Brian Laundrie, who was found dead last month in a Florida swamp, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials announced Tuesday.Laundrie had been the subject of a manhunt for more than a month as investigators searched for clues in the slaying of his girlfriend, Gabby Petito, during their cross-country van trip together.The medical examiner in Sarasota County, where Laundrie's body was found, said in a news release that the cause of death was a gunshot wound, and the manner of death was suicide.Attorney Steve Bertolino, who represents Laundrie's parents, said in a statement that the family had been informed about the autopsy results."Chris and Roberta are still mourning the loss of their son and are hopeful that these findings bring closure to both families," Bertolino said.Found in a Florida nature preserve, Laundrie's skeletal remains were positively identified last month using dental records.The discovery of the remains concluded a massive search involving federal, state and local law enforcement that began shortly after Laundrie disappeared Sept. 14, two weeks after the 23-year-old returned alone to his parents' home in North Port, Florida.The investigation into Petito’s slaying, however, has not yet concluded. But only Laundrie was ever identified by law enforcement officials as a person of interest in the case.Petito’s family reported the 22-year-old woman missing Sept. 11, launching a search that garnered worldwide media attention and, in Laundrie’s case, focused largely on the Carlton Reserve wilderness park near the Laundrie home. It is a densely wooded, swampy area that’s home to alligators, coyotes, bobcats, snakes and numerous other creatures.Petito's remains were discovered Sept. 19 on the edge of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, one of the places the young couple had visited on the trip they documented through social media videos. Authorities said the body had been there for about a month.An autopsy in Wyoming concluded Petito died by strangulation and that it was a homicide. Laundrie was listed as a "person of interest" in her killing but he was charged only with fraudulent use of a debit card that was not his.Richard Stafford, attorney for Petito’s family, said they would have no immediate comment on Laundrie’s cause of death.

Police in Florida said Thursday that skeletal remains found during the search for Brian Laundrie at the Carlton Reserve on Wednesday are of a human.

"They are human remains, no doubt there. I would say that the remains were consistent with one individual, you know skeletal remains," North Port Police spokesperson Josh Taylor said in an on-camera interview with CNN.

Investigators found clothing believed to belong to Laundrie, he said.

"It's consistent with what he was believed to be wearing," Taylor said.

Taylor indicated the belongings had been out there for some time.

Laundrie went missing last month, a few days before authorities in Wyoming found the remains of fiancée Gabby Petito, who had been strangled.

Investigators also found a backpack and a notebook belonging to Laundrie, 23, near the remains while they were searching the Carlton Reserve in North Port, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael McPherson.

"The notebook to my understanding has not been opened. You know, that will need to be processed," Taylor said.

A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN the notebook is "possibly salvageable." The source said the notebook was "outside of the dry bag."

"It had been clearly wet and they are going to use any potential means to dry that out before opening it," according to the source, who added: "They'll be very careful with it."

The source said it is unclear how the notebook ended up outside the dry bag.

When Taylor was asked about whether a weapon was found, he said he could not comment.

When asked if there is an ongoing search for the murderer of Gabby Petito, he responded, "That is certainly not in the North Port Police Department's purview."

During a search with police, Brian's father, Chris Laundrie, was the first to spot an item belonging to his son, according to Taylor.

Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino told CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday that "the probability is strong that it is Brian's remains."

The discovery came on Wednesday morning when Laundrie's parents and law enforcement searched an area of the reserve that had been underwater but recently reopened to the public.

"It's quite sad, you can imagine as a parent, finding your son's belongings alongside some remains. That's got to be heartbreaking. And I can tell you that they are heartbroken," Bertolino told Cuomo.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said Thursday law enforcement had been searching in treacherous conditions, including nearly chest-high water full of snakes and alligators.

"These are very, very difficult conditions. You're searching in areas that you just can't walk up and look. It's not like you're searching a house or a car," he said. "These areas are huge and they're covered by water."

The exhaustive search for Laundrie stretched over a month as authorities tried to piece together what happened to him and Petito during their road trip through the Western U.S. this summer.

Petito, 22, disappeared on the trip amid tensions in their relationship, and her remains were later found in Wyoming near where the couple had last been seen together. Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue ruled her death a homicide and said she died by manual strangulation.

Laundrie, who had returned by himself to his parents' home in Florida, refused to talk with investigators and then went missing in the nearby nature reserve. He has not been seen since Sept. 13.

He has not been charged in her death, although he was indicted for allegedly using two financial accounts that did not belong to him in the days following her killing.

Authorities, including several K-9 units and off-road vehicles, returned to the reserve on Thursday morning to further search the area. A medical examiner arrived to the reserve on Wednesday, and a formal identification of the remains could take some time. A source close to the investigation told CNN that the suspected human remains "appear to have been there a while."

"Based on the condition of the remains, it may take some time to officially identify. It is going to be a very thorough process with the medical examiner," the source said.

Brian Laundrie's parents were on scene when remains were found

Laundrie's family had declined to talk publicly following legal advice, but they had directed authorities to where they believed Laundrie may be staying in the reserve, Bertolino said.

The parents -- Chris and Roberta Laundrie -- joined in the search Wednesday morning and found a bag belonging to their son at the park, which their attorney described as "happenstance."

According to Bertolino, Laundrie's parents informed the FBI and the North Port Police Department on Tuesday night that they wanted to visit the park Wednesday morning to search for their son.

Law enforcement met them there and closely accompanied them as they entered the park, Bertolino said.

"As they went further in, Chris ventured off the trail into the woods. He was zigzagging in different areas, law enforcement was doing the same thing. And Roberta Laundrie was walking down the trail," Bertolino said. "At some point, Chris locates what's called a dry bag. The dry bag is a white bag, laying in the woods, say 20 feet or so off the trail."

The dry bag was in some brambles and he didn't want to move it because he wanted his law enforcement to see it, Bertolino said. However, Chris Laundrie couldn't find law enforcement and didn't want to leave the bag there with a news reporter standing nearby, so he picked it up, Bertolino explained.

"He did meet up shortly with law enforcement, they looked at the contents of the bag. At that time, law enforcement officers showed him a picture on the phone of a backpack that law enforcement had located also nearby and also some distance off the trail," Bertolino told CNN.

"At that point, the Laundries were notified there was also remains near the backpack, and they were asked to leave the preserve."

The suspected remains were found "about 2 to 3 miles inside the Carlton Reserve, or about a 45-minute walk" from the entrance at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, Taylor said.

When asked why the parents chose to go to the park on Wednesday, Bertolino said it was the first day it was reopened to the public.

"The parents had assumed that the experts, the FBI and all the tracking teams they had would be able to locate Brian based upon the information that we had provided them to the specific areas and trails in the park that Brian liked to visit," Bertolino said. "The park had been closed to the public. There was really no other reason for the Laundries to go search anywhere else."

After heartbreaking and revealing details about the circumstances of her death were announced to the public, Gabby Petito's parents are finally bringing home the remains of their 22-year-old daughter.More than a month after her body was discovered in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest, Petito's family traveled to Wyoming to receive her remains and prepare to lay to rest the young woman whose death has drawn intense interest while sparking conversations about the large number of missing persons cases each year -- and why others don't get as much attention.The funeral director at Valley Mortuary, Tyson Clemons, told CNN her remains were picked up Saturday.Last week, Dr. Brent Blue, the Teton County Coroner, told CNN that he released Petito's remains to the mortuary on Tuesday, the same day he announced his long-awaited determination on the manner and cause of her death.Blue had made an initial ruling that Petito, who did not return from a summer road trip with her fiancé Brian Laundrie, died by homicide. On Tuesday, he elaborated to say her death was caused by manual strangulation and that he believes she was strangled by a human being.Blue was not able to pinpoint the day or time Petito died, but he did add that her body was left in the wilderness for three to four weeks.Photos posted by the family on Twitter show them in Wyoming, honoring Petito amid the beautiful scenery she took in during the final days of her life."I just, I hope that she didn't suffer and that she wasn't in any pain. That she was in a place that she wanted to be, looking at the beautiful mountains," her mother, Nichole Schmidt, said.

