Gabby Petito’s father calls for new missing persons database law

A TikTok user spotted a sleeping bag where Brian Laundrie’s remains were found.

The clip shows the sleeping bag hidden among leaves and dirt along the trail of the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, according to The Sun.

Amateur sleuths have continued to sift through Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito’s social media posts following the discovery of Laundrie’s remains, in the hope of finding some clue as to what happened between the couple in the lead-up to Petito’s disappearance and murder.

One photograph of Laundrie has been picked up as providing a possible clue - with amateur sleuths spotting what they believe to be a bite mark on his arm, in a photo that was taken close to where his body was discovered, The Sun reported.

The picture, taken a year before his death and posted on his now removed Instagram account, shows Laundrie with his nephew and what some believe may be some sort of clue.

New light is being shone on the unsolved case of missing San Francisco toddler Arianna Fitts, who went missing over five years ago.

The wall-to-wall coverage of the Gabby Petito case highlighted the disproportionate media coverage given to missing persons when they are conventionally attractive white women – a phenomenon dubbed “missing white woman syndrome.”

In an effort to redress the balance, some are taking another look at significant cases among the 17,000-odd other missing people in the US, reports SFist.

CNN reports that the two-year-old’s mother, Nikki Fitts, was found murdered and left in a shallow grave in San Francisco’s McLaren Park in February 2016, and there has been no sign of Arianna since.

San Franciso Police Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have released images showing what the toddler might look like now, aged eight.

Rumours and theories continue to swirl online about the many untied loose ends in the case of Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie.

While experts have warned some of the mysteries of the case may never be solved, WFLA.com has published a list of their readers’ most pressing unanswered questions.

These include Brian Laundrie’s cause of death, the contents of his notebook that was found at the Carlton Reserve and the details of the infamous camping trip to Fort DeSoto he took with his family after returning home without his fiancée.

According to WFLA, the overwhelming question from their viewers is how the events that led to the couple’s deaths unfolded, and why.

Joseph Petito is calling for more to be done to combat domestic violence and violence against women.

The father of late Gabby Petito wrote on Twitter: “We have to do better” and went on to ask Twitter users: “What ideas do you have that may help?”

Citing a report by the World Health Organization from March 2021, Mr Petito said: “When the “World Health Organization” does reports like these and nothing changes, it makes you wonder why. The numbers are staggeringly high. We have to do better. What ideas do you have that may help? #domesticviolence #TogetherWeCan #gabbypetito”

Human remains found inside the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on Wednesday have been confirmed as belonging to Brian Laundrie.

The FBI confirmed on Thursday afternoon they had been able to match Mr Laundrie’s dental records to the skeletal remains, which were found near a backpack and notebook belonging to the missing fugitive.

“On October 21, 2021, a comparison of dental records confirmed that the human remains found at the T. Mabry Carlton, Jr. Memorial Reserve and Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park are those of Brian Laundrie,” the FBI’s Denver office Tweeted.

Helen Elfer has more:

A sleeping bag has been found near to where Brian Laundrie’s remains were found, causing a stir amongst internet sleuths.

A TikTok video was made including the sleeping bag and is captioned: “Local woman finds old sleeping bag near where Brian Laundre was found. We checked it out.”

The clip continues: “Right over there is the field where partial remains of Brian Laundrie was found. It was where law enforcement had the tent and the perimeter set up.”

A sleeping bag can then be seen hidden among leaves and dirt along the trail of the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.

As the video goes on, a second person can be heard saying: “This is much, much older than something Brian may have used.”

Criminologists have said that lives could be saved if first responders had better training in dealing with intimate partner violence.

Criminologist Jesenia Pizarro said: “The research generally tells us that 74 percent of all women who are killed by their intimate partner had a history of abuse prior to that,” adding that: “there are intervention points.”

She told Vox that training should involve teaching first responders how to conduct a thorough risk assessment to determine who is the vulnerable partner.

Moab City Police Department were criticized for their handling of a violent dispute between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie in August, several weeks before she was killed, in which they mistakenly identified her as the primary aggressor.

“The best trainings on domestic violence for police officers train them to see any domestic violence call or domestic dispute as homicide prevention,” said Molly Dragiewicz, a criminologist and co-author of Abusive Endings: Separation and Divorce Violence Against Women.