A TikToker had gone viral over her claim to have picked up Brian Laundrie hitchhiking alone in Wyoming when his girlfriend, Gabby Petito, was last seen. TikTok user Miranda Baker claimed she picked up a hitchhiker she believed to be Brian Laundrie when Gabby Petito was last seen. The TikTok user, Miranda Baker, said she and her boyfriend gave Laundrie a ride at Grand Teton National Park on August 29, four days after Petito called her family to say she was in the park — and four days after her last Instagram photo before the disappearance, The New York Post reports.
In a series of four videos that have just surfaced, Baker claims to have picked up a hitchhiker she identified as Laundrie at about 5.45 pm on the way to Jackson Hole, which she referred to as “Jackson”. Later, at about 6.09 pm, he asked to get out when she mentioned “Jackson Hole”. “Once I said Jackson Hole, he became agitated,” she said in one of the videos. “He seemed like he needed to get out, he was antsy. And that’s when things got weird. She claims they let the hitchhiker out near Jackson Da,m and he crossed the street to a crowded parking lot to continue to hitchhike.
The TikTok user said she has spoken with the FBI and other law enforcement officials about the alleged encounter, but the FBI didn’t confirm they had interviewed her. Other law enforcement directed inquiries to the FBI. That alleged encounter would have taken place just one day before Petito’s mother received a text from the missing Long Island native’s phone on August 30 — but her mum has doubts that the reader came from her daughter. Laundry returned to Florida alone on September 1 in the van registered to Petito. Baker said the hitchhiker she believes to be Laundrie first offered “like $200” for the ride but got in the back of the Jeep free of charge.
Published initially as TikToker claims she picked up Brian Laundrie hitchhiking days after Gabby Petito’s final call home. The hitchhiker allegedly told her he had been hiking for days along the Snake River and said he had a fiancee working their social media pages back at their van, she claims in the video. In what she called “key information” that she has allegedly shared with authorities, she said the hitchhiker she identified as Laundrie didn’t appear to have a full backpack, speaking he had been sleeping on the tarp. “You think if you’re going camping for days on end, you’d want food and a tent, and he had none of that,” Baker said of the alleged encounter. This article originally appeared in NY Post and was reproduced with permission.
