Former FBI agent: The manhunt for Brian Laundrie ‘is getting to the end’
Former FBI agent, Maureen O’Connell, said she believes the manhunt for Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in the Gabby Petito case, was coming to a close.
Former FBI official Bryanna Fox on Friday weighed in on an object that FBI agents took from the North Port, Florida, home of Chris and Roberta Laundrie, the parents of fugitive Brian Laundrie.
Two agents carried a large paper bag to the front door of the Laundries’ house on Friday afternoon, left the house for a couple minutes to enter a camper in their driveway, went back inside and left the house carrying what appeared to be a cup and a camouflage bag resembling a cooler.
“I have been on many FBI search warrants, and can’t recall ever using a small plastic container like that,” Fox, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida, told Fox News Digital. “I can say that it would not be to hold fibers, hairs, etc. Those types of evidence go in much smaller dry paper envelopes.”
FBI agent carrying camoflauge bag out of Laundrie home (Fox News’ Audrey Conklin)
She added that “blood is typically collected via swabs that are put into specific packaging” and “would not go in a container” captured on one reporter’s camera.
“The container looks like one that would be used for a urine sample, but as I have not done that personally in a search, I can’t state for sure,” she said.
After the agents’ departure, Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino released a statement in which he confirmed the FBI went to the Laundrie home “to collect some personal items belonging to Brian that will assist the canines in their search for Brian.” It was at least the fourth time the FBI visited the home since Sept. 26, Sept. 20 and Sept. 17.
“There is nothing more to this,” he said.
Law enforcement officials and Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman have used K-9s in their search for Brian Laundrie, a fugitive person of interest in the homicide of his fiancée, 22-year-old Gabby Petito, in the Carlton Reserve and Fort De Soto campground.
An FBI spokesperson had no comment on the ongoing investigation, other than to say the agency does not “provide specifics about the focus or scope of investigation, or where investigators are located.”
Two FBI agents have entered the North Port home of Brian Laundrie
(Fox News)
The camper FBI agents reached into on Friday has been at the center of questions surrounding the Laundries’ whereabouts after Brian Laundrie returned home alone on Sept. 1 in the converted van he and his fiancée, Gabby Petito, had been using.
Laundrie and 22-year-old Petito embarked on a cross-country journey in mid-June in the white Ford Transit van with the plan to visit national parks along the way. They had begun dating years earlier after meeting at their local Long Island, New York, high school and had moved to North Port, Florida, to live with Laundrie’s parents.
The young woman was not reported missing until 10 days after Laundrie returned, on Sept. 11, when her mother filed a police report in Suffolk County, N.Y. Police seized the van from the Laundries’ home that same day.
Laundrie would not cooperate with the police investigation after the Petitos’ missing persons’ report was filed, officials said. The Laundries’ attorney released a statement on Sept. 14, in which he announced he had advised his clients to remain “in the background.” The family revealed three days later that they had not seen him since Sept. 14.
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Petito’s body was discovered near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on Sept. 19. A Teton County coroner ruled the death a homicide but has not yet announced the cause.
Laundrie remains on the run, and the FBI has issued an arrest warrant for bank charge fraud.
Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones, Michael Ruiz and Greg Norman contributed to this report.
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