North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said on CNN’s “Don Lemon Tonight” Thursday that the police “are keeping an open mind” when it comes to the case of Gabby Petito.
Gabby Petito, 22, was reported missing on Sept. 11 after she and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, went on a cross-country road trip, which included a brief stay in Utah.
Her boyfriend has remained silent in the case. However, North Port police, which is leading the investigation, said Laundrie is a person of interest in the case, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
Garrison confirmed on CNN that Petito’s boyfriend, Laundrie, is a person of interest since he is not willing to provide information. Laundrie has invoked his Fifth Amendment right, Garrison said.
The police do not have a search warrant for Laundrie’s house, either.
Laundrie and Petito, who were engaged and living in North Port, were shown to have an argument on the road trip in a new video that surfaced this week. The body camera footage showed Laundrie and Petito being pulled over by police in Moab, Utah, and emotionally talking about an argument.
Garrison said on CNN that he didn’t know if the Utah conflict video footage is connected to her disappearance. He said they were a young couple, and young couples tend to argue. He said it’s unclear what the argument means.
There have been questions about Petito’s final text message to her mother, which said there was “No service in Yosemite.”
But her mother isn’t fully convinced it came from Petito. But Garrison said Gabby was communicating with her mother through FaceTime at the time of the final texts.
Needless to say, there are a lot of layers to the case, and the police are looking into it.
“We are analyzing everything,” he told CNN. “We are keeping an open mind.”