Did a Louisiana Man Meet Gabby Petito’s Fiance Just Before She was Killed?
Mansfield's Hunter Mannies talks about his encounter with suspected killer Brian Laundrie in a bar in Montana, just days before Gabby Petito was reported missing.
Mannies, who was vacationing with friends, tells KEEL that he and his companions spoke with a surly, seemingly drunken man at a small bar in the tourist town of West Yellowstone.
Here's what Mannies told KEEL about the meeting:
"There was one lone guy sitting at the end of the bar," says Mannies, describing how his the stranger inserted himself into the conversation, "(The conversation) sort of led into politics. A little later I felt this guy (staring) - I couldn't tell if he was mad or something, and finally he said something about stupid southerners and some expletives about Republicans."
The lone man then told Mannies and his friends that he was from New York. 'I have a name. it's Brian.' That's as far as the encounter went. After that he just sat there."
And it was after they returned home Mannies and friends realized who the stranger was. "My friend woke me up about seven in the morning, kept texting telling me to turn on the news," he says, "And I said, 'Oh, my God, that kind of of looks like...' And she interrupted me and said, 'That's the creepy guy at the bar!'"
It was then that Mannies and his friends contacted the FBI, an interview that lasted just under an hour, emphasizing that that the man they thought was Laundrie was alone, then telling the Feds, "He was visibly impaired. I thought so. my friends thought so. Maybe it was alcohol, maybe it was something else. I feel he was on something."