Brian Laundrie’s family members have reportedly received threats to themselves and their children in connection to Gabby Petito’s disappearance and murder.
Laundrie, 23, is the primary person of interest in Petito’s disappearance and death, but has not yet been named a suspect. He vanished from his Florida home two days after Petito was reported missing, and more than two weeks after he returned from the couple’s cross-country road trip without Petito. The case, and the search for Laundrie, has been the focus of intense media coverage and public speculation. Citizen protesters have at times congregated at the home of Laundrie’s parents, where Brian and Gabby were living before they left for the trip, and also camped out at the home of Brian’s sister Cassie Laundrie.
Florida-based news station WFLA obtained records showing that Laundrie’s family members have contacted police on multiple occasions about threats and disturbances. According to the report, Cassie Laundrie’s husband James contacted the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office about “random messages” he was receiving. Some of those messages allegedly contained threats about “killing his family and kidnapping his kids,” the records reportedly show.
Deputies reportedly visited Cassie Laundrie’s home multiple times in recent weeks, including in response to a call about unspecified “suspicious circumstances.”
Cassie Laundrie came under scrutiny following reports that she had gone camping with her parents and brother the first week of September. She had previously given an interview saying that she had not been able to speak to her brother. Cassie Laundrie claimed that her answer to a question was taken out of context, and insisted that she had been cooperative with police since the start of the investigation.
As previously reported, the Teton County, Wyoming, medical examiner will hold a press conference Tuesday to discuss Gabby Petito’s autopsy. The coroner had previously determined that Petito, 22, died of a homicide, but authorities have not yet released her cause of death.
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[Feature image: Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie/Instagram; Laundrie family home/AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack]
