Video After The Jump
NORTH PORT, Fla. (AP) — FBI agents & police Monday swarmed the home of the boyfriend wanted for questioning in the disappearance of 22-year-old Gabby Petito, whose body was apparently discovered over the weekend at a Wyoming national park months after the couple set out in a van on a cross-country trek.
The FBI’s Tampa office said in a tweet that it was serving a search warrant & local media reported that 23-year-old Brian Laundrie’s parents were seen getting into a police vehicle outside the home.
Video showed at least a dozen law enforcement officers pulling up to the Laundries’ house in North Port & rushing in. Later, a police officer could be seen taking a stack of cardboard boxes inside. Brian Laundrie & Petito had been living with his parents before making the trek on which she died.
Petito & Laundrie hit the road in July in a converted van to visit national parks in the West. They got into a fight along the way, and Laundrie was alone when he returned in the van to his parents’ home on Sept. 1.
Laundrie has been named a person of interest in the case, but his whereabouts in recent days were unknown.
In Wyoming, the FBI announced on Sunday that agents had discovered a body while searching campsites on the edge of Grand Teton National Park, which the couple had visited. No details on the cause of death were released. An autopsy was set for Tuesday.
“Full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100% that we found Gabby, but her family has been notified,” FBI agent Charles Jones said. “This is an incredibly difficult time for (Petito’s) family & friends.”
Petito’s father, Joseph, posted on social media an image of a broken heart above a picture of his daughter, with the message: “She touched the world.”
An attorney who has been acting as a spokesman for Petito’s family asked in a statement that the family be given room to grieve.
Jones said investigators were seeking information from anyone who may have seen Petito or Laundrie around Grand Teton.
A weekend search of a Florida nature preserve failed to find Laundrie, North Port police said. They said in a statement that they “exhausted all avenues in searching the grounds” of the 24,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County.
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