Florida police believe that Brian Laundrie had “probably” already been dead by suicide before the search for him even began.
Laundrie’s remains were found on October 20 in the Carlton Reserve following a five-week search. Laundrie was the primary suspect in the murder of his fiancée, Gabby Petito.
His remains were found in an area that had previously been under about four feet of water. He was discovered alongside a notebook and a backpack. The FBI identified the remains as Laundrie’s using dental records. Laundrie’s cause of death is pending an examination by an anthropologist.
“That guy went out there and by all accounts probably committed suicide, and he was right out there where we thought he was,” said North Port Chief of Police Todd Garrison, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports.
Garrison admitted his team made an error by mistaking Laundrie’s mother for him on September 15. Unbeknownst to the agency, he was already missing. He apologized for the “human error.”
Petito’s body was discovered on September 19 in Teton County, Wyoming. Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation.
