We can hope the bureau succeeds in bringing justice to families like Petito’s, instead of looking more and more like a political appendage to sic on partisan threats.
The suspicious disappearance of 22-year-old vlogger Gabby Petito took a tragic turn on Sunday when the FBI announced that human remains found in Teton County, Wyoming, were “consistent” with her description. Petito’s family reported her missing on Sept. 11, after her fiancé Brian Laundrie returned to Florida without her on Sept. 1. According to Laundrie’s family, he disappeared on Sept. 14, three full days after Petito’s disappearance was reported.
Laundrie is a high-profile person of interest in the case, with an attorney for the Petito family insisting “Brian is not missing, he is hiding.” Authorities have failed to find Laundrie, admitting on Friday that they don’t know where he is.
The lead agency on the case said on Monday that it “currently has no plans to conduct a major search” of the Carlton Reserve, an over 24,000-acre preserve in Sarasota County, Florida, where state police said they have “exhausted all avenues” in looking. The FBI also announced the execution of a search warrant at the Laundrie residence on Monday.
Laundrie was the only person with Petito on the couple’s Wyoming road trip and apparently failed to report her disappearance (or a potential explanation for it) when he returned. Yet the above efforts are taking place six days after Laundrie disappeared, nine days after Petito’s family reported her missing, and 19 days after Laundrie returned to Florida without his fiancée.
Meanwhile, the FBI spent the weekend worrying about a rally that turned out to be an uneventful, sparse showing of a few hundred people, with law enforcement agents outnumbering attendees. In the past, the FBI has shown its willingness to bring the full force of its investigative power down on cases and individuals where it was laughably unmerited (or worse, sinister).
The FBI should be doing its utmost to solve jurisdictionally appropriate crimes like the Petito case appears to be, not running partisan ops, setups, or sham investigations. The FBI has an annual budget of over $10 billion and employs more than 35,000 people. Its failure to apprehend Laundrie in the days before he disappeared does not stem from a lack of resources but seems to reflect the FBI’s dissolution from a serious crimefighting apparatus to a dangerously political machine that’s bad at its job.
Defund the Corrupt FBI!!!!
Putin runs the FBI