Police hunting for fugitive Brian Laundrie have reportedly found a recently used campsite at the Florida park where Laundrie told his parents he was going.
“A source close his family told CNN’s Chris Cuomo late Wednesday that authorities said they ‘found fresh traces of a campsite’ at the sprawling, 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Sarasota,” the New York Post reported.
In another development, the family’s lawyer announced that Laundrie’s father, Chris, would be joining the hunt for his son after Brian’s girlfriend, Gabby Petito, was found dead in a Wyoming park.
“The North Port Police Department emphatically denied requesting the dad’s assistance, but the lawyer, Steven Bertolino, was adamant that ‘law enforcement’ wants the family’s help and suggested it may have been the FBI that made the request,” the Post wrote.
“Chris Laundrie was asked to assist law enforcement in their search for Brian at the preserve today,” Bertolino said in a statement.
The new developments follow a report Wednesday that says Laundrie flew home to Florida after his infamous fight with his girlfriend in Utah, then rejoined her just before she vanished.
Laundrie flew home to get supplies and close out a rented storage unit, his family’s lawyer said, according to the Post. “The lawyer, Steven Bertolino, revealed the twist in the case’s timeline to the Post on Tuesday, saying Brian returned to his parents’ home in North Port on Aug. 17 and then flew back to Salt Lake City on Aug. 23 to rejoin Petito,” the outlet reported.
“Brian flew home to obtain some items and empty and close the storage unit to save money as [he and Petito] contemplated extending the road trip,” Bertolino said in a text to the paper. “To my knowledge, Brian and Gabby paid for the flights, as they were sharing expenses.”
Petito, 22, was last seen at a Wyoming restaurant on August 27, while Laundrie, 23, returned home alone in her van on September 1. Petito’s body was found September 19 at a campsite at the Teton-Bridger National Forest in Wyoming. A coroner declared her death a homicide and Laundrie has disappeared.
Meanwhile, other reports emerged. Laundrie used Petito’s bank card in Wyoming just three days after she was last seen alive, her family’s lawyer said Tuesday.
“You can look at his state of mind by his actions,” Petito family attorney Richard Stafford said on the “Dr. Phil” show on CBS-TV. “He ran, he stole her credit card, he used her credit card to get home, and then ran from the police. That’s going to show a lot what he was thinking back then.”
Federal authorities in Wyoming issued an arrest warrant on September 23 for Laundrie for allegedly using a stolen card “on or about August 30, 2021, through and including on or about September 1, 2021” when he “obtained things of value aggregating to $1,000 or more.”
In another development, Laundrie’s sister on Tuesday implored her fugitive brother to hand himself in to police.
“I would tell my brother to just come forward and get us out of this horrible mess,” Cassie Laundrie told “Good Morning America” in an interview. “I worry about him. I hope he’s okay — and then I’m angry,” she said.
And Dog the Bounty Hunter said he believes that Laundrie is still alive because he’s a “survivalist.”
“I would assume, you know, he is alive. Not alive and doing well but he’s alive,” the reality TV star, whose real name is Duane Chapman, told TMZ on Monday.
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Source: Dailywire
