Television’s Dog the Bounty Hunter joins in on the manhunt for Brian Laundrie, who went missing after his girlfriend, Gabby Petito, was found dead in Bridger-Teton National Forest located in Wyoming.
Duane “Dog” Chapman was on his honeymoon in Florida with his new wife, Francie Frane, where he started to get calls from family members and fan requests on social media to check out the area, as Laundrie’s parents home is in North Port, Florida. Chapman decided to go to the house himself to knock on the door with no answer — but that is where his mission first started out.
Being a convicted felon himself, if the Laundries opened the door, he wanted to explain to the parents the difference between manslaughter and murder one — which in Wyoming, is a death penalty.
Chapman went on FOX News to share his hotline for this search to send tips to — 833-TELLDOG. There have already been over 1,000 tips sent in with pictures of him and where he has been, helping Chapman move towards Laundrie’s direction.
Since this interview, Chapman has been posting updates on his social media about how the search is going but will not share certain information, not even with the FBI. Chapman has former law enforcement and former navy marines volunteering to join his team.
K-9 dogs have also been joining Chapman’s manhunt as they go through small islands near Fort Desoto Park in Tampa, Florida where the Laundries confirmed they camped with their son in September after his cross-country road trip with Petito. Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino, claims his parents left the campground without him on Sept. 8.
While all of this has been going on, someone flew a banner saying “Aloha Brian Laundrie – Dog” which made people believe it was Chapman sending this message himself to Laundrie as he suspects they are close to finding. Chapman went to post a picture of this on Instagram, captioning it “Frankly, I wish I had thought of that, but it wasn’t our team. I’d love to shake the hand of whoever is behind the banner, I’ll tell you that.”
Chapman has expressed he wants to find Laundrie alive so badly he even added a $10,000 reward bonus to the standard amount, which is $170,000. This strong encouragement goes along with him expressing to give any tips in as in his eyes, the search has only just begun.
Do you believe Dog the Bounty Hunter will find Laundrie before the FBI? Let us know how you feel about him joining the search for Laundrie, @VALLEYmag, on Twitter!
