(WASHINGTON) — Women’s rights advocates are preparing to march again in Washington, D.C., and other cities across the U.S. this weekend, with a focus on reproductive rights.
The fifth annual Women’s March will take place on Saturday, a date specifically chosen for its proximity to the start of the U.S. Supreme Court’s new term — Oct. 4, the first Monday in October.
Women’s March organizers said the restrictive abortion law that went into effect in Texas in September motivated them to act now.
The law, which bans nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, went into effect after the Supreme Court rejected a request by Texas abortion providers to block the law as legal challenges continued.
“When the Supreme Court rejected an emergency request to block Texas’s abortion ban, they effectively took the next step towards overturning Roe v. Wade. Simply put: We are witnessing the most dire threat to abortion access in our lifetime,” reads a statement on the Women’s March website.
The Supreme Court also is scheduled to hear in December oral arguments in a case that could be the most consequential abortion rights case in decades. The state of Mississippi is asking the justices to overturn longstanding legal precedent that restrictions on abortion access before a fetus is viable outside the womb — around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy — are categorically unconstitutional. Mississippi wants to ban abortions after 15 weeks, or even earlier.
Reproductive rights advocates call the case, which centers around Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi’s last remaining abortion clinic, an existential threat to American abortion rights not seen in nearly 50 years.
This year’s protest will follow in the footsteps of Women’s March protests that have taken place every year since 2017, when the first march drew more than a million people to various locations across the U.S. the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
The protests have dwindled in size since the first march, but have continued across the country.
As women take to the streets this year to march, in addition to battles over reproductive rights, women have also experienced disproportionate job loss during the coronavirus pandemic and faced greater caregiving burdens than male counterparts, data shows.
Women’s March organizers said that in addition to the Washington, D.C., march, there will be smaller marches from Bangor, Maine, and the way to Seattle.
The Washington march will begin at Freedom Plaza and continue along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Supreme Court building.
Busy Phillips, who has spoken publicly about having an abortion at age 15, is among the speakers confirmed for the Washington march.
Newly released police body cam footage shows the moments before a white police officer attempted to tackle a Black woman walking her dog in a closed park, allegedly unprovoked.
Nikkita Brown said that on Aug. 28 the officer drove up to her as she was walking her dog in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago and told her to leave the area immediately. She said that she was walking out of the park, adhering to his instructions, when the incident occurred.
The video shows that the officer identified himself and showed his badge at Brown’s request. It also shows that Brown repeatedly asked the maskless officer to remain within six feet of her, citing concerns over potential exposure to COVID-19.
“Please don’t. Please respect my space. It’s COVID. Six feet,” Brown said.
“Respect your space? I’m about to put handcuffs on you,” the officer replied.
Brown said she consistently told him, “I am leaving” and “I am walking away,” as she actively walked toward the exit, but he got out of his car and continued to follow her.
The officer got out of his car and told her, “You can go to jail,” according to a video taken by Brown who recorded part of the encounter.
Brown’s attorney identified the officer as Bruce Dyker through his badge.
A Chicago Police Department spokesperson told ABC News earlier this month, “The officer in question has been placed on desk duty as the COPA investigates the video.”
At one point during the argument with Brown — while she had her phone out to record — Dyker ran toward her and attempted to tackle her.
The physical struggle between the two lasted for more than a minute and Dyker repeatedly threatened to arrest Brown. In the end, no arrest was made.
Brown told Good Morning America earlier this month that she believes she was targeted because she’s Black and said she hopes that her speaking out will stop others from being targeted.
“I walked past four kids that were behind me … white males. As soon as I saw the car pull up, I looked behind me to see if he said anything to the kids. He didn’t,” Brown said.
The bodycam video was released last Thursday by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), the group investigating the incident.
A COPA spokesperson told ABC News that the investigation is ongoing and once it concludes, COPA will send recommendations to the Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown to review.
