Gabby Petito’s father has labeled the Laurdrie family ‘cowards’ in a new Dr. Phil interview – as the the search for ‘person of interest’ Brian enters its third week.
Joe Petito launched the scathing attack against the Laundries during a pre-tapped interview which airs today, saying he believed Brian was still alive because ‘he is too cowardly to kill himself’.
Furious Petito then raged against Brian’s parents Chris and Roberta who are holed up in their North Port, Florida home as daily protests against their perceived dishonesty carry on outside.
‘Anyone who lived in that house is a coward, said Petito, justifying that by saying ‘they don’t know how to stand up for their actions’.
Gabby Petito’s family went on Dr. Phil on Tuesday and called out Brian Laundrie’s family. Pictured from L-R: step-mother Tara Petito, father Joe Petito, step-father James Schmidt, mother Nicole Schimdit
Joe Petito called Chirs and Roberta Laundrie, pictured, cowards for avoiding his family
Gabby Petito, right, and Brian Laundrie, were on a cross-country van trip when went missing on Aug. 24. Brian was the key person on interest and went missing himself on September 17
Joe and Nicole Schmidt said they had tried calling and texting the Laundries multiple times, asking for their daughters whereabouts to no avail.
‘It’s infuriating, Nicole said.
Joe added, ‘We actually thought that they were both missing at that time.’
In one of the text messages, Joe said ‘I’m going to call the police, just letting you know, because we have no idea.’
‘A normal parent when you text someone that [you] are going to call the cops because you can’t find your child, they would reply. No response. Nothing.’
Gabby’s step-father, James Schmidt, also revealed that he was the one to identify Gabby’s body, which was found in the Grand Teton National Park, in Wyoming, last month.
Schmidt said that when the body was found on September 19, police showed him an article of clothing that he matched as one of her favorite sweatshirts from a local New York shop.
‘We knew it was hers,’ Schmidt said.
Schmidt was in Wyoming to help search for his missing step-daughter and set up a memorial for her at the site when it was confirmed that her body was found there.
The second part of Dr. Phil’s interview with the family will air tomorrow.
Gabby’s step-father, James Schimdt (left), said he had helped identify Gabby’s body
The family’s interview comes as Brian Laundrie’s sister, Cassie, spoke to Good Morning America on Tuesday, urging him to ‘come forward’ and telling her parents to ‘come clean’ if they are involved in his disappearance.
She added, ‘No I don’t know where Brian is. …I’d turn him in.’
Cassie told ABC’s GMA she wished her brother had come to her first when he returned to North Port, Florida, without Petito on September 1.
‘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.
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.
‘I would tell my brother to just come forward and get us out of this horrible mess.’
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 wished her brother had come to her first when he returned to North Port, Florida, without Petito on September 1.
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.’
Brian Laundrie’s sister Cassie has urged her fugitive brother to ‘come forward’ and turn himself in, saying she doesn’t know ‘what to think’ happened on his doomed cross-country trip
Cassie first broke ranks and spoke out on Monday, saying she ‘didn’t know’ if her fugitive brother had murdered his girlfriend Gabby Petito and claimed that their parents refuse to talk to her.
Chris and Roberta Laundrie had been initially reluctant to cooperate with the investigation regarding the missing Gabby until Brian went missing on September 17.
Cassie also said she is ‘livid’ at her parent’s lawyer Steve Bertolino, who told the press Friday that Cassie saw her brother twice since Gabby’s disappearance – on September 1 and 6 – despite her previously telling ABC’s Good Morning America, ‘I haven’t been able to talk to him. I wish I could talk to him.’
Cassie was seen confronting a group of protesters, which had rallied outside her home since Bertolino’s statement three days ago and interrogated her about them on October 4.
‘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.
Cassie Laundrie refused to defend her brother Brian’s innocence in the murder of Gabby Petito and claimed that their parents refuse to speak with her. She is seen above with her husband James Luycx in an interview with protesters outside her home on October 4
She spoke to protesters who remained outside her house since the lawyer’s statements, which contradicted media reports that Cassie hadn’t seen Brian. Above, Brian and Petito were in an Instagram photo on their cross-country trip on June 26
A protester asked Cassie if she thinks her parents were involved in Gabby’s death, 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 says, ‘Of course.’
She also 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.’
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 says.
Cassie also said that she has never seen Brian hit Gabby or act violently toward women.
Dispatch audio from the Moab Police Department, in Utah, revealed that Gabby and Brian had been in a fight on August 12, with police being told that Brian hit Gabby.
