The family of slain Gabby Petito believes that her boyfriend Brian Laundrie is still alive, and that his parents know where he is.
As Newsweek reports, Joseph Petito and Nicole Schmidt recorded an appearance on the Australian news program “60 Minutes,” and revealed that they believe 23-year-old Laundrie is still alive, and suggested that his parents might have helped him go into hiding.
The episode is scheduled to air on October 16, Newsweek reports.
“Their actions don’t show that their son is missing. It shows that they’re just comfortable and they probably know where he is,” Schmidt reportedly said.
Both grieving parents expressed anger and resentment at Laundrie’s parents for keeping them in the dark.
“If they do know something and they’re withholding that and they don’t want to let us know, it’s cruel,” Joseph Petito said.
Gabby Petito, 22, was found dead in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest on September 19. The Teton County Medical Examiner said in a press conference this week that investigators believe Petito was dead for three to four weeks before her body was found, and that she died by manual strangulation. Laundrie was named a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance but he has not yet been named a suspect in her murder.
“This was evil. She was taken at somebody else’s hand,” Petito’s mother reportedly said, calling Brian Laundrie “a coward.”
Laundrie is the subject of a federal warrant charging him with unauthorized use of someone else’s financial accounts in late August and early September. He returned home to Florida from the couple’s cross-country road trip on September 1 without Petito, but with the converted camping can the couple was traveling in, which is registered in Petito’s name.
Laundrie has been missing since September 13, when his parents say he went for a hike at the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, Florida. Authorities have been searching the nature reserve for weeks but have not yet reported finding any evidence connected to Laundrie’s disappearance or Petito’s death investigation.
Read CrimeOnline’s comprehensive coverage of the Gabby Petito investigation.
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