Brian Laundrie’s sister saw her brother twice between the time he returned to Florida without girlfriend Gabby Petito and when he went missing around two weeks later – despite her public statements to the contrary.
A lawyer representing the Laundrie family 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 authorities are now focusing their manhunt for her fugitive brother.
Attorney Steve Bertolino told WFLA that ‘law enforcement agencies are well aware of these dates.’
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.’
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.
Brian Laundrie’s sister, Cassie, told ABC News on September 17 that she had not talked to her brother since his return to Florida, but now the family’s attorney says she saw him twice – on September 1 and September 6
Cassie and Brian joined their parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie (pictured), on a camping trip over the Labor Day weekend
The Laundries stayed at the Fort De Soto Park between September 6-7. Their lawyer said they all left at the same time
It comes as:
- Scaled-down FBI-led operation to find Brian Laundrie enters day 12
- FBI agents searched home and camper at Laundrie’s parents’ house
- Laundries’ attorney said FBI collected personal items to help K9s in their search
- Dog the Bounty Hunter discovered makeshift campsite at Shell Island
- Laundrie, 23, is charged with fraudulently using Petito’s bank card
- Cops got two 911 calls lined to Laundrie home day before Petito went missing
Bertolino claimed the apparent discrepancy in Cassie’s version of events was a simple misunderstanding.
‘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.
‘Law enforcement agencies are well aware of these dates.’
It is not clear when authorities learned of Cassie’s meeting with her brother – or of the family’s trip to the campsite.
Bertolino added: ‘To my knowledge, Cassie went for a day’ to the campsite.
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 confirmed Brian and his parents stayed at the park – 75 miles from the Laundrie home in Florida – for one night leaving on September 7.
Documents obtained by Fox News reveal Laundrie’s mom changed her reservation for the campsite as Brian returned home.
On August 31, she reportedly canceled a stay for two people from September 1 to 3, suggestion she may have known her son was heading home the next day.
She then rebooked for three people from September 6 to September 8.
The FBI is now examining surveillance footage from the Fort De Soto Park campsite.
During a ground search on Wednesday, Dog the Bounty Hunter – who joined the search for Laundrie Saturday discovered a fresh campsite on Florida’s Shell Island.
Brian also visited the park with Petito just two months ago with photos showing the young couple at the beach and campsite. In one photo, Laundrie and Gabby are seen peering through the bars of a jail cell at an old fort.
Questions have been mounting over when Laundrie’s family last saw him and what they knew of his fiancee’s disappearance.
From the day Petito was reported missing, Laundrie’s parents denied investigators access to their home to speak to their son.
They then waited three days to tell authorities he was missing on September 17 – saying they last saw him heading for a hike on September 14.
The Fort De Soto campsite in Florida is seen in exclusive DailyMail.com photos. New details have emerged about a camping trip Brian took with his parents there days before Petito was reported missing
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
Two months ago Laundrie and Gabby Petitio visited the same spot and posted photos hiking and showing them relaxing on the beach. They also posted this photo behind bars
Gabby (right) and Brian (left) are pictured at the campsite during the young couple’s visit together two months ago
Now, speculation has swirled that both Laundrie and his mom are using burner phones.
The FBI is investigating a line of inquiry that Brian bought a burner from an AT&T store in North Port on September 14 – the day his parents claim they last saw him. Brian is said to have visited the store to purchase the phone accompanied by an older woman.
Federal agents have seized surveillance footage from the store.
This comes as Dog the Bounty Hunter’s daughter Lyssa Chapman claimed the FBI believes Roberta is using a burner phone.
The Laundrie family attorney said he had ‘no comment’ about her alleged use of a burner phone but told TMZ the family purchased a new phone but he ‘believes it’s the one Brian left behind at home’ and notes that the ‘FBI is already in possession of it’.
Petito’s phone, meanwhile, has never been found.
Laundrie, 23, and his fiancee Petito, 22, 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 Roberta and Christopher 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 the past 12 days.
Newly-released bodycam footage has revealed Gabby Petito told cops Brian Laundrie had hit her and cut her face by grabbing her ‘with his nail’ during the August 12 domestic incident
The never-before-seen footage from a second officer’s body camera shows the cop pointing out ‘new’ marks on Petito’s face and arm and her admitting that he cut her face with his nail
On Thursday, newly-released bodycam footage revealed that Petito told cops Laundrie had hit her and cut her face by grabbing her ‘with his nail’ during a domestic incident less than two weeks before she was last seen alive.
The never-before-seen footage from a second officer’s body camera shows the cop pointing out ‘new’ marks on Petito’s face and arm after pulling the couple’s van over in Moab, Utah, on August 12. Asked if Laundrie had hit her, Petito answers: ‘I guess.’