“Ultimately. we want him fired, given this incident and his horrible disciplinary record,” Brown’s attorney, Keenan Saulter, told ABC News.
Dyker has 24 allegations of misconduct filed against him, three of which resulted in discipline.
(NEW YORK) — A new study on fatal police violence shows more than half of killings by police were left unreported in the last 40 years, and that Black Americans were estimated to be 3.5 times more likely to die from police violence than white Americans.
Researchers compared data from the National Vital Statistics System — a federal tracker of deaths in the United States — with three independent, non-government, open-source databases: Fatal Encounters, Mapping Police Violence and The Counted.
From 1980 to 2019, there were 30,800 deaths from police violence, which is 17,100 more deaths than the NVSS reported, according to the study by researchers from the University of Washington and published in the Lancet.
The study found that the NVSS underreported 55.5% of these deaths overall, but that percentage rose to 59.1% when reporting deaths among Black Americans.
“Police violence and racism is really a public health problem,” senior author Mohsen Naghavi told ABC News.
The NVSS did not respond to ABC news’ request for comment.
The rate of police killings for non-Hispanic Black victims was about 3.5 times higher than that of non-Hispanic white people, and Hispanics were 1.8 times more likely to be killed by police violence than non-Hispanic white people.
The study confirms a pattern of systemic racism in policing, predominantly burdening communities of color, the study’s co-author Eve Wool says.
“Even when unarmed, Black Americans experienced disproportionately high levels of police contact, even for crimes that Black and white folks committed at the same rates,” Wool told ABC News.
Open-source data, which is compiled from open access sources, like news articles and public records, are typically more comprehensive when it comes to tracking these kinds of incidences, according to Neghavi and Wool.
Even with more comprehensive data, they say, there is a lot more research to be done on police violence.
The study didn’t take into account the non-fatal victims or incidences of police brutality, and the binary gender identifiers in the data didn’t allow for analysis of gender-based discrimination against people of transgender or nonbinary identities.
(ORLANDO) — The FBI has joined the search for 19-year-old Florida college student Miya Marcano as her desperate family said they suspect she was kidnapped from her apartment a week ago.
Marcano, a student at Valencia College in Orlando, was last seen at her apartment complex on Sept. 18 and a man Orange County Sheriff John Mina named Thursday as a “prime suspect” in her disappearance was found dead from an apparent suicide after investigators searched his home and car.
“We’re just ready to bring her home, but we need everyone’s help. We need every resource at this point,” Marcano’s aunt, Semone Westmaas, told ABC affiliate station WFTV in Orlando.
Mina said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that 60 detectives from his agency’s Criminal Investigations Division are working exclusively on this case.
“I know that Miya’s family and her loved ones are going through unimaginable anguish as they try and find out what happened to Miya,” Mina said. “Hundreds of sworn and civilian personnel here at the sheriff’s office and beyond have been working around the clock to employ all the resources at our disposal to find Miya.”
Sheriff investigators initially named Armando Manuel Caballero, a maintenance employee at the Arden Villas apartments where Marcano lives as a person of interest in her disappearance. Authorities said Caballero had expressed a romantic interest in Marcano but she rebuffed his advances.
Investigators said the 27-year-old Caballero possessed a key fob to access apartments and his was used at Marcano’s unit just before her disappearance.
Caballero was found dead on Monday in his apartment from an apparent suicide.
“We believe that the suspect that we had named, Armando Caballero, is responsible. We don’t know all the circumstances involved in what happened there, but he was obviously the prime suspect,” Mina said.
He said that at this time investigators do not believe another person was involved in the disappearance of Marcano, but have not entirely ruled out that possibility.
Mina said the sheriff’s office Emergency Response Team and personnel from other law enforcement agencies have conducted nearly 30 searches since Marcano went missing across three different counties. He said at least 175 people have been involved in the searches.
The sheriff said his agency reached out to the FBI for assistance and that the federal agency has provided resources.
“We are working with the FBI and they are assisting in this case. I’ll just say in a manner of technology at this point,” Mina said.
He announced the FBI’s involvement after Marcano’s loved ones called on the bureau to help in the case.
Mina said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has also loaned investigators a K-9 unit that is trained to search for electronics, specifically cellphones.
Deputies were seen on Wednesday combing through storage facilities at the Arden Villas apartments in Orlando, where Marcano also works, and searching a nearby wooded area.
Marcano was last seen at around 5 p.m. on Friday at her apartment complex, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Westmaas said relatives reported her missing after asking the sheriff’s department to conduct a welfare check on Marcano. She said that when she and other relatives entered Marcano’s normally tidy apartment, they found it “a mess” and discovered signs of an apparent struggle.
WFTV obtained a video of Caballero walking through the parking lot of the Arden Villas apartments after Marcano went missing, carrying what her family said resembled items belonging to her.
“We were given that video right away,” Mina said. “That video led us to be able to do a search warrant on Caballero’s apartment and vehicle.”
Mina did not disclose what evidence investigators found.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 696,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 65% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Latest headlines:
-Daily hospital admissions down 32% in last month
-NYC teachers ask Supreme Court to block school vaccine mandate
-37% of people may have at least 1 symptom months after having COVID: Study
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Sep 30, 4:33 pm
Daily hospital admissions down 32% in last month
Since the beginning of September, the U.S. has seen a drop of more than 27,000 patients in hospitals across the country, according to federal data. A little less than half of those patients come from Florida.
Daily hospital admissions are down by nearly 15% in the last week and by 32% in the last month, according to federal data.
The country’s daily case average has fallen to 107,000 — a 33% drop in the last month. However, about 97% of counties are still reporting “high” or “substantial” community transmission.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Sep 30, 4:02 pm
Aladdin on Broadway to resume after COVID cancellation
Aladdin will return to Broadway Thursday night after Wednesday’s show was canceled due to several people in the production testing positive for COVID-19.
All members of Disney Theatrical’s companies must be vaccinated.
“Our extensive protocol system to test our employees and identify positive cases worked, and allowed us to act immediately to contain those cases,” production said. “Given the thoroughness of our Covid protocols and a vaccinated workforce, we remain confident that the environment is safe for our guests, cast, crew and musicians.”
Disney Theatrical Productions is a part of the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC News.
Sep 30, 3:39 pm
NYC teachers ask Supreme Court to block school vaccine mandate
A group of New York City public school teachers asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to block the city’s vaccine mandate for school employees, claiming it violates their due process and equal protection rights.
The unvaccinated teachers said they should be given an option to regularly test rather than forced to get the shot and they accused the city of failing to explain why that alternative was not made available.
“If permitted to take effect, the August 23 Order will force thousands of unvaccinated public-school employees to lose their jobs — while other municipal employees, including those who have significant contact with children, are allowed to opt-out of the vaccine mandate through weekly COVID-19 testing,” the petition said.
“While a temporary interruption of work is not actionable, the mandate here would have a permanent effect: it is open-ended, where if a teacher never gets vaccinated, he or she will never be able to return to work,” the petition said.
A federal appeals court earlier this week dissolved a temporary injunction and allowed the mandate to stand. The city has given school employees until Friday afternoon to comply before enforcement begins Monday.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Sep 30, 3:22 pm
Africa making modest vaccination gains: WHO
Out of the African continent’s 1.3 billion population, 60 million people have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
Fifteen African countries met the WHO’s goal to fully vaccinate at least 10% of residents by Sept. 30. (Nearly 90% of high-income countries have met this target.)
Twenty-three million vaccines arrived in Africa in September, 10 times the number delivered in June. COVAX is working to identify countries that can absorb large volumes of vaccines.
COVID-19 cases in Africa are on the decline. There were 74,000 new cases reported the week of Sept. 16, a 35% drop from the previous week.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 695,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 65% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 30, 10:07 am
NY hospital system nearly 100% vaccinated after letting go ‘few hundred employees’
Northwell Health, New York state’s largest health care system, says its workforce of more than 77,000 is now “near 100%” vaccinated after letting go “a few hundred employees” who refused to get the mandated shot.
Northwell Health said, “we are pleased to report that most team members are opting to be vaccinated so as to avoid being terminated.”
Sep 30, 9:40 am
37% of people may have at least 1 symptom months after having COVID: Study
A new study finds 37% of COVID-19 patients had at least one symptom three to six months later. The most typical symptoms included breathlessness, fatigue, abdominal pain, depression and anxiety.
Researchers from the University of Oxford analyzed millions of medical records, comparing long-haul symptoms after COVID-19 to long-haul symptoms after the flu. A significant portion of people who had the flu also experienced symptoms three to six months later, but far more people who recovered from COVID-19 experienced at least one long-haul symptom.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has launched several large research studies to look into why long-haul symptoms happen to some people and how to treat them.
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke with ABC News Live Wednesday about the vaccination status among NBA players.
The league, which has not implemented a mandate among team members, said 90% of all players are vaccinated. However, some of the holdouts include stars like Bradley Beal and Andrew Wiggins.
Abdul-Jabbar told ABC News’ Phil Lipof that he believes the players refusing to get vaccinated are being “very irresponsible.”
“If you care for your family or the people that you work with, and have to spend a lot of time with, you will get vaccinated,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
He added that this should especially be true among Black athletes, noting that COVID-19 has affected Black Americans the most, so promoting vaccinations is important for the community.
“It’s like an extension of Black Lives Matter,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Most of the people who are dying are black people. Most of the people who are losing their jobs and being negatively affected in other ways economically are Black Americans. So the Black community, who has a great communication going on with their athletes, they need to get wise to this and Black athletes can do a lot to to change the template.”
Sep 29, 8:06 pm
Aladdin Broadway show canceled after several test positive for COVID
Producers for Aladdin on Broadway canceled Wednesday’s show after several people in the production tested positive for COVID-19.
Disney Theatrical Productions announced the cancellation just 30 minutes before the start of the show, saying “Through our rigorous testing protocols, breakthrough COVID-19 cases have been detected within the company of ‘Aladdin’ at the New Amsterdam Theater.”
The production resumed on Tuesday after shutting down for nearly a year and a half. The Broadway League issued a vaccine mandate for all of its casts and crews before productions resumed this month.
Disney Theatrical Productions is a part of the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC News.
Sep 29, 6:25 pm
West Virginia is in the eye if the COVID storm, governor says
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice offered yet another urgent plea Wednesday for residents to get vaccinated, as the state continues to struggle through its COVID-19 latest surge.
“There’s absolutely every reason to believe we’re right in the eye of the storm. We’re right at the peak of the surge right now,” Justice said in a news conference. “We’re going to lose a bunch more people.”
Only 48.1% of West Virginians have had one dose of the vaccine as of Wednesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
ICU capacity is currently at a record high, with nearly 300 patients receiving critical care, according to Justice.
“We can’t have all these people just die in vain and have this just continue to go and continue to go,” he said.
Justice explained that although he does not believe in mandates, all he can “possibly do with a good conscience,” is to continue to urge everyone in the community to get vaccinated.
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of health care workers across the country are being fired or suspended in droves for not complying with COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
President Joe Biden announced earlier this month a vaccine mandate for health care facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, impacting some 17 million health care workers in the nation.
States including New York, California, Rhode Island and Connecticut also set vaccine mandates for health care workers that take effect this week.
But there are brewing concerns over staff shortages at already-overburdened hospitals still grappling with COVID-19 cases. Some hospital networks said they’ve ramped up hiring ahead of vaccine deadlines to stabilize their workforces.
ABC News contributor John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and professor at Harvard Medical School, noted that while overall the number of health care workers being terminated or suspended isn’t huge, at the same time, “we can’t afford to lose anybody at this point.”
“By and large, vaccine mandates are working. Those in health care are taking these vaccine incredibly seriously to protect themselves and their patients.” Brownstein said. “We’re seeing a greater need of health care — there was a lot of deferred care for elective surgeries and behavioral health — juxtaposed with existing shortages of health care workers. Any impact is going to create even more pressure on health care systems.”
In the South and West
In North Carolina, the Novant Health hospital system, which has over 35,000 employees across 15 hospitals and over 800 clinics, fired around 175 of its workers for failing to get vaccinated, officials told ABC News.
Approximately 375 team members were noncompliant with the vaccine mandate last week and were given a five-day suspension period to get a COVID-19 shot.
Over the course of the week, nearly 200 additional team members became in compliance, Novant Health said Monday. The hospital system now has a vaccine compliance rate of over 99%, officials said.
Employees granted medical or religious exemptions must wear masks and undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.
Novant Health CEO and president Carl Armato said in a statement that the system has been steadily adding to travel staff numbers “to meet the needs of our organization throughout the pandemic.”
“Without a vaccine mandate for team members, we faced the strong possibility of having a third of our staff unable to work due to contracting, or exposure to, COVID-19. This possibility only increases heading into a fall season with the more contagious and deadly delta variant,” he said.
In Texas, Houston Methodist Hospital, which has some 26,000 employees, saw 153 employees quit or fired over the vaccine requirement after the June 7 deadline to get the shots. Of those, 26 were nurses.
“We staffed up prior to the mandate so that we would be much better prepared when our June 7 deadline arrived, and then we had the fourth surge in Houston starting in July. We continue to hire positions as needed, so we’ve not had any major turnover or staffing concerns,” hospital spokesperson Lisa Merkl told ABC News.
In California, health workers have until Thursday to be fully inoculated.
At Cedars-Sinai, based in Los Angeles with almost 17,000 people in its workforce, about 75% of staffers are projected to comply by the deadline. About 1% applied for medical or religious exemptions.
California Hospital Association spokesperson Jan Emerson-Shea told ABC News that the mandate comes at a time “when many hospitals are facing serious staffing shortages.”
“It’s hard to predict exactly how the vaccine mandate will play out — every hospital is implementing its own processes and procedures,” Emerson-Shea said. “While some health care workers may qualify for exemptions for either medical or religious reasons, it is possible that some health care workers may choose to leave their employment rather than get vaccinated.”
On the East Coast
In Delaware, 150 employees left ChristianaCare, a major hospital system in the state, after they failed to meet the Sept. 21 deadline to get vaccinated, the hospital announced in a Monday statement.
Approximately 200 caregivers received religious or medical accommodations and will have to wear masks and be required to undergo regular COVID-19 testing to keep working.
“In late July, we made a commitment to put the safety of our caregivers and our patients first by requiring COVID-19 vaccination for everyone who works at ChristianaCare,” CEO Dr. Janice Nevin said in a statement. “As we anticipated, a small number of caregivers chose not to be vaccinated and have left the organization.”
The hospital network has also hired more than 200 caregivers over the past month to keep the workforce afloat.
In New York, hundreds of staffers have been suspended this week and risk losing their jobs as the statewide vaccine mandate for health workers reached its first dose deadline Monday.
Northwell, the state’s largest private hospital system with over 76,000 employees, fired about two dozen “unvaccinated leaders” at the management level or above for not getting vaccinated, officials said Tuesday.
“We are now beginning the process to exit the rest of our unvaccinated staff,” Northwell said in a statement.
In New York City, about 500 nurses for NYC Health + Hospitals are not at work and have been preemptively replaced. Unvaccinated workers have been placed on unpaid leave but can return once they get their shot. A hospital spokesperson told ABC News that today over 92% of the NYC Health + Hospitals’ workforce is in compliance with the state vaccine mandate as of Wednesday.
“We anticipated there would be some losses of staff. We knew that no matter what our efforts, some people would not get vaccinated, we planned appropriately,” hospital president Dr. Mitch Katz said Tuesday.
Erie County Medical Center Corporation based in Buffalo, New York, said about 276 employees, 7% of the workforce, was on administrative leave for failing to meet the requirement.
That total includes 5% of all ECMC hospital staff and 20% of staff at the Terrace View, a long-term care facility, hospital vice president of communications and external affairs Peter Cutler told ABC News. Those who have not gotten their shots are put on a 30-day period of unpaid leave, but if they get vaccinated they can return.
Similarly, Albany Medical Center suspended 204 employees of its over 11,000-member workforce for one week starting Tuesday for not complying with the vaccine, officials said in a press conference Tuesday.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that the numbers of state health care workers getting the COVID-19 vaccine are promising with 92% of hospital staff, 92% of nursing home staff and 89% of adult care facility staff inoculated with at least one vaccine dose.
“This new information shows that holding firm on the vaccine mandate for health care workers is simply the right thing to do to protect our vulnerable family members and loved ones from COVID-19,” she said.
To grapple with any potential shortages in hospital and health care staff, Hochul signed an executive order Monday night which allows health care workers from other states and countries to practice in New York and waives re-registration fees.
(BLOOMINGTON, Ill.) — The family of Jelani Day, an Illinois grad student and aspiring doctor whose body was found floating in the Illinois River five days ago, is desperately searching for answers.
Day’s body was found on Sept. 4 and was identified by the LaSalle County Coroner on Sept. 23 through forensic dental identification and DNA testing.
“Jelani did not just disappear into thin air. Somebody knows something, somebody seen something and I need somebody to say something,” Day’s mother, Carmen Bolden Day, told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
“I’m very upset because I can’t even look at my son’s body. His body has deteriorated to the point where I can’t say a proper goodbye to him,” she said.
The 25 year-old was living in Bloomington, Illinois, and studying at Illinois State University and was reported missing by his family on Aug. 25 — two days after they had last spoken with him, according to a joint press release from police and the LaSalle County Coroner’s Office.
He was last seen at the university campus on Aug. 24 and his car was found two days later in Peru, Illinois.
Family attorney Hallie Bezner told “GMA” that Day has never been to Peru before and his family suspects foul play.
“The wallet was found in a different area. The lanyard, which it had a school ID on it was not found with the wallet, it was found in a different area — the area with some clothes that were found last week,” Bezner said.
Police in Peru are working to identify a man captured on security cameras knocking on the front door of a home that is close to the location where Day’s body was found. The video was captured a day after Day was last seen and police are urging the public to help identify the man.
The home is in an area that is predominantly white and the owner of the property said that he did not know the male captured on the home security video but after seeing images of Day on the news, sent the video to the police, thinking it could be Day.
Bolden Day said that the Black male seen in the footage is not her son, but wondered whether the man in the video could be connected to her son’s death and said she wished the video had been shared with the public sooner.
Day’s cause of death has not been determined and authorities have not yet named any suspects in Day’s death.
Bolden Day said it was frustrating to see cases like 22-year-old Gabby Petito, a travel blogger whose body was found in Wyoming, get media immediate attention, while her son’s death did not get widespread coverage until his body was identified weeks later.
“I see that Gabby is missing and I see [her] getting the help. I wasn’t getting that attention,” she said.
Since his body was identified, Day’s death has garnered the attention of celebrities like Viola Davis and Lizzo, who have helped share his story and urged the public to help in getting answers surrounding his death.
“Jelani was ambitious. He was driven. He was focused. He was energetic. He was full of life. Jelani was a person that you couldn’t help but love,” Bolden Day said.
ABC News’ Vera Drymon and Jessy Mendoza contributed to this report.
(NORTH PORT, Fla.) — A massive search is continuing in Florida for Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing on a cross-country trip and who authorities confirmed as the body discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The search for the 23-year-old Laundrie is centered around North Port, Florida, where investigators said Laundrie returned to his home on Sept. 1 without Petito but driving her 2012 Ford Transit.
Laundrie has been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. Laundrie has refused to speak to the police and has not been seen since Tuesday, Sept. 14, according to law enforcement officials.
The search for Laundrie is the latest twist in the case that has grabbed national attention as he and Petito had been traveling across the country since June, documenting the trip on social media.
Petito’s parents, who live in Long Island, New York, reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not hearing from her for two weeks.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Sep 29, 5:34 pm
Laundrie left behind new cellphone before going on hike, family attorney says
Brian Laundrie left a new cellphone at home before he went for a hike in the Carlton Reserve on Sept. 14, Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino confirmed to ABC News.
The phone was purchased on Sept. 4, Bertolino said, three days after Laundrie returned to his home in North Port from a cross-country trip. Laundrie opened an account with AT&T and the phone wasn’t a burner, Bertolino said.
The FBI now has the phone, according to Bertolino. The FBI had no comment to ABC News.
-ABC News’ Kristin Thorne and Whitney Lloyd
Sep 29, 11:00 am
Brian Laundrie and parents went camping after he returned home without Gabby Petito
The nationwide search for Brian Laundrie has turned to a Florida campground, where the wanted fugitive’s family attorney confirmed to ABC News he went camping with his parents about a week after returning home from a cross-country trip without his girlfriend, Gabby Petito.
Steven Bertolino, the attorney for the Laundrie family, said Brian Laundrie, his father, Christopher, and mother, Roberta, all went camping in early September at the Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County.
Bertolino confirmed the family went on the camping trip after ABC affiliate station WFTS in Tampa obtained the Fort De Soto Park reservation log under the Freedom of Information Act, which showed Roberta Laundrie checked in on Sept. 6 and checked out on Sept. 8.
A Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office helicopter was spotted circling Fort De Soto Park Monday night between 11:40 p.m. until 12:40 a.m., WFTS reported. The sheriff’s office only said the helicopter search of the park was part of an active investigation.
Bertolino said Laundrie returned to his family’s home in North Port, Florida, following the camping excursion. The parents, through their attorney, denied doing anything to help their son elude the FBI.
(SOUTHGATE, Mich.) — Federal investigators announced on Wednesday that they’d charged two Michigan men in a pair of unrelated schemes where each allegedly sold phony COVID-19 vaccination cards.
The defendants, one of whom is a registered nurse, allegedly sold the fraudulent cards online via social media accounts and messenger services, prosecutors said.
“Regardless of whether an individual chooses to get vaccinated, we urge everyone to avoid turning to schemes like these to evade vaccination requirements. Importing these cards is a crime. Selling these cards is a crime.” Saima Mohsin, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said in a statement.
Bethann Kierczak, 37, of Southgate, Michigan, was charged with theft of government property and theft or embezzlement related to a health care benefit program, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Kierczak, a registered nurse, allegedly stole or embezzled authentic COVID-19 vaccination record cards from a VA hospital along with vaccine lot numbers necessary to make the cards appear legitimate, prosecutors said. He allegedly sold the cards to individuals in the Detroit community for $150 to $200 each and began selling via Facebook Messenger in May.
“Since the matter of public health is so important the VA Office of Inspector General will continue to devote resources to these cases whenever and wherever they arise,” Special Agent in Charge Gregg Hirstein of the VA Office of Inspector General said in a statement.
Rapheal Jarrell Smiley, 32, of Detroit, was charged Wednesday with fraud involving department or agency seals, identity document fraud and trafficking in counterfeit goods, federal prosecutors said.
Smiley allegedly ordered fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards from two distributors in China that have been accused of supplying the phony documents, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Smiley allegedly advertised the cards for sale through his Facebook and Instagram accounts.
