Brian Laundrie’s sister urges him to turn himself in after refusing to say he’s innocent

Brian Laundrie’s sister Cassie has insisted she doesn’t know where her fugitive brother is and said she would ‘turn him in’ if she did, as she urged her own parents to ‘come clean’ about what they know about his disappearance and the death of his fiancee Gabby Petito. 

Cassie told ABC’s GMA she doesn’t know ‘what to think’ about what happened on the young couple’s doomed cross-country trip but issued a plea for her brother to ‘come forward’ so Petito’s family can ‘get answers.’

‘No, I do not know where Brian is… I’d turn him in,’ she said.  

While she insisted she had nothing to do with Laundrie’s disappearance, she admitted she wasn’t so sure about her parents Christopher and Roberta Laundrie who she urged to cooperate with investigators.

‘I don’t know if my parents are involved,’ said Cassie. ‘I think if they are, then they should come clean.’    

Laundrie’s sister has come under fire in recent days after it emerged she had seen her brother twice in the time between him returning home to Florida and going on the run – despite previously claiming she hadn’t spoken to him.  

She was seen confronting a group of protesters outside her home on Monday, telling them she was ‘livid’ at her parent’s lawyer Steve Bertolino for telling the press about the holes in her version of events.  

Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito in an Instagram photo on their cross-country trip on June 26. Cassie told ABC’s GMA she wished her brother had come to her first when he returned home without Petito ‘because I don’t think we’d be here’ if he did

In the exclusive interview with GMA, airing Tuesday morning, Cassie insisted she does not know where her brother – who has been named a person of interest in Petito’s death – is and claimed she has cooperated with investigators since ‘day one’.

She defended the fact she had seen her brother on his return from his and Petito’s campervan adventure, claiming she ‘didn’t pick up on anything’ and they were just ‘ordinary’ visits – despite Petito not being present and her brother not being expected to return home for at least another month. 

Cassie said her brother and parents had stopped by the home she shares with her husband and two sons for an ‘ordinary’ visit on September 1 – the day he returned. 

She then saw him for a second – and last – time on September 6 when she visited him and their parents at Fort De Soto Park, where the trio were camping.  

‘We just went for a couple of hours and we ate dinner and had s’mores around the campfire and left, and there was nothing peculiar about it,’ she said. 

‘There was no feeling of grand goodbye. There was no nothing.’

‘I’m frustrated that, in hindsight, I didn’t pick up on anything,’ she added, insisting ‘it was just a regular visit.’

She claimed she has not heard from her brother since and said she wished he had come to her about what had happened.  

‘I really wish he had come to me first that day with the van because I don’t think we’d be here,’ she said.  

‘I would tell my brother to just come forward and get us out of this horrible mess.’ 

Meanwhile, questions continue to mount about what Laundrie’s parents know about the doomed cross-country trip and their son’s current whereabouts. 

When Petito was reported missing on September 11, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie refused to let authorities speak to their son.

They then didn’t tell police he had vanished until three days after they allegedly last saw him on September 14, sparking a nationwide manhunt. 

Rumors have also been circulating that both Laundrie and his mom have been using burner phones.   

Cassie said she is feeling a mix of emotions as her brother is still on the run after more than two weeks while Petito’s death is being investigated as a homicide.  

‘I worry about him, I hope he’s ok and I’m angry I don’t know what to think,’ she said. 

Cassie was seen with her husband James Luycx outside her home on October 4 where she confronted a group of protesters

While she said she is concerned for him, she also said she ‘want[s] answers’ about what happened to Petito, who she previously described as ‘like a sister.’  

‘I hope my brother is alive because I want answers just as much as everybody else,’ she said. 

While she said she had never seen any signs of domestic violence between the young couple, she admitted it was ‘pretty typical of them to argue and try and take space from each other.’

Cassie told GMA she believes Petito’s family ‘deserve answers’ and that she wants them to know she is thinking of them.

Cassie is to date the only member of the Laundrie family – including Laundrie himself – who has spoken publicly about Petito’s disappearance and death. 

She claimed in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America on September 17 – two days before Petito’s body was found in Wyoming – that she had not spoken to her brother since September 1 and that she ‘wish[ed] I had more information’ to give investigators. 

‘I haven’t been able to talk to him. I wish I could talk to him,’ Cassie said at the time. ‘I’ve cooperated in every way that I can. I wish I had information or I would give more.’

