Brian Laundrie hunt: ‘We’re not wasting our time out here,’ Florida cops say
Police in Florida defended their complex – and so far fruitless – manhunt for Brian Laundrie, as the search for Gabby Petito’s fugitive boyfriend reached its seventh day on Friday.
FBI and police have been hunting for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve, a vast wilderness in Sarasota County, amid intense scrutiny and second-guessing from national-media pundits and internet sleuths.
“We’re not wasting our time out here, we are doing our due diligence to find Brian in an area that intelligence led us to, which he could possibly be in,” North Port Police Commander Joe Fussell said.
“There are many, many more resources we’re deploying other than the search effort.”
North Port and other law enforcement agencies involved in the probe into Petito’s homicide and its aftermath are using other investigative means and obtaining search warrants for data, he added.
“We need to search this area as best as we can, as massive as it is, with the resources we have, to try to find Brian,” Fussell said. The Reserve is being combed by police drones, swamp buggies, airboats and ATVs.
The Federal Aviation Administration also set up “temporary flight restrictions for Special Security Reasons” in the search area that will be in effect until Oct. 1.
“No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM,” the FAA said about the area encompassing 3 nautical miles, using the term for Notice to Airmen.
North Port police haven’t “tallied up” the cost of the search yet, public information officer Josh Taylor said in a statement. But “almost every meal” for the PD and those working in the field has been donated, he said.
North Port resident Jamie Rouzan, 42, said she has been collecting donations to offer food and other supplies to the law enforcement officers in the search effort.
“We can’t bring justice for Gabby, but we can help the police by making sure they have everything they need,” Rouzan said.
After the search of Carlton Reserve concluded at 5.30pm on Friday, police vowed to keep looking for the fugitive over the weekend.
Laundrie returned home from a cross country trip without Petito on Sept. 1 and has since disappeared.
According to police, his parents said he went for a hike in the dense, marshy Carlton Reserve and never returned. But investigators have so far come up empty-handed in the search of the 25,000-acre expanse.
The 23-year-old could prove hard to find — he once bragged to co-workers that he survived on just crackers for six weeks while camping, a former co-worker has told The Post.
“In conversation about hiking … Brian talked about the longest time that he spent in the woods was 6 weeks and bragged about only having a large pack of either cheese or peanut butter crackers to sustain him for that time,” the source said in a text.
“He is well versed in spending a long time in the woods and living off nearly nothing,” the source added.
If he’s not in the Florida reserve, Laundrie would have had a head start in slipping away from authorities.
Neighbors said he went camping with his parents after returning home, while his parents waited for days before they reported him missing a week ago.
Meanwhile, a memorial visitation service will be held from 12 to 5 p.m. Sunday for Petito at Moloney’s Funeral Home at 825 Main St. in Holbrook, Long Island, The Post has confirmed. It will be open to the public.
The funeral home also posted an advisory on Facebook about the “Shine a Light For Gabby” event at 7 p.m. Friday at the Nature Preserve at 31 Maple St. in Blue Point, Long Island.
Participants making a $20 donation, which will go to the family, will “receive a luminary to be lit in unison.”
