A new report is revealing how police lost track of Brian Laundrie. As Mamas Uncut previously reported, Laundrie disappeared on September 13 after he returned to his home in Florida on September 1.
Laundrie and his fiancé Gabby Petito had been on a cross-country trip in a white Ford van that they modified together. However, Laundrie returned to Florida without Petito, who lost contact with her parents in August.
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By September 11, Petito was officially reported missing and her body was discovered in Wyoming on September 19. It wasn’t known to police that Brian had also disappeared until September 17, one day after North Port police told the public that they were aware of Laundrie’s whereabouts.
As his parents revealed to the police on September 17, Laundrie left to go on a hike on September 13 and never returned. Now, the North Port police are revealing how they managed to lose track of him.
North Port Police Spokesperson Josh Taylor Says They Thought They Were Surveilling Brian Laundrie
In a report obtained by People, Josh Taylor revealed to WINK that police had been tracking Laundrie after Petito had been officially reported missing. However, somewhere down the line, someone got confused.
According to Taylor, police had surveillance cameras set up around the Laundries’ home to help them keep their eyes on Brian. However, after investigators saw Laundrie leave his parents’ home in his grey Mustang on September 13, they saw the vehicle return to the home two days later.
Investigators believed they saw Brian get out of the mustang, but they now realized it wasn’t Brian at all. As it turns out, the person who got out of the car was Brian’s mother, Roberta Laundrie.
“They’re kind of built similarly,” Taylor told WINK before talking about the moment his parents told authorities that they hadn’t seen him in days. “That was certainly news to us that they had not seen him.”
“We thought that we [had] seen Brian initially come back into that home on that Wednesday. But, we now know that that wasn’t true.”
According to Taylor, while wearing a ball cap, Roberta drove Brian’s car back from the park. “So, who does that? Right? Like, if you think your son’s missing since Tuesday, you’re going to bring his car back to the home? So it didn’t make sense that anyone would do that if he wasn’t there. So the individual getting out with a baseball cap we thought was Brian.”
It was a costly mistake, as WINK reports, in more ways than one. “No case is perfect,” Taylor said.
Over one month later, on October 20, Brian’s skeletal remains were discovered at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. His dry bag and notebook were also recovered.
Brian Laundrie’s cause of death has been labeled as “inconclusive,” and as the Laundrie’s attorney Steven Bertolino revealed, his family will not be having a memorial for their son.
The investigation into Gabby Petito’s homicide by manual strangulation is still ongoing. Laundrie was the only person of interest.