Cassie also described Petito as ‘like a sister’ to her and said she and her family ‘want Gabby to be found safe.’

‘Obviously me and my family want Gabby to be found safe,’ she said. ‘She’s like a sister and my children love her, and all I want is for her to come home safe and found and this to be just a big misunderstanding.’  

Brian’s sister said that she is ‘livid’ at her parent’s lawyer Steve Bertolino, who told the press Friday that Cassie saw her brother twice since Petito’s disappearance – on September 1 and 6 – despite her saying otherwise in a previous interview

But her version of events unraveled Friday, when Dog the Bounty Hunter – who joined the manhunt for Laundrie Saturday – revealed he had received a tip about Cassie joining her brother and parents at the Fort De Soto Park campsite five days after she claimed they had their last alleged encounter.   

The Laundrie family lawyer confirmed on Friday that Cassie Laundrie saw her brother on September 1 when he came by her house – the same day he arrived back from the couple’s cross-country van trip alone.

Cassie saw him again on September 6 during a family camping trip to Fort De Soto Park, where Dog is carrying out a manhunt for her fugitive brother and the FBI has seized surveillance footage.  

Bertolino claimed the apparent discrepancy in Cassie’s version of events was a simple misunderstanding and insisted ‘law enforcement agencies are well aware of these dates.’ 

‘Any prior communication by Cassie that does not reflect these dates is simply a difference of relating an answer to a question misinterpreted by Cassie or poorly posed by the inquirer,’ he said.  

Records from Pinellas County indicate that Brian and Cassie’s mom Roberta Laundrie registered for a waterfront campground site at Fort De Soto Park between September 6 and 8.

The family’s attorney said Laundrie and his parents stayed at the park – 75 miles from the Laundrie home in Florida – for one night, with all of them leaving together on September 7.     

Cassie said that she has never seen Brian hit Petito or act violently toward women 

Chris (back) and Roberta (front) Laundrie, parents of Brian Laundrie, left their North Port, Florida, home. Cassie said she does not know if they were at all involved in Petito’s death

Protesters gathered outside Cassie’s home in recent days after the glaring inconsistencies in her story emerged. 

She told them she ‘didn’t know’ if her fugitive brother had murdered Petito and claimed that their parents are refusing to talk to her. 

‘I am losing my parents and my brother and my children’s aunt and my future sister-in-law on top of this and you’re not helping,’ Cassie told them. 

A protester asked Cassie if she thinks her parents were involved in helping her brother evade authorities, to which she said, ‘I don’t know. We have literally been finding out everything from the news like everyone else.’ 

Asked if she would you like your brother to turn himself in, Cassie said: ‘Of course.’

At one point, she is asked: ‘Based on all the stuff on the Internet, do you think that Brian killed Gabby?’

‘I don’t know,’ she replied.

Cassie said that she has never seen her brother hit Petito or act violently toward women.  

Laundrie’s parents Christopher and Roberta were under surveillance from the FBI. Cassie said she doesn’t know if they were involved in her brother’s disappearance

Cassie also cleared up the timeline of events from her perspective, confirming that her brother left his and Petito’s west coast trip around August 17 to come back to Florida, shortly after the couple was pulled over by police in Moab, Utah.

Cassie saw him on September 1, but he came to her home in the family Mustang and not the van he and Petito had been driving. She also saw him at a family vacation September 6 at Fort De Soto Park, but said that Petito’s name did not come up in conversation and she didn’t know Petito was missing at the time.

‘We had s’mores, we had dinner. We had our kids there. Nothing came up. We’ve told the FBI everything and the world does not need to know what the FBI knows. That’s why we’re silent. This is me coming out against them.’   

Cassie told the protesters that her children didn’t know their Aunt Gabby was dead until the demonstrators screamed it outside her home and called her a liar. 

She claimed on Monday that the media ‘misconstrued’ her words about when she had last seen her brother, and that she meant she has not been able to talk to him since he went missing.  

A plane flew overhead Cassie Laundrie’s home on October 4 with the message ‘Justice 4 Gabby – tik tok times up.’

Protesters told Cassie and Luycx that they gave the group what they wanted and that they wouldn’t be coming back

Protesters also congregated outside fugitive Brian Laundrie’s Florida home on September 27, chiding his parents for not aiding police in the search for their son

‘I’m in the boat where I’m getting ignored by my family and thrown under the bus by my family’s attorney . . . I am livid and I’m not speaking to anybody. I’m done because that made my kids find out this horrible way,’ she told the protesters.

