Dog the Bounty Hunter says he has provided authorities with DNA evidence that will hopefully progress the search for Brian Laundrie, the only person of interest in Gabby Petito’s death.
While he works to confirm a tip about a recent sighting of the 23-year-old fugitive near the Appalachian Trail, the Dog, whose real name is Duane Lee Chapman, turned over evidence that may contain Laundrie’s DNA, the New York Post reported.
In an interview on Monday morning with Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Chapman said his team handed over the materials they discovered at Fort Soto Park in Florida to the FBI with the hope that DNA testing will confirm Laundrie’s presence.
‘Friday, we found a makeshift, a very primitive camp that had some promising things around it so we’ve gathered up all those things with gloves and baggies and turned them over yesterday to the FBI,’ Chapman said.
Two days after Laundrie was reported missing, remains of his fiancé Petito, 22, were found at Bridger Teton National Forest in Wyoming. A warrant for his arrest has been made relating to bank card fraud.
‘We’ve got tips from here to Tennessee and beyond,’ Chapman said regarding the search for Laundrie. ‘So we are going over those tips today.’
One of those tips is from Dennis Davis, who told a 911 dispatcher that he was ‘99.99% sure’ that he spoke with Laundrie, who had asked him for directions to California on a backroad near the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina.
‘He was talking wild,’ Davis told the dispatcher, according to the Post. ‘He said that his girlfriend loved him and he had to go out to California to see her, and he was asking me how to get to California.’
The FBI has led a massive manhunt for Laundrie, even raiding his parents’ home, returning several times for additional evidence.
As law enforcement officials search for Laundrie, Chapman has held his own manhunt simultaneously, focusing on Florida’s wetlands.
Most recently, he searched on the islands near Fort De Soto Park, a place Laundrie’s family took a trip to before his disappearance.
As the search continues, Petito’s parents have taken to social media with various messages.
Petito’s mother Nichole Schmidt joined Twitter less than a week after her daughter’s funeral, and sent out the following message: ‘Turn yourself in!’
‘Mama bear is getting angry!’ she wrote Saturday, according to WGNTV. ‘Turn yourself in!’ she added with an expletive emoji as well as the hashtags #justiceforgabby and #americasdaughter.
Soon after the mother joined Twitter, Petito’s stepfather Jim Schmidt and stepmother Tara Petito did as well, all sharing their love for their daughter on the platform.
Petito’s father Joseph Petito shared a different message on social media on Monday.
He shared a photo of his daughter walking on a boardwalk holding two young boys’ hands, with the caption: ‘We have to do better. Changes are coming. now is the time. Don’t be silent’, along with the hashtags #domesticviolence and #domestic violence awareness.
A few days earlier, Joseph tweeted that others have reached out to him, saying they were inspired by his daughter’s death to make preparations before leaving their abusive relationships in their own lives.
‘She is already saving lives,’ he posted on Saturday. ‘So many stories being sent to us about relationships being left with proper planning for safety, and people are being found due to her influence. We have much more work to do, but it’s a start.’
Amid the search for Petito’s fiancé, bodycam footage showing police being called to a domestic abuse incident in Moab, Utah emerged. The clip showed an emotional Petito just 13 days before she was last heard from.
In the video, she can be seen tearing up, telling officers they had been ‘fighting all morning’.
Petito quickly backtracked on the statement she gave to Moab officers – claiming that she hit him first, and that his nails had scratched her face.
‘I definitely have a cut right here, I can feel it,’ Petito said, rubbing her cheek. ‘I can feel it, when I touch it it burns.’
The city of Moab announced an independent investigation into its police department’s handling of the stop earlier this month. State authorities told Fox News this week that they are not involved in that probe.
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