The Gabby Petito case has highlighted another issue – making sure we give attention to other missing and unidentified people in the United States.

Right now, there is a gaping hole in how police report missing people and track them. 

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System – or NamUs – is a federally funded online database for missing, unidentified or unclaimed people in the U.S.

It's often described by cold-case experts as law enforcement's most effective and accurate missing person databases.

The problem is many people just aren't using it.

Unlike national and state databases law enforcement is currently required to report to, this system lets users post pictures, track DNA and it can be accessed by anyone at any time.

Ten states – including New York and California – have passed laws mandating law enforcement use NamUs.

Additionally, legislation is quickly moving through Texas and Pennsylvania.

Florida remains among the majority of states that make reporting to NamUs voluntary for law enforcement.

With an estimated several thousand people still missing and unidentified in the sunshine state, Hernando County detective George Loydgren agrees it's time Florida makes NamUs a requirement for law enforcement.

"It's a no-lose situation," Loydgren said. "It doesn't take that long to input the data and you reach a wide audience. If it inevitably helps you locate a missing person, that's what you want to do."

Katie LaGrone at Newsy first reported this story.

Gabby Petito's disappearance and death have sparked many questions and stoked national attention, and on Tuesday a piece of the mystery could be revealed as authorities are scheduled to provide an update on her final autopsy report.

The Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue will discuss the ruling on 22-year-old Petito's autopsy at 12:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. ET) and will follow up with a brief question-and-answer session, according to a news release from his office.

Blue previously ruled the manner of her death a homicide in his preliminary findings, but the cause of death remained pending further autopsy results, according to the FBI.

Petito had spent the summer traveling the Western U.S. with her fiancé, 23-year-old Brian Laundrie, and documenting their adventures on social media. But when Laundrie returned to the Florida home they shared with his parents in their van, Petito wasn't with him.

She was first reported missing by her parents on Sept. 11, and after an extensive search, her remains were found on Sept. 19 in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Petito's body was found a five-to-10 minute walk from where her van was last seen in Wyoming, her mother Nichole Schmidt and stepfather Jim Schmidt said in an exclusive interview with Dr. Phil McGraw last week.

Her case has elicited heartbreak, outrage and intrigue in much of the public, but it has also highlighted the tens of thousands of missing persons' stories that do not garner such intense interest. There were nearly 90,000 active missing person cases as of the end of 2020, according to the National Crime Information Center. Few missing person cases are met with as much urgency and national attention as Petito's.

The mystery has deepened given the disappearance of Laundrie, who went for a hike in a local Florida nature reserve shortly after Petito was reported missing, according to his parents.

Laundrie has not been charged in the death of Petito, but he was indicted on charges of using two financial accounts that did not belong to him in the days following her death.

What we know about Petito's final days

From the posts on social media, Petito's final days looked idyllic. But after she was reported missing, accounts surfaced of rising conflict between the couple.

Petito called her mom regularly, and those conversations appeared to reveal there was "more and more tension" in Petito's relationship, according to a police affidavit for a search warrant of an external hard drive found in the couple's van.

On Aug. 27, an "odd text" from Petito worried her mother that something was wrong, according to a search warrant.

"Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls," the message read, according to the affidavit. Stan was a reference to Petito's grandfather, who her mother said Petito never referred to that way, according to the affidavit.

Along their travels, the couple was stopped by police after a 911 caller told dispatchers Aug. 12 he saw a man hitting a woman, according to audio provided by the Grand County Sheriff's Office in Moab, Utah.

"We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl," the caller said. "Then we stopped. They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off."

CNN obtained dispatch audio recordings from the Grand County Sheriff's office last month that shed more light on what Moab police were told about "some sort of altercation."

And on Aug. 27, a witness described a "commotion" as they were leaving the Merry Piglets Tex-Mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming.

Petito was in tears and Laundrie was visibly angry, going into and out of the restaurant several times, showing anger toward the staff around the hostess stand, the witness Nina Angelo said. The couple's waitress was also visibly shaken by the incident, said Angelo, who told CNN she did not see any violence or physical altercation between Petito and Laundrie.

A manager at Merry Piglets, who declined to give her name, did see "an incident" at the restaurant and called the FBI, she told CNN. The manager declined to describe what happened and said the restaurant did not have surveillance video of the incident.

The search for Laundrie

Before he disappeared, police in North Port were surveilling Laundrie as best they legally could, a police spokesperson told CNN.

Investigators said Laundrie's parents told them on Sept. 17 that he had left home days earlier and was headed to the nearby Carlton Reserve — sparking a search of the nature reserve's 25,000 acres. Initially, his parents said he left on Sept. 14, but last week, Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino said, "We now believe the day Brian left to hike in the preserve was Monday, Sept. 13."

When he left, he didn't take his cell phone and wallet with him, and his parents were concerned he might hurt himself, a source close to Laundrie's family told CNN.

At the time, Laundrie was not wanted in connection with a crime, but North Port Police spokesperson Josh Taylor said Laundrie had an "enormous amount of pressure" on him to provide answers in Petito's disappearance.

The FBI searched the Laundrie home on Sept. 20, removing a number of items and towing away a Ford Mustang convertible.

Attention then turned toward the Carlton nature preserve, where authorities combed through swampland filled with snakes and alligators, utilizing drones, dive teams and bloodhounds.

After more than a week of searching for Laundrie, the FBI went back to his parents, asking for personal items of his to assist with DNA matching. They provided what they could, Bertolino, the Laundries' lawyer, told multiple news outlets.

Laundrie's father has participated in a search of the nature reserve for him, but he has no plans to assist in police searches and the couple will not take a polygraph test, Bertolino said.

Remembering Gabby

The identification of Petito's remains sparked mourning and memorials across the country — for those who knew her as well as those who felt connected to her.

Joseph Petito described his daughter in a eulogy as a "happy girl," who people would gravitate toward. She made others feel welcome, he said, and she loved being outdoors, scuba diving, hiking the Appalachian Trail or snowboarding down sand dunes in Colorado.

"I want you to be inspired by Gabby, that's what we're looking for," Joseph Petito said. "If there's a trip that you guys want to take, take it now. Do it now while you've got the time.

"If there's a relationship that you're in that might not be the best thing for you, leave it now," he said, an apparent reference to his daughter's relationship with Laundrie.

Petito's stepfather, Jim Schmidt, also gave a eulogy, telling those gathered, "Parents aren't supposed to bury their children. That's not how this is supposed to work."

Petito provides "an example for all of us to live by," Schmidt said, "to enjoy every moment in this beautiful world, as she did — to love and give love to all like she did."

The parents of Gabby Petito's fiancé Brian Laundrie affirmed they do not know his whereabouts two weeks after he was last seen, their attorney said in a statement Monday night.

"Chris and Roberta Laundrie do not know where Brian is. They are concerned about Brian and hope the FBI can locate him," attorney Steven Bertolino said. "The speculation by the public and some in the press that the parents assisted Brian in leaving the family home or in avoiding arrest on a warrant that was issued after Brian had already been missing for several days is just wrong."

