A Brian-Laundrie Lookalike Was Ambushed By the Feds While Hiking
Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.
A man from New York who bears a striking resemblance to wanted fugitive Brian Laundrie told the New Yorker that U.S. Marshals busted into a cabin he was staying in, aimed their guns at him, and briefly detained him before letting him go.
Laundrie is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for fraud-related charges and is a person of interest in the homicide of his fiancee, 22-year-old Gabby Petito. Petito’s death has attracted international attention, partially owing to the confusing circumstances of her disappearance and because, before her disappearance, she and Laundrie were posting about their “van life” cross-country trip on social media.
Severin Beckwith and his partner were recently staying in a cabin in western North Carolina while hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Virginia, he told the New Yorker. The New York resident heard a knock at the door before U.S. Marshals burst in his room, he said.
“Next thing I see is a bunch of guys with riot shields with ‘U.S. Marshals’ written on them,” Beckwith told the New Yorker. “Handguns pointed at my face.” (The Justice Department did not immediately return an email from VICE News requesting comment on the incident.)
The marshals had been tipped off by an employee of the lakeside marina the couple had been at earlier in the day on the spotting of a man who resembled Laundrie, he told the New Yorker. Earlier this month, a man in Haywood County, North Carolina called 911 to say he had encountered a man in a white pickup truck that he was “99.99 percent sure” was Laundrie.
Beckwith was handcuffed before marshals were able to determine he was not, in fact, the 23-year-old wanted fugitive from Florida.
Petito was last seen alive checking out of a hotel in Salt Lake City on August 24. Laundrie arrived back in North Port, Florida, where he and Petito lived, on Sept. 1, and it wasn’t until Sept. 11 that Petito’s family in New York first reported her missing. Her body was discovered on Sept. 17 in Grand Teton National Park, but at that point Laundrie’s family had also reported him missing, less than a week after they had gone camping together at a beach near Tampa.
On Sunday, Petito’s mother Nicole Schmidt told 60 Minutes Australia that she “thought Brian would take care of” her daughter during the couple’s cross country road trip.
Asked what justice looked like for the family, Schmidt responded: "I want to get him in a cell for the rest of his life.”
In addition to possible sightings of Laundrie on and around the Appalachian Trail, authorities have been searching for weeks near Carlton Memorial Reserve near Venice, Florida. On Friday, local news reporters spotted law enforcement officials investigating the area and carrying large rifles into the woods.
On Monday, however, there appeared to be no police presence at the reserve. “This is an active and ongoing case headed by the FBI,” a spokesperson for the North Port Police Department told WFLA Monday.
#DmtDailyNews
via https://www.DMT.NEWS
Paul Blest, Khareem Sudlow
