The search for Gabby Petito’s boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, will continue on Tuesday, and it looks like the focus is returning to the Carlton Reserve in Florida.
Police and federal agents will head back to the Carlton Reserve Tuesday, entering from the Venice, Florida, side of the nature reserve, according to News Nation reporter Brian Entin. The FBI will lead the investigation with the North Port police helping in the case
Authorities spent all weekend at the Carlton Reserve looking for Laundrie. However, they stopped on Monday. There was a lot of rain in the reserve on Monday, which hindered the officials’ search for Laundrie.
Laundrie was reported missing on Friday, Sept. 17, after North Port police visited the Laundrie’s home in North Port after the family requested them. The family told police that Laundrie has not been seen since Tuesday, Sept. 14. Since then, authorities have been searching for Laundrie.
The search has intensified since the FBI said Sunday it had found human remains that were consistent with the description of Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old missing woman. A full forensic analysis is still coming this weekend.
Laundrie — who returned home to Florida on Sept. 1 without Petito, who was first reported missing on Sept. 11 — became a person of interest in the Gabby Petito case. Now, he appears to have left his home.
“I get that he’s a grown man,” Cheryl Dorsey, a retired Los Angeles police sergeant, told CNN. “What influence, if any, do (his parents) have over him? He decides to go backpacking and they couldn’t stop him?”
One reason it’s been hard to find Laundrie — the environment itself.
Chris Boyer, executive director of the non-profit National Association for Search and Rescue, told CNN that nature reserves can be a difficult place to find someone since there’s so much foliage and a lack of sunlight, which can affect how well authorities can see around them, especially in the later hours.
Searches become harder, too, because “an evasive person is more than likely wearing clothing that helps them blend in with their surroundings,” CNN reported.
And individuals might crawl into creek beds or brush away any tracks to keep out of sight from drones and helicopters.
Finding people in the wilderness can be difficult, Boyer said.
“It’s really hard to find people even when they want to be found,” he told CNN.