The statement comes amid the deepening mystery over what happened to Petito, 22, and Laundrie, 23, who spent their summer traveling in a white van through the American West while posting about their adventures across social media.

Those posts abruptly stopped in late August, and Laundrie returned to his parents' home in North Port, Florida, with the van but without his fiancée on Sept. 1, according to police. Petito's family, unable to get in touch with her, reported her missing on Sept. 11.

Petito's remains were found in a camping area in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest last week near where the couple had last been seen, and a coroner ruled her death a homicide.

Meanwhile, Laundrie's parents told investigators on Sept. 17 they had last seen him three days earlier when he left their home with a backpack, saying he was going to the nearby Carlton Reserve, a sprawling swampland that stretches over 25,000 acres in southwest Florida, authorities said. A source close to the family told CNN that Laundrie left his parents' home without his cell phone and wallet and his parents were concerned that he might hurt himself.

Local police spent more than 10 days unsuccessfully combing through the Carlton Reserve. The FBI, which has taken over the case, is leading a more targeted search based on intelligence, North Point Police said, and agents visited his parents' home to get personal items that would assist with DNA matching.

Laundrie has not been explicitly connected to Petito's death. Still, a federal warrant for his arrest accuses him of illegally using another person's debit card and PIN number on Aug. 30 and Sept. 1.

Petito's family spoke at her funeral over the weekend, describing her as an adventurous, happy girl who people gravitated toward. They are expected to hold a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, according to the law office of Richard Stafford, who represents the family.

The unanswered questions about what happened to Petito have spurred digital detectives to comb through the couple's online trail to try to solve the case and surfaced reports that tension may have been building between the couple. The focus on Petito's case has also highlighted the tens of thousands of missing persons' cases across the country and raised questions about why some of those cases garner such intense interest and others do not.

Dispatch audio sheds more light on a dispute

While their posts on social media portrayed a happy, sun-drenched life, an incident with police in August revealed significant issues in their relationship.

The first reports of conflict between the two came on Aug. 12, when a 911 caller in Moab, Utah, told dispatchers he wanted to report a domestic dispute and described a white van with a Florida license plate.

"We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl," the caller said. He went on to say, "Then we stopped. They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off."

CNN obtained dispatch audio recordings from the Grand County Sheriff's office Monday that shed more light on what Moab Police were told about "some sort of altercation."

According to the audio, the dispatcher told the officer that "a male hit a female" and that they got into a white Ford Transit van.

However, another witness, identified just by his first name, told investigators that Petito appeared to hit Laundrie in the arm and then climbed through the driver's side door as if he had locked her out, a Moab Police report states.

Police located the white van and initiated a stop near the entrance to Arches National Park. Petito and Laundrie were in the van.

In his police report, Officer Eric Pratt said Petito had slapped Laundrie, "who grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed upon him and the van."

Another responding officer, Daniel Robbins, said Petito had "gone into a manic state" when Laundrie tried to "separate from her so they could both calm their emotions." The officer reported seeing "minor visible scratches" on Laundrie's face.

Bodycam video of the incident shows Petito telling police, "We've just been fighting this morning — going through some personal issues."

According to police, the officers suggested the couple go their separate ways that night and no charges were filed.

Moab Police Assistant Chief Braydon Palmer told CNN regarding the handling of the dispute on Aug. 12, "We are reaching out to an outside agency to conduct that investigation." Palmer did not specify the agency.

Search for Laundrie ongoing

Laundrie returned to the Florida home he shared with his parents on Sept. 1 without Petito, and authorities have been looking for him to provide answers.

Initially, he wasn't wanted on any charges, but Laundrie now faces a federal warrant for his arrest for the "use of unauthorized devices" stemming from his alleged actions following Petito's death. Laundrie allegedly used a debit card and PIN number for accounts that did not belong to him for charges exceeding $1,000 between the dates of Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, according to a federal indictment.

An attorney for Laundrie's family emphasized in a statement that the warrant was not for Petito's death but related to activities that allegedly took place afterward.

Two separate rewards totaling $30,000 have been offered to anyone who provides law enforcement officials with Laundrie's whereabouts.

FBI agents returned to the Laundrie home Sunday, as seen in video shot by CNN. At least two agents could be seen at the home and one had a bag in his hand.

During the agency's visit to the family home, "The FBI requested some personal items belonging to Brian Laundrie to assist them with DNA matching and Brian's parents provided the FBI with what they could," the Laundries' lawyer, Steven Bertolino, told multiple news outlets.

Related video above: The latest in the search for Gabby Petito's fiance Brian Laundrie.

While the FBI is adjusting its sails in the search for Gabby Petito's fiancé, Brian Laundrie, people across the country are delivering flowers to the Laundrie home in North Port, Florida, in an effort to honor Petito's life.

Those within the community are hand-delivering flowers to the home, but those from afar are paying for flowers to be delivered.

Petito's remains were found in a camping area in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest last week near where the couple had last been seen, and a coroner has ruled her death a homicide. Laundrie's parents told investigators they have not seen their son since Sept. 14, when he left their home with a backpack, saying he was going to a nearby nature reserve.

For days now, Petito has been honored in communities across the country: A memorial was held on Sunday in Holbrook, New York, near Petito's hometown on Long Island and a vigil was held in Salt Lake City last Wednesday.

"I felt compelled to participate because the silent treatment is a profound way to completely invalidate a victim ... essentially denying their existence ... and sending #flowersforgabby to the Laundrie family is a way of saying, we will not let you give Gabby and other victims the silent treatment," Stephanie Harris, one of the people who sent flowers to the Laundrie home told CNN. "She was here."

That's why all the way from Chicago, with no real connection to Petito or Laundrie families, she felt compelled to send flowers in an effort to support Petito and let others know that she will not be forgotten.

The FBI is focusing on intelligence-based leads after officials spent more than 10 days searching through a 25,000-acre nature reserve in North Point, Florida, according to police, and visited Laundrie's family home to request personal items of his to assist with DNA matching, the Laundries' lawyer told multiple news outlets.

"It is well known that the 'silent treatment' is a tactic of emotional abuse," Harris said. "And by refusing to acknowledge her [Petito], on a real and human level, the [Laundrie] family has perpetuated the silent treatment."

It appears the memorial outside of the Laundrie home began Monday, Josh Taylor, North Port public information officer told CNN Tuesday.

A reporter posted a video on Twitter suggesting the police would be removing the flowers outside Laundrie's home, but so far the police department hasn't received any complaints, but if they do, Taylor said they "will document and advise those impacted to contact the flower company and request to cease deliveries."

Like Harris, Stephanie Savage in Houston, Texas, was also motivated to send a flower arrangement on Sunday and it was delivered Monday, marking one of the first deliveries to the Laundrie home.

"I wanted the memorial to Gabby to start in their [Laundries'] front yard because she lived there and then that exploded on Twitter, everybody was like 'I want in,' Savage told CNN. "Initially, I just wanted some recognition for Gabby that she's not going to be forgotten. I understand the focus right now is on the Laundrie family, but she was the ultimate victim here."

Now, Savage wants people to pivot from flower deliveries to monetary donations to foundations "that help women in these situations so they don't end up like Gabby," she said. "I don't want her to be forgotten."

Lilith Cain also arranged for flowers to be delivered from Springville, Indiana, and told CNN she and members of a Facebook group have bonded over being domestic violence survivors themselves, a love for internet sleuthing and true crime in general.

