A Louisiana man who was on a road trip through Montana has claimed to have had a strange encounter with a man he believes to be Brian Laundrie, just a day before his girlfriend Gabby Petito mysteriously disappeared. Hunter Mannies, 44, told the New York Postthat he saw a man, who looked exactly like Laundrie, drinking all alone in the bar and seemed to be "mad at the world."
According to Mannies, the man was angry and confrontational and no one dared go near him. Mannies' claim is the latest in the series of claims of sightings of Laundrie, who is yet to be traced by police more than a week after Petito's mysterious death.
Angry and Mad
Mannies told the outlet that on August 26 he came across a man at Bullwinkle's Saloon in West Yellowstone who resembled Laundrie. The man he saw was wearing a hoodie and drinking all by himself. "He was just mad at the world it seemed like," Mannies told the outlet.
Mannies said that he initially didn't pay attention to him. Also, the bar was almost empty, with only another couple drinking there. However, Mannies and his doctor friend then started talking to the couple — another physician and her partner.
"The convo got into hunting and guns and politics," Mannies said, adding that's he didn't realize that the man had been listening. However, he was taken aback when the man, who looked like Laundrie, suddenly snapped at them. "The guy just looked mad and then at some lull in the conversation, he said, 'Stupid southerners and f—ing Republicans.'"
Mannies took it lightly but realized that something was wrong with the man. "I kind of laughed and said, 'Well, where are you from? and he said, 'New York," Mannies said. "And I said, 'Okay, New York' and he said, "I have a name, it's Brian."
Mannies said that they didn't interact much with the man after that and returned to their conversation, but continued to get weird vibes from the man the rest of the evening.
Weird Attitude
Mannies said that although both the other couple and he tried to ignore the man, they felt uncomfortable as he was "overtly invested" in the conversation. "We felt watched," Mannies said. "He wasn't talking to the bartenders. He was there alone. It just stood out as odd."
However, the night ended and Mannies didn't sport anything further suspicious about the man. Later, when bodycam footage of Laundrie and Gabby began circulating online, Mannies said he recognized Laundrie, who was questioned by cops due to an alleged domestic disturbance in Utah.
"Just the way he carried himself and I heard his voice, it was him," Mannies said. Following Petito's death and the manhunt for Laundrie, Mannies, a former deputy in Southern Parish, La., contacted the FBI about the sighting and spoke with them for around 45 minutes.
If the man Mannies spoke to was indeed Laundrie, it was just a day before Petito was reportedly last seen alive on at a restaurant in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, around 120 miles from the bar where Mannies believes he saw him.
Gabby Petito was reported missing on September 11 by her parents and her remains were found in Wyoming just a week later. However, Laundrie vanished just days before that.
Laundrie is being hunted by the FBI, and an arrest warrant has been issued for the 23-year-old, whose parents say he was last seen September 14. Meanwhile, there have been reports of over a dozen sightings of Laundrie since then, with the FBI investigating several of them.
