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Family lawyer confirms Brian Laundrie stole Gabby Petito's bank card to escape back to Florida

FBI has issued arrest warrant for Laundrie on debit card fraud
petito bodycam web.jpg
Posted at 7:38 AM, Oct 06, 2021
and last updated 2021-10-06 09:59:24-04

Brian Laundrie used Gabby Petito's bank card in the days after she was last seen alive, the lawyer for Petito's family said on the "Dr. Phil" show Tuesday.

"He ran, he stole her credit card, he used her credit card to get home, and then ran from the police," said the Petito family’s attorney and spokesperson, Richard Stafford.

Police have named Petito’s former boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, as a person of interest in connection with what was then her disappearance. On Sept. 23, the FBI issued an arrest warrant for Laundrie, accusing him of bank card fraud.

The arrest warrant didn't disclose whose credit card he was accused of stealing, but Strafford confirmed it was Gabby's.

Brian Laundrie's sister confirms he flew home to Florida in August before returning to Utah

The FBI alleged that he used an unidentified person’s Capital One card and the PIN number to charge or withdraw over $1,000 between Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, during which time Petito was still missing.

"He used her credit card to get home and then ran from the police," Stafford continued. "That's going to show a lot what he was thinking back then."

Laundrie's attoney declined to comment to Fox News.

Stafford later added: "I don't know what story he's going to try to tell, but it's not going to make any sense when you put it together with his actions from that moment forward – that he's running, that he's hiding, that he's trying to deceive everybody around him."

Laundrie and Petito left for a cross-country journey in mid-June in a converted white Ford Transit van with plans to visit national parks along the way. They made stops in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming before Gabby went missing and was subsequently found dead. The coroner listed the death a homicide. The cause of death has not yet been disclosed publicly.

Laundrie, who is now a fugitive, returned to his parents' Florida home in the couple's van without Petito on September 1. He has not been seen since Sept. 13.

Petito was reported missing by her mother on Sept. 11.

If you have any information in this case or know Brian Laundrie's whereabouts, you're asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.