Laundrie lookalike ambushed at gunpoint
Image: Instagram and Facebook
A New Yorker bearing an uncanny resemblance to Brian Laundrie had a rude shock when US Marshals on the hunt for the fugitive pulled their guns on him during a nap on the Appalachian Trial.
Ithaca couple Severin Beckwith and Anna Brettmann were taking a nap at the Lodge at Fontana Village Resort after lunch when they heard a knock and seconds later their door flew open.
“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 Fox News.
The stunned hiker was promptly handcuffed as one of the feds helped Brettman get dressed.
Beckwith, who resembles Brian Laundrie, the sole person of interest in his girlfriend, Gabby Petito’s murder, said he had a hunch why he was targeted on the Appalachian Trail, where tipsters have reported spotting the 23-year-old fugitive.
The look-a-like told the New Yorker that one of the agents touched the side of his head and said he had a “notch in the upper part of my inner ear, just like his”.
Making matters worse for Beckwith, was that he and Brettman, who had been hiking from Georgia to Virigina since late September – had booked their room with a credit card connected to an Empire State ID, the outlet said. Gabby was originally from Long Island.
Gabby and Brian together. Image: Instagram.
Beckwith was quickly cleared because he didn’t have Laundrie’s telltale tattoos and he produced an ID that ruled him out as the wanted man.
Following the marshals’ advice, Beckwith shaved his beard – but quickly regretted it “because I have much less of a chin that Laundrie does”.
Beckwith suspects that an employee at Fontana Lake marina alerted the authorities to his presence and even snapped his photo, which a marshal showed the guest after breaking down the door.
For their trouble, the lodge provided the couple with a free night’s stay and a complimentary breakfast.
Last month, another Laundrie lookalike became a TikTok sensation overnight.
The unidentified man, who created the @notbrianlaundrie account was seen doing his laundry in one clip and asking another TikToker for tips on how to avoid being “attacked” for being confused with the fugitive.
Meanwhile, a woman who pioneered the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit told Fox News that the argument between Laundrie and Petito that people witnessed at Wyoming eatery in August may hold the key to the woman’s fate.
“The restaurant incidient… is the second and most important,” Ann Wolbert Burgess told Fox News about two incidents that she raised as red flags before Petito’s death.
The second incident being the domestic dispute called on August the 12th in Moab, Utah. Burgess is the author of “A killer by Design: Murders, Mindhunters, and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal.”
“How she has to apologise for his behaviour is something that’s kind of characteristic, and this probably enrages him even more because he wants to appear in a certain way,” Burgess said of the incident at Merry Piglets, a Jackson Hole restaurant.
Nina Celie Angelo, a photographer who witnessed the incident at the eatery, recently told Fox News Digital she believed Laundrie was arguing with staff over the bill or about money. She said his body language appeared “aggressive” and that he left and returned several times.