Brian Laundrie ‘was likely dead TWO DAYS after Gabby was reported missing’
BRIAN Laundrie likely died just two days after his fiancé Gabby Petito was reported missing by her mother, police believe.
North Port Police spokesperson Joshua Taylor told "there is a very good possibility" the 23-year-old fugitive died on September 13 - the same day he told his parents he was going hiking in Carlton Reserve but never came home.
Two days earlier, on September 11, Gabby was reported missing by her mother in New York.
The 22-year-old vlogger had been on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie when she vanished sometime around August 27.
Laundrie returned home to Florida alone on September 1, offering no explanation for where Gabby was, and immediately retained an attorney.
Investigators began monitoring him on September 12, secretly planting cameras around his parents' home.
On September 13, North Port Police watched Brian leave his parent's home in his grey Mustang, Taylor said.
Two days later, investigators thought they saw him return to the family home in the same car.
Amid increasing media attention, North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison told reporters on Sept. 16 that police were confident about where Brian was.
"All I'm going to say is I know where Brian Laundrie is at," Garrison said during a press conference.
HUGE BLUNDER
However, the next day, Brian was reported missing by his parents who said they hadn't seen him since Sept. 14. That date was later revised to Sept. 13 in a statement issued by the family's attorney.
"When the family reported him on Friday, that was certainly news to us that they had not seen him," Taylor told WINK. "We thought we'd seen Brian initially come back into that home on that Wednesday."
Taylor said the department now believes it was Laundrie's mother, Roberta, wearing a baseball cap, who they saw getting out of his Mustang on Sept. 15.
"They had returned from the park with that Mustang. 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." Taylor added.
"So the individual getting out with a baseball hat, we thought was Brian," he said. "They are built kind of similarly.
"No case is perfect," he continued.
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Taylor later told PEOPLE that the "misidentification did not have a big impact" on their investigation.
"Other than confusion, it likely changed nothing," he said. "There is a very good possibility that Brian was already deceased. He still needed to be found. We just wanted people to better understand why we thought we knew Brian was in his home."
BRIAN'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH
Laundrie's skeletal remains were located October 20 in Florida's Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, which is adjacent to the Carlton Reserve.
The results of an autopsy on Brian's remains, found near his backpack and notebook, were inconclusive.
His remains are now with a forensic pathologist who is expected to return results in two or three weeks, the Laundrie family attorney said.
Petito, meanwhile, was confirmed to have been strangled to death by a "human force."
Her remains were found in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park on September 19. Coroners determined that she'd been killed around three to four weeks earlier.
Gabby's family has not yet spoken publicly since Brian's remains were found.
Through their attorney, Laundrie family revealed that they will be cremating their son's ashes and forgoing a funeral.
His family left their homes in North Port on Oct. 24 to grieve together in an undisclosed location in Florida.
Chris and Roberta Laundrie returned to their home on Oct. 26.
Brian has never been named a suspect in Gabby's death but is the sole person of interest in the case.
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He was also wanted on bank fraud charges after allegedly racking up $1,000 in charges on a credit card belonging to Gabby in the days after she was killed.
An investigation into Brian's cause of death and Gabby's murder remains active and ongoing.
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.
- October 21: The FBI confirmed the remains found have been identified as Laundrie's.
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