Florida police on Thursday refuted reports that authorities searching a marshy nature reserve for fugitive Brian Laundrie had come upon remnants of a fresh campsite.
North Port Police Department spokesman Josh Taylor confirmed to The Post in an email that the report from CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night was incorrect.
“No campsite has been located,” he wrote.
Cuomo said he was told by a source close to the Laundrie family that a campsite had been found at the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve, where the FBI has lead a search since Sept. 18.
In an interview with the network Thursday, Taylor said that’s not what he’s being told.
“Is it possible that they thought that there might be a campsite out there or something they may have seen from the air but when they go on the ground that’s not what it turned out to be?” he told CNN. “Sure, I think that’s a possibility.
“Bottom line is that investigators are telling me that no campsite was found out there,” Taylor said.
Laundrie, 23, is the sole person of interest in the disappearance and death of Long Island native Gabby Petito, who vanished during the couple’s cross-country trip.
Petito, 22, went missing in late August while Laundrie returned home alone Sept. 1.
Petitio’s body was found at a remote Wyoming campground on Sept. 19, with her death later ruled a homicide — although the cause of death has not be revealed.
Laundrie disappeared from his family’s North Port home on Sept. 13 and is now the subject of a massive manhunt that has spanned Florida to the Carolinas.
Laundrie has not been charged in Petito’s death but is named on a federal arrest warrant for using her stolen bank card after she disappeared.
Comments