LI Mom To Missing Daughter: ‘We Just Need To See You Again’

BLUE POINT, NY — Gabrielle Petito had been on the road in a camper van with her boyfriend touring national parks since early July, but she has vanished.

Petito would check in when she could, but cell phone service had been spotty and she would often have to stop at shops such as Starbucks to use the Wi-Fi. Her mother, Nichole Schmidt, last spoke with her in the final week of August, and then received a text from her phone a few days later saying that the next stop of her trip was Yellowstone.

Schmidt did not immediately hear back when she responded but chalked it up to the bad cell phone service that is consistent with life out on the road.

It was not until a few days later that Schmidt started to become concerned because it was too long a period for her daughter not to check in with her family. She started calling the National Parks Service to see if the couple had made reservations, but she could not find out anything.

While the 22-year-old Blue Point native is a free spirit, Schmidt said, there is no possibility she would have gone off alone and not have any contact with her family or friends. Instead, Schmidt described Petito as being "very dependent."

“She's not somebody that could be on her own,” Schmidt said.

After getting the run-around with some law enforcement agencies, Schmidt finally was able to make a missing persons report with a detective at the 5th Precinct in Patchogue on Saturday.

The van she was traveling in was recovered in North Port, Florida, police said in a statement released Monday afternoon. The van was towed from a home in North Port that is possibly owned by the parents of Petito’s boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, whom she had been traveling with, Fox News reported. Police are going through the van to examine it for evidence, the outlet reported.

The North Port Police Department, which is investigating Petito's disappearance in conjunction with Suffolk police, currently does not have any "definitive information that a crime took place here in North Port," according to a statement Monday afternoon. "With that said, the circumstances are odd."

"So, we are actively gathering local details and any evidence to assist in finding needed answers," the statement concluded.

North Port police spokesman Josh Taylor told Fox News investigators are hopeful Petito is "out there somewhere" and that while it is still a viable option she does not want to communicate, "we have to prepare for something maybe more sinister."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Tampa field office is also assisting the departments in the investigation.

Laundrie returned home to Florida, and police “made contact” with his parents and attempted to speak with him, but “so far his family has given us the name and phone number of their attorney,” Taylor told KSL-TV.

Neither Laundrie, nor his parents could be reached for comment.

Schmidt declined to speak about the van or Laundrie, whom Petito had lived with in Florida.

Petito graduated from Bayport-Blue Point High School in 2017, and two years ago moved from Long Island to Florida where she lived with Laundrie. Petito spent the past year working as a pharmacy technician and saved her money so that she could take to the road and fulfill her dream as a teenager to tour the national parks.

“She's a very artistic, creative, free spirit,” Schmidt said, noting that her daughter loves living life. “She wanted to just get on the road and go. She wanted to see everything and do everything.”

Schmidt described Petito as healthy and normal, with a flair for art that led her to express herself with tattoos and a navel piercing.

“She’s just one of those fun kids,” Schmidt added.

Petito had been documenting the road trip in "Van Life: Beginning Our Van Life Journey" on a YouTube channel named Nomadic Statik, as well as her Instagram page. In her last post, she smiled while holding a small pumpkin and wrote, "Happy Halloween." Laundrie also posted to Instagram, writing on July 18, "It’s a lot easier walking up river holding someone’s hand than walking alone."

Petito's family has launched a Facebook page called "Find Gabby" in hopes of spreading the word about her disappearance, and they have posted photos of her begging the question, "Where's Gabby?"

A GoFundMe page dedicated to raising funds to aid with the search for Petito says that she "is now considered missing under suspicious circumstances after no contact and an initial search effort."

"Our focus is on finding Gabby to bring her home," wrote Gary Rider. "While we are working with the [Federal Bureau of Investigation], multiple law enforcement agencies, and outside resources to pursue any and all leads the family will need funds and resources to travel and pay for expenses related to an investigation and search on the other side of the country, any help is appreciated."

Nearly $9,000 has been raised to help Petito's family with the search.

Schmidt did not rule out the family hiring a private investigator to locate Petito.

In the meantime, she is urging people to keep sharing the missing person flyer with her photograph and description.

“It shouldn't stop until she's found,” Schmidt said.

The family's main focus right now is to blanket the area where she went missing with the flyer.

“We want [the area] scoured,” she said, adding that anyone with information should reach out. “If she contacted anyone else that we don't know about — old friends — and if anybody has any information, we just want them to let us know by calling the tip line.”

Fellow traveler Jaye Foster, a 27-year-old Alabama native, has been on the road with his girlfriend in his Volkswagen van, and they met up with Petito and Laundrie near the Delicate Arch in Moab, Utah, on Aug. 10. The two couples showed off their vans and talked for a while before Foster and his girlfriend headed off on a hike.

They were holding hands and laughing at each other, Foster said, adding, “Stuff like that.”

“Like it is crazy because nothing seemed odd at all,” he said. “You know, that's the weirdest part about this is that nothing seemed off.”

This past weekend, he saw a missing person flyer being circulated in the Facebook community Van Life and thought Petito looked familiar. He didn’t realize he had met her until he checked back in his cell phone notes and saw the couple’s Instagram handles and YouTube information that she had shared with him.

He described Petito as the sweetest girl that he had met out on the road and Laundrie as a sweet and genuine guy. There was no negative chemistry between the two at all, Foster said, but he wonders if he missed something in their interactions.

“I really hope that somebody finds her, you know, I really do,” he said, adding, “Because she was such a sweet person. I sat there and I talked to her for forever.”

Schmidt last saw her daughter in person in July for her son's graduation. She said she just wants her to come home safe.

“We love you so much," Schmidt said, addressing Petito, adding, "We just need to see you again. We need to know you're OK.”

Petito is described as white, standing about 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighing about 110 pounds. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, and several tattoos, including one on her finger, as well as one on her forearm that reads "let it be."

Suffolk detectives are asking anyone with information on Petito's disappearance to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS, a confidential police hotline. All calls can remain anonymous, according to police.

Anyone with information can also call 800-CALL FBI or submit a tip to tips.fbi.gov.