Brian Laundrie, the sole suspect in the death of Long Island native Gabby Petito, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, a lawyer for the Laundrie family said.
“Chris and Roberta Laundrie have been informed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and the manner of death was suicide,” attorney Steve Bertolino told The Post. “Chris and Roberta are still mourning the loss of their son and are hopeful that these findings bring closure to both families.”
A forensic anthropologist determined the cause of death to be suicide.
Laundrie, 23, was sought in Petito’s disappearance and death when authorities discovered his skeletal remains at the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve near his parents’ home in North Port, Fla., on Oct. 20.
Police said his remains were submerged for weeks inside the marshy park before they were found — creating a challenge for coroners.
The young couple was on a cross-country trip when Petito, a 22-year-old Long Island native, went missing and Laundrie returned home in her van without her.
Petito’s mother reported her daughter missing 10 days later, but authorities found her remains in a Wyoming campground on Sept. 19.
Her death was ruled a homicide by manual strangulation while Laundrie remained missing and was the subject of a massive FBI-led manhunt.
Laundrie was also charged with using his girlfriend’s bank card in Wyoming.
That search ended when his remains were found, but after his initial autopsy results were inconclusive, his remains were sent to an anthropologist for further review.
Cross-country traveler Gabby Petito was strangled, a Wyoming coroner announced.
Petito, 22, died three to four weeks before her body was found near an undeveloped camping area along the border of Grand Teton National Park in remote northern Wyoming, Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue said in a news conference.
It wasn’t clear if the determination might lead to additional charges against Petito’s boyfriend and traveling partner, Brian Laundrie, who is considered a person of interest in her disappearance and remains unaccounted for.
Blue declined to say more about the autopsy or the case overall, saying he was prevented by Wyoming law that limits what coroners can release.
Petito had been on a cross-country trip with Laundrie, visiting Colorado, Utah and other states. She was reported missing Sept. 11 by her parents after she did not respond to calls and texts for several days while the couple visited national parks in the West.
Blue previously classified Petito’s death as a homicide — meaning her death was caused by another person — but had not disclosed how she was killed pending further autopsy results.
A “detailed analysis” led to his conclusion Petito was strangled, Blue said.
“Nothing is obvious in a case like this,” he said.
Blue said little more about Petito’s physical condition — including whether she may have been strangled directly by somebody’s hands, a rope or some other item — but noted when asked that she wasn’t pregnant.
The three to four weeks her body was believed to be in the wilderness, however, put her death around the Aug. 27-30 period investigators believe Petito and Laundrie had traveled to the area.
Petito’s case has led to renewed calls for people to pay greater attention to cases involving missing Indigenous women and other people of color, with some commentators describing the intense coverage of her disappearance as “missing white woman syndrome.”
The search for Laundrie has generated a frenzy, with TV personalities like Duane Chapman — known as Dog the Bounty Hunter — and longtime “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh working to track him down.
Petito and Laundrie posted online about their trip in a white Ford Transit van converted into a camper. They got into a physical altercation Aug. 12 in Moab, Utah, that led to a police stop, which ended with police deciding to separate the quarreling couple for the night. No charges were filed, and no serious injuries were reported.
Investigators have searched for Laundrie in Florida and also searched his parents’ home in North Port, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Sarasota.
Federal officials in Wyoming last month charged Laundrie with unauthorized use of a debit card, alleging he used a Capital One Bank card and someone’s personal identification number to make unauthorized withdrawals or charges worth more than $1,000 during the period in which Petito went missing. They did not say to whom the card belonged.
Asked about the coroner’s determination, the attorney for the Laundrie family, Steven Bertolino, in a statement noted his client only faces the fraud charge in the case.
“At this time Brian is still missing and when he is located we will address the fraud charge pending against him,” Bertolino said.
In Florida, FBI-led search teams have been looking in a vast nature preserve for any sign of Laundrie. Weeks of searching in the swampy Carlton Reserve south of Sarasota — where Laundrie’s parents say he went after returning home from the West — have turned up nothing.
