The fiancé and alleged murderer of the American travel blogger Gabrielle "Gabby" Petitio has committed suicide. As the forensic medicine of the Sarasota (Florida) district announced on Tuesday, the 23-year-old Brian Laundrie died from a shot in the head. After weeks of searching, FBI officials discovered his remains in late October in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, about 20 kilometers from his parents' home in North Port. Since Laundrie's body was believed to have been in the flooded swamp area populated by alligators, coyotes and other animals for a few weeks, identification was initially not possible.

The Laundrie case had preoccupied millions of Americans for weeks.

The twenty-three-year-old had set out on the east coast with his fiancée Petito in early July to travel the western United States in a campervan for her blog.

After videos from California, Utah and Wyoming, which showed the 22-year-old Petito happy and in love, contact with her parents in New York state unexpectedly broke off at the end of August.

In early September, Laundrie returned to his parents in Florida, but did not report to his fiancée's family.

On September 11th, Gabby's parents finally filed a missing person report.

With the slogan "Where is Gabby?", Thousands of Americans asked Laundrie and his parents on social media to provide clues about Petito's fate.

Allegations against the FBI

On September 19, emergency services finally found her buried body near a campsite in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. According to the autopsy report, Petito was strangled. Since Laundrie continued to pay with her credit card after his fiancée died, the judiciary issued an arrest warrant. The twenty-three-year-old's parents reported him missing after he disappeared from their Florida home on September 14.

The fact that Laundrie, as it became known only on Tuesday, took a weapon from his parents, now caused outrage again.

Many Americans accused the FBI of failing to warn them of an armed alleged murderer on the run from the police.

“We didn't want the public to panic.

I think the authorities didn't think he could be dangerous to anyone he met on the street, ”said Steve Bertolino, the Laundrie family lawyer.

Meanwhile, where the weapon is now remains open.

American media reports that she was not found on Laundrie's body.