‘We were waiting until there was some kind of closure so the kids were just sad instead of sad and worried and now scared of you guys.’

Asked for comment from NewsNation, Bertolino said: ‘I do not represent Cassie Laundrie.

‘Cassie’s comments can only be attributed to the press twisting my words and hers, which were only given to clarify prior mischaracterizations by the press, with the hopes of further sensationalizing this tragic story.’

Cassie spoke to the group for about 20 minutes and said she was bound to get in hot water for doing so, but she needed to stop the protests from upsetting her children.

‘This is not what we want to be doing,’ she said. 

‘This is not how we want the world to find out when we’re angry and upset. But I can’t have my kids be crying for three days in a row.’ 

Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito are pictured together. Her body was found September 19 and he is now on the run

The Fort De Soto campsite in Florida is seen in exclusive DailyMail.com photos. Cassie visited Laundrie and their parents there on September 6

The campsite (pictured) is located in Fort De Soto in Pinellas County, Florida, close to St Petersburg and was visited by the Laundries days before Gabby was reported missing 

Cassie Laundrie’s husband James Luycx said: ‘The sooner he is found, the sooner this is over for us.’ 

‘We would like to give [Brian Laundrie’s] nephews an answer to when they can see their grandparents again,’ he said. 

‘When you know, [they can] see their uncle or anything that. He was their hero.’

At the end of the video, a protester said that Cassie and Luycx gave the group what they wanted and that they wouldn’t be coming back.  

Laundrie and Petito set off in their white campervan on a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country trip from New York on July 2.

The young couple were supposed to travel across America for four months.

But, Laundrie returned to the North Port home the couple shared with his parents early and alone on September 1. 

Petito’s mom reported her missing September 11 after not hearing from her daughter for multiple days and coming up a wall of silence from Laundrie. 

Petito last spoke to her family on August 25 by phone and subsequent ‘odd’ texts from her phone sent alarm bells ringing. 

Laundrie lawyered up and refused to speak to cops about his fiancee’s whereabouts before going on the run. 

His parents reported him as missing on September 17, telling authorities they had not seen him since September 14 when he went on a hike in the alligator-infested Carlton Reserve in North Port. 

Local police and the FBI have been searching for Laundrie, who has been named a person of interest in Petito’s death, for almost three weeks.      

EXCLUSIVE: How the Gabby Petito case drew attention to the disappearance of a young black geologist in the Arizona desert 

When 24-year-old geologist Daniel Robinson went missing in the Arizona desert in June, he was obsessed with a woman he barely knew and disappeared just hours after sending her a desperate final text message, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

‘The world can get better, but I’ll have to take all the time I can or we can, whatever, to name it,’ he wrote to the woman identified only as Katelyn.

‘I’ll either see you again or never see you again.’

Eighteen hours later, Robinson turned up at a remote work site deep in the Arizona desert outside the booming town of Buckeye. He stayed for 15 minutes, then drove off. He has not been seen or heard from since.

But his obsession with the woman he met delivering her liquor while working his side job and his despondency over her unrequited feelings has – up to now – been overlooked.

Robinson’s case has been cited as evidence that the media spends too much of its time reporting on missing white women such as Gabby Petito and not enough on people of color.

Geologist Daniel Robinson, 24, has been missing since June 23, when he was last seen leaving his worksite in Buckeye, Arizona

Robinson’s family have been organizing civilian search parties where he was last seen and have accused cops of failing to conduct a thorough investigation 

Robinson showed up to work at 9:30 am at a remote desert site but abruptly left a short time after in his blue Jeep renegade and was never seen again. His car was found almost a month later on July 19, at the bottom of a 20-foot ravine (pictured) 

MSNBC’s Joy Reid mentioned his case on air, saying she had ‘never heard of it until this friend of mine sent it to me. And I guess, that’s the issue, isn’t it?’

Her guest, Lynette Grey Bull of the Not Our Native Daughters Foundation, called the media’s lack of focus on Robinson’s case ‘systemic racism.’

Other media outlets have carefully skirted Robinson’s relationship with Katelyn – whom he only met while delivering alcohol at her home. 

The Independent wrote a lengthy piece under the title ‘Daniel Robinson: Everything we know about geologist missing in Arizona desert under bizarre circumstances’ without mentioning the key evidence.

