Human remains found in a Florida wilderness park have been identified through dental records as belonging to Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of murdered woman Gabby Petito, the FBI said on Thursday.
The partial human remains were found on Wednesday in a swampy Florida wilderness area where authorities were searching for Laundrie since he was reported missing by his family in mid-September.
Laundrie, 23, had been named a “person of interest” in Petito’s death but was never criminally charged.
Petito’s disappearance last month during a cross-country road trip with Laundrie captivated the country, first as an internet sensation and then as a tabloid mystery.
Petito, 22, had last been seen alive on Aug. 26. Her body was discovered near the remote Spread Creek Dispersed Campground in Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming. Medical examiners found that she had been strangled.
Petito and Laundrie, who lived with Laundrie’s parents in North Port on Florida’s west coast, embarked on their trip in early July from New York’s Long Island, where they had both attended high school.
As they traveled through Kansas, Colorado, Utah and points west, Petito documented their “van life” on social media with videos and pictures that depicted a loving couple having an American adventure.
She posted her final photo to Instagram on Aug. 25, the same day she last spoke to her mother by phone.