"We all jumped on board, spreading the hashtag across all social media, hoping to fill the entire lawn," she said. "It was a way to keep pressure on the Laundries, but in a beautiful way that memorializes Gabby. Peaceful protest, so to speak."

As the search for Brian Laundrie enters its second week, officials are scaling back their massive efforts to find him in a Florida nature reserve in favor of a more targeted approach.

Since he went missing on Sept. 17, federal and local police have focused their tracking efforts at the Carlton Reserve, a 25,000 nature preserve near Laundrie's North Port, Florida, home.

But on Monday, a North Port Police spokesperson confirmed to USA Today and Fox News that the FBI — who is leading the search — would now base their search efforts on "targeted based on intelligence."

"I don't think you're going to see those large-scale types of efforts this week," Taylor said, according to USA Today. "Hopefully, water will lower in areas hard to currently access."

Gabby Petito's family is holding a press conference on Tuesday. Watch live below.

NBC News and Fox News report that FBI agents have also asked Laundrie's parents for some of their son's personal items in the hopes of conducting "DNA matching."

At a press conference on Tuesday, an attorney for Petito's family criticized Laundrie's family for their continued silence on their son's whereabouts and asked Laundrie to turn himself in to law enforcement.

"The Laundries did not help us find Gabby. They sure are not going to help us find Brian. For Brian, we're asking you to turn yourself into the FBI, or the nearest law enforcement agency," attorney Richard B. Stafford said.

Laundrie is listed as a person of interest in connection with the homicide of his girlfriend, travel blogger Gabby Petito. The two were on a cross-country road trip in a converted van to Utah and Wyoming when Petito went missing in late August.

During their road trip, police in Moab, Utah, encountered the couple after receiving reports of a domestic dispute. No charges were filed after Laundrie and Petito told police they would spend the night in separate places.

Petito's parents say they last spoke to their daughter on Aug. 25. At that point, she told her family she and Laundrie were in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

Laundrie returned to his Florida home without Petito on Sept. 1. She was declared missing on Sept. 11. At that point, police attempted to speak to Laundrie, though he declined to cooperate with the investigation.

After a week-long search, Petito's body was discovered near Grand Teton National Park on Sept. 19. The manner of her death has been ruled a homicide, though coroners are still trying to determine her cause of death.

During a Sept. 16 press conference, police said they were aware of Laundrie's location. However, police said Laundrie had gone missing a day later and began a massive search effort to find him.

Efforts to locate Brian Laundrie, who faces a federal warrant for arrest, continue over the weekend in the wilderness of Florida's Carlton Reserve.

Laundrie's parents told authorities on Sept. 17 that the 23-year-old left their home days earlier with his backpack and said he was headed to the reserve, which has since been the focus of an extensive search by local and federal officers.

Now, two separate rewards totaling $30,000 have been offered to anyone who provides law enforcement officials with Laundrie's whereabouts.

Boohoff Law, a personal injury law firm, said in a release on its website it is offering a $20,000 reward to be "paid once the investigating law enforcement agency supplies" the firm with "written verification that a tip helped lead to locating" Laundrie.

The law firm, which has multiple offices across Florida, including North Port, said its reward "will remain open for two months starting from the receipt of the tip" by law enforcement.

Meanwhile, a second reward has been offered by Jerry Torres, who said in a tweet Wednesday he was a neighbor of the family of Laundrie's 22-year-old fiancée Gabby Petito, whose remains were found last Sunday in Wyoming.

Torres wrote that he and his daughter "offer our deepest condolences to the family of Gabby Petito," adding, "We are offering a reward of $5,000 for tips leading to an arrest."

Torres said Friday the reward he's offering had been raised to $10,000, thanks in part to help from people like Steve Moyer, the former deputy chief of police for Sarasota, Florida.

"Money gets people to talk," Moyer told CNN affiliate WZVN Friday.

On Wednesday, an arrest warrant for Laundrie was issued by the U.S. District Court of Wyoming for the "use of unauthorized devices" related to his activities following the death of Petito.

Laundrie is accused of using a debit card and PIN number for accounts that did not belong to him for charges over $1,000 between the dates of Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, according to the indictment.

An attorney for Laundrie's family emphasized in a statement that the warrant was not for Petito's death but related to activities that allegedly took place afterward.

"It is my understanding that the arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie is related to activities occurring after the death of Gabby Petito and not related to her actual demise," Steve Bertolino said. "The FBI is focusing on locating Brian and when that occurs the specifics of the charges covered under the indictment will be addressed in the proper forum."

Swampy wilderness remains focus of search

The Carlton Reserve, located in Sarasota County not far from Laundrie's parents' home in North Port, is an inhospitable environment spanning nearly 25,000 acres.

"Please be aware, the Carlton Reserve is a vast and unforgiving location at times. It is currently (waist) deep in water in many areas," North Port police said in one of its updates last week. "This is dangerous work for the search crews as they are wading through gator and snake infested swamps and flooded hiking and biking trails."

Dozens of law enforcement personnel from multiple agencies have combed the reserve for signs of Laundrie, using drones and bloodhounds as part of the search, North Port Police Department spokesperson Josh Taylor said.

An underwater dive team from the Sarasota Sheriff's Office who are "called upon to search for evidence of crimes and victims of drowning, water accidents and foul play" was also brought in midweek, according to the sheriff's office.

"We're looking through wooded areas, we're looking through bodies of water, we're looking through swampy areas," North Port Police Commander Joe Fussell said in a video shared online Friday. "And we're deploying the resources to be able to do that. We have air units, we have drones, we have the swamp buggies, air boats, multiple law enforcement agencies, we have ATVs, we have UTVs and we have officers on foot as well."

Petito memorial service to be held Sunday

Petito and Laundrie embarked on a cross-country trip in June and were visiting national parks. They posted online regularly about their travels with the hashtag #VanLife, but those posts abruptly stopped in late August.

Laundrie returned home with their van on Sept. 1. Petito was reported missing Sept. 11 after her family had not been able to get in touch with her. She was found dead eight days later near a campground in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest.

A memorial visitation for Petito is planned for Sunday afternoon in New York, according to Moloney's Holbrook Funeral Home, and will be open to the public. Petito grew up on Long Island in the hamlet of Blue Point.

Richard Stafford, an attorney for Petito's family, confirmed in a statement Friday her funeral would be held Sunday, adding that the family has asked for donations to be made to the future Gabby Petito Foundation in lieu of flowers.

On Saturday night, a butterfly release and candlelight vigil were held at North Port City Hall by residents mourning the loss of Petito.

"It was just not the answer we wanted. But at least she is home with her family and they get to have their closure and peace," Lisa Correll, who organized the memorial, told CNN affiliate WFTS.

Members of the community are invited to pay tribute at a memorial located in front of City Hall and are free to add to the growing collection of signs, flowers and letters of remembrance, WFTS reported.

Video above: 'We don’t want to speculate': Family lawyer responds to continued search for Brian Laundrie

As authorities investigate Gabby Petito's death, a small crowd gathered Wednesday night in Salt Lake City to mourn the 22-year-old whose road trip with her fiancé ended in tragedy.

The couple had been visiting national parks in the West in their van, chronicling their travels on social media with the hashtag #VanLife, before Petito went missing. And though she never lived in Utah, Petito's love of nature and her time there — including an encounter with Moab police that was captured on bodycam — has connected her with the community.

"We won't forget about you. We won't let your light dim," vigil organizer Serena Chavez said before the group.

"We will remember other women or children who are missing," Chavez continued, raising a broader problem highlighted by Petito's disappearance. "Their families are devastated, and I can only imagine what Gabby's family is going through."

