SWIFT FIND
BRIAN Laundrie's parents were caught on camera yesterday briefly searching a patch of bushes at a Florida nature reserve before suddenly emerging with a mysterious white bag filled with their fugitive son's items.
Chris and Roberta Laundrie joined police in a search of Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, which is adjacent to Carton Reserve, on Wednesday morning as they hunted for Brian who vanished on September 13.
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The couple, who have been under fierce scrutiny, left their North Port home at 7.15am local time for the park, where two men in hiking gear began trailing them, according to a Fox News report.
Chris and Roberta were seen moving in and out of areas of the brush, before separating for roughly 12 minutes when Chris lead the two men into the brush on the left side of a trail.
He returned without the cops and the couple continued on. A video captured by Fox shows Chris wading through another patch of bushes while Roberta stands motionless in the middle of a trail, staring off in the opposite direction.
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The video then cuts to Chris holding the white bag while speaking to Roberta out of earshot from police.
They could be seen putting a dark object inside the bag before handing it over to the officers.
The couple reportedly made a phone call and then received a call, before Chris and Roberta were seen talking with the officer in footage in which Laundrie's dad appeared to shed a tear after being told "I think we found something."
They then left the park at 8.45am, less than 90 minutes after arriving.
REMAINS FOUND
It was later revealed that police had found human remains near a backpack and notebook belonging to 23-year-old Brian.
The remains have not yet been identified, by the Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino told CNN there's a "strong probability" they belong to Brian.
"The probability is strong that it is Brian's remains, but we're going to wait for the forensic results to come in and verify that," Bertolino told Chris Cuomo.
Bertolino also explained that it was Chris who found Brian's white plastic bag while police discovered his backpack and the human remains.
"Chris didn't want to pick the bag up because he wanted law enforcement to see it," Bertolino said. "This was caught on camera.
"Chris couldn't find the law enforcement because they were then out of sight, because Chris had been in the woods, so he didn't want to leave the bag there with the news reporter standing nearby, so he picked it up."
Once he found the item, Bertolino insists that Chris informed authorities.
"They looked at the contents of the bag," the lawyer explained.
"At that time, law enforcement officers showed him a picture on the phone of a backpack that law enforcement had located also nearby, and also some distance off the trail."
The Laundries were then asked to leave the park as investigators continued combing the area.
"At that point, the Laundries were notified that there was also remains near the backpack and they were asked to leave the reserve."
'HOGWASH'
The attorney called it “hogwash” to suggest the parents planted Brian’s possessions in the swamp, explaining that they were both being shadowed by reporters and police.
He said the area where the remains and belongings were found was the same location Chris and Roberta had told cops to search a month ago.
“Indeed, this is the very area of the park that we initially informed law enforcement, on I believe it was September 17th, that Brian would be most likely in the preserve,” Bertolino said.
“Mr. Laundrie informed me that it was quite near the entrance... He put a time frame of about 30 minutes in.
“A mile or two into the reserve.”
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The specific location in the vast alligator and insect-infested swampland had been mostly submerged in hurricane-soaking water back in September when authorities launched the manhunt for Brian.
Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce, however, told ABC7 that he found the timing of the discovery "quite strange."
'STRANGE TURNS'
The park had only been reopened to the public on Tuesday, having been shuttered for a month amid the police search. The next day, Chris and Roberta arrived and led police to the area of discovery.
"There are just too many strange turns that Chris and Roberta Laundrie haven't been involved in it to not believe that something is amiss here," Boyce said.
"The day the park reopens, they go into this specific area ... they go to this exact spot and they find the backpack and they identify the backpack from what I understand and the notebook in this particular area, so it's quite strange," Boyce said.
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He added that there are a lot of details in the case that currently aren't adding up.
"So, they go to this one location, this remote location where it's a path where people go by ... and they're being told by the FBI agent that all of a sudden we found something, we found the remains ... so there's a lot of things here that don't add up to coincidence, so you wonder how they got there and what they knew all along," Boyce said.
"But for them to go to that exact location, it's very, very strange, in that big park ... did they know more, were they holding back? That will be determined in the next couple days I think."
Chris and Roberta Laundrie, branded the "most hated parents in America" on social media, have been under intense scrutiny since the remains of Brian's fiancee, Gabby Petito, were found on September 19.
LAWYER TAKES BLAME
Much of the public anger, which has included protests outside of their home, has been spurred by their weeks-long refusal to cooperate with police.
Bertolino explained that the reason why the parents waited until Wednesday to help in the search for their son.
"The parents had assumed that the experts, the FBI and all the tracking teams they had, would be able to locate Brian based upon the information that we had provided them to the specific areas and trails in the park that Brian liked to visit," he said.
