A second woman is claiming to have picked up Gabby Petito’s fiancé Brian Laundrie as a hitchhiker in late August — and she says she dropped the man off at the remote campsite in Wyoming where Petito’s body was found weeks later.
Norma Jean Jalovec told Fox News in a report published Thursday that she realized she had encountered Laundrie on August 29 after seeing a video posted by Tik Toker Miranda Baker who also claimed she picked up Laundrie in the area on the same day around 5:30 p.m.
Jalovec, who Fox News described as a seasonal Wyoming resident from Florida, told the news outlet she allowed Laundrie in her vehicle on August 29 and dropped him off at around 6:30 p.m. or 6:40 p.m. at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest where Petito’s remains were discovered on September 19.
“I picked him up,” Jalovec stated that Laundrie was in her Toyota 4Runner’s front seat shortly after Baker claimed she dropped Laundrie at Jackson Lake Dam.
“Something just said, ‘Hey, ask him where he’s going,'” Jalovec said.
Jalovec said Laundrie — a person of interest in connection with Petito’s disappearance and death — had been walking backward on the side of the road holding out his thumb in search of a ride.
According to the news outlet, Laundrie asked her if they were going to Jackson, Wyoming. She said no and he then asked if she would drop him off at Spring Creek campsite.
During the drive, Jalovec said she made small talk with Laundrie — the same kind that Baker claimed to have had.
Laundrie mentioned that he had a fiancée and that he had spent time hiking near Snake River, according to Jalovec, who added that Laundrie told her he saw elk and moose, but no bison. Jalovec states that he also offered gas money to her, but she declined it.
Jalovec said Laundrie asked her to drop him off at the gate of the remote campground, but when she said she could drive him inside he tried to “get out of the moving car,” she told Fox News, adding that he then insisted to be let out of the SUV.
Jalovec claimed that she had reported to the FBI her encounter with Laundrie. The FBI could not immediately be reached for comment.
Laundrie went missing after he was named a person of interest in the case of his fiancée. Authorities have been searching for him in an alligator-infested natural preserve near his North Port, Florida residence for several days.
The FBI announced Thursday that Laundrie was arrested by a Wyoming federal court.