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Footage from a livestream of the event Sunday provided by the funeral home showed an altar surrounded by pictures of Petito. Attendees walked by, eyeing the photos, while others gathered, hugging and talking.
Outside, signs posted across the street bore Petito’s name and read, “Forever in our hearts.”
Attendee Angelina Amendola said she didn’t know Petito personally. But they came from the same hometown, Blue Point, and she wanted to support Petito’s family.
“It’s going to be a lot,” she said of the memorial. “But I want to show the Petito and Schmidt family lots of love and let them know that they’re surrounded by people who love them and care for Gabby.”
“I have daughters myself, as well as granddaughters,” Lisa Correll, who organized the memorial, told WFTS of hearing Petito’s story. “So it was very emotional to begin with.”
“At least she is home with her family and they get to have their closure and peace,” Correll said.
Richard Stafford, an attorney for the Petito family, told CNN in a statement Friday the family is asking for donations to a future Gabby Petito foundation in lieu of flowers.
$30,000 in rewards available for tips leading to Laundrie’s arrest
Now, two separate rewards totaling $30,000 have been offered to anyone who provides law enforcement officials with Laundrie’s whereabouts.
The law firm, which has multiple offices across Florida, including North Port, said its reward “will remain open for two months starting from the receipt of the tip” by law enforcement.
Torres wrote that he and his daughter “offer our deepest condolences to the family of Gabby Petito,” adding, “We are offering a reward of $5,000 for tips leading to an arrest.”
Torres said Friday the reward he’s offering had been raised to $10,000, thanks in part to help from people like Steve Moyer, the former deputy chief of police for Sarasota, Florida.
An attorney for Laundrie’s family emphasized in a statement that the warrant was not for Petito’s death but related to activities that allegedly took place afterward.
“It is my understanding that the arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie is related to activities occurring after the death of Gabby Petito and not related to her actual demise,” Steve Bertolino said. “The FBI is focusing on locating Brian and when that occurs the specifics of the charges covered under the indictment will be addressed in the proper forum.”
Swampy wilderness remains focus of search
The Carlton Reserve, located in Sarasota County not far from Laundrie’s parents’ home in North Port, is an inhospitable environment spanning nearly 25,000 acres.
“Please be aware, the Carlton Reserve is a vast and unforgiving location at times. It is currently (waist) deep in water in many areas,” North Port police said in one of its updates last week. “This is dangerous work for the search crews as they are wading through gator and snake infested swamps and flooded hiking and biking trails.”
An underwater dive team from the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office who are “called upon to search for evidence of crimes and victims of drowning, water accidents and foul play” was also brought in midweek, according to the sheriff’s office.
“We’re looking through wooded areas, we’re looking through bodies of water, we’re looking through swampy areas,” North Port Police Commander Joe Fussell said in a video shared online Friday. “And we’re deploying the resources to be able to do that. We have air units, we have drones, we have the swamp buggies, air boats, multiple law enforcement agencies, we have ATVs, we have UTVs and we have officers on foot as well.”
Law enforcement expected to be back out in the reserve searching throughout the weekend, with a focus on “areas of more likelihood,” according to a statement from Taylor, the North Port Police spokesperson, Friday.
Unless “something of note” was found, Taylor said North Port Police would not be providing regular updates over the weekend.
CNN’s Sarah Jorgensen, Leyla Santiago, Sara Weisfeldt, Christina Maxouris, Jenn Selva, Steve Forrest, Taylor Romine, Laura Ly, Amir Vera and Gregory Lemos contributed to this report.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Chenab Times staff and is published from a syndicated feed via CNN.com – RSS Channel – HP Hero.)
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