John Walsh reveals Brian Laundrie’s possible whereabouts in Gabby Petito ID special

Former America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh says he thinks fugitive Brian Laundrie may have escaped to Mexico with the help of his parents, and that they may have given him a gun.

The manhunt continues for Gabby Petito‘s former fiancé continues after a coroner announced she was strangled. 

Walsh made his predictions about Laundrie’s whereabouts during Wednesday night’s airing of ‘Gabby Petito: ID Special Report’ on pay television network ID. 

He said the fugitive’s parents, Christopher and Roberta, could have helped him slip across the border unnoticed, as thousands of migrants are also doing.

‘It’s a great time to be heading south, because [there are] thousands of refugees,’ he said.

‘He could walk across the border naked with his hair on fire, and nobody would notice him. I think that’s maybe where he’s hiding — and somebody might be helping him,’ he added. 

 Walsh also suggested that Laundrie may have been given a weapon by his family.

He said: ‘I believe they might have given him a gun. I would hate to see someone else become a victim of this guy. 

‘But it’s still a wide open investigation and this guy could be anywhere.’

The Laundrie family have insisted they do not know where their son is. 

Laundrie, 23, has missing for a month, with his parents telling investigators they last saw him on September 13.

On September 1 he returned home early from the cross-country road trip he was on with Petito in a white camper van.

Laundrie is considered a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance and death, which has been ruled a homicide.

Walsh, the former host of America’s Most Wanted, and current host of ‘In Pursuit With John Walsh’ on ID says that his show’s hotline has gotten calls from people who believe they’ve sighted Laundrie, with some tips more reliable than others. 

‘We’ve got people from all over the world calling saying that Martians got him and took him to another planet, and he’s inside hiding in an alligator in a Louisiana swamp,’ Walsh said. 

But other callers have provided more ‘solid’ tips regarding sightings in the Bahamas where Laundrie could have gone to via a ferry from Florida.

But Walsh says he thinks the 23-year-old is hiding out in Mexico and got help from his family, who he dubbed the ‘dirty Laundries.’

‘We’ve had over a thousand solid tips to the ‘In Pursuit’ hotline. Most of them are about my theory of his father driving him to the Mexican border and letting him go through Mexico,’ Walsh said. 

He added: ‘I believe he’s out there with the aid of his parents.

‘They’re actively aiding and abetting his escape and they’re helping him stay out there’

Law enforcement have not suggested that Laundrie’s family are in any way involved with his disappearance. 

Walsh also says a former friend of Petito and Laundrie’s told him that its possible  Laundrie is hiding out on the Appalachian trail because he has previously bragged about surviving on the trail ‘for three months out of a backpack.’   

The official search for Laundrie by North Port police and the FBI has focused on the massive alligator-infested Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, after his parents said he had left their home for a hike there and they hadn’t seen or heard from him since.

But Walsh is not convinced, and claims it was a ploy by the family to throw investigators off the scent.

He said: ‘It was a red herring. They bought him five more days before they started looking for him. He was never in the swamp. He can be anywhere. I think he headed to Mexico.’ 

The Teton County coroner announced just yesterday that Petito died of manual strangulation.

Her body has been released to a local mortuary for cremation, and her parents are expecting to return home to Long Island, New York, this weekend with her ashes.

Last week Chris Laundrie joined FBI agents in the search for his son at in the vast 24,565-acre Carlton Reserve where there a supposed ‘fresh campsite’ was found. 

But the discovery was denied by investigators and the joint search proved fruitless.

The Laundrie family did not join the FBI in the manhunt in any of their searches after the search with the fugitive’s father came up short on October 7.

North Port Police in Florida revealed the next day that the sole person of interest in Petito’s homicide had been placed under surveillance in the days before he went on the run.

Police spokesperson Josh Taylor told CNN Laundrie was being closely watched by authorities to the best of their abilities, at a time when Petito was still classed as missing and not dead and when a warrant had not yet been issued for Laundrie’s arrest.

Taylor provided no further details about the extent of this surveillance or how Laundrie was then able to slip through the net.

It is not clear if investigators ever had proof of his presence at the Laundrie family home in North Port, from when Petito was reported missing on September 11 to when his family revealed Laundrie had vanished on September 17.

Investigators have confirmed they never spoke to, or saw, Laundrie that day as his family lawyered-up and denied police entry to their home to speak with him. 

Instead, the timeline of his disappearance appears to largely rest on accounts given by Laundrie’s parents Christopher and Roberta.

Gabby Petito’s body is released by coroner to mortuary for cremation as her dad travels to Wyoming to bring her ashes home to New York

Gabby Petito‘s body has been released by the Wyoming coroner to a local mortuary for cremation, a day after officials announced that the van-life blogger had been strangled to death.

Her father Joseph Petito traveled to Wyoming on Wednesday to collect her ashes and bring them home to New York, Fox reported. 

Brian Laundrie, 23, is still the only named person of interest in Petito’s death, which was ruled as homicide by strangulation yesterday. 

Laundrie himself vanished on September 17, almost three weeks after returning home to Florida without his girlfriend.

The Teton County Coroner’s Office has released DNA to the police, according to WPBF 25. 

And the suspect could already have been named behind closed doors, a former FBI agent told the network. 

‘That piece of information, I would bet, has gone into grand jury – there is now a sealed indictment for the apprehension for the person who is responsible for the death of Gabby Petito,’ former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan told WPBF 25.

‘This can of course include him [Brian Laundrie] as being the attacker or responsible person for causing Gabby Petito’s death or it could exclude him.’

He believes it is unlikely the suspect’s name will be released until after an arrest is made.  

Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue released Petito’s cause of death as strangulation, but could not release any more information due to Wyoming law. 

Petito’s body was discovered in a campsite close to the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19 – eight days after her family reported her missing, and 22 days after the last reported sighting of her alive on August 27.

The coroner refused to reveal several details about the autopsy’s findings including: the condition of Petito’s body, if her body was buried, whether any drugs were found in her system and whether she was killed in the same spot her body was found.

He did confirm that Petito was not pregnant at the time of her death – after internet sleuths circulated that theory online in recent days. Blue added that DNA samples had been taken by law enforcement as the investigation into her murder and who was responsible continues.

State Attorney Dave Aronberg said Laundrie’s DNA might not appear on the samples found on Petito’s body due to the time her body spent exposed to the elements, but other evidence like cell phone records could still be used against him, according to WPFB’s Carbonare. 

Her body was found three to four weeks after her death, the coroner said.  

Laundrie’s family, however, have been refusing to answer questions and are still citing the Reserve as the last place Brian was seen.

Brian Laundrie’s father refused to answer questions as he mowed his lawn around a makeshift memorial for his fugitive son’s late fiancée Wednesday morning – 19 hours after a coroner announced Gabby Petito cause of death. 

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Original Article: https://nypost.com/2021/10/13/john-walsh-reveals-brian-laundries-possible-whereabouts-in-id-special/