- Experts said police are on track to name Brian Laundrie as someone interested in Gabby Petito’s disappearance.
- Private investigators said authorities may have to search for her body in Wyoming or Florida.
- Laundrie’s attorney said, “On the advice of a lawyer, Mr. Laundrie will not speak on this matter.”
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Gabby Petito was reported missing by her mother this week after her boyfriend returned from a month-long road trip across the country without her.
Now police say they are investigating the friend as a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance, despite saying they have no evidence of a crime.
“I think the police are on the right track,” John Callicut, the Florida private investigator behind Walton Investigations, told Insider on Wednesday. “Given the circumstances, he is sure to be someone you want to speak to.”
With boyfriend Brian Laundrie likely to be the last person Petito saw, private investigators told Insider that talking to him is key to resolving the incident. Police will want to pull up Laundrie’s phone records and examine his internet search history as well as the latest GPS tracking locations, the PIs said.
Laundrie has hired a lawyer, and police say his family has so far refused to allow him to speak to investigators.
His lawyer has so far published two statements on the case. On Tuesday, the first statement said in part: “On behalf of the Laundrie family, we hope that the search for Miss Petito will be successful and that Miss Petito will be reunited with her family.”
“In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement pays their attention to in cases like this, and the warning that ‘any statement made will be used against you’ is true regardless of whether my client has anything to do with Ms. did Petitos disappearance, “Laundrie’s lawyer Steven Bertolino said in a statement on Wednesday. “Therefore, on the advice of his attorney, Mr. Laundrie does not speak on the matter.”
The North Port Police Department, which is handling the case out of Florida, said in a statement Wednesday that there is no evidence that a crime was committed.
Callicut told Insider that the police probably have more information than they shared with the public, which he believes is the standard procedure for a missing person investigation.
“In my opinion, the police always have a little more than they say,” said Callicut. “They withhold information.”
According to a police report obtained from Insider, the police were arrested on Dec.
Petito was last seen checking out of a Salt Lake City hotel on Aug. 24, according to local reports. According to police, Petito’s last known whereabouts are said to be in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
On September 1, 10 days before Petito’s mother reported her missing, Laundrie returned to his parents’ Florida home, where he and Petito lived, before setting off on their road trip. He returned in the van the couple rode in and which the police have since confiscated to look for evidence.
Guillermo Hechevarria, a detective with Investigation Services Unlimited in Florida, said he believed Laundrie most likely left Petito alive somewhere in the Tetons. But he added that Laundrie, who hires a lawyer, is suggesting that police may also want to look for a body within a mile of Laundrie’s childhood home.
“Since he already has a lawyer, there must be some problem where he probably did something to the woman and has her somewhere,” Hechevarria said.
Harvey Morse, a private investigator with Locators International in Florida, said Laundrie’s behavior after returning from the road trip raised “a lot of red flags”. He said police will likely attempt to summon Laundrie’s cell phone and look for campsites that he and Petito may have visited in the Tetons.
Morse, who is also a former police officer and founder of the Florida Association of Private Investigators, said the likelihood of finding a person left alive in the wild for more than two weeks is “minimal”.
“You might just die of starvation,” said Morse.
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