Police searching for boyfriend of woman who went missing during couple’s US road trip
Police are searching for the boyfriend of a woman who went missing while the couple were on a road trip across the US.
Officers in Florida say they are working with the FBI to find 23-year-old Brian Laundrie, regarded as a person of interest in the disappearance of his girlfriend, Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito.
Mr Laundrie is understood to have returned home to Florida in early September alone, after the pair left in July on a cross-country trek in a converted van to visit national parks in the American West.
Police bodycam footage showed Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito getting quite emotional while speaking to officers
Late last week, police in Utah released bodycam footage, captured on 12 August before Ms Petito’s disappearance, that showed her crying and an officer talking to Mr Laundrie after the pair were pulled over.
Officers decided to separate the couple, giving Ms Petito the van and putting Mr Laundrie into a hotel room for the night.
While they were travelling, much of their journey was documented on social media accounts, but the online content abruptly stopped and Ms Petito was last in contact with her family in late August.
Mr Laundrie later came back to Florida in the van, and Ms Petito was reported missing by her family 10 days later on Saturday 11 September.
Now, Mr Laundrie’s family have told officers they haven’t seen him since Tuesday.
Police said the first time they had been able to speak to the Laundrie family in detail about the case was on Friday evening, and that the meeting came at the family’s request.
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Police bodycam of missing Florida woman
A lawyer for the family called FBI investigators and said they wanted to talk about Mr Laundrie’s disappearance, police added.
North Port police said in a statement on Friday: “It is important to note that while Brian is a person of interest in Gabby’s disappearance, he is not wanted for a crime.”
It added that the investigation is now a “multiple missing person” case.
Mr Laundrie’s lawyer, Steven Bertolino, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday night.
He had previously said that “intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focuses their attention on”, and that he had advised Mr Laundrie not to speak.
Lawyer’s for the Petito family released a statement saying: “Brian is not missing.”
“All of Gabby’s family want the world to know that Brian is not missing, he is hiding. Gabby is missing,” the statement from the law office of Richard B Stafford said.
Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito’s white transit van has been seized by police. Pic: North Port Police
Earlier in the week, Ms Petito’s family pleaded for the Laundrie family to tell them where their son last saw her. Ms Petito and Mr Laundrie were childhood sweethearts who met while growing up in Long Island, New York.
His parents later moved to Florida.
In the body cam video released by Moab Police Department in Utah, Mr Laundrie said the couple got into a minor scuffle that began when he climbed into the van with dirty feet.
She told officers she slapped and scratched Mr Laundrie, saying: “I was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down.”
He said he didn’t want to pursue a domestic violence charge against Ms Petito, who officers decided was the aggressor, and Mr Laundrie added: “It was just a squabble. Sorry it had to get so public.”
Ms Petito was reported missing on 11 September
The police’s conversation with the family on Friday came shortly after North Port police chief Todd Garrison expressed frustration that Brian Laundrie was not helping.
The police chief had earlier tweeted: “Two people left on a trip and one person returned!”
Meanwhile, a sheriff in Utah said on Friday that detectives had determined there was no connection between Ms Petito’s disappearance on the trip and a still-unsolved fatal shooting of two women at a campsite near Moab – the same tourist town where police intervened in the fight between Ms Petito and Mr Laundrie.
US
Israel-Hamas war: Students defy threat of suspension over Columbia University pro-Palestinian protest camp
Pro-Palestinian students in the US have defied an order by university officials to dismantle a tent camp set up to protest Israel’s war in Gaza or face suspension.
College authorities at Columbia University in New York, sent students a letter on Monday demanding they sign a form agreeing to obey university policies until June 2025 or an earlier graduation, if they wish to finish the term in good standing.
If they failed to comply by 2pm, local time, the letter said, they would be suspended, pending further investigation and would not finish the term, the note said.
A George Washington University student waves a Palestinian flag during a protest on Sunday. Pic: AP
A pro-Israeli counterprotester at Columbia University. Pic: Reuters
But those at the camp, now in its second week, voted nearly unanimously to stay put, NBC, Sky’s US partner, said.
