US travel blogger's death: Boyfriend charged with using her bank debit card

WASHINGTON • Gabby Petito's boyfriend, whom police have sought for six days in connection with the 22-year-old travel blogger's death during their cross-country road trip, has been charged with fraudulently using her bank debit card.

A search warrant was issued for Brian Laundrie, 23, after a grand jury in Wyoming District Court on Thursday indicted him on a single count of unlawfully using the card and Ms Petito's personal identification number. He was not charged with her death.

"While this warrant allows law enforcement to arrest Laundrie, the FBI and our partners across the country continue to investigate the facts and circumstances of Ms Petito's homicide," FBI Denver special agent in charge Michael Schneider said in a statement.

"We urge individuals with knowledge of Laundrie's involvement in this matter or his current whereabouts to contact the FBI," he said.

The indictment accuses Laundrie of spending US$1,000 (S$1,350) or more on the card between Aug 30 and Sept 1.

Ms Petito was last seen alive on Aug 24. Investigators appear to believe she was killed some time between Aug 27 and Aug 30.

Americans have followed the case closely in the media since Ms Petito was reported missing by her mother Nicole Schmidt on Sept 11.

Ten days earlier, Laundrie returned home to North Port, Florida, from the road trip, without her.

Ms Petito's body was discovered on Sunday near the remote Spread Creek Dispersed Campground in Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming. The coroner's investigators have ruled her death a homicide, but have not revealed the cause of death.

Police and FBI agents using divers, tracking dogs and helicopters have been searching for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve wilderness area near North Port since Friday, when his parents told them that he had gone there to hike three days earlier.

Ms Petito's remains were found less than 300m from where, on the evening of Aug 27, another pair of travel bloggers caught video images of the couple's 2012 white Ford Transit van parked along a dirt road.

Ms Petito, who was documenting the couple's "van life" road trip on social media, posted her final photo on Instagram on Aug 25, the same day that she last spoke to her mother by phone.

Ms Petito and Laundrie, who met at a Long Island, New York, high school, left New York in early July heading west, and posted on social media as they travelled through Kansas, Colorado and Utah.

On Aug 12, a 911 caller reported that Laundrie was slapping and hitting Ms Petito in front of the Moonflower Community Cooperative in Moab, Utah.

Moab police stopped the van on a highway near Arches National Park. Body camera footage showed Ms Petito crying as she described an argument that escalated into her slapping Laundrie as he drove. The officers did not detain the couple but told them to spend the night apart.

REUTERS