The parents of a Florida woman who has been missing since her fiancé returned from a cross-country trip without her are speaking out in the hopes that someone will help them find their daughter.
Nicole Schmidt, of Long Island, New York, gave a teary-eyed interview to reporters on Monday afternoon as she held a picture of her daughter Gabby Petito, and said, ‘We are looking for her. We are not focusing on anything else, but finding her.’
Petito's stepfather, James, added, 'If anyone else has any information, if anyone has seen her, we ask that they call the tip lines and just please, just give any information you have,' as he joined his anguished wife at the press conference in Bohemia, Suffolk County.
'We just want her home safe with us.’
Petito's fiancé, Brian Laundrie, has remained mum on her whereabouts, reportedly hiring an attorney and refusing to speak publicly about what happened. Asked about Laundrie at the press conference, however, both parents said, ‘We can’t comment on that.’
Nicole Schmidt, of Long Island, New York, gave a teary-eyed interview to reporters in Bohemia on Monday afternoon about her daughter Gabby Petitio, who has been missing since August 24
Schmidt says that she believes her daughter will return home
Schmidt said the last time she spoke over the phone with her daughter was on August 25 - and cast suspicion on the texts received from her adventure-seeking girl over the next five days.
She said she texted Petito on August 27 and 30, but now says she isn't sure if her daughter was on the other end of the exchange because it wasn't verbal and she didn't share any photos of herself, Schmidt told Fox News.
She said, 'It was just a text. I did not verbally speak to her,' she said. 'I can't say much, but she's no longer with the van. I don't want to say anything more than that but for people looking for her, I want them to look for her now, not look for that van anymore.'
Asked about her doubts over the texts at the press conference, Schmidt again said, ‘I can’t comment on that.’ She also declined to share the content of those texts.
Schmidt said Petito would contact her at least three times a week. ‘We would FaceTime, call, text, frequently. She kept me updated on this whole trip . . . The first couple of days [she went missing], I believe she was in a place with no service. It was day 8 and 9 that I really became concerned and figured she couldn’t be off the grid for that long.’
She added, ‘I don’t know if I believe she’s in danger for a particular reason, I just believe she’s in danger because she’s not in touch with us and she could be alone somewhere, she could be stranded somewhere in the wilderness. And she needs help. And I know we’re not out there, but I hope everyone’s looking for her. I hope that the hikers and the rangers and the campers and everybody has her face and they’re looking for her actively.’
Petito’s father Joe, who lives in Vero Beach, Florida, is also pleading for help bringing his daughter home and addressed the public on Monday when speaking with the New York Post. He said to ‘focus on finding her. I can’t implore that enough. All of the crap afterward will sort itself out. Please find her. I beg you.’
He added that on Aug. 21, she let him know on FaceTime that they had lost power during a stop in Salt Lake City.
‘Everything was good. She had lost power to wherever she was at. She couldn’t get on the WiFi for whatever reason,’ Petito said.
Throughout the past week, neither parent had her from her and, he said, ‘we got pretty alarmed and tried to do the missing-person report.’
He urged people across the country to be on the lookout for anything that seems “fishy.”
“The hard part is that it’s the van life. They can go anywhere they wanted, unfortunately, in this situation. It’s the entire damn country,” he said.
Gabby Petito of Blue Point, 22, and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, set out on their road trip in early July, first driving from Laundrie's home state of Florida to Petito's in New York. Then, the pair set out West toward Salt Lake City. She was reported missing by her family on Saturday, and last posted on her Instagram account in Ogden, Utah, two weeks ago (photo pictured)
The above map illustrates the places Petito and Laundrie visited since the start of the trip leaving New York on July 2 to when she last spoke to her family on August 25 from Grand Teton National Park
Fiancé Brian Laundrie (pictured left) has since returned home to Florida with the pair's camper van, according to missing Gabby Petito's father Joseph Petito, and is not cooperating with police in their investigation
Petito, 22, who grew up in Blue Point, N.Y., was last seen on August 24 checking out of a hotel with Laundrie in Salt Lake City, Utah. The following day she made her final call to her family, telling them that she and Laundrie had traveled to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Her last Instagram, posted on August 25, shows her visiting the Monarch Wall in Ogden, Utah with the caption 'Happy Halloween'. The pair were heading from Ogden to Yellowstone National Park, just north of Grand Teton.
The couple embarked on their trip on July 2 from Blue Point, where they traveled for Petito's brother's graduation on June 17. Laundrie returned to their home in North Port, Florida, where the couple moved two years ago, driving the couple's 2012 Ford Transit van, which police confirmed recovering.
However, it is not clear when he arrived, what he did when he got there or who he told, if anyone, about Petito's disappearance. She was reported missing by her mother to New York authorities on Saturday night.
'[It's like] drowning with your hands tied behind you,' Petito's father, Joseph Petito, told Newsday of his daughter's disappearance. 'You can't describe it. There's nothing you can do. You can't control anything.'
The Suffolk County Police Department opened an investigation after her Schmidt filed a missing persons report just before 7pm on Saturday, the agency wrote in a press release.
The Suffolk County Police Department opened an investigation after her mom Nichole Schmidt reported her missing just before 7pm on Saturday, the agency wrote in a press release
