The discovery of Brian Laundrie’s remains this week ends a manhunt that had gripped the country for weeks as investigators searched a Florida nature reserve for the 23-year-old, who returned home last month from a road trip without his fiancée, Gabby Petito.
Petito spent the summer traveling the American West with Laundrie, sharing their travels on social media. The case first attracted widespread attention after Petito’s family reported her missing on September 11. Laundrie would soon vanish from his parents’ home in North Port, Florida, just days before Petito’s remains were found in a national forest in Wyoming. Investigators had since focused on locating Laundrie — up until Wednesday, when he was finally found. But there’s still a lot we don’t know. Here’s what experts say about uncovering the truth surrounding their deaths: How did Laundrie die? Dental records confirmed the remains found this week are Brian Laundrie, the FBI announced Thursday. But determining the cause of death could be challenging since authorities recovered « skeletal remains, » said retired FBI profiler Jim Clemente. He added that it’s possible Laundrie could have been dead the entire time he was missing. « It doesn’t necessarily mean that, » Clemente told CNN’s Erin Burnett Thursday. « But what it does mean is that it’s going to be much more difficult to make a good, solid determination as to the cause and manner of death. » « Unless there’s some kind of major, serious trauma to the skull that can be identified, there might not be a way to determine how he died, » he said. « If he drowned, for example, there wouldn’t be any evidence of that on a skeleton. » The remains were found in an area of the Carlton Reserve — a vast 25,000-acre nature preserve — that had previously been underwater but recently dried out due to clearer weather. Criminal defense attorney Mark O’Mara said the most reasonable explanation is Laundrie took his own life in the nature reserve — a possibility Steven Bertolino, an attorney for Laundrie’s parents, addressed Friday in an interview with ABC’s « Good Morning America. » The attorney and Laundrie’s parents had discussed the possibility Laundrie died by suicide « several times, » the attorney said. « We just do not know. Of course, knowing his mental state when he walked out the door, it was always a concern, » said Bertolino, who had described Laundrie in other interviews as « grieving. » Bertolino told GMA the family would accept the ruling of the medical examiner if they come up with another explanation for the cause of death.
