NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – The manhunt for Brian Laundrie continued Monday as Dog the Bounty Hunter, who recently joined the weeks-long search in Florida, handed evidence to the FBI, and as a hiker claimed to have seen the 23-year-old fugitive near the Appalachian Trail about two weeks after Laundrie's parents reported him missing in Florida.
Here's the latest:
10:00 p.m., Oct. 4: BRIAN LAUNDRIE’S SISTER SPEAKS OUT: DOESN’T KNOW WHERE BRIAN IS, PARENTS WON’T SPEAK TO HER
Brian Laundrie’s sister, Cassie, spoke to protesters outside of her Florida home Monday, telling them she has no idea where her brother is and that their parents have stopped talking to her.
She also couldn’t definitively say whether her parents had aided Brian’s disappearance — though no evidence has so far suggested they have.
“We have been cooperative with the police since Sept. 11 when they called,” Cassie Laundrie said in the video, published by TMZ.
Laundrie also said she never knew that her brother had driven the van he and Gabby Petito used for their cross-counter trip back to Florida.
“We are just as upset, frustrated and heartbroken as everybody else,” she went on
On her parents, Cassie added: “They’re not talking to us, either.”
A videographer then asked why they had stopped communicating.
“If I knew, I would say. I don’t know,” Cassie added.
The videographer then asks if Cassie believed her parents were “involved” in Brian’s disappearance.
“I don’t know,” Cassie repeats.
8:45 p.m., Oct. 5: DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER TELLS DR. OZ HE BELIEVES BRIAN LAUNDRIE IS STILL ALIVE
Reality star Duane Chapman, AKA Dog the Bounty Hunter, told Dr. Oz he believes Brian Laundrie is still alive and equipment with “some form” of communication in a pre-taped interview scheduled to air on The Dr. Oz Show Tuesday.
“I believe he has some form of communication, and I do not believe that Brian is deceased or dead. I believe that Brian is not well because this is some tough area out there,” Chapman said. Let’s get him alive and let him go to trial in Wyoming and let’s get this over with. Cause if not, they might be attending another funeral.”
Chapman, who is reportedly pitching a new reality show as he searches for Laundrie, also said he found a “primitive makeshift camp” while searching for Laundrie in Florida and turned over items to authorities who are also searching for the lone person of interest in Gabby Petito’s death.
“So the investigation over the weekend we found a primitive makeshift camp. So we collected some items around the camp and have turned them over as of yesterday to the FBI,” Chapman said.
4:47 p.m., Oct. 4: APPALACHIAN TRAIL HIKER DESCRIBES POTENTIAL LAUNDRIE SIGHTING IN NEWLY RELEASED 911 CALL
An Appalachian Trail hiker told a 911 dispatcher he was “99.9% sure” he saw Brian Laundrie in a white pick-up truck in Tennessee, near the North Carolina border, newly released audio from the call shows.
During the roughly 4-minute call, Dennis Davis told the dispatcher at the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina that he saw Laundrie on Waterville Road around midday Saturday and spoke briefly with him from their vehicles.
“He was talking wild. He said that his girlfriend loved him and that he had to go out to California to see her. And he was asking me how to get to California,” Davis told the dispatcher.
Davis said he wasn’t familiar with Laundrie’s appearance at the time of the interaction, but that he then searched his phone for photos of Laundrie and made the connection.
“He was acting funny. And I wasn’t sure about what he looked like and I went and parked and pulled up photographs of him. And I’m 99.9% sure that was him,” Davis told the dispatcher.
The woman on the other end said she’d pass along the information to her sergeant.
“I’ll meet somebody out there if they want to. I’m telling you, it was him,” Davis added.
Davis’ call follows several still-unfounded sightings of Laundrie in North Carolina. The FBI and local authorities are pursuing tips from around the country as they attempt to track down Laundrie.
2 p.m., Oct. 4: LAW ENFORCEMENT RETURNS TO FLORIDA RESERVE IN LAUNDRIE SEARCH
Law enforcement were spotted searching the Carlton Reserve north of North Port, Florida, on Monday as the manhunt for Brian Laundrie entered its third week.
