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'America's Most Wanted' host vows to capture 'dirtbag' Brian Laundrie: 'This is a homicide'
Photo by Mike Coppola/FilmMagic

'America's Most Wanted' host vows to capture 'dirtbag' Brian Laundrie: 'This is a homicide'

John Walsh, former "America's Most Wanted" host, has promised to capture Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in Gabby Petito's disappearance and presumed death.

What's a brief history here?

Laundrie and Petito, his girlfriend, were traveling in a van cross-country when Petito inexplicably disappeared, and Laundrie soon arrived at his family's Florida home alone and driving Petito's van.

Authorities soon declared Laundrie a "person of interest" in Petito's disappearance, but Laundrie himself went missing after he reportedly went hiking in a Florida swamp reserve.

Authorities soon released bodycam footage of an Aug. 12 domestic dispute between the two, and on Monday, Fox News obtained the audio of a disturbing 911 call that revealed Laundrie was reportedly hitting Petito before the initial face-to-face encounter with police.

Wyoming authorities discovered remains on Sunday at a campsite in Grand Teton National Park that were consistent with Petito's description. An autopsy is under way.

Petito's family reported her missing on Sept. 11 after she reportedly fell out of contact with them in late August.

What are the details?

Walsh, who is famed for his 23-year stint as host of the hit show "America's Most Wanted," told News Nation Now that he is "joining the hunt" to find Laundrie, Newsweek reported.

"I'm saddling up to catch this dirtbag," he said.

"This is a homicide. This dirtbag is out there. I don't know how he got out of the house with the FBI and local cops watching him day and night."

Newsweek noted that the long-running show with Walsh at the helm "helped law enforcement capture more than 1,200 fugitives and brought home more than 50 missing children."

Walsh, who now hosts "In Pursuit with John Walsh" on Investigation Discovery, added that Laundrie's parents aren't off the hook, either.

"At some point, these parents are going to have to pay," he said. "They're going to have to pay for being an accessory for putting him on the run."

What else?

In a recent interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Walsh said that the bodycam footage of Laundrie and Petito's run-in with the police "terrified" him.

Walsh, who said that he watched the video with an FBI source, concluded that the exchange captured the essence of "classic domestic abuse."

"He terrorized her not to tell the cops," Walsh insisted. "He was the aggressor and slapper and puncher."

Walsh added that he is deeply concerned that the contents of the original 911 call reporting a domestic disturbance in which Laundrie reportedly struck Petito several times were not relayed to the responding officers.

"How is it that that 911 operator ... didn't get that information to those two deputies that stopped them?" he said.

"They let him go and in his report said that she was the aggressor," Walsh added. "She was terrified. It was just chilling that those cops didn't get the information that the person who called in was so concerned that he pulled over, a tourist, and called 911 because he saw this guy beating the heck out of Gabby. And it's so sad because she might be alive today."

He concluded, "It's the public that will solve this case and I believe the public will catch this guy. ... We need to see this creep brought in and pay for this."

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