DENVER (NewsNation Now) — FBI Denver confirmed Sunday that remains found in Wyoming fit the description of missing YouTuber Gabby Petito. The body was found in Teton Park.
"Earlier today human remains were discovered consistent with Gabrielle Petito," FBI spokesman Charles Jones said. "Full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100% that we found Gabby, but her family has been notified of this discovery."
Jones said the cause of death was yet to be determined.
He said investigators are still seeking information from anyone who may have seen Petito or Laundrie around some camping sites located on the park’s eastern boundary, the same site that was the subject of a law enforcement search efforts over the weekend.
Meanwhile, more than 50 law enforcement officers on Sunday started a second day of searching in a vast wildlife area near Florida's Gulf Coast for the 23-year-old man that authorities consider a person of interest in her disappearance.
The search for Brian Laundrie resumed at the more than 24,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, Florida, a wildlife area with more than 100 miles of trails, as well as campgrounds.
Laundrie and Petito, 22, left in July on a cross-country trek in a converted van to visit national parks in the U.S. West. Police said Laundrie was alone when he drove the van back to his parents’ home in North Port, Florida, on Sept. 1. Petito’s family filed a missing persons report on Sept. 11 with police in Suffolk County, New York.
Laundrie has been identified as a person of interest in the case.
“It is important to note that while Brian is a person of interest in Gabby’s disappearance, he is not wanted for a crime,” North Port police said in a statement. It added that the investigation is now a “multiple missing person” case.
Laundrie’s family members told investigators that the last time they saw him was on Tuesday when they believe he went to the wildlife reserve in the Sarasota area.
Petito’s family had been pleading for the Laundrie family to tell them where their son last saw her. Petito and Laundrie were childhood sweethearts who met while growing up on Long Island, New York. His parents later moved to North Port, about 35 miles south of Sarasota.
The couple’s trek in the Fort Transit van began in July from Long Island. They intended to reach Oregon by the end of October, according to their social media accounts, but Petito vanished after her last known contact with family in late August from Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, authorities said.
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