A cellphone photo taken by an 18-year-old on Friday looks a ‘heck’ of a lot like missing Gabby Petito’s boyfriend Brian Laundrie, who has also since disappeared according to police.
Zachary Randazzo took the picture around 5pm about two blocks from Laundrie’s parent’s home on Targee Avenue in North Port, Florida.
It shows a bald, clean-shaven man walking down the sidewalk in flip-flops with headphones in while wearing sunglasses.
Randazzo told DailyMail.com he was driving with his grandmother to where the 23-year-old lived to ‘see what was going on’ when he snapped the photo.
‘We knew there was supposed to be a demonstration or protest outside the home at 5pm and we wanted to see what that was all about,’ he said.
A cellphone photo taken by Zachary Randazzo, 18, Friday looks a ‘heck’ of a lot like missing Gabby Petito’s boyfriend Brian Laundrie, according to police. It showed a bald, clean-shaven man walking down the sidewalk in flip-flops with headphones in
However, although blurred, the man in Randazzo’s photo appears to have a tattoo on his left arm – although recent photos of Laundrie (pictured) show that he has no such inking
His family told police they haven’t seen Laundrie since Tuesday, when he told them he was headed to the nature reserve. Police have since been on a manhunt for Laundrie in the nearby Sarasota County wildlife refuge, T Mabry Carlton Reserve
Randazzo explained that when he and his grandmother turned down the street they ‘were shocked (because) what looked like his clone was walking down the street’.
‘We then watched him as he turned down the next street over and we drove past him again to get a second look,’ he added.
Randazzo then drove around the street a third time, which is when he took the photo. ‘After taking it and pulling up a picture of him online and looking at them side-by-side we were thinking, “Wow this looks just like him, how can it not be him?”‘
He noted he and his grandmother thought the two photos were ‘identical’ and this unidentified man walking down the street ‘looked like his clone’. The next time he circled the block, the man resembling Laundrie was gone.
Although blurred, the man in Randazzo’s photo appears to have a tattoo on his left arm – but recent photos of Laundrie show that he has no such inking.
Laundrie has stayed completely silent about his girlfriend’s disappearance since he came home on September 1 – days earlier than expected – without Petito
Petito was last seen on August 24 leaving a hotel with Laundrie in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the couple’s cross-country campervan trip
Cops have been made aware of the photo and are investigating, as reported by the Post, although they too noted the pedestrian’s tattoo. ‘Other than that, sure as heck looks like him,’ Josh Taylor, the spokesman for the North Port Police Department, said.
The photo was taken about an hour and a half before the Laundries’ family attorney reported the 23-year-old missing and investigators from the North Port Police Department showed up at the family’s home, according to the New York Post.
His family told police they haven’t seen Laundrie since Tuesday, when he told them he was headed to the nature reserve. Police have since been on a manhunt for Laundrie in the nearby Sarasota County wildlife refuge, T Mabry Carlton Reserve.
Laundrie has stayed completely silent about his girlfriend’s disappearance since he came home on September 1 – days earlier than expected – without Petito.
Petito was last seen in public on August 24 when she and Laundrie checked out of a Fairfield Inn hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah.
On August 30 the 22-year-old’s mother Nicole Schmidt received a curious text from her daughter that read: ‘No service in Yosemite.’
Police have officially named Brian Laundrie a ‘person of interest’ in their inquiry into her mystery disappearance as he refuses to cooperate, although they say there is no evidence any crime has been committed
A map shows the last known movements of Petito and Laundrie along their cross-country road trip which began July 2
Policed released a photo of the Ford van that was seized from the Laundrie property on September 11, the day Petito’s family reported her middding
The mother refused to disclose the contents of her daughter’s texts but told DailyMail.com: ‘That text was NOT from Gabby I know it!’
She believes Laundrie may have sent the message from her phone possibly to mislead her family and investigators as to her whereabouts.
Schmidt has also angrily hit out at Laundrie’s disappearance insisting that he isn’t missing, but is actually ‘hiding’ instead.
