**For previous coverage, watch below.
(WJW) — The attorney for Brian Laundrie’s family slammed TV host John Walsh Thursday over theories he shared about Brian Laundrie’s whereabouts during a special report on the Gabby Petito case.
Walsh, host of “In Pursuit with John Walsh,” said in a new interview he believes Laundrie could be in Mexico but that wherever he is, he believes his parents are helping him.
“The parents are what’s keeping him out there,” Walsh said Wednesday on “Gabby Petito: ID Special Report.”
In response, the Laundrie’s attorney, Steve Bertolino, told FOX News, “Dusty relics like that Dog and John Walsh need a tragic situation like this so they can clear the cobwebs off their names and give their publicity-hungry egos some food.”
FOX News reports that a spokesperson said Walsh had no comment on the lawyer’s attack.
However, Duane “Dog” Chapman, more commonly known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, did.
“It’s ironic that Mr. Bertolino would criticize the people trying to find Brian Laundrie, unless perhaps he doesn’t want him to be found,” Chapman told FOX News.
NewsNation reports that Bertolino issued a statement on Wednesday via text, calling Petito’s death a tragedy, but doubled down on Laundrie being only a person of interest in her death.
Brian Laundrie has been named a person of interest in the death of Gabby Petito, who died sometime after Aug. 25 while they were on a cross-country road trip. Petito died by manual strangulation/throttling. Laundrie is currently missing.
Authorities have searched for him in Florida’s Carlton Reserve, where his parents told them he could be.
Walsh said in a clip from his interview posted on The Daily Mail that he believes Laundrie either hiding out in the park or that he went to Mexico.
“It’s a great time to be heading south, there’s thousands of refugees…he could walk across the border naked with his hair on fire and no one would notice him. I think that maybe where he’s hiding, and somebody might be helping him,” said Walsh.
But Walsh also said he’s gotten many tips that Laundrie could be hiding on the Appalachian Trail.
“I don’t think Brian is that good of a survivalist,” he said.
He gotten yet other tips that Laundrie has been seen in the Bahamas.
“I’m banking on the Mexico thing, or they’re dropped him somewhere where someone is paying for him, but the parents are what’s keeping him out there,” said Walsh.