NORTH PORT, Fla. – Police were returning Sunday to the vast Carlton Reserve in search of the fiancé of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old blogger whose own disappearance has fueled massive law enforcement and social media effort to solve the complex, cross-country mystery.
Police have described Brian Laundrie, 23, as a person of interest in the case involving Petito, 22, who was last seen in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming in late August. Laundrie was the only one to return from the couple’s week-long Sept. 1 trip, but he disappeared last week.
Nearly 100 area residents gathered Saturday night at a “Light of Hope” vigil to show support for the Petito family. Vigil attendees tied green ribbons and placed memorabilia at the community tree that stands in front of North Port City Hall. The tree will remain an official gathering place for residents and visitors who wish to add candles, letters or cards in support of finding answers.
North Port resident Lisa Correll said that she does not know Petito personally. But she says the incident has shaken the community, and residents should do whatever they can to make sure Petito’s family feels their love and support.
“Everyone is thinking of her, her family, and what they’re going through,” Correll stated.
Laundry and his family had declined to discuss Petito’s case with police – until Friday, when family members filed a missing person report for Laundrie, North Port Police spokesman Josh Taylor told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, part of the USA TODAY Network.
“It is important to note that while Brian is a person of interest in Gabby’s disappearance, he is not wanted for a crime,” In a statement, North Port police stated.
The family stated that Laundrie had gone to the reserve earlier in the week, and has not been seen since. North Port police, FBI, and other agencies are searching for the preserve in Sarasota County that covers 25,000 acres.
“The search for Brian Laundrie continues Sunday morning in the Carlton Reserve,” North Port police stated in a Tweet that they were searching the 25,000-acre Sarasota County preserve. They also included photos of the search teams as well the terrain. “A team of more than 50 looking for anything of note after his parents say this is where he went.”
In the reserve, authorities used drones, scent-sniffing dogs, and all-terrain vehicle search teams. Investigators took some of his clothing from his parents’ home to provide a scent for the search dogs.
Gabby Petito remains missing as authorities search vast Florida reserve for fiancé
Petito’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, last reported speaking with her daughter on Aug. 25, and the family filed a missing person’s report on Sept. 11. The FBI in Denver said agents were conducting ground surveys at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming with help from the National Park Service and local law enforcement agencies, seeking clues to Petito’s disappearance.
This case has become a social media obsession. On TikTok, the hashtag #gabbypetito has gained more than 275 million views, and many creators are sharing updates – often of unconfirmed reports, screenshots of texts from amateur sleuths about their theories and their own feelings about the case.
Gabby Petito updates: FBI now searching for fiancé Brian Laundrie
Some of the creators more actively posting about the case have changed their bio to: “Let’s help find Gabby Petito.” Subsequent hashtags include #findgabbypeitito and #gabbypetitoupdate have drawn more than 30 million views and 22 million views respectively. More than 100 million people have viewed the #brianlaundrie hashtag.
Some information also includes leads. Miranda Baker claimed that she had picked up Laundrie, a hitchhiker, from Grand Teton Park in Wyoming, in a video posted to TikTok. She stated that they had notified the police about the brief encounter.
“He approached us asking us for a ride because he needed to go to Jackson (Wyoming),” She stated that he had spoken to Laundrie. “We were going to Jackson that night so I said ‘hop in,’ and he hopped into the back of my jeep.”
Baker claimed that Laundrie had told them that he was camping alone for a few nights and that his girlfriend was in their van, posting on their social networking page. Authorities in Utah have said Laundrie and Petito had been involved in an incident on Aug. 12 in Moab, but responding officers filed no charges and instead instructed the couple to spend the night apart. Laundrie was taken to another place, while she stayed in the van.
Baker said she thought it was “weird” when Laundrie offered to pay $200 for a short ride, but that a few minutes later Laundrie asked to get out of the jeep and left.
Laundrie returned to Florida two days later without Petito. Steven Bertolino Laundrie’s lawyer has stated that he ordered Laundrie to stay away from his family and not talk about the case with the police.
The couple set out in July from Long Island, where they had once been high school sweethearts, in a Ford Transit van, according to their social media accounts. They hoped to arrive in Oregon by October’s end. They had lived with Laundrie’s parents before the trip. In recent years, they moved to North Port.
On Instagram, the top account when searching Gabby Petito’s name is @gabby.petito, which started posting three days ago, and is “a community dedicated” to Gabby.
Twitter is also being used to spread information and updates about the Gabby Petito case, and some users even posting memes about how they’re attempting to solve the case.
Petito is the subject of a subreddit (r/GabbyPetito), which has 72,000 members. Some of the rules of the subreddit include “No Doxxing/Posting Personal Information,” and “No Rumor-Mongering of Misinformation.”
Baker says on her TikTok posts that she is willing to do anything to help authorities solve the case.
“I am really just hoping that they find her,” she said.