Gabby Petito funeral home releases touching tribute to slain ‘van life’ blogger has hunt for Brian Laundrie continues
GABBY Petito’s funeral home has released a touching tribute to the 22-year-old blogger ahead of a public memorial today as the hunt for Brian Laundrie continues.
Petito, who was found in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming last Sunday, will be cremated before today’s service in Holbrook, New York, with her funeral scheduled for Monday.
Mourners gathered in Blue Point, Long Island, on Friday afternoon for a vigil ahead of Petito’s Sunday memorial service, and tributes have poured in from mourners across America.
One well-wisher said: “Gabby Petito has become America’s child.”
Moloney’s Funeral Home posted a sweet montage of pictures on its website on Saturday, showing Petito as a happy, smiling girl who enjoyed playing outdoors and spending time with her family and its pet dog.
The montage includes photographs of Petito enjoying some of America’s most popular outdoor destinations, including Zion National Park in Utah.
The tribute also includes a snap of her meditating on a wall by the ocean.
In July, Petito and Laundrie, 23, of North Port, Florida, set off from Long Island on a cross-country road trip in a white Ford Transit van converted into a camper.
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The couple got into an altercation on August 12 in Moab, Utah, leading to a police stop for a possible domestic violence case.
Petito was last seen alive on August 24, and investigators appear to believe she was killed sometime between August 27 and 30.
She was reported missing by her family on September 11 after failing to respond to calls and texts for several days.
Her remains were discovered near the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground – an area crawling with bears, wolves, and other wild animals – and the coroner said it was a homicide, without revealing how she died.
Laundrie remains missing after returning to his home on September 1 without her.
Police have sought him for seven days in connection with the 22-year-old travel blogger’s death during their cross-country road trip.
He was charged on Thursday with fraudulently using a bank debit card.
‘GIVE YOURSELF UP’
Residents in Blue Point, Petito’s hometown, have begged Laundrie to give himself up ahead of her memorial service.
“Brian, if you’re still around and out there, please, please, I’m begging you to give yourself up and your family,” Amityville resident Anne Kroll, 71, told The Sun.
“Please, please, give yourself up or anybody has any information, please help us find him.”
New drone footage shows the scope of the search for Laundrie as Dog the Bounty Hunter and bloodhounds try to track him down.
The TV star said on Saturday his “heart goes out” to the family of Gabby, and he “wants to help bring justice for her death”.
The drone footage shows dozens of local and federal officers searching for Laundrie in a swampy Florida nature reserve.
Police and FBI agents using divers, tracking dogs, and helicopters have been hunting for the missing man in the Carlton Reserve wilderness area near North Port since Friday when his parents told them that he had gone there to hike three days earlier.
Search teams have been searching through the alligator-infested wilderness with costs reportedly spiraling to $200,000 a day.
HOTEL STAY
It comes after it was revealed Laundrie stayed in a $78-a-night motel after cops stopped the couple following the domestic violence call in Utah.
Staff at the Bowen Motel in Moab confirmed the 23-year-old had stayed at the accommodation after police drove him there on August 12.
Bowen Motel said staff have been co-operating with the police’s investigation into Petito’s killing.
Laundrie was taken to the motel after Moab police decided not file any charges and instead separated the couple for the night following the roadside stop.
Bodycam shows Petito’s fiancé telling police he could not afford a hotel for the night.
So he was instead booked a room at the motel which is sometimes used for domestic abuse survivors.
