Twitter users are debating the significance of the path that Brian Laundrie’s dad Chris took on the day that he and Laundrie’s mom Roberta joined the search for Laundrie at Myakkahatchee Creek park.
One tweep posted a video of Chris’s movements and declared it “crucial” that the father walked straight to where Laundrie’s belongings sat, per The Sun. But another shot down that theory, posting, “This is not crucial. Chris knew where Brian’s favorite places were out there. So he went to Brian’s favorite spot and found the dry bag. Makes perfect sense to me.”
Laundrie’s attorney, Steven Bertolino, told the Sun that the tweep’s theory was “hogwash.” He said that both Laundrie’s remains and his belongings turned up “in an area where they [Laundrie’s parents] had initially advised law enforcement to be.”
Body Language Expert Questions Brian Laundrie’s Parents’ Behavior
Still, a body language expert scrutinized video clips of Laundrie’s parents’ behavior while combing the nature preserve. And she said they didn’t appear to be “frantically” searching for their lost son.
“They’re not doing a normal sweeping side to side motion,” Patti Wood told The Sun. “Or looking low, at a regular level, and looking up and away. There’s not a franticness.”
Wood also noted that the Laundries split up while hunting for their son with authorities and reporters present. They didn’t do much jointly looking around.
Laundrie and Gabby Petito Went on Cross-Country Road Trip
Brian Laundrie and his then-sweetheart, Gabby Petito, had kicked off the summer on a promising note. They were determined to travel cross-country in a white Ford converted camper van, documenting their journey along the way.
But by the time the couple reached Utah, things had started to go awry. Police pulled them over in Moab, Utah after a 9-1-1 caller reported seeing Laundrie hit Petito. After talking to the couple, police concluded they were going through a shared mental health crisis, not a domestic abuse situation, and so they sent the couple on their way after separating them for a night.
Petito’s final social media post went up on Aug. 25. Two days later, diners at the Merry Piglets restaurant in Jackson Hole, Wyoming witnessed Laundrie getting into a verbal altercation with waitstaff at the restaurant while a distraught Petito looked on. It’s unclear what happened over the next few days, but somehow, Laundrie wound up driving the van back to his parents’ house in Florida alone.
He arrived back around Sept. 1, and by Sept. 6, the Laundries – with whom Petito had been living before the road trip – were going camping together, seemingly unconcerned with Petito’s whereabouts. Her family reported her missing on Sept. 11.
Laundrie’s Ex Died by Strangulation
On Sept. 19, searchers in Bridger-Teton National Forest found Petito’s remains. The Teton County coroner ruled her death a homicide, and the subsequent final autopsy listed her cause of death as strangulation.
Meanwhile, shortly before they found her body, Brian Laundrie himself went missing. His parents claim he went hiking in the Carlton Reserve near their house and never returned. His skeletal remains were found and positively identified this month.
It’s a tragic story with many questions left unanswered. Authorities are hoping that Laundrie’s notebook, which had sustained some water damage by the time it was found in Myakkahatchee Creek park, will shed some light on what happened.
