Hitchhiking Brian Laundrie Got 'Agitated' Near Van

According to the woman who says she picked him up
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 28, 2021 2:30 AM CDT
Hitchhiking Brian Laundrie Got 'Agitated' Near Campground
This police camera video provided by The Moab Police Department shows Brian Laundrie talking to a police officer on Aug. 12, 2021.   (The Moab Police Department via AP)

One of the women who claims to have picked up Brian Laundrie while he hitchhiked in Wyoming in late August says he started acting weird as they got close to the van he'd been traveling in with Gabby Petito, who was found dead in the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area weeks later. Authorities believe she died between Aug. 27 and Aug. 30. It was Aug. 29, two days after Petito was last seen, when Norma Jean Jalovec picked him up, she tells People. As they approached the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area and she asked if he'd like her to take him all the way to it, he got "agitated" and "antsy," she says. "He was like, 'No, no, no, no, no. This is fine.' He said, 'Just let me out here. You can let me out here,'" and got out of the passenger seat as she slowed the car.

She found it strange, she says, because it was 6:40pm and he'd have to walk several miles to the van. Jalovec, who has spoken to the FBI, thinks she may have been the last person to see him before he returned to Florida, with the van but without Petito, Sept. 1. More of the latest headlines on Laundrie, a person of interest in the Petito case who remains missing:

  • A tourist claims he saw Laundrie drinking alone at a Montana bar Aug. 26, seeming "mad at the world," the New York Post reports.
  • Dog the Bounty Hunter is looking for Laundrie, and Fox News reports a tipster sent him to a campground 75 miles away from the family home, where witnesses say Laundrie was seen with his parents on two occasions in early September.
  • Laundrie's parents called police on the bounty hunter after he showed up on their property over the weekend, Yahoo News reports.
  • The head of Utah's Moab Police Department is taking a leave of absence, days after the PD announced it would investigate how officers handled their Aug. 12 interaction with Petito and Laundrie, Fox News reports.
(More Gabby Petito stories.)

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