Coroner: Body of Gabby Petito identified, death officially ruled a homicide
An autopsy confirmed the body found in a Wyoming nation park two days ago was long-missing Gabby Petito, with her shocking death during a cross-country trip with her boyfriend declared a homicide, officials said Tuesday.
Federal investigators immediately pledged to find the killer in the bizarre case, where the 22-year-old victim’s longtime love disappeared one week ago and remained in the wind. Petito’s remains were discovered this past Sunday, weeks after she disappeared while traveling alone with her childhood sweetheart-turned-“person of interest” Brian Laundrie.
“The FBI and our partners remain dedicated to ensuring anyone responsible or complicit in Ms. Petito’s death is held accountable for their actions,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider of the Denver office.
Laundrie and his parents have steadfastly refused to meet with local or federal investigators since he arrived home alone from the trip for two on Sept. 1, with the family making no calls to report Petito as a missing person. Her parents finally reported her disappearance 10 days later, setting off a desperate search for their daughter.
In a statement announcing the identification, the feds issued an appeal for “anybody with information about Mr. Laundrie’s role in this matter or his current whereabouts to contact the FBI.”
The victim’s remains were discovered near a remote camping site surrounded by brush and woodlands, and the exact cause of death remained under investigation.
The search for Laundrie, 23, continued as a lawyer for his family canceled a scheduled Tuesday news conference and authorities combed a sprawling Florida nature preserve where he supposedly traveled one week ago — and has yet to resurface.
A rueful National Park ranger, weeks after warning Petito about the dangers of a “toxic” relationship with her boyfriend, said before the body was identified that she now wonders if a more forceful message was needed when the two crossed paths last month.
“I was imploring her to re-evaluate the relationship, asking her if she was happy in the relationship with him,” Ranger Melissa Hulls told the Deseret News about their Aug. 12 conversation. “And basically saying this was an opportunity for her to find another path, to make a change in her life.
”I can still hear her voice. She wasn’t just a face on the milk carton. She was real to me.”
The 17-year veteran ranger Hulls — assigned to Arches National Park in Utah, where she and colleagues responded to a spat between the couple — was left to second-guess what happened.
“It’s hard not to,” she told the Utah newspaper. “I wish I said more, or wish I had found the right words to make her believe me.”
Petito’s remains were found in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, five days after Laundrie’s disappearance.
Police in North Port, Fla., resumed the search for Laundrie by land and by air Tuesday in the Carlton Reserve, a sprawling wildlife preserve. Local police and the FBI are investigating the disappearance of Petito during a cross-county trip with her childhood sweetheart.
On Monday, a dozen law enforcement officers descended on the Laundrie home in North Port, removing several boxes and towing away one of the family’s cars. Laundrie returned to the residence by himself on Sept. 1, authorities said, but never reported that his girlfriend was missing.
Gabby’s father Joseph, in an interview aired Monday on the syndicated “Dr. Phil” show, said he wants both Laundrie and the missing man’s parents to answer for whatever roles they played in the case.
“I hope they get what’s coming, and that includes his folks,” said Petito. “Because I’ll tell you, right now, they are just as complicit in my book.”
