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A memorial is planned Saturday for Gabby Petito in North Port, Florida, where friends will release butterflies and light candles to honor the slain Long Island native, according to a report.
“Join us for a memorial butterfly release and candle lighting in remembrance of Gabby Petito,” reads an invitation by Lisa Correll for the event called “Butterfly Wings to Heaven for Gabby,” the local Daily Sun reported.
The event in front of North Port City Hall at 4970 City Hall Blvd. will begin at 7:15 p.m.
“I just want the family to know our community loved Gabby, even if we didn’t all know her,” Correll told the paper.
Petito, 22, whose body was found in a Wyoming national park on Sunday, has been associated with butterflies since she posted shots of her standing in front of a butterfly mural holding a tiny pumpkin at The Monarch, an event venue in Ogden, Utah.
The caption simply read “Happy Halloween.”
The Monarch Mural memorial has since been visited by strangers who left flowers, lit candles and wrote messages.
In North Port, people continue to honor and remember the young woman by stopping by a tree in front of City Hall.
Philip McGowan said a prayer and left flowers on Wednesday.
“Such a horrific act … heaven has a new angel,” he told the news outlet.
Meanwhile, Petito’s family is planning a “Shine a Light for Gabby” memorial Friday night on Long Island, where she grew up in the quiet Suffolk County hamlet of Blue Point.
Organizer Jenny McNamara said they hope the memorial is an intimate event.
“We don’t want thousands of people showing up,” she told The Post. “It’s just a personal thing for the community. We are doing it in our homes. There is no mass gathering.”
On Wednesday, Petito’s stepfather visited the Wyoming campground where her remains were found and made a small memorial at the site.
James Schmidt, who is married to Petito’s mother, Nichole, was accompanied by a family friend when he left a stone cross and flowers at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, The Independent reported.
Petito’s boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, arrived back at his home in North Port without her on Sept. 1. She was reported missing to police Sept. 11 and he has disappeared.
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