Body found in Florida swamp is Brian Laundrie

Human remains found in a Florida swamp belong to Brian Laundrie, the FBI have confirmed.

The Bureau’s Denver office said on Thursday that a dental comparison on the skeletal remains confirmed they were those of Laundrie, who has been missing from his home in North Port, Florida, since mid-September.

Laundrie’s parents have been informed that their son’s body had been found, and North Port police officers were seen on Thursday afternoon arriving at the house to tell them.  

The FBI’s statement said: ‘On October 2021, a comparison of dental records confirmed that the human remains found at the T Mabry Carlton Jr Memorial Reserve and Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park are those of Brian Laundrie.’ 

Laundrie family lawyer Steve Bertolino issued a statement after the news was revealed, saying: ‘Chris and Roberta Laundrie have been informed that the remains found yesterday in the reserve are indeed Brian’s. 

‘We have no further comment at this time and we ask that you respect the Laundries’ privacy at this time.’ 

The human remains found in a Florida reserve in the search for Brian Laundrie were bones, including part of a skull.  

It is unclear how long they have been in the area. 

Laundrie vanished on September 13. 

He is the sole person of interest in the murder of his fiancee Gabby Petito, who was found strangled in a remote part of Wyoming six days after he vanished. She had not been seen alive since August 26, when she was traveling with Laundrie in Utah.  

They made the discovery of the remains along with a backpack and notebook believed to belong to Brian as his parents, Chris and Roberta, joined them in the hunt for the first time.

The lawyer representing the couple denied speculation that they may have planted the evidence.  

On Wednesday night, Steven Bertolino told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that the idea was ‘hogwash’. 

He also revealed that he told the parents not to speak to the media or Petito’s family, which they have been admonished for. 

Bertolino said the pair are ‘heartbroken’. 

‘In nice terms, it’s hogwash,’ he told Cuomo when asked about the suggestion that they may have planted the evidence. 

‘Chris and Roberta went to this area first and as happenstance was, they stumbled upon these items,’ he said. 

On Thursday morning, he added to DailyMail.com: ‘Speculation is just that.’ 

The search of the park continued on Thursday with cadaver dogs, dune buggies and police cars, but authorities are being tight-lipped on what exactly they have found so far, and what they continue to seach for.  

Lee County Sheriff Carmen Marceno held a short press conference on Thursday afternoon but he mostly thanked and praised his law enforcement colleagues for working in ‘treacherous conditions’. 

 ‘Today I got to see the treacherous conditions they were working under,’ Marceno said. 

‘We’re talking about water levels up to the chest area, rattle snakes, moccasins, alligators.

‘These are very, very difficult conditions. 

‘You’re searching in areas where you can’t just walk up and look. It’s not like you’re searching a house or a car. 

‘These areas are huge and they are covered by water.

‘It is challenging times. I know everybody wants to know exactly what’s going on every second possible. All of America is watching. 

‘But we will never jeopardize an investigation to give that information out until the time is right. I want to reiterate, things change by the second, by the minute,’ he said.

The FBI, North Port Police Department and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office all remained at the scene on Thursday. 

Bertolino also told CNN that he told the parents not to speak to Petito’s family, the media, or ‘anybody’ after he vanished on September 13. 

‘Now is not the right time to talk about the situation with Gabby. 

‘The family was following my directions. I told them not to talk with anybody, not to say a word, I was the intermediary between the family and law enforcement. 

‘Everybody has the right to remain silent and that’s what I told my clients and that’s what they did,’ he said.

Bertolino said, on Wednesday night, the family knew the remains were likely those of 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,’ he said.  

Police activity Wednesday was focused on the nearby Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, where television news reports showed numerous law enforcement vehicles arriving and a tent set up inside the woods. 

The location is where a Ford Mustang that Laundrie drove to the wilderness was found. 

In the interview, Bertolino said the belongings were found near a bridge connecting the the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park and the adjoining Carlton Reserve. 

The bridge is about four miles north of the Laundrie family home. 

When asked why the parents had not joined the search at the park earlier, Bertolino pointed out that it had not been open to the public before Tuesday. 

‘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.  

Until Tuesday, the reserve had been sealed off to the public while investigators searched for any sign of the fugitive. 

It reopened on Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning, Laundrie’s mother and father, Roberta and Chris, joined the search teams in the morning for the first time together. 

Within a few hours, the remains – along with the other items – had been found.  

According to Bertolino, Chris was the one to discover a white plastic dry bag belonging to Laundrie, which he found in the presence of a news reporter about 20 feet off the trail, while police discovered the backpack and human remains nearby. 

‘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. 

‘He did meet up shortly with law enforcement. They looked at the contents of the bag. 

‘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.

‘At that point, the Laundries were notified that there was also remains near the backpack and they were asked to leave the preserve,’ he continued. 

The Laundrie parents have been under a cloud of public suspicion since their son disappeared, including wild theories that they were hiding their son in an alleged bunker under their garden, but Bertolino said that the family informed the FBI on the night of September 13 that their son had not returned from a hike that day.

Laundrie’s parents had not spoken publicly or to Petito’s parents about what they may know about her murder, which Bertolino insisted had been on his own legal advice.

‘They know it’s been hard. But ultimately, you know, this is the advice I gave them. This is the advice they’re taking, and that’s on me,’ he said. 

