Sep 21, 2021 - News

FBI agents search Brian Laundrie's North Port home

Ben Montgomery

FBI agents walk through the rain with boxes of evidence taken from the North Port family home of Brian Laundrie. — FBI agents take away evidence from the North Port family home of Brian Laundrie. Photo: Octavio Jones/Getty Images

As police searched the North Port family home of Brian Laundrie for clues to the disappearance — and likely death — of his fiancée, new details emerged that suggest Gabby Petito may have disappeared weeks before her parents reported her missing.

Police laid out a timeline in a search warrant last week for an external hard drive they found in the white Ford Transit van the couple drove on their road trip west.

Why it matters: The timeline details that Petito's mother received a text from Petito's phone on Aug. 27 that concerned her because it referred to Petito’s grandfather as "Stan." That seemed out of character.

That was the last text she received from Petito's phone, but she didn't report her daughter missing until Sept. 11.
The timeline then shows the white Ford Transit van owned by Petito was detected exiting I-75 at North Port at 10:26am on Sept. 1.
If Laundrie was driving, it means he returned to North Port 10 days before Petito's parents reported her missing.

The latest: NBC News reports that a witness to the couple's dispute on Aug. 12 called 911 and said he saw "the gentleman slapping the girl."

Go deeper: Social media sleuths are rushing to help investigators crack Petito's disappearance, Mike Allen writes in Axios PM.

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FBI agents search Brian Laundrie's North Port home

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