MELVILLE, N.Y. — The FBI executed a search warrant Monday at the North Port, Florida, home of Brian Laundrie, who police have called a "person of interest" in the disappearance of fiancee Gabrielle Petito, after remains consistent with the description of Petito were found in a national park in Wyoming Sunday.
"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."
Aprea said the search warrant application and supporting affidavit were sealed and therefore unavailable to the public. Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino confirmed the FBI was at the home, but declined to comment further.
Live television footage from outside the home showed several agents entering the house. Authorities were seen bringing cardboard evidence boxes into the home.
Human remains consistent with the description of Petito, a native of Blue Point, Long Island, were found Sunday in a national forest in Wyoming, where Petito was last seen before disappearing while on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie, the FBI said.
The body was discovered in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, adjacent to Grand Teton National Park, where the FBI and other law enforcement authorities had been conducting a massive search for Petito, 22, who was reported missing more than a week ago.
Laundrie, 23, returned to their Florida home alone in Petito's van on Sept. 1 and has refused to speak to police. His family filed a missing persons report for him Friday, claiming they had not seen him since last Tuesday.
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 in a news release on 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."
On Sunday, Teton County, Wyoming, Coroner Brent Blue said an autopsy on the remains is scheduled to be performed Tuesday.
"Earlier today, human remains were discovered consistent with the description of Gabrielle 'Gabby' Petito," said Charles Jones, supervisory special agent at the Denver office of the FBI, speaking at a news conference Sunday in Wyoming. "Full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100% that we found Gabby, but her family has been notified of this discovery. The cause of death has not been determined at this time."
Jones added: "I would like to extend sincere and heartfelt condolences to Gabby’s family — Joe and Tara Petito and Jim and Nichole Schmidt. As every parent can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for the family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We ask that you all respect their privacy as they mourn the loss of their daughter."
Petito's father, Joe Petito, tweeted a photo of his daughter in front of a wall with painted angel wings and said, "She touched the world."
Richard Stafford, the attorney for Petito's parents, asked the media to refrain from contacting the family and thanked authorities for their work on the case, saying: "Your tireless work and determination helped bring Gabby home to her parents. The family and I will be forever grateful."
On Long Island Monday, Danielle Cervini, a bartender at Blackbirds’ Grille in Sayville, said Petitio 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."
The sad discovery capped eight days of a multistate investigation into Petito's disappearance that captured national attention.
Petito, described by friends and family as free-spirited with a zest for adventure, had along with Laundrie embarked on the cross-country camping trip with plans to stop at a series of national parks on their way to Portland, Oregon.
The couple — graduates of Bayport-Blue Point High School — left Long Island on July 2 in Petito's white Ford Transit van and documented their trip with photos on social media showing their travels through the sand dunes, mountains and canyons of the western portion of the country.
Bertolino, the Laundrie family attorney, said in a statement Sunday night: "The news about Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family prays for Gabby and her family."
Laundrie's parents filed a missing persons report with North Port police Friday, telling authorities they had last seen their son Tuesday when he left home to go hiking at a nearby park.
Multiple law enforcement agencies, including some 50 personnel, had searched the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County, Florida, on Saturday and Sunday for Laundrie, using police K-9s, all-terrain vehicles and drones to traverse the swampy landscape.
Martin Guggenheim, a professor of clinical law at New York University, said that the government lacks probable cause to arrest the fiance in connection with the case, at least based on what’s been publicly disclosed.
"There is no doubt — merely knowing that he was with her a bunch of days before, and he refuses to answer any questions — they don’t quite have enough," Guggenheim said in an interview.
Failure to speak with the police is a constitutional right, and his silence cannot be used to secure an indictment, much less at trial, Guggenheim said.
"He’s done nothing that adds a feather on the probable guilt side with respect to securing an indictment, and that’s the government’s challenge here."
Determining the cause of death is a critical next step, said Fred Klein, a law professor at Hofstra University Law School. Authorities could also issue a warrant to examine Laundrie for relevant injuries, he said.
An autopsy might also show she died of a non-homicidal cause, such as a drug overdose or a medical episode, said Klein, former homicide chief for the Nassau County District Attorney's Office.
Petito's family last heard from her by phone in late August. She was reported missing by her mother on Sept. 11 to the Suffolk County Police Department.
Police in Utah interviewed the couple on Aug. 12 after a witness reported a domestic incident. A 1-hour, 17-minute bodycam video, obtained by Newsday through a public records request, showed Petito and Laundrie telling Moab police officers that they had been arguing and got into a physical altercation.
"We've been fighting all morning and he wouldn't let me in the car before; he told me I needed to calm down," a crying Petito tells police in the footage, which was recorded two weeks before she last communicated with her family.
Moab police instructed Laundrie and Petito to separate until the morning and, in an official report, described the situation as a "mental health crisis."
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(Matthew Chayes contributed to this report.)
