Swamp Search Intensifies as Missing Influencer Confirmed Dead
The parents of Gabriel Petito are in mourning, officially now, as authorities have confirmed that their daughter is now deceased.
Petito’s body was found over the weekend in Bridger-Teton National Forest after an improbable tip by a fellow YouTube vlogger led police to her body, which appeared to have been placed about 900 feet away from where her van was parked.
This is, of course, the same van that her fiancé Brian Laundrie returned to Florida in on September 1st, sparking a national firestorm over his unwillingness to cooperative with authorities investigating her disappearance.
Now, with Petito’s fate confirmed, (and with the coroner calling it a “homicide”), Laundrie remains missing, possibly within the vast and wild Carlton Reserve in Florida.
Search crews headed back to the Carlton Reserve in Venice to look for the 23-year-old on Wednesday morning. Around noon, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office SURF (Sheriff’s Underwater Recovery Force) team pulled up to the Carlton Reserve as the search continued.
“To confirm, yes, members of our Sheriff’s Underwater Recovery Force have responded to Carlton Reserve. This in addition to our Emergency Response Team, Air-1 & patrol,” the sheriff’s office tweeted. “SURF Team members are divers called upon to search bodies of water for evidence. These highly-trained deputies work in the most difficult and challenging environments imaginable. They are on call 24/7/365.”
Laundrie’s disappearance has infuriated those who’ve been following the case, especially as his parents refrained from reporting him missing from Tuesday to Friday of last week, giving what some online commenters considered a “head start” to escape.