Petito's remains were found Sunday in an undeveloped camping area in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. She was reported missing by her family on Sept. 11, after her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, returned home to Florida from the road trip without her on Sept. 1.

Authorities have been searching a Florida nature preserve for Laundrie. And after her death was ruled a homicide Tuesday, the FBI turned to the public, asking for help finding him.

Before she moved to Florida, Petito had worked as a hostess at Smoke on the Water in Wilmington, North Carolina. Coworkers there say she made everyone feel loved, according to WWAY. It was another community upon which the young woman made her mark.

"She's not just a name. She's not just a case. She was a person, and she was very special to a lot of people and many of us here," the restaurant's general manager, Lara Witschen, told WWAY. "She was a good soul, a good spirit, and touched so many lives. That's what we want her to be remembered for."

Witness says she saw a 'commotion' involving the couple

Petito's story has become a national obsession for many, spurring digital detectives to comb through the couple's online trail to try to solve the case. The story has also further highlighted the nearly 90,000 missing person cases active at the end of 2020, according to the National Crime Information Center.

It also has spurred people to come forward with accounts of Petito's last days.

Nina Angelo and her boyfriend, Matt England, saw a "commotion" last month as Petito and Laundrie were leaving The Merry Piglets Tex-Mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming, she told CNN Wednesday.

Petito was in tears and Laundrie was visibly angry, going into and out of the restaurant several times, showing anger toward the staff around the hostess stand, Angelo said. The couple's waitress was also visibly shaken by the incident, said Angelo, who told CNN she did not see any violence or physical altercation between Petito and Laundrie.

A manager at The Merry Piglets, who declined to give her name, did see "an incident" at the restaurant on Aug. 27 and called the FBI on Wednesday, she told CNN. The manager declined to describe what happened and said the restaurant did not have surveillance video of the incident.

Separately, Jessica Schultz saw Laundrie parked in a white van on Aug. 26 at Grand Teton National Park, and no one appeared to be with him, she told the San Francisco Chronicle.

And in a series of videos on TikTok, Miranda Baker said she and her boyfriend gave Laundrie a ride on Aug. 29 in Wyoming — and that he claimed he was camping by himself for multiple days while Petito was back at their van working on social media posts.

Baker said they picked up Laundrie while he was hitchhiking in Colter Bay, Wyoming, which is not far from where Petito's remains were found. He offered to pay $200 for the ride before he even got in the car, she said.

The search for Laundrie continues

Investigators meanwhile are focused on finding Laundrie, who arrived at his parents' home in North Port, Florida, three weeks ago and has not spoken to police about the case.

His family told police he left home with his backpack on Sept. 14 and told them he was going to the nearby Carlton Reserve.

Authorities have combed the reserve over the past few days, and the search will resume on Thursday, said North Port Police Department spokesperson Josh Taylor.

A team of about 10 divers from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office is taking part in the search, said sheriff's office spokesperson Kaitlyn Perez. The Sheriff's Underwater Recovery Force team is highly specialized, she said.

"In the state of Florida, we have really unique bodies of water from marshes to beaches to lakes and kind of everything in between," Perez said.

"These divers are specifically trained and very talented in low visibility bodies of water. They dive down where you and I can't see anything at all. They utilize technology and other special equipment to help them get down deep, into really deep bodies of water."

The North Port Police Department has "deployed numerous resources, and we are trying to cover every acre in this preserve," Commander Joe Fussell said.

911 call of a domestic dispute

Petito's mother received an odd text on Aug. 27 that became the last communication from her, police in Florida said in a recent search warrant affidavit. Petito also stopped posting to social media at that time.

Evidence from a 911 call about a "domestic dispute" involving Petito and Laundrie shows the couple's volatile relationship was not as aspirational as their sun-drenched lives on Instagram and YouTube suggested.

A man who saw the domestic dispute between Petito and Laundrie in Utah last month said, "They were talking aggressively at each other, and something seemed off."

In a handwritten sworn statement, the witness said it appeared the two were arguing over control of Petito's phone. "At one point she was punching him in the arm and/or face and trying to get into the van." The witness's first name is Chris and last name was redacted in the document provided by Moab City Police to CNN.

The witness said he heard Petito say, "Why do you have to be so mean?" although Chris added that he couldn't be sure if the comment was meant to be taken seriously.

Police later stopped the couple, and previously released police documents and body-camera video reveal what followed that day. Moab city officials are investigating the Moab City Police Department's handling of a possible domestic dispute, a statement from the city said.

Although Petito and Laundrie are described in a police report as getting into a physical fight following an argument, "both the male and female reported they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn't wish to see anyone charged with a crime," Officer Eric Pratt wrote in the report.

At the suggestion of police, the couple separated for the night, the report said, which described Petito as "confused and emotional."

A National Park Service ranger who also responded to the call spent about 90 minutes with Petito and warned her that her relationship with Laundrie had markings of a "toxic" one, the ranger told the Deseret News of Utah.

"I was imploring with her to reevaluate the relationship, asking her if she was happy in the relationship with him, and basically saying this was an opportunity for her to find another path, to make a change in her life," ranger Melissa Hulls told the Deseret News.

CNN has sought comment from Hulls.

In the months before Mary Johnson disappeared, her sister said she wasn't herself.

Johnson and her husband, who had been living in the home of her sister Gerry Davis in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, abruptly left and moved to Marysville about 40 miles away, Davis said. She rarely answered her phone when Davis called, and only occasionally responded to texts. Then one day, Johnson's estranged husband contacted Davis to say he hadn't seen his wife in weeks.

The last time anyone said they saw Mary Johnson — also known as Mary Davis — was on Nov. 25, 2020. Johnson, an enrolled citizen of the Tulalip Tribes and then 39 years old, was walking on a road in Western Washington, en route to the house of some friends in a nearby town. She never made it there.

It's been nearly 10 months since Johnson was reported missing. A billboard on Interstate 5 and local media coverage have yielded few credible tips, and tribal police have yet to make an arrest in the case. Only last week did the FBI announce it would offer a reward of up to $10,000 for information about Johnson's disappearance. While family members and advocates welcome the move, they also wonder what took so long.

"If that was a little white girl out there or a white woman, I'm sure they would have had helicopters, airplanes and dogs and searches — a lot of manpower out there — scouring where that person was lost," Nona Blouin, Johnson's older sister, said. "None of that has happened for our sister."

Those feelings ring especially true this week, as the case of missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito captured the attention of the internet. Meanwhile, at least 710 Indigenous people — more than half of them women or girls — were reported missing between 2011 and September 2020 in Wyoming, where Petito's remains were found this week, according to a University of Wyoming report. While about half were usually found within a week of going missing, as per the report, family members and advocates said none received the same level of media coverage nor the same urgency in law enforcement's response as missing white people.

Too often, that means families like Johnson's are left waiting without answers.

Johnson's disappearance remains unsolved

There's a lot unknown about the circumstances under which Johnson disappeared last year.

The following sequence of events, based on a CNN interview with Tulalip Tribal Police Department Detective David Sallee and a local news report in The Everett Herald, is what authorities have pieced together based on cell phone records and conversations with people who saw her.

At the time Johnson disappeared, she and her husband weren't in a good place, Sallee said. She was staying mostly with friends, returning to the couple's shared house every few days to pick up her mail and take a shower before heading out again.

On Nov. 24, a day before she was last seen, Sallee said her estranged husband dropped her off with a suitcase at a friend's house on the Tulalip reservation. Johnson stayed there overnight, and planned the next day to head to the house of a couple she knew in Oso about 30 miles away.

