As police continue to search for Gabby Petito and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, reports are surfacing of potential sightings of the couple prior to Gabby’s disappearance.
Petito, 22, and Laundrie, 23, had been traveling together on a cross-country road trip over the summer. But Laundrie returned to his home in North Port, Florida, on September 1 alone and Petito has not been heard from in weeks.
A woman told KSL-TV that she and her husband believe they saw Petito and Laundrie’s van at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming around 5 p.m. on August 25.
“We drove through the Tetons and the only stop we made was at Jenny Lake. Without a doubt, on my husband’s life, I know for a fact that was their van,” Shannon Baker told the television station.
The same day or the next, a Utah business owner says she interacted with Petito and Laundrie at her store and that the pair appeared “happy,” East Idaho News reports.
The owner of the Rustic Row, in Victor, Utah, told the news outlet that Petito and Laundrie visited their store for 15-20 minutes on August 25 or 26.
“They told me they were traveling from Florida. They had just been to Teton Park and they said they were interested in going to Yellowstone and I told them they could go to the west entrance,” the unidentified owner told the news outlet.
“They seemed happy and when they left, she hollered back from the door that they were engaged and then I said ‘congratulations.’”
The owner later told the FBI about the couple’s visit to the store, which is about 30 miles from Grand Teton, Petito’s last known location.
On August 27, Jenn and Kyle Bethune were traveling in Grand Teton when they passed what appeared to be a van like the one Petito and Laundrie were using.
The Bethunes posted a video of the drive on their YouTube channel. A white van can be seen parked along a dirt road.
The van looks like the van that Petito and Laundrie were in when police spoke with them in Utah on August 12. Body cam footage from that interaction showed Petito crying and telling officers that she and Laundrie had been “fighting all morning,” which had prompted Laundrie to lock her out of their van.
“The van looked like it was pretty much kind of abandoned. We figured they were out hiking or just chilling inside,” Kyle Bethune said in the video.
“We were going to stop and say ‘hi,’ because we’re from Florida, too, but the van was completely dark. There was nobody there. So we decided to continue on our way,” Jenn Bethune said in the video.
Petito is said to have last spoken with her family on August 25 from Grand Teton, and sent her last text on August 30, in which she reportedly said she did not have service in Yosemite National Park, which is unusual because that park is almost 900 miles away from Grand Teton.
A woman later claimed on TikTok that she gave Laundrie a ride at Grand Teton on August 29. The woman, Miranda Baker, said in the video that she and her boyfriend were driving in Colter Bay, Wyoming, when Laundrie approached them requesting a ride to Jackson.
“Before he came in the car he offered to pay us like $200, to give him a ride, like 10 miles. So that was kind of weird,” Baker said in the video.
Baker said Laundrie panicked after she told him that she and her boyfriend were also headed in that direction.
“Then once in conversation, I brought up ‘we’re going to Jackson,’ he freaked out. He’s like ‘Nope, I need to get out right now, pull over,” Baker said in the video.
>Authorities began investigating Petito’s disappearance on September 11 after her mother reported her missing, and law enforcement began searching for Laundrie after his family said Friday that he has not been seen since Tuesday.
As of Sunday, search teams were looking for Petito in Grand Teton and for Laundrie at a large nature reserve in Sarasota County, Florida.
Police have emphasized that while Laundrie is a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance, he is not wanted for a crime. However, Laundrie has refused to talk with police about Petito.
Read CrimeOnline’s complete coverage of the Gabby Petito case.
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[Featured Photo: Instagram]