Video tweeted by News Nation reporter Brian Entin shows an airboat searching an area of the swampy, 25,000-acre reserve.
Early last week, North Port Police Department spokesman Josh Taylor said that the search of the reserve—which began shortly after Laundrie was reported missing by his parents on Sept. 17—would be "scaled back and targeted based on intelligence" as the FBI began leading search efforts.
At one point last month, dozens of people from multiple law enforcement agencies were scouring the reserve with helicopters, drones, boats, K-9 units and swamp buggies.
10 a.m., Oct. 4: DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER TURNS OVER EVIDENCE TO FBI
Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, handed evidence to the FBI as he and his team continue their search for Brian Laundrie, nearly three weeks after he was last seen by his parents in Florida on Sept. 14.
Chapman has been searching in the area of Fort De Soto Park, south of St. Petersburg, in recent days.
In an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning, Chapman said he has received hundreds more tips.
“We’ve got tips from here to Tennessee and beyond,” Chapman said from St. Petersburg.
Chapman said his team found a “primitive” campsite in Florida on Friday “that had some promising things around it.”
“We’ve gathered up all those things with gloves and baggies and turned them over yesterday to the FBI,” Chapman said. “We’re talking with the FBI and working with law enforcement.”
Chapman tweeted video Sunday showing him waist-deep in water “on the islands off the west coast of Florida.”
“He could be island hopping back and forth,” Chapman said of Laundrie. “So we’ve left cameras in places where he’ll never see them.”
“We are covering these islands like mosquitoes would a banana,” he added.
Asked why he was focusing on leads in Florida instead of other states, Chapman said, “I know for sure he was here. To say he’s here right now, I can’t tell you that 100%. But we’re keeping concentrated on the search where he was last with the parents and his sister.”
Chapman was referring to Brian’s parents, Chris and Roberta, as well as his sister, Cassie, who spent time together at a campsite in Fort De Soto Park in early September, days before Brian went missing.
9:30 a.m., Oct. 4: GABBY PETITO’S FATHER POSTS A NEW SOCIAL MEDIA TRIBUTE TO HER
Gabby Petito’s father, Joseph Petito, posted a new tribute to her on social media Monday morning.
“We have to do better,” he wrote in the post, which appeared to include a photo of Petito. “Changes are coming. Now is the time. Don’t be silent.”
He also included the hashtags #domesticviolence and #domesticviolenceawareness.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
1:45 p.m., Oct. 3: APPALACHIAN TRAIL HIKER CLAIMS HE SAW BRIAN LAUNDRIE NEAR NC BORDER
A Florida man who was visiting the Appalacian Trail feels "100%" convinced he spoke to Brian Laundrie in Tennesse, near the North Carolina border, around midday Saturday.
Dennis Davis told multiple outlets over the weekend that he believes he spotted Laundrie driving a white pick-up truck as David was making a U-turn on Waterville Road, near the trail.
"There is no doubt about it. That was Brian Laundrie I was just talking to. 100%. Not a doubt in my mind," Davis told Fox News.
Davis said the man he believes to be Laundrie drove up to Davis as he was making the U-turn and flashed his truck’s lights, signaling that Davis could complete his maneuver.
After, Davis said the two had a brief conversation on the road.
"I pulled up alongside of the vehicle," Davis said.
“I rolled my window down and I started talking with the gentleman. I could tell right away that something wasn't right with him,” Davis continued.
Davis claimed the man appeared “mentally shot” as he explained that he was heading to California to meet up with his girlfriend, whom he said he'd been fighting with.
"He said, ‘Me and my girlfriend had a fight, and man, I love her, and she called me, and I need to go out to California to see her,’" Davis added.
After the conversation, Davis looked up photos of Laundrie and felt convinced enough to alert both the FBI and local authorities of the sighting. Local sheriff offices in North Carolina have said they've received several tips of Laundrie sightings but haven't been able to verify them.
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