Petito was reported missing by her family in September after she embarked on a cross-country trip with Brian Laundrie, her fiancé. Laundrie, who returned to the couple’s North Port, Florida, home in early September without Petito, left the home roughly two weeks later and disappeared, sparking a weeks long search for him in a vast Florida nature reserve. Just days into the search for Laundrie, authorities on the other side of the country discovered Petito’s remains in Wyoming and a coroner ruled her cause of death to be strangulation. After local and federal authorities combed through the 25,000-acre reserve in Florida for weeks, investigators announced they found Laundrie’s remains and a medical examiner ruled he died by suicide. Nearby, authorities found a notebook in which Laundrie claimed responsibility for Petito’s death, the FBI says.
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