Brian Laundrie: Police called to parents’ home twice the day before Gabby Petito was reported missing
Police turned up at the North Port address twice on 10 September
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Police were called to Brian Laundrie’s home twice the day before Gabby Petito was reported missing.
Records released by North Port Police show they first responded to a “public service” call just before 4pm on 10 September.
Police returned at around 6.30pm the same day, and both calls were marked as “problem settled.”
Fox News reports that at least one of the 10 September calls was made by Ms Petito’s father Joe Petito, who lives in Vero Beach, Florida, 150 miles east of the Laundrie family home in North Port.
According to redacted police reports, Mr Petito did not travel to the Laundrie’s address, but expressed concern for his daughter’s safety.
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The latest revelations further complicates the timeline of events from when Mr Laundrie returned home alone on 1 September, to when he was declared missing by his parents 16 days later.
Mr Laundrie, 23, purchased a cellphone on 4 September, his family attorney confirmed on Thursday.
He and his parents Christopher and Roberta visited the Fort De Soto Park campsite on 6 September.
Ms Petito was reported missing by her mother Nichole Schmidt on 11 September.
Ms Schmidt had been trying to reach Brian Laundrie and his mother Roberta for days after her daughter stopped communicating suddenly towards the end of August.
North Port police records show they responded to five calls over 10 and 11 September at the address, and have responded to 46 calls in total in the past 19 days.
On the evening of 11 September, they seized the Ford Transit van the couple had been travelling in from the Laundrie’s property and removed it for forensic analysis.
This week North Port police admitted they had not spotted Brian Laundrie at the property that night, and it is unclear when he was last confirmed to have been at the home.
His parents have told authorities he left on 14 September to go hiking in the Carlton Reserve, filing a missing persons report three days later on 17 September.
On Thursday, Grady Judd, the sheriff of Polk County in central Florida, criticised North Port’s handling of the case.
“I can tell you, at this sheriff’s office, when he showed up with her car and she was no place to be found, we would have never let him out of our custody that day,” Mr Judd said during a press conference.
“Other than that, I’m not sure where their investigation is.”