North Port Police Department
- The hunt for Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie have led to at least four other bodies being found.
- The bodies of the missing persons were found as a direct result of looking for Petito and Laundrie.
- Officials said Wednesday they found human remains in the Florida reserve Laundrie went missing in.
The remains of at least four other missing people have been found during the nearly two-month search for Gabby Petito and her fiancé Brian Laundrie.
The massive search began when Petito, 22, was reported missing by her family on September 11. Her body was found in Wyoming on September 19, and her death has been ruled a homicide. Laundrie, who was named a person of interest in Petito's disappearance, was reported missing on September 17.
The bodies of other missing persons have been found in areas where authorities were looking for the couple. Here's what has been found:
- The body of an unidentified homeless man was found in a dumpster behind a grocery store in Mobile, Alabama, on September 18 after the police were tipped off that Laundrie was sighted in the area. Police later ruled out any link to Laundrie, the Independent reported.
- The body of Robert Lowery, a 46-year-old father from Texas, was found at the base of the Teton Pass in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Fores on September 28, forty miles from where Petito's body was found. During the Petito search, police received crucial tips that led to his remains being located, NBC reported.
- The body of Josue Calderon, 33, was found in Watauga County, North Carolina, on October 9. Laundrie was the subject of dozens of unconfirmed sightings in the area but was not connected to the discovery, the FBI said in a statement per the Asheville Citizen-Times.
- The body of Sara Bayard, 55, was found off a highway in El Paso County, Colorado, on October 14, an area Petito and Laundrie had shared Instagram pictures from during their travels, per the New York Post.
Another case that became linked to Petito was the homicide of the newly-married couple Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner. Their bodies were found on August 18 at a campsite near Moab, Utah, where Petito and Laundrie also visited, Fox News reported.
It later emerged that an eyewitness placed a 911 call about an argument between Petito and Laundrie outside a grocery store where Schulte had worked. Shortly before their death, Schulte and Turner had told a family member they were leaving the campsite because of a "creepy man."
The sheriff's office later said it was not ruling out a connection between Laundrie and the double murder.
On Wednesday, authorities said they had found apparent human remains in Florida's Carlton Reserve, where Laundrie was said to have gone missing.
The Laundrie family attorney said the remains were more than likely belong to Laundrie.