Neighbours of Brian Laundrie claim they saw the 23-year-old and his parents drive off hitching an “attached camper” before he was reported missing.
A couple living across the street from Brian Laundrie’s Florida home said they saw the 23-year-old and his parents drive off hitching an “attached camper” on the same day that Long Island native Gabby Petito was reported missing.
Charlene and William Guthrie moved to North Port in the early northern hemisphere summer, and said that it had recently been a “nightmare” living amid a high-profile investigation and media circus surrounding Gabby’s death, according to Fox News.
Mr Guthrie told the outlet he was working in his yard on September 11 when the Laundries hooked what appeared to be a new camper to the back of their truck and drove off.
“I saw them doing some work. And then when they prepared for their trip, I saw them loading the camper,” Mr Guthrie reportedly said.
The neighbour said he did find it odd that Christopher and Roberta Laundrie would go camping with their adult son in what he described as a “small” RV.
The Guthries reported the incident to police who later came to their home as part of the missing persons investigation involving the disappearance of Ms Petito, 22, according to the article.
A neighbour told Fort Myers’ WINK-TV that he saw Brian Laundrie and his family leave with the camper on September 11, the day Ms Petito was reported missing, an executive producer at the station tweeted on Wednesday.
That source did not know if Brian Laundrie returned to the home, according to the tweet.
Mr Laundrie, who police have said is a “person of interest” in the case of Ms Petito, was reported missing by his parents on September 17, three days after they said they last saw him.
The Guthries told Fox they had assumed that Brian had returned to the family home in Ms Petito’s white van with his live-in girlfriend in tow, before the street was occupied by reporters, police and protesters.
“We didn’t know it was Gabby’s; we just assumed it was [Brian’s] van,” Ms Guthrie reportedly said.
“We just thought they had come back from wherever. We didn’t know they were on a trip. We assumed they went back to their house or wherever they got a house … We didn’t know much about them at all.”
The North Port Police Department and the FBI did not immediately respond to a request from The Post for confirmation they were aware of the Guthries’ claims.
Ms Petito’s body was found in a remote national park in Wyoming on Sunday, and a medical examiner determined that she had been killed.
A search has been under way for Mr Laundrie since his parents reported him missing on September 17. The search has focused on a Florida reserve where his parents said he went hiking.
The family had refused to speak to law enforcement officials about Ms Petito’s whereabouts.
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and has been republished with permission
