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'He Does Look Like Laundrie,' Brian Laundrie Doppelganger Ambushed By U.S. Marshals
Hiker Severin Beckwith, who bears a resemblance to Brian Laundrie, woke up with handguns pointed at him.
A man who bears a striking resemblance to Brian Laundrie was apparently ambushed by U.S. Marshals on the North Carolina portion of the Appalachian Trail, where there have been several unconfirmed sightings of the fugitive.
Hiker couple Severin Beckwith and Anna Brettmann, both from upstate New York, told the New Yorker that the ambush occurred while they were sleeping at Lodge at Fontana Village Resort in late September.
"Next thing I see is a bunch of guys with riot shields with ‘US Marshals’ written on them, handguns pointed at my face," Beckwith told the outlet. He said that they knocked on their door before bursting in.
He told the New Yorker that he resembles 23-year-old Laundrie, who is a person of interest in the disappearance of his girlfriend Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito, right down to a "notch in the upper part of my inner ear just like his."
The the investigators realized that Beckwith was merely a lookalike when they realized that he didn’t have tattoos that matched up with Laundrie, who has been missing since mid-September after his parents say he went for a hike in a swampy Florida wildlife reserve.
“He does look like Laundrie,” Maria Guzman, who runs Standing Bear Farm Hostel in Tennessee and who met the upstate New York couple, told the New Yorker. “But so do thousands of people.”
Laundrie and Petito, 22, were on the midst of a cross-country trip when she went missing. Just last week it was revealed that the travel blogger was strangled to death. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Laundrie’s arrest last month for the unauthorized use of a debit or credit card following Petito’s murder. He had returned to his parents’ home in North Port, Florida without Petito mid-way through their trip. Weeks later, on Sept. 19, her remains were found in Wyoming. She had likely been killed three to four weeks earlier, according to the coroner's report.
Since Laundrie’s disappearance, law enforcement in North Carolina have received numerous receiving tips that he is hiding out on the Appalachian Trail in the state.
"The Murder of Gabby Petito: Truth, Lies and Social Media" will air on Oxygen on Monday, January 24 at 9/8c. It's also available to stream on Peacock now.
