Cassie Laundrie, the sister of Gabby Petito's boyfriend and the main suspect in the girl's murder, has asked her brother Brian Laundrie to turn himself in to the authorities,
"so that we all know the truth
.
"
In a televised interview on Tuesday on
ABC News'
Good Morning America
program
, Cassie Laundrie said she did not know where her brother is and said that she has cooperated with authorities since the first day Petito's disappearance was reported.
"I would tell my brother to just turn himself in and get us out of this terrible mess
," Cassie Laundrie said in the interview.
Gabrielle Petito (left) and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie Via Instagram
Brian Laundrie, 23, and Petito, 22, were engaged and set out on a July trip through the country's national parks in a white Ford Transit van,
but the young woman disappeared in late August.
Her fiancé returned on September 1 in the same vehicle to her home in North Port, Florida, but without Petito.
Ten days later the young woman was declared missing by her family on Long Island, New York.
On September 21, the FBI confirmed that it had recovered Petito's body from Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Within days of his return to Florida, Brian Laundrie told his family that he was going on a field trip to a 25,000-acre wildlife refuge near North Port, but he never returned.
Authorities combed the area with dozens of people with specialized equipment and search dogs, but they did not find him.
Since then he has been missing.
He never spoke to the authorities.
Gabby Petito's family asks Brian Laundrie to turn himself in to authorities
Sept.
28, 202100: 33
"The last time I physically saw him and spoke to him in person was on September 6,"
Cassie Laundrie told ABC News, who said that she, her brother, and her parents went camping together at Fort De Soto Park, in Pinellas County, Florida.
"We were only there for a couple of hours, had dinner and drank around the campfire and there was nothing peculiar about it. There was no feeling of a great goodbye. There was nothing," Cassie Laundrie recounted.
"Looking back, I feel frustrated that I didn't notice anything. It was an ordinary visit," she added.
[Police search for Gabby Petito's fiancé in a "dangerous" swamp infested with alligators and snakes]
Cassie Laundrie, who lives in Florida with her husband and two children a few hours away by car from her parents' home,
said that if she knew where her brother was, "she would hand him over to the authorities."
"I really wish he had come to me the day he arrived in the truck, because I don't think we would be in this situation," Cassie Laundrie said.
On September 23, a federal court in Wyoming ordered the arrest of Brian Laundrie for "activities after the death of Gabrielle Petito."
A few days later, the FBI searched Brian Laundrie's home for clues to the young woman's murder.
Gabby Petito case: The FBI conducts a new investigation at Brian Laundrie's house
Sept.
26, 202102: 02
A call to 911 on Aug. 12 alerted police in Moab City, Utah, to
an incident of domestic violence
between a young couple driving a white Ford Transit van.
The witness said the man had slapped the young woman and chased her on the sidewalk.
Utah authorities released body video from the cameras of officers who came to the scene after the call, in which Petito and her fiancé can be seen talking to them.
With cry marks on his face, Petito tells officers that her boyfriend hit her after they fought and after she slapped him in the face.
Moab City police decided not to press charges against Brian Laundrie
and asked the couple to spend the night in separate rooms.
They publish new images of Gabby Petito: the young woman told the police about the fight she had with her boyfriend
Oct. 1, 202101: 44
Brian Laundrie's sister said in the interview that it was common for the two to fight and "steal space" but that she had never witnessed an act of violence between them.
"I care for him. I hope he is well and I am also angry and I don't know what to think. I hope my brother is alive because I want to have answers as much as anyone else," said Cassie Laundrie, who also stated that the family of the victim "deserves answers."
Cassie Laundrie clarified that she does not know if her parents are helping her brother.
"I think if they are, then they should say what they know," he
said.
Attorneys for the parents told ABC News that their clients do not know the whereabouts of Brian Laundrie.
