MELVILLE, N.Y. — The FBI on Monday said it concluded a search of the Florida home of Brian Laundrie, whom police have called a "person of interest" in the disappearance of his fiancé Gabrielle Petito, less than a day after remains consistent with the description of the Blue Point native were found in a national park in Wyoming Sunday.
The Tampa FBI said it had concluded its search of the Laundrie residence in a tweet Monday evening.
"We are executing a court authorized search warrant at that residence today," Andrea Aprea, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Tampa, told Newsday by phone Monday morning. "But I can’t provide any further details."
A silver Ford Mustang convertible, which had been parked in the driveway of the Laundrie home in North Port, Florida — south of Tampa — was towed away as part of the evidence collection, according to video footage from outside the house. Agents were seen entering the house and examining a backyard shed, and later removed boxes from the home.
Aprea said the search warrant application and supporting affidavit were sealed and therefore unavailable to the public.
The Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino confirmed the FBI was at the home, but declined to comment further. Bertolino said he would hold a news conference at his East Islip office Tuesday afternoon.
Laundrie, 23, who police have said is unemployed, had returned on Sept. 1 to Florida without Petito and refused to talk to police after her parents reported her missing 10 days later. He was later reported missing, but has not been located by authorities.
The couple had left Long Island in her white van on July 2 on a cross-country camping trip, with plans to stop at several national parks and an eventual destination of Portland, Oregon.
The FBI search of the Laundrie home came less than 24 hours after human remains consistent with the description of Petito were found Sunday in a national forest in Wyoming, where Petito was last seen before disappearing.
The body was discovered in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, adjacent to the Grand Teton National Park, where the FBI and other law enforcement authorities had been conducting a massive search for Petito.
Teton County, Wyoming, Coroner Brent Blue said in an email Monday: "The Teton County Coroner’s Office is performing an autopsy on yet to be identified remains on Tuesday, September 21. All information related to the autopsy and other findings will be released by the Public Information officer in the Denver FBI office."
On Long Island Monday, the American flag outside the Bayport-Blue Point library was being flown at half-staff in honor of Petito, a library employee told Newsday.
Outside the Blue Point Fire Department, Denise Chiuchiolo, whose husband served alongside Petito's grandfather in the Patchogue Fire Department, remembered Petito attending the department's annual Christmas party.
"It’s just so devastating," said Chiuchiolo. "A beautiful girl, life gone too short."
Danielle Cervini, a bartender at Blackbirds’ Grille in Sayville, said Petito worked as a busser at the restaurant several years ago when she was in high school. She described Petito as a quiet, sweet girl and said she has been on the minds of customers and staff since she went missing. The unanswered questions surrounding her disappearance have rattled the community, Cervini said.
"I hope that they (the family) get some answers," she said. "They deserve it."
Laundrie had refused to speak to investigators about Petito's whereabouts, frustrating police and her family. Laundrie's parents reported him missing to North Port Police last Friday, after he left Tuesday for a hike but never returned, police said his parents told them.
After two days of searching, the North Port Police Department on Monday suspended its search for Laundrie in a vast park and wildlife reserve in Sarasota County, Florida, according to The Associated Press.
The department said Monday morning that it "currently has no plans to conduct a major search of the Carlton Reserve today." It added that the department believes it has "exhausted all avenues in searching of the grounds there."
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(Cecilia Dowd contributed to this story.)
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