Dog the Bounty Hunter, who is on the hunt for fugitive Brian Laundrie, has reportedly come across a fresh campsite at a Florida park where he and his team found a can of Monster Energy Ultra Gold.
The can showed no signs of rust or faded colors, but the reality TV star — whose real name is Duane Chapman — found no firm evidence the late Gabby Petito’s boyfriend was still on Egmont Key in the woods of Shell Island near Fort De Soto Park, Fox News reported.
“We’re here at the island. This would be and could be the perfect spot for him to hide. Not too many people out here but there’s a lot of environmental things that we’re going to fight,” Chapman said on Twitter Wednesday.
“So here we go. The search now is really on. The search has just begun,” the 68-year-old added.
A source close to Chapman told The Post this week that the celebrity manhunter was on Florida’s Marco Island and setting up a home base in the Sunshine State from which to launch his search for Laundrie.
On Wednesday, he was at Fort De Soto Park — some 75 miles from Laundrie’s home — where Laundrie and his parents camped out on Sept. 6, five days after he returned alone from the couple’s cross-country trip in her van.
Petito’s body was found at the Bridgers-Teton National Forest in Wyoming on Sept. 19.
Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino has confirmed that Laundrie and his parents, Chris and Roberta, were at the campground on Sept. 6 and Sept. 7.
He disputed Chapman’s claims that the Laundries were at the Fort De Soto Park until Sept. 8, but that the parents left the campground without him.
On Sept. 17, Laundrie’s parents reported him missing, three days after he allegedly told them he was going for a hike at the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota and then disappeared.
Laundrie has not been charged in Petito’s death but is the only person of interest in the case, which was ruled a homicide. He has been named on an arrest warrant issued last week on federal fraud charges for allegedly using someone else’s bank card.
Despite Bertolino’s statement, campers at Fort De Soto told the Sun they worried that Laundrie may be in the area.
“It’s scary but realistic,” Amanda Smith, who has been staying at the campsite since Sunday, told the news outlet about Laundrie’s possible presence. “We actually were just looking at some of the mangroves out there and it’s very thick.
“You’d have to be skilled which apparently he is in the outdoors but you could for sure hide in them, and this is a good location in terms of being close to things but also being able to kind of get away at the same time,” she added.
When asked by the Sun about law enforcement “activity” at Fort De Soto Park, a North Port police spokesperson said the agency “can’t give any of that information out over the phone.”
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