MELVILLE, N.Y. — A police dive team joined the search Wednesday of a Florida nature reserve for Brian Laundrie, the FBI's "person of interest" in the homicide of Gabrielle Petito, whose body was found Sunday in a national forest in Wyoming.
The Sarasota County Sheriff's Underwater Recovery Force responded to T. Mabry Carlton Jr. Memorial Reserve in Florida, the office tweeted Wednesday afternoon, as the massive search of the 39-square-mile reserve, which includes several waterways, continued for a fourth day.
Laundrie, Petito's fiance, went missing last week from his North Port, Florida, home amid the police investigation into her disappearance.
His parents reported him missing on Friday, three days after his parents said he went for a hike at the reserve and didn't return home, as police and Petito's parents pleaded with him to reveal her last whereabouts.
The FBI said Tuesday that Petito's death has been ruled a homicide based on preliminary autopsy results that positively identified the 22-year-old Blue Point native's remains. The FBI said Petito’s cause of death is pending final autopsy results.
Petito — a 2017 graduate of Bayport-Blue Point High School who was on a cross-country camping trip with Laundrie, 23 — was reported missing Sept. 11 by her family, after Laundrie returned home alone in her van.
Richard Stafford, the attorney for Petito's parents, in a statement Tuesday before the autopsy results were announced publicly, thanked the news media "for giving the Petito and Schmidt family time to grieve" and added: "We will be making a statement when Gabby is home."
Meanwhile on Long Island, public tributes to Petito were on display Wednesday in her hometown. Volunteers affixed hundreds of teal ribbons, in honor of Petito, to trees and light poles around Blue Point. A large poster of a smiling Petito posing in front of angel wings with the words "Gabby Petito" and "forever in our hearts," was erected at an intersection on the border of Bayport and Blue Point.
Jennifer McNamara, a family friend who said Petito used to baby-sit her son, said she and other volunteers placed the ribbons around the hamlet with the permission of the family.
"We in Blue Point are all devastated," said McNamara. "We’re heartbroken. But we will rally around this family because that’s what we do in this community."
McNamara said she asked Petito’s family for permission.
"The color is for Gabby’s eyes," said McNamara. "We asked the family if it was OK to do it, we’re very respectful of that, and they said ‘yes,’ and I said, ‘what color?’ and they said, ‘teal, like Gabby’s eyes.’
North Port, Florida, Police Department Commander Joe Fussell, who is leading the search of the reserve for Laundrie, said in a YouTube video released by the department Tuesday that it had deployed all-terrain vehicles and drones to scour the area, which included flooded and heavily-wooded areas that he called "very difficult" to traverse.
"Other areas that are dry we are trying to clear," he said. "So we are expecting to get wet by the end of the day and check the entire area for Brian Laundrie."
The FBI searched Laundrie’s Florida home Monday, less than 24 hours after Petito's remains were found. Agents were seen removing several boxes from the home, and a silver Ford Mustang was towed from the driveway.
Petito's remains were found Sunday in a "remote area" of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, where authorities said she was last in communication with her family after embarking on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie.
Petito and Laundrie, who met in high school and lived together in North Port, had left Long Island in July headed for several national parks with the final destination of Portland, Oregon.
Laundrie returned to their North Port home, where the couple lived with his parents, in her white van alone on Sept. 1 and refused to answer questions from police about Petito’s whereabouts. Police labeled him a "person of interest" in her disappearance.
Petito's mother reported her missing Sept. 11, roughly two weeks after she last spoke to her daughter.
In a text message Tuesday, Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino said: "May Gabby Rest In Peace."
While the couple posted scores of smiling photos on Instagram from several scenic spots, all was apparently not well between them.
A man who called 911 to report a physical altercation in Utah last month between Petito and Laundrie said he saw a man "slapping" a woman, according to a newly released 911 recording.
"We drove by them and the gentleman was slapping the girl," the unidentified caller told the 911 dispatcher, according to the audio of the Aug. 12 call. "We stopped, they ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her. Hopped in the car and they drove off."
A report by Moab, Utah, police cited the 911 call, writing "it was reported the male had been observed to have assaulted the female." But in police bodycam footage of the investigation, police ultimately labeled Petito, who was sobbing, the aggressor. No charges were filed.
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(Cecilia Dowd contributed to this report.)
