Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito Case: New Documents From Florida Police Reveal How Expensive the Cost of Investigation

New records from the North Port Police in Florida reportedly revealed how expensive and extensive the Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie investigation was for the department.

The investigation had a huge impact on the North Port Police budget, according to Wink News. Based on the North Port Police records acquired by Wink News, they paid almost three times more in overtime during the Petito-Laundrie investigation compared to what they had in the previous year combined.

At the time, the Florida police were covering their normal responsibilities as law enforcement officials while also handling the couple's case.

About $195,000 on overtime was spent in September and October based on the North Port Police Department budget, which was almost three times what they reported paying from September 2020 to September 2021, when they doled out about $67,000.

Public information officer North Port Police Department Josh Taylor earlier said the case has been "a very trying case," and everybody was watching.

Taylor added that he knows in his heart that many people were pouring "their heart and soul" in their search for answers regarding what really happened.

Law enforcement told WINK News that there's no reimbursement for overtime hours even when they were working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Moab Police in Utah Allegedly Profited From Brian Laundrie's Fiancee Bodycam Video

Thousands of dollars in fees have reportedly been collected by Moab police in Utah from various media organizations in exchange for Gabby Petito's bodycam footage.

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the city collected nearly $3,000 in exchange for the release of body camera footage of officers pulling over Petito and her fiance, Brian Laundrie, outside of Arches National Park.

The footage shows Moab cops talking to the couple after a reported domestic dispute on August 12. Police were allegedly called after some witnesses reported that Laundrie hit and slapped Petito.

The Tribune said the fees that Moab police charged in exchange for the footage would be refunded. The amount, totaling around $2,940, was reported to be about three times what the department had expected to collect this year in records fee revenue.

Based on the document obtained by The Tribune, the police department charged a $98 video processing fee to 30 media entities that requested the footage, which seemed to violate Utah law.

Public record law states that agencies can only charge for the "actual costs" of providing a record. City spokesperson Lisa Church has earlier declined to directly say that the decision to collect a processing fee for the footage was a mistake.

But Church admitted that it fell outside Moab's normal fee schedule and that the city generally tries to provide records requests from media entities for free. She told The Tribune that she did not know how the police department arrived at the $98 fee amount per request.

Church further noted that even if one person was charged a fee, "everybody else should not have been charged" once a certain document is created.

She said the police department released a second video from the same incident days later for no charge. Church noted that the city intends to refund the fees collected from different news organizations.

Brian Laundrie Named a Person of Interest in Gabby Petito's Disappearance

Brian Laundrie was named a person of interest by the North Port police after returning home on September 1 or 10 days before Gabby Petito was reported missing by her family.

Petito disappeared on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie. The couple was traveling to Oregon when the YouTuber stopped communicating with her family in Wyoming in late August.

Gabby Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19.

A Teton County, Wyoming coroner said she was strangled to death by a "human being," and the manner of death was homicide.

After a month-long manhunt, the North Port police and the FBI agents found Laundrie's remains in a swampy area of Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on October 20.

The FBI said the skeletal remains were confirmed to be Brian Laundrie after a review of dental records. The initial autopsy did not uncover a cause or manner of his death, so the skeletal remains of Gabby Petito's fiance were sent to a forensic anthropologist for further examination.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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