TikTok User Says Brian Laundrie Hitched A Ride In Wyoming

NORTH PORT, FL — A TikTok user says she and her boyfriend picked up Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in the missing person case of Gabrielle Petito, while he was hitchhiking in Grand Teton Park in Wyoming on Aug. 29.

In the video, which was posted on Friday, Miranda Baker says she and her boyfriend picked up a man at about 5:30 p.m. at a Colter's Bay after he approached them asking for a ride because he needed to go to Jackson and offered to pay them $200 to go about 10 miles, which she felt was "kind of weird."

He engaged in small talk and then told the couple, who were on their way to Jackson anyway that night, Baker says in her video, adding, "that he had been camping multiple days without his fiancée, "and that she was working on their social media page back at their van."

But once they brought up that they were going to Jackson also, "freaked out, he's like, Nope, I'm gonna get out right now, Baker says in her video, adding that she pulled over at the Jackson Dam, which is not far from Colter's Bay.

It was at about 6 p.m. and Laundrie "hurried" out the car and she assumed he would find someone else to take him, according to Baker in her video post.

"It was a weird situation," she says in the post, adding that he was wearing a backpack, had on long pants, hiking boots, and had “scruff on his face,” but he did not look dirty. "For someone who was camping for multiple days like he didn't look dirty; he didn't smell dirty, so that part was kind of weird."

Baker later realized it was Laundrie after she saw him in another TikTok video and called the authorities; now she and her boyfriend have since "been in contact with a bunch of different people to help piece together different parts of this case," she says in her post.

She ends her video saying that she hopes her information helps investigators.

"I'm just hoping that they find her," she said.

The video has been viewed 5.4 million times since it was posted.

Baker could not be reached for comment.

Josh Taylor, a spokesman for North Port police which is leading the investigation into Petito's disappearance, could not be immediately reached for comment on Saturday. He told Newsday on Friday that the department spoke with Baker, but would not confirm any more than that.

Police are currently searching for 23-year-old Laundrie in the vast Carlton preserve in Venice, Florida, where his family believes he went to after leaving their home on Tuesday.

Laundrie had been traveling by camper van with Petito on a cross-country journey making stops along the national parks system since early July. He returned to Florida, refused to speak with police, and has been filtering information out to investigators through a family attorney, frustrating them by hindering their investigation.

On Friday night, an attorney for Laundrie told reporters that he was not inside his parents' home, and has not been seen for days, according to The New York Post. Property was also removed from the home, the outlet reported.

Laundrie returned home to the house he shared with his parents and Petito in her van on Sept. 1., according to police. He would not speak with investigators and his family instead handed them the phone number of their attorney.

The department reiterated early Saturday in a Twitter post that it is important to note that "Brian is a person of interest in Gabby's disappearance," but "he is not wanted for a crime" and they are not currently working on a "crime investigation."

Instead, they are now working on a "multiple missing person" investigation, the statement concluded.

In a statement emailed to Patch late Friday, Rick Stafford, a spokesman for Petito's family, said all "want the world to know that Brian is not missing."

"He is hiding," Stafford said. "Gabby is missing."