Dive Team Joins Search For Brian Laundrie In Florida Preserve

An underwater dive team has been recruited to help with the search for Gabby Petito’s fiancé, Brian Laundrie, who remains a “person of interest” in the death of Petito which has been initially ruled as a homicide. 

As reported by CNN, “A law enforcement underwater dive team arrived at a nature reserve in Florida on Wednesday as part of the search for Brian Laundrie, Gabby Petito’s fiancé who has been missing for several days.”

“A large van and boat from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office arrived midday Wednesday at the Carlton Reserve, a swampy 25,000-acre reserve in Venice, Florida, where Laundrie told his parents he was headed last week,” the outlet noted. 

The dive team is called the Sheriff’s Underwater Recovery Force (SURF), which the outlet noted is described on the sheriff’s website as a unit that is “called upon to search for evidence of crimes and victims of drowning, water accidents and foul play.”

“These highly trained underwater specialists have to work in some of the most difficult and challenging environments imaginable, as many of the waterways are full of silt and sediment deposits that affect underwater visibility,” the site added. 

North Port Police reportedly said the involvement of the dive team “does not mean anything has been found. It’s a part of the overall search process.” 

Sarasota County Sheriff’s office spokesperson Kaitlyn Perez said the North Port Police requested the group on Wednesday morning. 

“These divers are specifically trained and very talented in low visibility bodies of water,” Perez said. “They dive down where you and I can’t see anything at all. They utilize technology and other special equipment to help them get down deep into really deep bodies of water, so they’re out there right now to recover whatever it is that they might find.”

As reported by The Daily Wire, Laundrie was reportedly last seen on Tuesday, September 14th, before he was declared a person of interest in the case. He and Petito had been traveling across the country on a road trip that was largely documented on social media as the two were involved in lifestyle blogging on Youtube and Instagram. 

The Daily Wire reported: 

Laundrie’s family has been mum on their son’s whereabouts but told law enforcement Friday that they believed Brian had visited the Carlton nature preserve — a 24,000-acre, “vast and unforgiving” wetland — and an individual believed to be Laundrie was captured on a private trail camera near the preserve. North Point police said Tuesday that they were using dogs and all-terrain vehicles to try to locate Laundrie, but that the area was difficult to navigate.

“More than 50 searchers from at least eight law enforcement agencies led by the FBI are using huge swamp-busting amphibious vehicles, ATVs, bloodhounds, other K9s and drones as they ramp up efforts to track down the 23-year-old,” the Daily Mail reported Tuesday. 

Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has also gotten involved in the search, stating that he has “directed all state agencies under [his] purview to continue to assist federal & local law enforcement as they continue to search.” The governor added, “we need justice for Gabby Petito.”

“At the request of [North Port Police], [Florida Fish & Wildlife] law enforcement has been assisting in the search for Brian Laundrie,” DeSantis tweeted late Tuesday, according to a local Miami news outlet.

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