Dog the Bounty Hunter gets into swamp water in Brian Laundrie search, gets slammed for 'gimmick'
NORTH PORT, FLORIDA: American television personality, bounty hunter, and former bail bondsman Duane Lee Chapman, better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, has been famously looking for Brian Laundrie, the fiance of Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito, who was found dead in September after the two went on a cross country road trip. Chapman, who first followed tips to get to Fort De Soto Park, 75 miles away from Laundrie's home in North Port, was more recently seen going through swamplands.
Chapman shared on Instagram a video captioned, “The search has continued throughout the weekend on the islands off the west coast of Florida.” Florida reportedly has a total of 4,510 islands that are ten acres or larger. The video, posted on Sunday, October 3, saw Chapman immersed in a marshy swamp. He arrived there by boat with the help of local tour guides. In the short clip, he and several other people could be seen heading into the thick brush and floating vegetation.
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However, many on Chapman’s Instagram seemed to think he was looking for Laundrie in the wrong location. “Dog can you send some of your team to check out the Appalachian trail? There has been a lot of sightings and it seems like somewhere he might go,” read one comment. Another said, “He’s either on the App trail or on his way to Cali.” One person wrote, “He's not in FL!!! Stop telling everyone where you're looking!!” Another person said, “This is just a gimmick. He’s 100% on the AT.”
One comment also said, “He's only doing this for publicity.” This is something that Chapman has already been accused of doing in the case. Earlier, Bill Warner, who runs a PI service close to the search area in Florida, slammed Chapman’s involvement as "one big publicity stunt", claiming that he was taking legitimate tips away from the FBI. "He's doing a lot of harm here," Warner told reporters.
"He's telling people on social media to call him, that's obstruction of justice to call him instead of the FBI,” the PI said. “All over his wanted poster is 'call Dog the Bounty Hunter, I want to take care of this.' You can't do that. You're taking all the possible real, legitimate tips away from the FBI to Dog the Bounty Hunter. And what's he gonna do with them?"
Warner said he was glad to see that law enforcement wasn't "biting what he's giving out." He added, "I hope not. Because it's gonna cost a lot of money. I think this is all one big publicity stunt by Dog the Bounty Hunter. And that's outrageous. Outrageous that he's calling all this attention to himself and to Fort De Soto when Brian left there on the eighth of this month. He's not in the park."
According to Pinellas County documents, Roberta Laundrie checked into Fort De Soto Park on September 6. The documents show she checked out on September 8. The attorney for Laundrie's family contacted the FBI on September 17 indicating they wanted to talk about their son's disappearance. They said they have not seen him since September 14. He told his parents he was going for a hike in the Carlton Reserve, a roughly 25,000-acre wetlands area in Sarasota County and has not been seen since. Laundrie's family told police he left home with his backpack. Since then, authorities have been combing the swampy area, looking for him.