s van on Aug. 27 – two after Petito last spoke to her mother.
At about 1:40 into the video, posted by the account “Red White & Bethune,” the family drives past a white van parked by the side of the road.
“Tonight, I was editing our Sunday video and it was of our August 27th footage. I paused my editing and went to lay in bed,” Jenn, wife and mother of the family, wrote on Facebook . “I INSTANTLY got a bone chilling feeling. I leapt up and ran to my laptop. I watched the rest of my footage and sure enough, her van was in the video.”
Jenn told Fox News that she submitted the video to the FBI as potential evidence in Petito’s case.
The entrance to the Moran Vista Camping Area.
The search for Gabby Petito continued Sunday in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Moose, Wyoming.
The FBI Denver Field Office confirmed Saturday that the agency, in coordination with the Grand Teton National Park Service, Teton County Sheriff’s Office and Jackson Police Department, were searching areas in nearby Grand Teton National Park.
Fox News on Sunday spotted a police car blocking the road leading to a campsite in the Bridger-Teton National Forest called Moran Vista.
The National Park Service could not comment on any specific activity in the area, but the FBI on Sunday said law enforcement agencies were searching "the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area is located in the Bridger-Teton National Forest on the east boundary of Grand Teton National Park."
A TikTok user has highlighted a book that Brian Laundrie appeared to be reading while he traveled cross-country with his fiancé Gabby Petito.
The video, posted to the couple’s channel “Nomadik Statik,” captures bits of their journey. At about 6:40 into the video, TikTok user Alyssa Rose – with her handle alyssaest93 – points out “something disturbing.”
“The clip is of … Brian reading a book, and it is apparently called Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, about groups of people exploring uncharted terrain that go missing,” Rose said in her post. “This particular book in the series follows four women. What?”
Rose said that some users have insisted that this information “needs to be turned over to the police,” though, the elements that she highlighted are not the focus of the book.
Laundrie’s Instagram also featured books by Chuck Palahniuk, as well as art inspired by what he was reading. Palahniuk’s books often feature meditations on and depictions of violence.
The Carlton Reserve in North Port, Florida
Florida authorities have commenced the second day of the search for Brian Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve.
Officers and agents started gathering at 6 a.m. to prepare for another day looking for Laundrie on the nature reserve nearby his parents' home.
The search is focused on the other side of the Myakkahatchee Creek Bridge which connects the 200-acre environmental park to the massive 25,000 acre Carlton Reserve.
Florida police should have gotten a search warrant for the Laundrie home and Brian Laundrie's devices on Sept. 11, the day Gabby Petito was reported missing and police seized her van at her fiance's parents' house in North Port, experts tell Fox News.
“Why would you [try to] get consent from the guy, and not get a search warrant?” pondered Pat Diaz, a former Miami Dade homicide detective of 35 years. “You can get a search warrant for everything in that house, including his laptop.
”He said an examination of Laundrie’s electronics on the day Petito was reported missing could have given investigators an abundance of clues about her whereabouts. Even if Laundrie refused to talk.
North Port police said this weekend they have gained tracking access to Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie’s phones, but it isn’t real-time, according to reports.
Investigators will be able to access where their phones have been but officials stressed “it just takes a long time,” according to WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, Florida.
Authorities don't have access to either of their actual phones.
Petito was reported missing a week ago after not being heard from since last month and her fiancé is now considered missing as well after police went to his home on Friday to find him gone. His family said they haven't heard from him since Tuesday.
Police in North Port, Florida, are investigating a photo taken Friday afternoon of a man who resembles Brian Laundrie.
The photo was taken by a driver on a street near Laundrie's home, according to the New York Post.
Laundrie's parents told police they have not seen their son, who is a person of interest in Gabby Petito's disappearance, since Tuesday and investigators are actively looking for him.
Click here to read more in the Post.
"As a national search for Gabby Petito (22) continues, the search for Brian Laundrie (23) continues in North Port. Saturday, North Port Police, along with the FBI and other nearby agency partners searched the Carlton Reserve area to the North of the City of North Port," North Port Police Public Information Officer Josh Taylor said in a statement to Fox News.
"Roughly 25,000 acres. Brian’s parents have reported to us that he was last seen Tuesday when he went for a hike there," the statement continued.
"They reported him missing three days later. The North Port Police Department and the FBI are working to corroborate the story."
Taylor added that it is "important to note that while Brian is a person of interest in Gabby’s disappearance, he is not wanted for a crime. We are not currently working a crime investigation. We are now working multiple missing person investigations."
Taylor also said that a ground search is being conducted in parts of Wyoming by investigators in an attempt to locate Gabby Petito.
The search at Carlton Reserve is done for the day due to darkness.
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