The attorney made it clear that it was him that had urged them not to speak with police and exercise their right to remain silent.
"They know it's been hard," he said on CNN. "But ultimately, you know, this is the advice I gave them. This is the advice they're taking, and that's on me.
"I'm the one who told them not to talk," he added. "That's been on me from day one. That's not on the family."
Police have not yet said when they expect to identify the remains they found on Wednesday.
BRIAN'S TIMELINE
Brian has been on the run since September 13, two days after Gabby Petito was reported missing by her mother in New York.
Her remains were discovered at a campsite in Teton County, Wyoming on September 19.
A coroner later ruled that she had been strangled to death by a "human force" and that she'd been killed between three to four weeks before she was found.
The pair had been on a cross-country road trip touring the US' national parks at the time of Gabby's death.
Brian has not been named as a suspect but is the only named person of interest in the case.
He returned home to Florida without her on September 1 in the couple's repurposed van before disappearing himself 12 days later.
Brian's parents initially claimed to have last seen him on September 14 but later revised that date in a statement issued through their attorney.
After finally reporting him missing on September 17, they told police they had driven to the reserve in search of him.
While they say they didn't find Brian, they did find his silver Ford Mustang and drove it back to their home before contacting the cops the next day.
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Chris and Roberta Laundrie are not currently facing any charges in relation to the case.
An investigation continues.
Laundrie notebook could reveal Gabby murder TRUTH claims behaviour analyst
Gabby Petito timeline
Gabby Petito, 22, was last seen on August 24, leaving a hotel in Utah. Here is a timeline of Gabby Petito's disappearance:
- June 2021 - Gabby Petito and her fiancé Brian Laundrie set off on a cross-country trip across the US.
- July 4 - Gabby posts photos of herself barefoot in Gove County, Kansas.
- July 8 - Gabby posts photos of herself at the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.
- July 18 - Gabby and Brian post photos of themselves at Utah's Zion National Park.
- August 12 - Body camera footage was released in September showing an encounter Brian and Gabby had with police in Utah. Police confirmed that no significant injuries were reported.
- August 19 - Gabby and Brian post a video on their YouTube channel chronicling their trip.
- August 24 - Gabby is spotted leaving a hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- August 25 - Gabby Facetimes her mom, Nichole Schmidt, for the final time. In a later police report, Schmidt said her conversations with her daughter revealed "more and more tension" between her and Brian.
- August 25 - Gabby also posts her last Instagram. No location is given.
- August 27 - Gabby is seen for what's believed to be the final time. Witnesses claim they saw Brian in an explosive argument with staff at a restaurant in Jackson Hole, leaving Gabby in tears.
- August 27 - Four hours later, travel bloggers driving through Grand Teton National Park drive past the couple's van "abandoned" on a dirt road.
- September 1 - Brian returns home to Florida without Gabby.
- September 11 - Gabby's parents report her missing to Suffolk County police.
- September 14 - Brian's family issues a statement saying he has retained an attorney and will not be cooperating with investigators.
- September 14 - Brian is allegedly last seen by his family. He reportedly told them he was going hiking in Cartlon Reserve but failed to return.
- September 15 - Florida's North Port police announce Brian is a person of interest in the case. He is not charged with any crime.
- September 16 - Utah police release body camera footage of the police encounter with Brian and Gabby.
- September 17 - Brian's parents say they have not seen their son in a couple of days and report him missing.
- September 18 - Police announce they were searching Carlton Reserve in Florida for Brian. Police announce they have not found anything.
- September 19 - Authorities in Wyoming say they found a body in Grand Teton National Park. The FBI announces the body was believed to be Gabby's but a full forensic identification needs to be completed first to confirm.
- September 20 - Police execute a search warrant on Laundrie's home, seizing his silver Mustang and a hard drive that may contain "evidence relevant to proving that a felony has been committed."
- September 21 - Officials announce they will be conducting an autopsy on the remains found in Wyoming to confirm whether or not they belong to Gabby. Police also resumed their search for Laundrie, this time on the Venice side of Carlton Reserve.
- September 21 - The FBI announced the body found in Wyoming was identified as Gabby's. The cause of death was not yet revealed.
- September 21 - The Teton County Coroner's office said Gabby's official cause of death was still pending but the initial manner of death is homicide.
- September 22 - Police continue to scour Carlton Reserve for a trace of Laundrie but yield no leads. A specialist dive team is called in to assist with the hunt.
- September 23 - Officials announced a federal arrest warrant for Brian was issued.
- September 26 - Gabby's funeral was held on Long Island, New York.
- October 12: Gabby's autopsy results were made public. Teton County Coroner Dr Brent Blue confirmed Gabby died by strangulation.
- October 20: Laundrie's personal items were found at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. A medical examiner was called to the scene.
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