Law enforcement authorities are “actively looking” into possible connections between the disappearance of Long Island native Gabby Petito and a Utah double murder — as a lawyer for her tight-lipped boyfriend issued a statement about the possible link.
The Grand County Sheriff’s Office released a statement Thursday saying investigators are looking at the possibility Petito’s disappearance could somehow be linked to the shooting of a newlywed couple at a campground outside Moab.
The office has been in touch with cops in Florida, where Petito and her boyfriend shared a home.
“The Grand County Sheriff’s Office has been in contact with Florida authorities and we are actively looking into any connection between the Gabby Petito missing person case and the double homicide that occurred in Grand County,” the sheriff’s office said.
“The Grand County Sheriff’s Office has been in contact with Florida authorities and we are actively looking into any connection between the Gabby Petito missing person case and the double homicide that occurred in Grand County,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement to Fox News.
One of the murder victims, Kylen Schulte, 24, worked at a community cooperative where a witness saw a domestic dispute between Petito, 22, and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, 23, on Aug. 12.
“Law enforcement has to follow protocol and all leads that they get,” Laundrie’s attorney Steven Bertolino said, according to Fox News. “Whether or not these two cases deserve to be linked will be determined at some point in the future.”
Schulte and wife Crystal Turner, 38, went missing after going to a Moab bar on Aug. 13, where they complained to friends about a “creepy guy” near where they were camping, officials have said.
This police camera video provided by The Moab Police Department shows Brian Laundrie talking to a police officer. The Moab Police Department via APThe couple told friends “if something happened to them, that they were murdered,” according to recently unsealed documents obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune.
Schulte and Turner were found on Aug. 18 partially undressed with gunshot wounds in their backs, sides and chests, the report said.
Petito was seen weeks later in Wyoming, hundreds of miles away, but was reported missing on Sept. 11 by her mother, who hadn’t been in contact with her since Aug. 30.
The map and timeline of places Gabby Petitio and Brian Laundrie visited before the boyfriend returned home. NY Post IllustrationsLaundrie returned to the Florida home they shared in the van he shared with Petito — and has not spoken to officials about his missing girlfriend, to the outrage of the devastated Petito family.
“They’re at the point that that desperation has turned to anger,” attorney Richard Stafford said Thursday. “They know that the Laundries know where their daughter is, and they will not tell them. That’s infuriating.”
Florida cops said Thursday that there is no evidence of criminality in the case.
“Right now, this is a missing person case, alright? And our focus is to find Gabby. My focus isn’t to bring Brian in right now. It’s to find Gabby,” North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said Thursday at a press conference attended by The Post. “Brian is exercising his constitutional right and I have to respect that.”
Police said Laundrie’s lawyer did provide some requested property, and investigators are analyzing evidence from Petito’s van, which was seized last week.
The FBI is also investigating the case.