NewsNation reported on his father’s determination to find the truth, again without mentioning Katelyn.

His father, disabled Army vet David Robinson, has been in Arizona for months trying to find out what happened to his son 

CNN had a piece on how black people are frustrated with the media over coverage, but again Katelyn’s existence was nowhere to be found, even though it is key in the report prepared by Buckeye police.

Robinson – who was born without his right hand – met Katelyn on his side job delivering groceries for Instacart. 

When he turned up with a booze order at her home in the Phoenix suburb of Laveen on June 12, Katelyn and a friend who was with her, invited him in.

‘Katelyn said she believed Daniel was very nice and she and her female friend asked Daniel if he wanted to hang out with them,’ the police report said.

‘Katelyn said she and her female friend “were drunk” and that looking back on it, she shouldn’t have invited a stranger into her home.’

She added that she thought he was ‘harmless as he only had one arm and was short in height.’

Katelyn – whose last name is redacted in reports  – and Daniel exchanged numbers, but she insists, nothing else happened.

Within a week, he arrived at her house unannounced, and with only a brief exchange of messages between them, Robinson texted Katelyn: ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about you.’

Robinson’s case has been cited as evidence that the media spends too much of its time reporting on missing white women such as Gabby Petito – whose disappearance last month generated international intrigue –  and not enough on people of color

Media outlets, however, have failed to mention a key part of a Buckeye Police report that revealed Robinson had become obsessed with a Phoenix woman he barely knew and disappeared just hours after sending her a desperate final text message

Robinson believes the Petito investigation unexpectedly elevated his son’s case. He has claimed cops have been providing updates due to the public pressure 

By June 20 his message was ‘I love you.’ She tried to rebuff him. 

‘Honestly you showing up at my house unannounced made me extremely uncomfortable, she replied. ‘I don’t see us hanging out any time soon.’ 

The next day he turned up at her house again. 

‘This isn’t normal nor acceptable,’ Katelyn told him. ‘If someone has expressed that you’ve made them uncomfortable, you need to back off.’

‘Do you hate me?’ Daniel replied. ‘I don’t hate you but please leave me alone,’ Katelyn texted back.

He took 15 hours to respond with his final text to her. Eighteen hours after that he vanished.

Police were so alarmed at Robinson’s messages to a woman he hardly knew that they advised Katelyn about stalker laws and suggested she might want to make an official complaint.

Workmate Roger Prutsman was also concerned about his colleague. He told police he knew something was wrong. 

When he asked Robinson what was bothering him, he replied: ‘What if there was a girl you liked, but you couldn’t have?’

Robinson, the youngest of four children, grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, and graduated from the College of Charleston.

Robinson – who was born with one hand – was the youngest of four children. He grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, and graduated from the College of Charleston

Daniel’s Jeep, which private investigator Jeff McGrath claims raises a lot of questions about the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. The vehicle was found with its airbags deployed and with Daniel’s wallet, clothes, phone and credit card inside 

Daniel’s father said his son’s clothes, possessions and car were handed over to him as soon as he arrived in Arizona from South Carolina instead of being examined as evidence. Pictured: The Buckeye Police Department’s label on a bag of Daniel’s clothing (right) which they have marked as impounded for safekeeping, not evidence

He then attended a course in Tucson and soon after was offered a job by the engineering firm Matrix New World. 

He stayed in Arizona, initially living with Prutsman and then getting his own apartment in Tempe.

His father, disabled Army vet David Robinson, has been in Arizona for months trying to find out what happened to his son, who he described to DailyMail.com as ‘a go-getter.’ 

‘He was born with one hand. Some people think that’s a handicap, but not Daniel. Daniel is not the type of a guy who views that as a handicap.’

The older Robinson, who served two tours in Afghanistan and was injured by a roadside bomb, said his ex-wife bought a prosthesis for her son, but he refused to wear it.

‘He just wanted to be Daniel,’ said David Robinson, 51.

‘He didn’t have any problems playing video games. He taught himself how to play the French horn. He taught himself how to play the trombone. He was in a marching band. He earned his way into college and decided on geology in his freshman year.’ 

In an interview with AP last month, Robinson said he believes the Gabby Petito saga unexpectedly elevated his son’s case as people used the #findgabypetito hashtag on Twitter to draw more attention to cases of missing people of color.