‘I’m the one who told them not to talk. That’s been on me from day one. That’s not on the family.’

The FAA has issued a temporary suspension on flights over the park – that applies to drones and aircraft – until 4pm Friday. 

At a briefing at 4.30pm, FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael McPherson identified Laundrie as ‘a person of interest in the murder of Gabby Petito.’

It marked the first time that the FBI has called Petito’s death a murder, rather than a homicide, as well as the first time Laundrie was identified as a person of interest. 

Previously, authorities had been referring to him just as a wanted suspect for theft, for using Petito’s bank card.  

Pathologist Dr. Michael Baden told DailyMail.com that it is likely the FBI already know whether the remains are Laundrie’s, and that they would have been able to confirm it immediately, but are waiting for more examination to determine the cause of death. 

‘Dental is 99.9 percent immediately accurate. They know it’s him. But the cause of death might still take a while to determine. The cause of death has to be determined at autopsy, which probably won’t be performed till tomorrow or the next day,’ he said.

McPherson confirmed that human remains had been found, but he would not speculate on the identity of those remains, nor would he reveal how long they had been there. 

He told reporters at the scene: ‘I know you have a lot of questions but we don’t have all the answers yet.’ 

‘We are working diligently to get those answers for you,’ McPherson said. 

‘It’s likely the team will be on site for several days.’   

The Sarasota County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed it had been summoned to the reserve but would not comment further.  

Authorities have been searching the park for weeks, but the portion where the remains were found on Tuesday was previously underwater, according to NBC.  

Petito and Laundrie embarked on a cross-country trip earlier this summer with a plan to document it all on film for their social media channels. 

But their loved-up Instagram persona was a far cry from the combative relationship that was playing out behind the scenes. 

Just a few weeks before she vanished, police in Moab, Utah, were called to the pair’s van after fellow travelers saw Laundrie hit Petito. 

They were separated for the night, and Petito was deemed to be the aggressor. 

August 26 was the last time anyone saw or heard from Petito. 

Laundrie returned to his parents home on September 1. 

At first, they told officers they last saw him on September 14. 

They later said it was in fact September 13, when he told them he was going on a hike in the reserve and never returned. 

He has been on the run ever since and his parents refused to speak publicly about the case or help Petito’s parents. 

They retrieved her remains from a mortuary in Wyoming last week. 

On Tuesday, a day before the remains were found, Chris and Roberta Laundrie were seen shopping in North Port. 

Among the items they were seen carrying was a cardboard box, which they shipped from a FedEx store in Venice, Florida. 

Later that night, they said they planned to join Wednesday’s search. The pair were photographed on the search on Wednesday by FOX News.  

They were seen walking with an officer, who was overheard saying: ‘I think we might have found something.’ 

The officer then emerged with a bag that contained articles belonging to Laundrie.   

The Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park is situated on 160 acres of heavily wooded land and connects to the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve.

Laundrie was reported missing by his parents on September 17 after claiming they last saw him three days prior. His whereabouts have been unknown ever since. 

Federal investigators issued an arrest warrant for Laundrie on September 23 for ‘use of unauthorized access device’ last month after alleging he used a Capital One Bank debit card that wasn’t his. 

Until Wednesday, there had been no signs of Laundrie at the Carlton Reserve in Florida, the area his parents cite as the last place he was seen.

Last week, North Port police noted there was ‘nothing to suggest’ whether Laundrie was dead or alive. 

Officials claimed no one had seen him in the reserve and search teams didn’t find any physical evidence of his presence in the area. 

On Tuesday, Chris and Roberta broke cover for a nearly five-hour shopping trip, dodging questions about their son’s whereabouts as they shipped a mysterious package labeled ‘meal kit’.    

The couple emerged from their home in North Port, Florida, at 7.45am Tuesday and climbed into their red Dodge Ram truck for the trip.

After making a few stops, DailyMail.com spotted them at a FedEx store where Chris went inside carrying a parcel with the intriguing words ‘meal kit’ stamped on one end. The addressee could not be seen.

They refused to answer DailyMail.com’s questions when asked ‘is he in the park, did you help him get there?’  

Bertolino issued a statement attempting to express sympathy to Petito’s family on Thursday after her cause of death was revealed. 

‘Gabby Petito’s death at such a young age is a tragedy,’ he said. 

‘While Brian Laundrie is currently charged with the unauthorized use of a debit card belonging to Gabby, Brian is only considered a person of interest in relation to Gabby Petito’s demise.

‘At this time Brian is still missing and when he is located we will address the pending fraud charge against him.’

Petito’s mother texted a reported a curt, blunt response.

‘His words are garbage. Keep talking,’ she wrote to a reporter from WFLA in Florida. 

Petito’s family said earlier this week that they wanted him to spend the rest of his life in a jail cell. 

She was fiercely critical of Roberta and Chris Laundrie for not helping them. 

‘Silence speaks volumes. I believe they know most of the information,’ she said. 

‘I would love to just face to face ask: “Why are you doing this? Just tell me the truth.” 

‘He’s a coward. I don’t want to say he’s insane because he went home, he’s hiding, he used her credit card. That’s not somebody who’s gone crazy. 

‘He knows what he is doing, he knew what he was doing. I just want to get him in a cell for the rest of his life.’   

Jim, her husband, added: ‘We want vengeance. And justice.’