Brian Laundrie, the fiancé of missing travel influencer Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito, is now reported missing as well.
According to Laundrie’s attorney Steven Bertolino, police were called to the Laundrie family home on Friday evening to search his belongings to learn that Laundrie wasn’t there.
In a statement shared with reporters, per ABC7 New York, Bertolino warned: “Be advised, the whereabouts of Brian Laundrie is currently unknown.
“The FBI is currently at the Laundrie residence removing property to assist in locating Brian. As of now, the FBI is looking for both Gabby and Brian.”
According to Laundrie’s attorney, his parents said they last saw him on Tuesday morning.
“We are happy they called the police in and they want to cooperate, but until [then], I’m not going to speculate, I don’t know what to believe,” said Petito’s stepfather, Jim Schmidt.
A spokesperson for the North Port Police Department told CNN on-air that night that they are currently gathering up all the information, and that a statement will be made shortly.
“I think that will come out here, very shortly, we just want to get our ducks in a row a little bit,” a spokesperson for the department said.
“This has been a very quickly developing situation here in just the last hour really for the most part. So we’re working through that. We want to make sure that we are accurate in everything that we’re saying.”
The conversation at the Laundrie home is complete. Once we have the details, a statement will be made. We ask for calm! Please let us work through this and information will be forthcoming.@NorthPortPolice
— Chief Todd Garrison (@NPPDPoliceChief) September 18, 2021
North Port Police are currently speaking with the Laundrie Family at their request. At this time, we are not speaking with Brian. More details when available.
— North Port Police (@NorthPortPolice) September 17, 2021
Brian Laundrie’s disappearance comes just a day after new police footage emerged showing officers speaking with him and his fiancé and travel influencer Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito after a potential domestic violence incident reported to them by local authorities.
The footage was captured on August 12. One month later, Gabby’s family filed an official missing persons report after she stopped speaking with her family in late August in Wyoming.
According to a police report per news.com.au, Brian returned their rental van to Florida alone on September 1st and is a main person of interested in the search for Petito.
Authorities reported at the time that Laundrie had “not made himself available to be interviewed by investigators or has provided any helpful details”, and up until his disappearance was reportedly refusing to tell Gabby’s family anything about where she is or when they split up.
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