The walls seem to be closing in around Brian Laundrie after a helpful tip and a karmic Instagram post. The FBI may call him a “person of interest” but only a “suspect” would go on a camping trip after abandoning their fiancé in a western wilderness and returning home with her van, but not her. His parents sure look like they’re a big part of the whole conspiracy.
Dog catches scent of Laundrie
Brian Laundrie was apparently slick enough to send the FBI on a wild goose chase through the swamp but he’s not fooling “Dog” the Bounty Hunter. As the FBI winds up their search of the T. Mabry Carlton Reserve, after finding nothing but alligators, snakes and mosquitoes, Duane Chapman is running down a tip about 75 miles away. 22-year-old Gabby Petito’s death is officially murder but nobody knows exactly how she was killed. Nobody except the ME and her killer, that is.
The last time she was seen alive was “at 7 a.m. on Aug. 30 at Grand Teton National Park.” She told her mom she was coming home to Long Island.
Chapman showed up at the North Port, Florida family home on Saturday. Instead of answering the door, Roberta Laundrie called 911. The bounty hunter wanted to ask Brian’s parents about a tip he got. It seems the family went on a little camping trip or two since Gabby’s death and only the parents are seen on surveillance video coming out of the campground.
“Allegedly, what we’re hearing, is two people left on the 8th.” That’s suspicious because “Three people came in on the 6th.” The three had been there earlier, between September 1-3, which looks like a preparatory scouting mission. “They were registered, went through the gate. They’re on camera. They were here.”
“Here” is Fort De Soto Park. “We think at least if he’s not here right now, we are sure he was caught on camera as he went in the gate — that he was here for sure. Not over in the swamp.”
The information was confirmed by a reporter who “overheard a park worker say investigators had checked surveillance video on the grounds.” Laundrie, it seems, picked a lot cozier location than he had his parents suggested to the police. They were out wading through mud while conditions at De Soto are “much easier.”
Karmically behind bars
Located in Pinellas County, De Soto Park “spans more than 1,130 acres and consists of five keys.” The Fort stands on Mullet Key which is one of the five interconnected islands. Gabby once karmically posted a snapshot on Instagram showing her with a smiling Laundrie as they stand “behind bars of a jail cell of the old fort.”
They gave a good review of the campground too. A “really nice campground, beautiful area with many hikes and easy walks, the beach, historic sites, really nice camp store and well maintained sites!”
The happy couple had been living in the Laundrie family home before they left on their cross-country journey in the middle of June. They took Gabby’s converted white Ford Transit van and planned to “visit national parks along the way.”
Brian came home without her on September 1. He went to De Soto Park with his parents that same day and they stayed until the third. The trio returned to the park on the sixth and only the parents checked out on the eighth.
Gabby was reported missing by her parents on September 11. That’s when the feds seized her van and were told by the parents that Brian said he was headed for the swamp. On September 14, the same day the family lawyer advised his clients to remain “in the background,” they told police on the 17th that he hadn’t been seen since the 14th.
On Thursday, September 23, “the FBI issued an arrest warrant” on Laundrie “for bank card fraud. Authorities alleged he used someone’s Capital One Bank card and the personal identification number during the time when Petito was missing. Neither investigators nor a spokesperson for Petito’s family have said whether the card belonged to Petito.”