The friend she was staying with was supposed to give her a ride to a nearby church, where someone else would pick her up and take her to the couple's house in Oso. A second man, who had been staying at the same house as Johnson, wanted a ride, too.

But things went awry on Nov. 25, and Sallee said Johnson's friend backtracked on the offer to give her and the second man a ride. Johnson set out toward the church on foot around 1:30 p.m., and the second man also started walking away from the house.

A third man who was set to pick Johnson up at the church and take her to Oso eventually drove by and saw her walking on Fire Trail Road with the man who also wanted a ride, Sallee said. He indicated he only had enough room in his vehicle for one person and kept on going, ultimately declining to give her a ride.

Johnson never made it to the couple's house in Oso, Sallee said. But before she disappeared she left that couple a voicemail, desperation in her voice as she urged them to pick up, according to records obtained by The Everett Herald. She also made another call around 2:30 p.m. — the woman who picked up reportedly said to police that she told Johnson she was too busy to speak.

Police believe that someone may have picked Johnson up at some point, because cell phone records indicate that about an hour after her last call, her phone connected to a tower in the Oso area — too great a distance for her to have walked so quickly. The phone then went offline for a period of time, Sallee said, before again connecting to a tower in the Greater Marysville Tulalip area that night. It remained in that location until the next morning, when it eventually powered off.

The man who was supposed to pick Johnson up from the church reportedly told police that he hadn't seen or heard from her since Nov. 25. The man who had been walking with her said the two went their separate ways and that he'd had no sign of her either.

On Dec. 9, 2020, Johnson's estranged husband reported her missing.

In the nearly 10 months since, there has been little movement in the investigation, which Sallee said remains "open and active." He said the police department had identified multiple persons of interest, though it has yet to make an arrest.

Because a body hasn't been recovered, Sallee said it's difficult to establish the probable cause necessary to seek specific search warrants. Because Johnson's disappearance was reported weeks after the fact, he said surveillance footage or precise location information that could offer clues has likely been overwritten. And because authorities don't know for sure whether Johnson disappeared on or off the reservation, he said it's unclear whether they can leverage federal grand jury subpoena powers or not.

"We don't know if she was kidnapped, held against her will, if she has been murdered. It could be argued maybe she just wandered off in the woods and got lost. Maybe she overdosed and passed away somewhere in a remote area and we don't know where she's at. Maybe she's just hiding, maybe she's in treatment," Sallee said. "There's a lot of maybes."

Authorities are often slow to act, advocates say

To advocates who work on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, however, such challenges and uncertainties come off as excuses.

Abigail Echo-Hawk, chief research officer for the Seattle Indian Health Board and an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, says one of the primary barriers in addressing this crisis is the "maze of jurisdiction" in Indian Country. Cases of missing Indigenous women are often mired in bureaucracy, with prosecutors and law enforcement having to establish whether the authority rests with the federal government, the state or the tribe. The time it takes to determine the jurisdiction of a case can ultimately affect whether those women live or die, she said.

"This maze of jurisdiction that exists — that is, who does what investigations and who's responsible for what — is part of this system of inequity," Echo-Hawk said.

It's why so many cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women remain unsolved, says Annita Lucchesi, executive director of the research group Sovereign Bodies Institute and a descendant of the Cheyenne tribe. Jurisdictional issues can limit tribal authorities from successfully prosecuting non-Native people for crimes committed on tribal lands except in some cases, and the federal government -- who typically does have that authority -- has often declined to act.

Another piece of the problem, as some advocates see it, is that Indigenous women are often blamed for their own disappearances, resulting in a lack of empathy for victims from authorities and the general public.

"They are assumed to have been killed, murdered or disappeared. They're assumed to have run away, to have had substance abuse issues, to have done something that caused them to go missing or to be murdered," Echo-Hawk said.

Those attitudes only perpetuate the problem and make it easier for perpetrators to avoid accountability, Lucchesi said.

"That kind of narrative about Indigenous people just lends itself to more violence so that when this violence does happen, it's not a disruption of the social fabric the way it would be when it happens to somebody else," she said. "Because we're already perceived as not part of the social fabric, because we're either dead and disappeared. We're less than human. We're so far away on some remote reservation that we're not part of the rest of the community."

The full scale of the problem is unknown

Johnson is just one of countless missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls in the U.S. — a nationwide crisis for which there are no definitive statistics.

The numbers that do exist are likely an undercount, in part because Indigenous women and girls are sometimes misclassified as white, Hispanic or Asian. Adding to the data problem is a historic distrust of law enforcement by Indigenous communities, which can lead some cases to go unreported.

About 1,500 missing persons cases of American Indian and Alaska Native people have been recorded across the U.S. by the National Crime Information Center, while approximately 2,700 homicide cases have been reported to the federal government's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

A database maintained by Lucchesi's Sovereign Bodies Institute puts the count higher, with more than 4,500 cases of missing Indigenous women and girls dating back to the 1900s, she said. There are nine such cases just in her own family, Lucchesi said.

"That shadow of death is always there," she added.

That's why advocates are pushing leaders and policymakers to do something about the issue.

The attorney general in Washington state, where Johnson was last seen and which has the second highest number of missing and murdered Indigenous women cases, announced a 21-member task force to examine the systemic inequities behind the problem of missing Indigenous women and girls. Echo-Hawk's organization recently completed a project in the state with the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, reforming database systems and training staff to properly collect racial identity and tribal affiliation information for victims. And on the national level, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced a new unit earlier this year that would investigate the killings and disappearances of Indigenous people.

Advocates say such actions, however, are just a first step.

"There has to be money allocated. It can't just be a checkbox for some politicians [to say], 'We did this,'" Echo-Hawk said. "It has to be more than that."

The New Mexico Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives task force is still figuring out ways to solve missing cases. A big part of this is making sure a lot of these cases are known.

The MMIWR Task Force Project Coordinator, Jessica Gidagaakoons Smith said, “Family members who have share their stories of the issues that they have been facing or they have faced in the past and that is helping us to better formally ideas on legislation.”

In a 2017 report by the Urban Indian Health Institute, New Mexico is the state with the highest number of MMIW cases.

Smith said one thing to overcome is the attention that missing person cases get.

“It's crucial especially if somebody is missing today. Do you know if someone goes missing today I believe that it is very crucial to get any type of coverage of that missing person out,” Smith said.

Smith said the response for cases like Gabby Petito is far different from how MMIWR cases are investigated.

"It could really make a huge difference for our people. I meant she was found in like 8 days I think it was," Smith added. "We don't see that with many cases of our MMIWR."

Johnson's family hasn't given up hope

Johnson's sisters, Davis and Blouin, are trying to stay positive — though they're also mentally preparing for the worst.

They're heartened by all the people who have shared the poster with Johnson's picture on their social media accounts. They're asking everyone to keep their eyes out for a 5-foot-6, 115 pound woman with black hair and brown eyes, a sunburst tattoo on her upper right arm and a beauty mark on the back of her neck. And they want law enforcement to deploy every possible resource at their disposal -- because Native women deserve the same respect and compassion as anyone else.

"My sister is a wonderful person and we all love her dearly," Blouin said. "If you have any information, please just reach out to your local law enforcement, the Seattle FBI or the Tulalip PD. Bring her home. We miss her."

KOAT contributed to this report.

The FBI is asking for the public's help in finding Gabby Petito's fiancé Brian Laundrie after a coroner made an initial determination that Petito died by homicide.