Joe spoke out against domestic violence on Monday in a photo tribute of his late daughter.
He posted a photo of Gabby walking on the boardwalk holding two young boys’ hands, with the caption: ‘We have to do better. Changes are coming. Now is the time. Don’t be silent.’
It was hashtagged #domesticviolence and #domesticviolenceawareness.
In an Instagram post on Monday, Joseph Petito encouraged people to speak out about domestic violence
He had previously tweeted that people have reached out to him to share that they have been inspired by her his daughter’s tragic death to prep before leaving their abusive relationships
The post comes just a few days after he tweeted that people have reached out to him to share that they have been inspired by her his daughter’s tragic death to make preparations before leaving their abusive relationships.
‘She is already saving lives,’ he posted on Saturday. ‘So many stories being sent to us about relationships being left with proper planning for safety, and people are being found due to her influence. We have much more work to do, but it’s a start.’
Meanwhile, the nationwide manhunt for Laundrie continues, as authorities resumed their search of the nature preserve his parents claim he visited, and reality television star Dog the Bounty Hunter searches the Fort de Soto campsite on an island called Egmont Key, off the coast of St. Petersburg, Florida.
They had previously discovered a used campsite and a discarded can of Monster energy drink on the island, and on Sunday night, his team confirmed that it has handed over evidence to authorities they hope will prove Laundrie was there.
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
North Port police continued their search of the expansive Carlton Reserve in Sarasota, Florida on Monday
Laundrie’s parents said he went missing on September 14, when he said he was going for a walk at the nature preserve near their house
The FBI is also getting involved in the search at the campsite, as the nationwide manhunt extends into another week, with many people reporting potential sightings of Brian Laundrie throughout the country.
‘The public has to be patient, and that can be hard to do in the time where we have feeling where we think we can be more helpful,’ Michelle Jenis, an assistant professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Department of Criminal Justice who specializes in missing persons told CNN.
‘We’re all just looking for red flags,’ she said, ‘and they could be meaningless.’
EXCLUSIVE: ‘He wasn’t all there.’ Hiker shows where he was stopped by Brian Laundrie on the Appalachian Trail and tells how his ‘heart dropped’ when he realized he came face-to-face with the man suspected of killing Gabby Petito in first video interview
The hiker who claims to have spoken to Brian Laundrie on the Appalachian Trial has told DailyMail.com how his ‘heart dropped’ when he realized he had come face-to-face with the man suspected of killing Gabby Petito.
Dennis Davis, 53, says he was stopped by Laundrie around 12.30am Saturday morning on a deserted road near the Tennessee/North Carolina border – 700 miles away from where the 23-year-old fugitive was last seen near his home in North Point, Florida.
Showing DailyMail.com where he encountered Laundrie in his first video interview, Davis said he didn’t realize it was him at first, until about 15 minutes later when he pulled up a photo of him, saw the matching beard and mustache and immediately dialed 911 and the FBI.
‘When I first saw him I kind of thought he was on drugs because he was acting weird,’ Davis told DailyMail.com of their interaction, adding that Laundrie spoke of heading to California to see his ‘girlfriend’.
‘But as I thought about it, I don’t necessarily think he was on drugs because he was talking very clearly. And that’s when I thought, after a month of hiding out, after killing someone that you supposedly love, it’s got to be wearing on him,’ he said.
Hiker Dennis Davis, 53, said he encountered Brian Laundrie on a deserted road close to the trail near to the Tennessee border early Saturday morning
Brian Laundrie, 23, who was reported missing on September 14, remains a person of interest in the disappearance and death of fiancée Gabby Petito
Davis claims he had an encounter with Brian Laundrie in the early hours of Saturday morning, weeks after the fugitive boyfriend of slain Gabby Petito was last seen in Florida
Davis, a father-of-four and engineer from Florida, is an avid hiker and was on his fourth hike of the Appalachian Trail of the year when he came across ‘Laundrie’.
It was 12.30am and Davis was in his car, planning to sleep in a parking lot near the Davenport Gap before meeting a friend the next day.
He says he was making a K-turn when a white or silver pick-up truck came up behind him and flashed its lights to signal him to go ahead.
Dennis Davis, pictured, says he saw Brian Laundrie on a deserted trail along the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina in the early hours of Saturday morning
When he passed by the pick-up, the man inside rolled down his window and waved to get his attention.
Davis said, ‘When we first stopped and were across from each other, it took him a minute to say something. And then he said, ”Man, I’m lost.”’
Davis said he thought the man was a hiker and asked where he was heading.
