Gabby Petito boyfriend cryptic Instagram message as missing Long Island girl’s parents plead for her safe return while Brian Laundrie refuses to cooperate with police.
‘Til death do us part or until I wake up,’ These are the cryptic words the boyfriend of a missing Long Island, NY woman used last year in a foreboding Instagram post as questions abound the man’s possible involvement in the whereabouts of his 22 year old girlfriend who seemingly vanished during their road side travels last month.
‘My biggest fear is that one day I’ll wake up and it will have all been a dream, because that is what every second has felt like since the moment we found each other,’ Brian Laundrie wrote in July 2020 about his new found love, Gabby Petito.
‘Til death do us part or until I wake up,’ he continued in the post. ‘I’m so happy the answer was yes. Love you hunny.’
Petito, was reported missing by her mother, Nicole Schmidt, on Saturday. She is believed to have last been in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park in late August as part of her trip with Laundrie, her boyfriend of about 2 1/2 years.
Laundrie, who returned home to Florida by himself, has hired a lawyer and has refused to cooperate with authorities, according to reports.
Brian Laundrie sister: It was typical for them to fight & then take breaks
A fairy tale gone wrong
Authorities have since located the 2012 Ford Transit van the couple had been traveling in since leaving New York in July — but not the missing woman. Her whereabouts remains of disconcert, as family and friends fear the worse and seek to find the missing 22 year old.
‘We’re not looking for the van,’ Schmidt said at a press conference at her lawyer’s Suffolk County office Monday. ‘We’re not looking for the two of them. We need to find her and bring her home.’
Schmidt declined to comment when asked if her daughter and Laundrie were engaged, which has been widely reported.
In a closed-door interview with Inside Edition prior to the press conference, Schmidt and her husband, James Schmidt, pleaded for help to bring Gabby home safely.
‘We don’t eat, we don’t sleep, we are constantly on social media talking to everyone we can trying to get leads,’ Nicole Schmidt told the show.
She said her daughter’s trip, which was documented in part on Instagram, initially ‘looked like a fairy tale.’
The young couple was last seen checking out of a hotel in Salt Lake City on Aug. 24, and Gabby later told her mom she was in Wyoming on her way to Yellowstone National Park.
‘I believe she is in danger’
That was the last time the two spoke. Nicole said she had received texts from Gabby on the 27th and 30th. However, she told Fox she couldn’t be sure it was Petito or not ‘because it was just a text. I did not verbally speak to her,’ or whether her daughter had actually left Grand Teton, where Gabby was last seen alive.
‘I believe she’s in danger because she’s not in touch with us,’ Nicole Schmidt said.
‘She could be alone somewhere. She could be stranded somewhere in the wilderness and she needs help.’
Read a statement released by Laundrie’s family, Tuesday afternoon:
‘This is an extremely difficult time for both the Petito family and the Laundrie family. I understand that a search has been organized for Miss Petito in or near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.’
‘On behalf of the Laundrie family it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is re-united with her family.’
‘On the advice of counsel the Laundrie family is remaining in the background at this juncture and will have no further comment.’
It remained unclear when Gabby and Brian last saw or spoke to each other and what led to the spellbound boyfriend returning to Florida on his own and why he declined to reach out to the missing girl’s family to inform them they were no longer traveling together.
To date, police say there is nothing to say a crime has taken place. Authorities declined to publicly speculate on what may have happened to Gabby or whether they believe she came across foul play as some speculated.