‘I was working hard previously trying to get it out nationally for three months straight,’ said Robinson, who’s communicated with other families about the coverage disparity. 

‘This is bigger than I thought. … It isn’t just about my son Daniel. It’s a national problem.’

David Robinson has set up a GoFundMe page to help finance his search for his son. So far, it has raised more than $142,000. 

Daniel Robinson was last seen on June 23 when he turned up for work, his second job of the day, at 9:30 am at a remote desert site, that builders are hoping to develop.

It was an abnormally cool and rainy day for the area. He met up with pump technician Ken Elliott who he had never met before and they were to work on a deep well.

Jeff McGrath (pictured) a private investigator brought in by the Robinson family believes Robinson was upset about Katelyn’s rejection and went on an all-night video game binge

A marker near the ravine where Daniel’s Jeep was discovered in the desert in Buckeye

The family has launched a GoFundMe page to finance their search as well as a Twitter account to share updates of their investigation

Elliott told police that Robinson ‘was saying things that did not make sense,’ such as asking if he wanted to go with him to Phoenix to rest.

Elliott told him he had work to do, but just 15 minutes after he arrived, Robinson abruptly left without a word. 

Elliott later followed his tire tracks in the rain-soaked dirt road and found that instead of going left at a T-junction to return to Phoenix, Robinson turned right into the unrelenting Sonoran Desert.

Helicopter and drone searches failed to find his slate blue Jeep Renegade. Rancher Brandon Shelton eventually discovered it on July 19, nearly a month after Robinson’s disappearance. 

It was on its side at the bottom of a 20-foot ravine. The vehicle’s airbags were deployed.

Certainly, there are potential discrepancies in the official version that something triggered Robinson into going into the desert, where he stripped off and wandered away from his car.

Rancher Shelton, whose cattle graze 14,000 acres in the Buckeye area, is convinced the car had only been in the ravine that leads to the Hassayampa River a short while when he came across it.

‘It was clean,’ Shelton, 43, told DailyMail.com. ‘And my cows would have found it. Cows are inquisitive creatures and would have licked it.’

Shelton pointed to one of Robinson’s size 11½ Red Wing work boots that was stuck under the truck.

The Buckeye Police Department has been using robotic equipment to search two mineshafts 

‘That makes no sense,’ he said. ‘If you were delirious and ripped off all your clothes and wandered into the desert you wouldn’t stick one of your shoes under the car.’

‘My personal theory is that someone deliberately wrecked that vehicle out there.’

Jeff McGrath, a private investigator brought in by the Robinson family, agrees. He believes Robinson was upset about Katelyn’s rejection and went on an all-night video game binge. 

When he turned up at work he was so tired that he deliberately drove into the desert to take a nap where he wouldn’t be found.

‘At that point I think somebody – not a good person – found him. I can’t imagine what they did with him, but I believe his vehicle was crashed a couple of times and then its final rest was at the bottom of that ravine,’ McGrath, 51, told DailyMail.com.

He pointed out that the 2017 Jeep Renegade’s airbag control module showed that the car was driven 11 miles after the airbags deployed and the ignition was turned 46 times.

He also said the damage to the vehicle appeared to show that it had been hit above the windshield. ‘It looks like a bat or a pipe, or it could be a large rock – anything blunt.’

David Robinson described his son to DailyMail.com as ‘a go-getter.’ Workmate Roger Prutsman told police he was concerned about Daniel and knew something was wrong

The driver’s seat belt was buckled and, despite the severe damage to the Jeep, no blood was found inside.

Robinson’s wallet, phone and credit cards were all in the car. His clothes – T-shirt, jeans turned inside-out, shorts, orange work vest, boots and two mismatched black socks – were all nearby. One of the socks is Nike, the other Adidas.

McGrath found another black Nike sock three miles away in the desert. He cannot explain it, but it is another reason he believes there is more to the case than meets the eye.

Both McGrath and Daniel’s father believe Buckeye Police did not carry out a thorough investigation into Robinson’s mysterious disappearance.

They point out that Daniel’s clothes, possessions and car were handed over to his father as soon as he arrived in Arizona from South Carolina. ‘Surely these are items of evidence if a crime is found to have been committed,’ said McGrath.

Buckeye Police turned down a DailyMail.com request for an interview. Chief Larry Hall issued a statement saying: ‘We are committed to finding Daniel Robinson. Our investigators are working tirelessly to find answers and bring closure to Daniel’s loved ones.’