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The FBI is looking for Brian Laundrie in his parents' house (picture from September 2021)
Photo:
Curt Anderson / AP
The fiancé of Gabby Petito, who was killed on a US road trip, was found dead in October and is said to have committed suicide.
Brian Laundrie's parents were informed on Tuesday, according to their attorney, that the cause of death was "a gunshot wound in the head."
"The mode of death was suicide," said the family lawyer.
Laundrie's remains were discovered in mid-October in a Florida wildlife sanctuary not far from home.
Police had been looking for the 23-year-old for weeks in connection with the Gabby Petito murder.
He was not explicitly considered a suspect, the police had listed him as a "person of interest".
The 22-year-old Petito and her fiancé left for a month-long trip across the United States in July.
Petito disappeared during the road trip.
After an intensive search, her body was discovered in the Grand Teton National Park in the state of Wyoming in the western United States in mid-September.
She was strangled, according to forensic medicine.
Case not yet resolved
Laundrie had initially returned alone from the trip to Florida in early September, where he lived with Petito.
When Petito's parents reported their daughter missing, he initially refused to testify and eventually disappeared.
He was wanted on an arrest warrant - not directly for Petito's death, but for credit card fraud after the death of his fiancée.
To this day it is unclear what exactly happened during the trip.
The case caused a sensation both in the US and internationally - not least because the couple had shared numerous pictures and videos from their trip on social networks.