The desperate father of a Long Island woman who went missing during a field trip with her boyfriend told The Post on Monday that he only focused on taking her home and added, “All the shit will be solved later. “.
Gabby Petito, 22, last met in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park in late August after traveling a month earlier with her boyfriend, identified on social media as Brian Laundrie.
Laundrie, who has since returned to Florida, allegedly hired a lawyer and refused to cooperate with authorities.
“I want to keep the focus on finding [Gabby]”Joe Petito told The Post amid questions about what happened to his daughter.”[Laundrie] do not care. The van [they were in] do not care.
“Don’t look at the shit, focus on finding it. I can’t beg for it enough. All subsequent shit will be sorted. Please find it. I beg you, ”said the father, addressing the authorities and the public.
The couple had been making several stops in the van across the country, with the intention of ending up in Portland, Oregon, to bond with a family friend for Halloween.
“They turned that camper. He has traveled before but not with a converted van and is free like that, ”his father told The Post.
Petito said that during his travels, his daughter maintained regular contact with the family.
On August 21, FaceTimed lost power during a stop in Salt Lake City.
“Everything was fine. He had lost power wherever he was. I couldn’t enter the WiFi network for any reason, “said Petito.
But last week, his ex-wife, Nichole Schmidt, feared something was wrong when she hadn’t heard from her daughter.
“She said, ‘Did you know about Gabby?’ He would tell me, “No, I hadn’t,” he said. “[Her phone] I was going straight to the voice message, so on Friday we were very alarmed and tried to make the report of the missing person ”.
He urged people across the country to be on the lookout for anything that looks “heavy.”
“The most difficult thing is the life of the van. They can go anywhere they want, unfortunately, in this situation. It’s the whole damn country, “he said.
Since then, authorities have recovered the vehicle the couple was traveling in, a white 2012 Ford Transit van with Florida license plates, Newsday reported.
Gabby’s father said he was “familiar” with her boyfriend, but declined to comment further on him.
Laundrie did not immediately return a request for comment from The Post. He has a lawyer, according to the Daily Mail.