‘He like grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that’s why it looks, I definitely have a cut right here. I can feel it, when I touch it it burns,’ she tells the officer.
The 22-year-old, whose body was found on September 19, quickly backtracks and defends her fiancé saying she ‘hit him first’ when he locked her out of their van and refused to let her in.
Laundrie is also seen in the footage defending himself and pushing the blame onto Petito as soon as the cop arrives on the scene.
He claims Petito was ‘really worked up’ and that he ‘was just trying to push her away’ when asked about allegations he had hit her.
Body camera video from one Moab officer was released two weeks ago, while Petito was still a missing person, and in it portions of the conversation between the cop and the van-life couple were inaudible.
This new footage from a second officer’s body-worn camera offers a fresh look at the altercation that preceded Petito’s disappearance and death.
Last week, a probe was launched into the police handling of the August 12 incident and Moab City Police Department Chief Bret Edge has since taken a leave of absence pending the investigation.
Meanwhile, the manhunt for Laundrie, who is a person of interest in Petito’s homicide, entered its 12th day with the FBI and Dog the Bounty Hunter scouring separate areas in Florida.
FBI agents on Thursday visited the home of Laundrie’s parents in North Port and collected personal items belonging to Brian to help in the search.
The focus of the search has now shifted to the Fort De Soto National Park, where Laundrie stayed with his parents after returning home from the campervan trip without Petito.
Roberta Laundrie (right) has been accused of using a burner phone to keep in contact with her son, Brian, who is currently wanted by the police. Christopher (left) and Roberta (right) Laundrie visited their attorney in Orlando on Thursday
The FBI is examining surveillance footage from the Fort De Soto Park campsite. A map shows the campsite’s location to the Laundrie family home and the Carlton Reserve where authorities have focused their search and Laundrie’s parents say he was headed
Police in Moab, Utah, responded to a 911 call from a bystander who said they had seen a man slapping a woman outside the Mayflower grocery store before driving off in a white van.
Bodycam footage from one Moab police officer was released on September 16.
That footage shows Petito telling the officer she slapped Laundrie, while he is seen showing the cop scratches on his face and arm, which he claims were caused when she ‘hit me with her phone’.
The cops determined Petito was ‘the primary aggressor’ and separated them for the night.
Now, the release of the bodycam from the second officer casts new light on the incident and what the couple told cops. Key moments of the cops’ chat with the couple was inaudible in the previously-released clip.
The two Moab police officers were also joined on the scene by two US Park Rangers, whose bodycam videos remain under wraps.
Meanwhile, FBI agents arrived at the Laundrie home in North Port, Florida, Thursday afternoon to collect personal items belonging to the 23-year-old to help in the hunt.
In the newly-released footage, Petit tells the officer Laundrie got ‘frustrated’ with her over her OCD and ‘locked me out of the car.’
‘I was just really stressed this morning trying to get a lot of work done and I was apologizing to him,’ she says.
She tells the cop she was saying ‘sorry’ to her fiancé because of her OCD which meant she was ‘organizing stuff’.
‘I get so stressed out. I have OCD and I was like organizing stuff and sometimes I get this mean attitude when I’m not trying to be mean and I was trying to straighten things out,’ she says.
Police pulled over the couple’s van in Moab, Utah, on August 12 following reports of a man hitting a woman
The new bodycam shows Petito telling the cop the cut on her face ‘burns’ before defending her fiance saying she ‘hit him first’ when he locked her out of their van and refused to let her in
Meanwhile, Laundrie is seen instantly defending himself and pushing the blame onto Petito as soon as the cop arrives on the scene
He claims Petito was ‘really worked up’ and that he ‘was just trying to push her away’ when asked about allegations he had hit her
‘And I was just apologizing but I guess I said it in like a mean tone and he got really frustrated with me, and he locked me out of the car and told me to go take a breather, but I didn’t want to take a breather.’
‘And I wanted to get going. We’re out of water.’
Petito tells the cop Laundrie wouldn’t let her back in their van which made her ‘really mad.’
The officer questions Petito about marks on her face and arm, which he says ‘looks like someone might have hit you in the face.’
‘Is there something on your cheek here?’ he says. ‘Did you get hit in the face?’
Petito is seen lifting her hand up to her face and replying: ‘Erm.’
‘It kinda looks like someone might have hit you in the face?’ the cop asks again.
‘And then over on your arm – your shoulder right here that’s new huh? You have a new mark.’
Petito looks at her arm and then back at the cop, replying: ‘Yeah I don’t know.’