Petito's remains were found Sunday in an undeveloped camping area in Bridger-Teton National Forest on the eastern edge of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, officials said. She was first reported missing by her family on Sept. 11, after Laundrie returned home from the road trip without her on Sept. 1.

In a series of videos on TikTok, one woman said she and her boyfriend gave Laundrie a ride on Aug. 29 in Wyoming — and that he claimed he was camping by himself for multiple days while Petito was back at their van working on social media posts.

Miranda Baker said they picked up Laundrie while he was hitchhiking in Colter Bay, Wyoming, which is not far from where Petito's remains were found. He offered to pay $200 for the ride before he even got in the car, she said.

The FBI said the agency would like information from anyone who may have had contact with Petito or Laundrie or who visited the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest between Aug. 27-30 or may have seen their vehicle.

In the days since she was reported missing, Petito's story has become a national obsession for many, spurring digital detectives to comb through the couple's online trail to try to solve the case. The story has also further highlighted the tens of thousands of missing persons stories that do not garner such intense interest; there were nearly 90,000 active missing person cases as of the end of 2020, according to the National Crime Information Center.

The Petito family attorney Richard Benson Stafford, in a statement obtained by KSL, said the family needed time to grieve, and that they will release a statement "when Gabby is home."

Police say account on TikTok videos is plausible

Baker, in her TikTok videos, said that when Laundrie found out she and her boyfriend were going to Jackson Hole instead of Jackson, he got agitated, asked that the vehicle stop, and got out near the Jackson Dam. She said they dropped him off less than 30 minutes after picking him up.

Baker said she has spoken to law enforcement about the interaction with Laundrie.

North Port police confirmed to CNN that Baker spoke with the department before posting the videos on TikTok.

"Her account is plausible, it appears," North Port police spokesperson Josh Taylor said.

CNN has not been able to independently verify Baker's claims. The FBI has not returned CNN requests for comment.

The search for Laundrie continued Tuesday at a Florida nature reserve where his parents reportedly said he indicated he was going last week.

Laundrie's parents told investigators he left their home in North Port with a backpack Sept. 14 to go to the T. Mabry Carlton Jr. Memorial Reserve near Venice.

"A weekend ground search and aerial search Monday of the 25-thousand-acre preserve has yet to yield any answers, but we must press on," North Port Police said on Facebook. Police indicated the search picked up Tuesday in a different part of the reserve.

It concluded Tuesday evening around sundown and will resume Wednesday, they said.

Before his parents told police Laundrie left the home Sept. 14, he had refused to talk to investigators, and the family had directed them to their attorney, police said.

Authorities also searched the family home. On Monday, FBI agents removed a number of items and a Ford Mustang convertible was towed away.

What we know about the building tension

Evidence has also emerged suggesting tension was building between the couple.

A man who saw the domestic dispute between Petito and Laundrie in Utah last month said, "They were talking aggressively at each other, and something seemed off."

In a handwritten sworn statement, the witness named Chris — whose last name was redacted in the document provided by Moab City Police to CNN — said it appeared that the two were arguing over control of Petito's phone. "At one point she was punching him in the arm and/or face and trying to get into the van."

The witness said he heard Petito say, "Why do you have to be so mean?" although Chris added that he couldn't be sure if the comment was meant to be taken seriously. Moab City Police responded to the incident, and the couple agreed to spend the night apart.

There is also a 911 recording of the incident in Moab on Aug. 12 when police confronted the pair.

In the recording from the Grand County Sheriff's Office, a caller reported what he called a "domestic dispute" between a couple.

"We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl," the caller says. "Then we stopped. They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car, and they drove off."

Before Petito disappeared, her conversations with her mother appeared to reveal she had "more and more tension" with Laundrie, according to a police affidavit for a search warrant of an external hard drive found in the couple's van.

Petito sent multiple text messages and had many talks with her mother during her trip, Florida police wrote in an application filed last week.

On Aug. 27, Petito's mother received one last communication from her daughter, which she called an "odd text," the affidavit says.

The message read: "Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls." Because the text message referred to Petito's grandfather as Stan, her mother was concerned that something was wrong, the warrant states.

Following that text message, Petito's phone was no longer operational, and she stopped posting anything on social media about their trip, the warrant says.

One more text came on Aug. 30 that read, "No service in Yosemite," but her family doubts she wrote it.

NORTH PORT, Fla. — Officials in Florida will resume the search for 23-year-old Brian Laundrie on Wednesday, a day after the FBI confirmed that remains found in Wyoming were those of his fiancée, 22-year-old Gabby Petito.

As of Tuesday, the FBI is the lead agency in the search for Laundrie, who remains a person of interest in Petito's disappearance and death.

On Monday, the North Port Police Department called off the search for Laundrie in a 25,000 acre stretch of Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County.

"At this time, we currently believe we have exhausted all avenues in searching of the grounds there (Carlton Reserve)," a spokesperson with NPPD said in a statement Monday. "Law enforcement agencies continue to search for Brian Laundrie. More updates when available."

However, the FBI resumed the search on Tuesday when they took over the case.

Authorities are now searching an area about 30 minutes from the initial ground of Carlton Reserve that police searched over the weekend.

Close to a dozen agencies are aiding in the search for Laundrie, including the North Port Police Department, the FBI, the Florida Wildlife Commission, sheriff's offices in Sarasota, Lee and Charlotte counties and police departments in Sarasota and Venice. K9 search and rescue teams are also assisting in the search.

Law enforcement is well-equipped to conduct its search.

"ATVs, UTVs, we have multiple drone operators that have been sent out in numerous teams, so we'll mix the resources and deploy them out so if they encounter flooded areas or terrain they can't access with these wheeled vehicles, we'll deploy our drones directly out into the wooded areas," Officer Joe Fussell with North Port Police Department said.

While authorities have several tools to help them in the search, tough terrain and wet weather have hindered the investigation.

North Port Police said the Carlton Reserve is a vast and unforgiving location, with water waist-deep in many areas. Crews are having to wade through gator and snake-infested swamps and flooded hiking and biking trails.

"Terrain is very difficult," Fussell said. "Essentially, 75% of it is underwater, and other areas that are dry, we're trying to clear. We are expecting to get wet by the end of the day and check the entire area for Brian Laundrie."

Authorities are using bloodhound dogs in the search. However, a former FBI agent who has worked in finding people in extreme environments said the amount of water in the area makes the search difficult for the dogs.

"They lose the sense that they're unable to continue tracking that scent," former FBI Special Agent Brian Kensel said. "I understand a few days ago; law enforcement did pick up some clothing, pieces of apparel from Brian Laundrie's house for that very purpose before they started the search yesterday, I believe."

When asked why the search was called off on Monday but resumed the very next day, Kensel had the same question.

"I saw that. I saw the announcement last night that we feel we've exhausted all methods — so, means — to search. And then something obviously changed overnight in terms of the information that was developed," Kensel said.

There have been reports that Laundrie was spotted in Alabama and the panhandle of Florida. However, authorities said that after further investigation, those claims did not hold true.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office released a statement via Twitter addressing rumors that Laundrie had been taken into custody.

Despite rumors on social media this evening, #BrianLaundrie is NOT IN THE CUSTODY of our agency at this time. We can confirm we have received reports of “suspected sightings” however, none have been accurate. pic.twitter.com/MrW4bKwuc2

— SarasotaSheriff (@SarasotaSheriff) September 22, 2021

This story was originally published by Vanessa Araiza on Scripps station WFTS in Tampa, Florida.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that he has directed all state agencies under his purview to assist in the search for Gabby Petito's fiancé, Brian Laundrie.

