Gabby Petito: Police in search of woman missing from trip with boyfriend

Investigators have been searching for Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old missing Florida woman, and they have described the case as “unraveling a mystery with many pieces to this puzzle.”

Petito, a YouTuber, has been missing for two weeks after she went on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie. She was last seen on 24 August after leaving a hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah, with him.

Gabby never returned home from the trip, but her boyfriend did. Authorities who are searching for her have been hoping to talk with her boyfriend, who is believed to be the last person around her before her family reported her missing.

However, that has not been possible because, according to The DailyMail, Laundrie has been very quiet about his fiancée’s whereabouts and has refused to speak publicly about the situation. In addition, he has reportedly hired an attorney, refusing to talk alone with the Police.

Petito’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, revealed that she heard from her daughter on 27 and 30 August. Although, speaking with Fox News, she stated that she is not sure if it was actually her daughter she heard from, as only text messages were exchanged between them.

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On Wednesday, 15 September, the Petito family released a statement via their attorney, which reads: “Many people are wondering why Mr. Laundrie would not make a statement or speak with law enforcement in the face of Ms. Petito’s absence.

“In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focuses their attention on in cases like this and the warning that ‘any statement made will be used against you’ is true, regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms. Petito’s disappearance.

“Every day the search for Gabby continues, the Schmidt and Petito family becomes more desperate. They are frantically searching for answers and information [about] their daughter’s disappearance while brian sits in the comfort of his home.

“Brian claims he wants to sit in the background while we search for Gabby in the wilderness of the Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.”

As of when this article was published, Gabby Petito had not been found.

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