He claims Laundrie said, ‘Man, I’ve got to get to California. My girlfriend and I got in a fight and she called me and she told me she loves me but I got to go to California to see her.’
Davis responded: ‘Well I-40 is right there you could literally take I-40 all the way there to California.’
He says Laundrie shook his head and said, ‘No, I’m just gonna take this road to California.’
‘He was dead serious. He was obviously kind of out of his mind. He wasn’t laughing. He was like ”that’s what I’m doing” and left,’ Davis said.
The hiker said that the route Laundrie planned to take is a small two lane country road called Waterville Road, and wouldn’t lead him to California.
Davis originally planned to sleep in that area but said he feared that the mysterious man would come back and could harm him.
‘I thought he was on drugs. After seeing him I thought there’s no way I’m staying here, if this guy comes back he might want to do something bad. So I took off. I got back on I-40 and headed west and it kind of hit me…what if that was Brian Laundrie?’ he said.
The Appalachian Trail is familiar to Laundrie, who lived there on on his own for about three months.
‘When we were talking our cars were parked side by side a nd he kept on looking forward, he didn’t look at me very much. After I talked to the FBI, I was looking at other pictures of him and I saw a profile view and when that profile view came up my heart literally dropped,’ Davis said
He said he didn’t realize it was Laundrie at first, until he looked up a photo 15 minutes later and then was adamant it was him
Davis said he got off at the first exit and began looking up photos of Laundrie online, because he wasn’t sure exactly what he looked like.
‘The thing that stood out when I saw Brian was he had this really dark beard and moustache, very thick but short. I saw the photos and I knew it was him. I immediately started looking for the FBI number,’ he said.
‘When we were talking, our cars were parked side by side and he kept on looking forward, he didn’t look at me very much. After I talked to the FBI, I was looking at other pictures of him and when that profile view came up my heart literally dropped.’
Davis said it was there that he had ‘no doubt in my mind’ that the man he had spoken to was Brian Laundrie.
‘I’ve never seen a murderer face-to-face,’ he said. ‘I was ready to go catch the guy. I made six calls to law enforcement.’
‘What I noticed about him in the photos is he’s bald,’ Davis said. ‘ I couldn’t tell because he had a bandana or shirt wrapped around his head. I only saw the top portion of his body. It looked like he had a t-shirt on with his sleeves cut off. It was a dark color.
‘He looked fairly well kept. He looked thoroughly clean and well kept. The incident itself was pretty short and sweet,’ he added.
Davis said Laundrie was ‘nice in the fact that he didn’t have anything bad to say, he didn’t act aggressive, but you could tell he wasn’t all there.’
‘There was something wrong with him, Davis said. ‘I was almost gonna ask him if he was okay but at that point I was more worried about getting out of there.
Davis, a father-of-four and engineer from Florida, is an avid hiker and was on his fourth hike of the Appalachian Trail of the year when he came across Brian Laundrie
The Appalachian trail runs from Georgia to Main. The Appalachian trail is familiar to Laundrie who is lived outdoors for on his own for months
Davis informed his family and friends of the run-in and his wife reached out to Dog The Bounty Hunter, who joined the search last month and has been mainly looking in a national park in Florida.
Dog’s daughter called Davis and sent him an audio clip to match Laundrie’s voice with the man in the pick-up. Davis said they match.
Davis informed his family and friends of the run-in and his wife reached out to Dog The Bounty Hunter, who joined the search last month and has been mainly searching at a national park in Florida
Dog called Davis himself Sunday night to hear a first-hand his account of the story.
Davis was initially frustrated that law enforcement hadn’t reached out to him, but he said a North Carolina Sheriff finally called him and told him they were working on his lead.
‘The thing that was the biggest disappointed to me is after six calls no one had got back to me. The detective I spoke to Sunday night, what he told me is I placed the call at 2.30 in the morning and they had someone out on site at 3.05.’
Davis said he was told they investigated the area for nearly an hour and pulled over the only car on the road, even though it wasn’t a pick-up truck. Davis said he believes he was driving a Ford F-150.
‘I felt relieved that they had actually done something,’ he said. ‘But I have not heard directly from the FBI or the Tennessee 911 system.’
Davis was told that he the FBI was willing to talk with him, however, and said he will likely take them up on the offer.
To those who doubt Davis’ account, he said he’s just trying to do the right thing.
‘I ran into him, into Brian, and I really believe that was him. And I thought that it was my civic duty to make the calls to the FBI and to 911 and to follow through with it. To make sure that the Petito family got the due justice they deserve for their daughter,’ Davis said.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk