Brian Laundrie manhunt: Woman in Wyoming says she picked him up hitchhiking

EXCLUSIVE: A second woman has come forward to say she gave a hitchhiking Brian Laundrie a ride in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on Aug. 29, two days after Gabby Petito was last seen.

The first woman, Miranda Baker, said in videos posted to TikTok on Sept. 17 that she and her boyfriend picked up Laundrie, 23, at 5:30 p.m. MST on Aug. 29 after spotting him hitchhiking on the side of the road. She said she spoke with police about the encounter.

Norma Jean Jalovec, a seasonal Wyoming resident from Florida, told Fox News Digital on Friday that after seeing Baker's TikTok video, she realized she had also picked up Laundrie on Aug. 29 and dropped him off around 6:30 or 6:40 MST at the Spread Creek dispersed camping area, where Petito's remains were discovered weeks later.

Jalovec said she spontaneously decided to visit a Catholic church called Chapel of the Sacred Heart in Grand Teton National Park that Sunday for its 5 p.m. MST service. The church is about 1.2 miles from Jackson Lake Dam, where Baker said she dropped Laundrie off after he "freaked out" and asked to get out of the couple's Jeep.

Jalovec said she picked him up around 6:15 or 6:20 past the dam on a stretch of road toward Spread Creek. He was walking backward and holding out his thumb, like so many do in that area of the National Park, she told Fox News.

"I picked him up…" Jelovec said. "… Something just said, 'Hey, ask him where he’s going.'"

Laundrie, who sat in the passenger seat of Jalovec's 4Runner, asked if she was going to Jackson. When she told him no because she lives in the opposite direction, he asked her if she'd drop him off at the Spread Creek dispersed camping area, which she agreed to, Jalovec said.

Spread Creek is about a 20-minute drive from the dam.

"Everything's legitimate. Everything's corroborated. I already talked to the FBI," Jalovec said, adding that she didn't realize she had given a ride to Laundrie until after she saw Baker's TikTok video and emphasized the important role social media has played in helping to solve this case.

Baker similarly explained in her video that she realized it was the 23-year-old person of interest in Petito's missing person case after watching videos on TikTok.

Jalovec described having the same small talk with Laundrie that Baker reported in her TikTok. He told her that he spent ... (Read more)

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