Police in North Port, Florida, said Tuesday morning that investigators had returned to the Carlton Reserve to look for the 23-year-old man. Investigators also searched the 24,000-acre Florida nature preserve over the weekend.

A body matching Petito’s description was discovered near the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in Wyoming over the weekend, months after the pair set out on a cross-country road trip.

Tuesday afternoon, the FBI announced that the Teton County Coroner’s Office had confirmed that the remains found were those of Petito. The coroner’s determined the manner of death was a homicide, but the cause of death remains pending.

Anyone with relevant information regarding this case is asked to submit it to the FBI online at tips.FBI.gov, or by phone at 1-800-CALL-FBI or 303-629-7171.

This story was originally published by staff at WTXL.

NORTH PORT, Fla. — On Sunday evening, minutes after receiving the devastating news that the FBI recovered a body in Wyoming that they believe to be Gabby Petito, people in North Port, Florida, began gathering outside of Brian Laundrie's home.

At first, people said they were at a loss for words, but the community said they refused to leave until they got answers.

"We are all in shock. I hope the community shows up. I hope the world shows up," said Caroline Rice, a North Port resident.

Zina Finigan drove nearly two hours down to Southwest Florida to show her support. She said the case "called to her."

"I was devastated. I kept imagining what if that was my child. I can't imagine what the parents are going through. I come down for support," she said. "I told my daughter, I said, 'I need to go down there even if I am just saying a prayer. Anything will help right now.'"

Many others, like Douglas Eichmann, said he wants answers. He said justice needs to be served, but peacefully.

"I am distraught, but I want calm to prevail. I want justice to prevail. What happened? This is totally bizarre," he said.

People in North Port offered their prayers to the family and said they were here for them.

"Just no words," Rice said when asked what she would say to the Petito family. "I would probably just hug them. We will be here to help. This whole community will be here to help. The whole world is here to help."

Joseph Petito, Gabby's father, said Gabby touched the world.

Brian Laundrie's family released a statement Sunday night following the FBI's announcement.

"The news about Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family prays for Gabby and her family," the Laundrie family attorney said in a statement.

This story was originally published by Lauryn Moss on Scripps station WFTX in Fort Myers, Florida.

Police in Florida on Saturday searched a vast wildlife reserve near the Gulf Coast for 23-year-old Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in the disappearance of his girlfriend, Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito.

More than 50 North Port police officers, FBI agents and members of other law enforcement agencies searched the 24,000-acre Carlton Reserve in the Sarasota, Florida area. Authorities used drones, scent-sniffing dogs and all-terrain vehicles to search the reserve, which has more than 100 miles of trails, as well as camping grounds. Investigators took some of his clothing from his parents' home Friday night to provide a scent for the search dogs.

Video above: Bodycam: missing woman argued with boyfriend in UT

“His family says they believe he entered the area earlier this week," North Port Police tweeted Saturday.

Investigators were hopeful that Laundrie was somewhere in the wildlife reserve. Depending on his skills, he could survive out in the reserve for some time, said police spokesperson Josh Taylor at a midday news conference.

“Certainly, we prepare for all different possibilities, but you know, our goal is to locate him and bring him back to North Port,” Taylor said.

Laundrie's family earlier told officers that they haven't seen him since Tuesday. Police said the conversation Friday evening was the first time they'd spoken with the Laundries in detail about the case, and that the meeting came at the family's request. An attorney for the family called FBI investigators and said they wanted to talk about Laundrie's disappearance, police said.

Investigators were trying to verify the story told by Laundrie's family members that they believe the reserve is where he went with only a backpack, Taylor said. One mystery is how Laundrie got to the reserve. Family members told investigators that he took his car, but the vehicle was found back at his family's home, not at the reserve.

“We're going by their word. We believe the vehicle made its way from here back to their house," said Taylor. “Certainly, we're looking at corroborating all the information that we've received."

Earlier, the North Port Police said in a statement that they understood the community's frustration over the lack of progress in finding the missing woman.

“We are frustrated too," the statement said. “For six days, the North Port Police Department and the FBI have been pleading with the family to contact investigators regarding Brian's fiance, Gabby Petito. Friday is the first time they have spoken to investigators in detail."

Laundrie and Petito, 22, left in July on a cross-country trek in a converted van to visit national parks in the U.S. West. Police said Laundrie was alone when he drove the van back to his parents' home in North Port, Florida, on Sept. 1. Petito’s family filed a missing person report on Sept. 11 with police in Suffolk County, New York.

Laundrie has been identified as a person of interest in the case.

“It is important to note that while Brian is a person of interest in Gabby's disappearance, he is not wanted for a crime,” North Port police said in Friday's statement. It added that the investigation is now a “multiple missing person” case.

An attorney for Brian Laundrie, Steven Bertolino, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Friday night.

Attorneys for the Petito family released a statement saying that Laundrie was not “missing.”

“All of Gabby's family want the world to know that Brian is not missing, he is hiding. Gabby is missing,” the statement from the law office of Richard B. Stafford said.

Earlier in the week, Petito's family pleaded for the Laundrie family to tell them where their son last saw her. Petito and Laundrie were childhood sweethearts who met while growing up on Long Island, New York. His parents later moved to North Port, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Sarasota.

The couple’s trek in the Fort Transit van began in July from Long Island. They intended to reach Oregon by Halloween according to their social media accounts, but Petito vanished after her last known contact with family in late August from Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, authorities said.

Police video released by the Moab Police Department in Utah showed that an officer pulled the van over on Aug. 12 after it was seen speeding and hitting a curb near the entrance to Arches National Park. The bodycam video showed an emotional Petito, who sat inside a police cruiser while officers also questioned Laundrie.

Laundrie says on the video the couple got into a minor scuffle that began when he climbed into the van with dirty feet and said he didn’t want to pursue a domestic violence charge against Petito, who officers decided was the aggressor.

Ultimately Moab police decided not to file any charges and instead separated the couple for the night, with Laundrie checking into a motel and Petito remaining with the converted sleeper van.

VERO BEACH, Fla. — From his Vero Beach, Florida, home, Joseph Petito says he needs help finding his daughter who went missing in Utah during a cross-country trip with her boyfriend.

"Pride isn't an issue right now. My only daughter is missing," he said. "I'm going to do -- the family, Gabby's mom -- we're going to do anything we can to find her."

FaceTime

Petito said Gabby Petito, 22, and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, drove from Florida to New York. They left Blue Point, New York, on July 2.

The couple even started a YouTube channel to document their travels.

"The trip started from there, so it went to some various places," Petito said. "Stopped over in Colorado, worked their way up to Utah and were going to Wyoming, and she was going to end in Oregon."

Gabby's mom, Nichole Schmidt, held a news conference Monday. She said the last conversation she had with her daughter was on Aug. 25. Schmidt said the two stayed in contact regularly.

WPTV

"At least three times a week, we would FaceTime, call, and text frequently," she said. "She kept me updated on this trip."

The family said the couple's van had been recovered, but Gabby was missing.

"I believed the first couple of days, when I wasn't getting responses, I believe she was in a place with no service," Schmidt said. "Day eight and nine is when I really became concerned."

Petito said his daughter is a free spirit with a good heart.

"She saw beauty in everything, and ... she's awesome," he said. "She really is an amazing, amazing person."

Petito didn't want to speak about Laundrie. But it's been reported that he's retained a lawyer and isn't speaking with authorities.

Todd Wilson with WPTV first reported this story.