The officer asks to see the other side of her face and asks her what happened.
Petito claims at first that Laundrie’s backpack struck her before finally admitting her grabbed her face and cut her with his nail.
‘I’m not sure,’ she says.
‘It was happening really fast. I was trying to get back in the car and his backpack got me.’
The cop presses Petito questioning her backpack theory and telling her two witnesses reported seeing Laundrie ‘hit’ or ‘punch’ her.
Petito tells the officer she ‘hit him first.’
‘Well to be honest I definitely hit him first,’ she says, telling the cop she ‘slapped him a couple times.’
The cop asks what Laundrie’s reaction was to that, to which she replies ‘to grab my arm.’
‘Did he hit you though?’ the officer asks, telling Petito they are trying to get to the truth.
‘I guess,’ she says, becoming more tearful as she makes the admission.
‘I guess, yea. But I hit him first.’
‘Where did he hit you?’ the officer replies. ‘Don’t worry, just be honest.’
Petito tries to defend Laundrie insisting: ‘He didn’t like hit me in the face.
‘He didn’t like punch me in the face or anything.’
The cop replies: ‘Did he slap your face, or what?’
At this point, Petito says Laundrie ‘grabbed me with his nail’ and makes a grabbing motion on her face.
‘Well he like, grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that’s why it looks, I definitely have a cut right here,’ she says.
‘I can feel it, when I touch it, it burns.’
In the footage, the cop also calls the witness to run through what he had seen at the Mayflower.
The witness says he saw the couple ‘sort of arguing a bit’ and it seemed they were ‘squabbling over a phone.’
‘I want to say that he was trying to take her phone,’ he says.
Petito’s cellphone has never been found since her disappearance and death.
Laundrie, meanwhile, is now suspected of buying a burner phone on September 14 – the day he was reportedly last seen by his parents before he took off.
The witness tells the cop Laundrie ‘wasn’t letting her’ in the van so she ‘hit him a few times’, he says.
The witness says it ‘wasn’t like a punch to the face’ but more like ‘children fighting.’
However, he adds that ‘it seemed like something was off – a weird vibe.’
‘Did you ever see the male strike the female?’ the cop asks.
‘I think I saw maybe a push or a shove, but not a full on punch to a face or anything,’ the witness says.
‘You did see her slapping him though it sounds like?’ the cop asks.
‘Yes,’ the witness replies.
The very beginning of the footage reveals the moment the cop arrived on the scene and approached the driver’s side of the door.
Laundrie is seen inside while Petito is no longer in the passenger seat after the officer’s colleague asked her to step out.
The 23-year-old is seen instantly defending himself to the officer.
The cop is heard telling Laundrie that police had received a 911 call about ‘a male hitting a female’ and then taking off in their white van.
Laundrie looks toward the passenger sear and stumbles over his words holding his hands up.
‘I – I – I don’t want to try to defend myself by saying anything here but I pushed her away,’ he tells the officer.
‘She gets really worked up, and when she does she swings and she had her cell phone in her hand. So I was just trying to push her away.’
He then looks through the passenger door window and asks if the officers ‘are talking to my fiancee.’
The first bodycam video of the incident revealed that the cops agreed Petito was ‘the primary aggressor’ and it was Laundrie who said he didn’t want to pursue charges against her.
Petito’s body was discovered around one month later after Laundrie returned home from their campervan trip alone.
Cops were called to Florida home of Brian Laundrie’s parents TWICE on the day BEFORE Gabby Petito was reported missing and three more 911 calls were made over the next 24 hours
Police in North Port, Florida received two 911 calls connected to the home of fugitive Brian Laundrie’s parents on September 10 — the day before his fiancée, Gabby Petito, 22, was reported missing.
The were both ‘public service’ calls, with the first placed just before 4pm and the second around 6.30pm, according to police logs provided to DailyMail.com.
It is unclear who called 911 or what those calls entailed as the logs have been partially redacted. However, both calls have been given the brief description of ‘problem settled’.
Officers also received three calls connected to the residence on September 11, the day Petito’s mother filed a missing persons’ report for the 22-year-old.
Those incidents were listed as ‘follow up/investigation’ and ‘agency assist.’
Response to the calls was described as ‘problem settled,’ ‘no police action needed’ and ‘report submitted’.
Police received two ‘public service’ 911 calls connected to Brian Laundrie’s parents’ North Port, Florida home the day before Gabby Petito was reported missing (Pictured: Police at the Laundrie family home on September 24)
Police tape is seen outside the Laundrie family home on September 22
At least 46 emergency calls were made in connection to the residence for various reasons between September 10 and September 27 including ‘missing person,’ ‘disturbance,’ ‘follow up/investigation,’ ‘agency assist,’ ‘special detail,’ ‘patrol check’ and ‘public service’.
