Brian Laundrie was likely ALREADY dead when cops mistook his mom in baseball cap for fugitive, police say
POLICE admitted Brian Laundrie was probably already dead when officers confused him with his mother the night he vanished.
On the night of September 13, police watching the Laundrie family home through secret surveillance cameras thought they saw Brian pull up to the property in his Ford Mustang.
What they had really seen was his mother, Roberta Laundrie, wearing her son’s baseball cap.
“I believe it was it was his mom who was wearing a baseball cap,” North Port Police Department Public Information Officer Josh Taylor told WINK News on Monday.
“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. So the individual getting out with a baseball cap we thought was Brian.”
Now that Brian’s remains were found in the Carlton Reserve, police are also speculating that he was already dead when the mistake happened.
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“There is a very good possibility that Brian was already deceased,” Taylor told WFLA. “He still needed to be found.”
He went on to blame the Laundries for the blunder, calling it “a direct result of a lack of cooperation from the family early on in this investigation.”
TRASH CAM
Police watching the property had witnessed Brian leave on September 11 through strategically hidden cameras, incuding one disguised as a trash can at a neighbor’s house.
At the time, they said they could not keep him from leaving, as he was only wanted as a person of interest in the case of Gabby Petito’s murder.
Five weeks after he went missing, Brian’s remains were discovered in Myakkahatchee Creek park and identified from his dental records.
Authorities also found a backpack and notebook believed to be Brian’s nearby in an area of the park that was previously underwater.
After an autopsy of Brian’s remains came back inconclusive, they will be shipped to a forensic anthropogist for further examination.
‘COMMON SENSE’
As the public waits for answers, the Laundrie family lawyer Steven Bertolino told Insider that Brian’s parents, Chris and Roberta, are “not convinced” yet that the remains are Brian’s.
They do however concede there’s a “strong chance” that they are his, Bertolino said, adding they are “just waiting” for the identification results to come back.
Bertolino, meanwhile, said it was “common sense” to believe that it was Brian’s body that was found yesterday.
“Brian’s belongings found near remains in an area of [the] park [the] parents knew he frequented,” the attorney said.
He also made similar remarks to CNN on Wednesday night, insisting there was a “strong probability” the remains were Brian’s.
Bertolino told CNN’s Chris Cuomo: “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.”
Experts have also echoed that the state of deterioration of Brian’s body was found in could make determining his cause of death impossible.
Tom Joyce, a retired NYPD commander, shared his thoughts on the skeletal remains.
“If the remains are skeletal, that means the tissue has been pulled away from the bones,” he said. “Most likely by alligators, crabs, fish and stuff like that.
“That’s what it sounds like to me because it’s definitely not long enough time for it to go naturally.
“If it’s only a three to four week period and there are only skeletal remains and very limited tissue remaining, I would have to say there’s a lot of activity that pulls all the skin and flesh and muscle and stuff away.”
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