A Louisiana man recently described a strange encounter he had with a man who he said might have been Brian Laundrie.
Hunter Mannies told the New York Post that he saw a man who he believes to be Brian Laundrie sitting at the bar, alone, on Aug. 26 at the Bullwinkle’s Saloon in West Yellowstone, Montana.
- “He was just mad at the world it seemed like,” Mannies told The New York Post.
- “I didn’t pay attention to him other than that he and this other couple were the only ones in there,” he said.
Mannies told the New York Post that he and a doctor friend talked to the other couple in the bar. They spoke about politics, guns and hunting. Mannies said the man at the bar, who resembled Laundrie, then insulted the couple and the doctor, calling them “stupid southerners.”
- “I kind of laughed and said, ‘Well, where are you from?’ and he said, ‘New York,’” Mannies said. “And I said, ‘OK, New York’ and he said, ‘I have a name, it’s Brian.’”
- “I said, ‘Let me ask you this, New York. What did you expect to find in a small mountain town in the middle of nowhere Montana? Did you expect to find a bunch of Democrats?’”
The FBI is still searching for Laundrie, who has been missing since the middle of September. Laundrie had been on a road trip to the western U.S. with his girlfriend Gabby Petito throughout the summer. Laundrie returned from the road trip on Sept. 1. Petito was reported missing on Sept. 11.
On Sept. 19, her body was found in Wyoming’s Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area. Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue said Petito died by homicide.
Last week, the U.S. District Court of Wyoming issued a federal arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie, saying he is wanted for “use of unauthorized access device” after using a Capitol One Bank debit card.