The provided records indicate that officers most recently received a call connected to the home on Monday at 5.10pm, with calls placed earlier in the day at 8.06am, 8.28am, 1.29pm, 2.45pm and 4.13pm.
North Port police visited the home on September 14, 15 and 16, as well as twice on September 17.
Laundrie’s parents reported him missing on September 17, saying they hadn’t seen him since the 14.
FBI agents arrived at the Laundrie home in North Port, Florida, Thursday afternoon to collect personal items belonging to the 23-year-old to help in the hunt.
DailyMail.com saw the agents arrive in a black Chevrolet Tahoe SUV and walk purposefully to the front door, where they were let in. One of the agents was carrying a large paper bag and an evidence receipt as he walked inside the home.
The Laundries’ attorney Steve Bertolino told DailyMail.com: ‘The FBI is at the Laundrie home today to collect some personal items belonging to Brian that will assist the canines in their search for Brian. There is nothing more to this.’
Two FBI agents arrived at the Laundrie home in North Port, Florida, this afternoon to collect missing Brian Laundrie’s things for their investigation into his disappearance and the murder of Gabby Petito
DailyMail.com saw the agents arrive in a black Chevrolet Tahoe SUV and walk purposefully to the front door, where they were let in
In recent days, the search has turned to the Fort De Soto National Park, 75 miles from the Laundrie home in Florida, after it emerged Laundrie stayed there with his parents after returning home from the campervan trip without Petito.
New details emerged Wednesday about the camping trip which took place days before Petito was reported missing and around one week before he went on the run.
Documents obtained by Fox News reveal Brian’s mom changed her reservation for the campsite to three people from September 6 to September 8, after Brian returned home early from his and Gabby’s campervan trip early and alone.
On August 31, she also reportedly canceled a stay for two people from September 1 to 3, suggestion she may have known Brian was heading home the next day.
The FBI is now examining surveillance footage from the Fort De Soto Park campsite where the family’s attorney admitted the trio visited and Dog the Bounty Hunter believes Brian could be hiding out.
During a ground search on Wednesday, Dog — real name Duane Chapman, 68 — discovered a fresh campsite on Florida’s Shell Island as a plane flew a sign taunting the 23-year-old fugitive.
Dog the Bounty Hunter and his team recovered a can of Monster Energy Ultra Gold which appeared to have been freshly drunk at a makeshift campsite deep in the woods at Shell Island along the coastline Wednesday
The TV reality star flew a banner with a message for Gabby Petito’s boyfriend: ‘Aloha Brian Laundrie’. The banner flown over the islands off the western coast of Florida
The banner, which Dog said he was not responsible for, read: ‘Aloha Brian Laundrie – Dog.’
‘Frankly, I wish I had thought of that, but it wasn’t our team,’ Dog wrote on his Instagram page. ‘I’d love to shake the hand of whoever is behind the banner, I’ll tell you that.’
Dog and his team recovered a can of Monster Energy Ultra Gold which appeared to have been freshly drunk at a makeshift campsite deep in the woods at Shell Island along the coastline Wednesday, Fox News reported.
However, the team did not find solid evidence suggesting that Laundrie is in the woods on Egmont Key, which is located southwest of Fort De Soto Park.
Federal investigators are also following a lead that Brian bought a burner phone from an AT&T store in North Port on the day he went missing in an outing where he was joined by ‘an older woman’.
Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie are pictured together during their doomed cross-country trip. He is now on the run
Laundrie and Petito set off on a cross-country trip back on July 2 and were documenting their travels on YouTube.
Petito was last seen alive on August 24 leaving a motel in Salt Lake City, Utah, with Laundrie and last spoke to her mom by phone the following day.
Her family said they believe texts from her phone after then were ‘suspicious.’
Brian returned to his home in North Port alone on September 1 driving the couple’s campervan.
Petito was reported missing on September 11 by her family and her body was discovered in a campsite near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19.
Her death has been ruled a homicide but the cause of death is not yet clear.
Brian refused to speak to authorities during a week-long search for his missing girlfriend.
On September 17, his parents told police they hadn’t seen him in three days when he headed for a hike at the nearby Carlton Reserve.
He has been missing ever since and was named a person of interest in Petito’s homicide.
A warrant is out for his arrest for allegedly fraudulently spending $1,000 on Petito’s Capitol One Bank debit card between August 30 and September 1.
A manhunt for him has so far proved unsuccessful.