The FBI announced on Monday that remains were discovered in a Florida park. They are awaiting the results of their analysis to determine whether they are human or animal, but it is believed that what was found may have been some form of “disappearance.”
A man who is reported to have died in 2016 has been found alive and well. The FBI is investigating whether Brian Laundrie’s death, which was ruled a suicide by the medical examiner, was staged.
According to him, the bones were discovered in a location that had been under water until lately.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) The Tampa Evidence Response Team is on the scene, processing the scene with “all available forensic tools.” The crew will most certainly be on the scene for many days, according to McPherson.
“I realize you have a lot of questions,” he added in a message to the media, “but we don’t have all the answers yet.”
Chris and Roberta Laundrie, Brian’s parents, were at the park at the time of the discovery, according to family attorney Steve Bertolino.
“Earlier today, Chris and Roberta Laundrie were in the reserve when human remains and some of Brian’s belongings were discovered in an area where they had previously alerted law authorities that Brian may be,” Bertolino said. “Before making any more remarks, Chris and Roberta will wait for the forensic identification of the human remains.”
The finding comes 37 days after Gabby Petito’s fiancé, Laundrie, was last seen by his parents.
The Sarasota County Medical Examiner and a cadaver dog were summoned to the park earlier, and overhead imagery indicated activity near the Carlton Reserve in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.
According to Bertolino, Laundrie’s parents contacted the FBI and the North Port Police Department on Tuesday night that they planned to search the park for him on Wednesday morning. He claimed they were greeted by law enforcement on Wednesday morning.
The Sarasota County Medical Examiner was sent to the area, along with a cadaver dog and two spotters, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office. Along with a mobile unit, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Response Team and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office were now on the scene.
The finding comes as investigators continue their hunt for Laundrie, which has already lasted over a month, and attempt to put together what happened to Petito.
The Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in North Port, Florida, is 160 acres of thickly forested terrain with trails and a camping area. The park leads to the Carlton Area, a 25,000-acre natural reserve where investigators have focused their efforts.
Swamp buggies, divers, and airboats had previously been utilized to scour the marshy landscape, but the region has lately dried up owing to clearer weather.
How did we end up here?
Petito, 22, and Laundrie, 23, traveled throughout the western United States in a white van this summer, uploading photographs and tales to their social media profiles on a daily basis. However, those postings suddenly ended in late August, and on September 1, Laundrie returned alone to their house in North Point, where they resided with his parents.
Petito’s family was unable to reach her, so she was reported missing 10 days later, prompting a nationwide search. Laundrie refused to participate with the inquiry into her disappearance, and he went missing shortly after. Investigators learned from his relatives that he had gone to a local nature reserve.
Petito’s bones were discovered on September 19 near where the pair had last been seen together in a national forest in Wyoming. Dr. Brent Blue, the Teton County Coroner, declared her death a murder and stated she died by hand strangulation.
“We think it was a person that strangled him,” Blue told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Although Laundrie has not been linked to Petito’s death, he is the subject of a federal arrest warrant for illegal use of another person’s debit card in the days after Petito’s final phone call to her family.
Despite their beautiful social media pictures, their relationship has been fraught with stress and turmoil in recent months. According to a police affidavit seeking a search request of an external hard drive discovered in the couple’s vehicle, Petito phoned her mother on a frequent basis, and those talks seemed to reflect “more and more friction” in the couple’s relationship.
According to audio given by the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, the pair was also engaged in a domestic altercation and were stopped by police in August near Moab, Utah, after a 911 caller informed dispatchers he observed a guy beating a woman.
Another witness said police he observed the pair fighting over a phone, according to a Moab police report. Petito seemed to strike Laundrie in the arm as she got inside the van, according to the witness, and then climbed through the driver’s side door as if he had locked her out, according to the report.
The cops characterize the event as an argument that developed into a physical fight with shoving and scratching after interrogating Petito, Laundrie, and the witness.
This story was co-written by CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Steve Almasy, Rob Frehse, Madeline Holcombe, and Jon Passantino.