Around 2.45pm, protesters were seen marching on the quad and chanting “Disclose! Divest! We will not slow, we will not rest!'”, NBC said.
More than 300 people and at least 120 tents remained.
Noting that exams are starting and graduation is coming up, the letter said: “We urge you to remove the encampment so that we do not deprive your fellow students, their families and friends of this momentous occasion.”
Mahmoud Khalil, the protesters’ lead negotiator, said university representatives began passing out the notices at the encampment shortly after 10am on Monday.
Demonstrators set up tents in the centre of the Columbia campus in one of the early pro-Palestinian protests over the Israel-Hamas war and its mounting death toll, but dissent quickly spread to other colleges, sparking clashes with police and arrests.
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At least 25 killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah
More than 900 people have been arrested across the US since police in New York removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia, arresting more than 100 demonstrators as they did so, on 18 April.
Clashes have continued, with about 275 people arrested on Saturday at various campuses including Indiana University at Bloomington, Arizona State University and Washington University in St Louis.
Barricades torn down by demonstrators at a student encampment at George Washington University in Washington. Pic: AP
On Sunday night and Monday, people at an encampment near George Washington University in the US capital, protested, breaching and dismantling barriers.
Protesters at Yale University set up a new encampment with dozens of tents on Sunday afternoon, nearly a week after police arrested nearly 50 demonstrators and cleared a similar camp.
Read more:
Student anti-Israel protests continue to sweep the US
Campus protests sum up a moment of divisiveness
Man arrested for swastika placard at London protest
A student encampment at George Washington University. Pic: AP
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to local health officials, who say about two-thirds of the dead are women and children.
Israel declared war on Hamas and unleashed an air and ground offensive in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel on 7 October.
Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took another 250 hostages in its assault.
A four-month-old baby was among at least five people killed after dozens of tornadoes swept across central parts of the US.
Officials said at least 100 people were injured in Oklahoma, where four of the five died, as the extreme weather flattened buildings, ripped off roofing and threw vehicles down the street.
The destruction was extensive in Sulphur, a rural town of about 5,000 people, as experts said nearly 40 twisters are believed to have carved their way through central areas across the weekend.
It comes after extreme weather left a trail of destruction in other central areas on Friday.
Officials confirmed a man died from injuries sustained in Iowa from a tornado in Pottawattamie County.
This image taken from video shows the severe damage left behind in Sulphur. Pic: KOCO/AP
Homes were badly damaged in Sulphur. Pic: The Oklahoman/AP
Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt was in Sulphur to assess the damage when he declared a disaster emergency for 12 counties.
“You just can’t believe the destruction. It seems like every business downtown has been destroyed,” he said.
“Definitely the most damage since I’ve been governor.”
He added about 30 people were injured in Sulphur, including some who were in a bar as the tornado struck, while thousands of residents were left without power.
President Joe Biden has offered the full support of the federal government to help with the recovery efforts, the White House said in a statement.
Storm warnings for high winds, heavy rain and hail were issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) on Sunday for more than 47 million people stretching across a large part of the US from eastern Texas towards Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Buildings were flattened as the tornado swept through Sulphur. Pic: AP
A disaster emergency has been declared for parts of Oklahoma. Pic: AP
The NWS reported 38 possible twisters struck the central belt with Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri enduring the worst of the weather.
At one point, more than seven million people were placed under tornado warnings.
The authorities said the tornado in Sulphur began in a city park before sweeping through the town, flipping cars and ripping the roofs and walls from buildings.
Sulphur resident Kelly Trussell said: “How do you rebuild it? This is complete devastation. It is crazy, you want to help but where do you start?”
Read more on Sky News:
Extreme weather in Europe to become ‘more intense’
Flooding in east Africa claims dozens of lives
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Tornado wreaks havoc in Nebraska on Friday
On Friday, a tornado forced an industrial building in Lancaster County, Nebraska, to collapse with 70 people inside.
Several people were trapped, but everyone was rescued, the authorities said. Three people had injuries which were not life-threatening.
The NWS later said there had been possibly two tornadoes which spent around an hour creeping through Nebraska, leaving behind carnage with winds of up to 165mph.
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