Police mistook his mother for Brian early on.
A spokesperson in the Gabby Petito case has claimed that there is a “very good possibility” that Brian Laundrie died two days after she was reported missing.
Gabby was reported missing on September 10th, ten days after Brian arrived home to Florida from their road trip alone.
North Port Police spokesperson Josh Taylor told People after his body was recovered that officers had mistaken a sighting of his mother for Brian a matter of days after Gabby was reported missing.
He said: “Other than confusion, it likely changed nothing. 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.”
Roberta Laundrie was spotted driving her son’s silver Mustang while wearing a baseball cap which officers believed to be Brian.
Now, lawyers for the Laundrie family are saying that Brian left his home on September 12th “very upset” which was around the time he disappeared.
Despite Police Chief Todd Garrison telling reporters at a press conference on September 16th that he knew exactly where Brian was located, the North Port Police spokesperson is now saying he was likely already dead when that was said.
Taylor also said that Brian’s family’s refusal to co-operate had made it hard for them to keep track of Brian and he is built similarly to his mother, which added to their confusion when they mistook her.
He added: “Now to be clear, none of this may have made a difference with respect to Brian’s life but it certainly would have prevented all of the false accusations levelled by so many against Chris and Roberta with respect to ‘hiding’ Brian or otherwise financing an ‘escape.’ In the end, LE searchers did their best to locate Brian and their efforts are appreciated.”
Brian’s remains were found last week, with the FBI confirming that they belonged to him after checking dental records.