If the couple were in fact together in Yosemite on August 30, that would mean Brian drove over 3,000 miles within two days to arrive in Florida on September 1.
Police have officially named Brian Laundrie a ‘person of interest’ in their inquiry into her mystery disappearance as he refuses to cooperate, although they say there is no evidence any crime has been committed.
Cops in North Port, Florida, said: ‘Brian Laundrie is a person of interest in this case. As of now, Brian has not made himself available to be interviewed by investigators or has provided any helpful details.’
Brian’s family refused to let authorities speak to their son when the 2012 Ford van was seized from their property late on September 11.
Most recently, Brian Laundrie’s sister broke the Laundrie family silence about the disappearance of her brother’s girlfriend and said her and her family ‘obviously want Gabby to be found safe’.
‘All I want is for her to come home safe and sound and this to be just a big misunderstanding,’ she said in an interview with ABC News.
Brian Laundrie’s sister Cassie Laundrie (pictured) has broken her silence about the disappearance of her brother’s girlfriend and said her and her family ‘obviously want Gabby to be found safe’ just after Brian was named a ‘person of interest’ in her vanishing
Brian’s family refused to let authorities speak to their son when the 2012 Ford van was seized from their property late on September 11
Cassie’s interview came the same day the Petito family penned an emotional letter begging the Laundries to help them find their missing daughter and suggesting that the family might be withholding information about where she is.
The heartbreaking letter was read aloud by family attorney Richard Stafford in a press conference held in Petito’s hometown of Long Island on Thursday.
‘We understand you are going through a difficult time and your instinct to protect your son is strong.
‘We ask you to put yourselves in our shoes. We haven’t been able to sleep or eat and our lives are falling apart,’ the Petitos wrote.
They added: ‘As a parent, how can you let us go through this pain and not help us? As a parent, how could you put Gabby’s younger brothers and sisters through this?’
The letter also confirmed reports that the young couple were engaged to be married and suggested the Laundries were ‘so happy’ that the two were planning to spend their lives together.
During the press conference Stafford would not provide further details about Petito’s suspicious final text message to her family and refused to comment on the body camera footage from the August 12 incident.
In the newly-released bodycam video, an emotional Petito is seen with tears streaming down her face telling officers the couple ‘have been fighting all morning’ and admitting that she slapped him.
New bodycam footage emerged Wednesday showing police being called to an incident involving the couple in Moab, Utah, on August 12 – 13 days before Petito was last heard from. A tearful Petito is seen in the back of the police car
Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face which he tells an officer were caused when Petito ‘was trying to get the keys from me’ and ‘hit me with her phone’
Petito said she suffers from OCD and anxiety, with both her and Laundrie saying she was stressed because of the YouTube blog they were working on to document the doomed cross-country trip.
Laundrie was seen with scratches on his face and arm which he tells an officer were caused when Petito ‘was trying to get the keys from me’ and ‘hit me with her phone’.
When an officer asks Petito if her boyfriend hit her, she replies ‘I guess’ and makes a grabbing motion on her chin. Laundrie admits he ‘pushed her’ during the altercation.
The cops determine Petito was ‘the primary aggressor’ and said they were going to separate the couple for the night.
At the press conference Stafford revealed the couple’s cross country road trip included plans to visit Oregon on October 2, meaning Laundrie’s premature return to his family’s Florida home on September 1 would have seemed odd or unexpected.
‘The family is devastated. Every day that this goes on, they get more and more desperate. They’re at the point that this desperation as turned into anger,’ the family lawyer added.
‘They know that the Laundries know where their daughter is. And they will not tell them. That’s infuriating.’
Attorney Richard Stafford on Thursday read out an emotional letter from Petito’s family begging the Laundries to cooperate, saying ‘we believe you know the location of where Brian left Gabby’
The letter also confirmed reports that the young couple were engaged to be married and suggested the Laundries were ‘so happy’ that the two were planning to spend their lives together
‘No service in Yosemite,’ reads the text from Petito’s cell phone, sent August 30 to her mother Nichole Schmidt, DailyMail.com can reveal. Her uncle Mike Schmidt posted this handwritten timeline of events