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Brian Laundrie's dad found remains in 30 mins, but FBI couldn't find anything in 6 WEEKS

Chris Laundrie was the one to discover a white plastic dry bag belonging to his son in the presence of a news reporter about 20 feet off the trail

After a brief lull in the Gabby Petito murder investigation, internet conspiracy theorists were back working overtime after human remains were discovered in a Florida swamp during the hunt for her missing boyfriend Brian Laundrie. The remains, which are still to be identified, were discovered shortly after Laundrie's father, Chris Laundrie, handed a white bag filled with Brian's items to the police. 

"The probability is strong that it is Brian's remains, but we're going to wait for the forensic results to come in and verify that," said Laundrie family attorney Steve Bertolino in a phone interview with CNN host Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night. The grim discovery of human remains was made along with a backpack and notebook identified by the FBI as belonging to Laundrie. Bertolino added that Chris was the one to discover a white plastic dry bag belonging to his son. He found the bag in the presence of a news reporter about 20 feet off the trail. The police were not around when he discovered or picked up the bag as they were busy discovering the backpack and human remains nearby.

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"Chris didn't want to pick the bag up because he wanted law enforcement to see it. This was caught on camera. Chris couldn't find the law enforcement because they were then out of sight, because Chris had been in the woods, so he didn't want to leave the bag there with the news reporter standing nearby, so he picked it up," Bertolino said. "He did meet up shortly with law enforcement. They looked at the contents of the bag. At that time, law enforcement officers showed him a picture on the phone of a backpack that law enforcement had located also nearby, and also some distance off the trail. At that point, the Laundries were notified that there was also remains near the backpack and they were asked to leave the reserve."

'They’re able to pinpoint Brian’s exact location and belongings within the span of 30 minutes?'

However, social media was not buying into this theory, mocking the fact that Brian's parents discovered his body within 30 minutes of searching for him — something that the law enforcement agents could not accomplish for over a month. "So when Chris Laundrie went to go searching for his son for 3.5 hours in the reserve the very same day Brian left home, nothing turned up. But 37 days later, they’re able to pinpoint Brian’s exact location and belongings within the span of 30 minutes? #BrianLaundrie," one of them said, while another noted, "So you're telling me it took 30 minutes for Chris Laundrie to find something K9s, drones, and FBI couldn't find in 6 weeks?"

A third commented, "It cannot be coincidence that Chris Laundrie walked for 30 minutes and suddenly decided to go into the brush and magically found the exact spot of that waterproof bag. What prompted him at that perfect spot to go off trail?" One more stated, "The FBI has spent weeks searching for Brian Laundrie with no luck. His parents, Chris and Roberta, show up at the site and within 30 minutes they find something? Sounds real fishy especially when they went on a long shopping trip yesterday and had a box labeled 'meal kit.'" The next quipped, "THIS is the 14th Sept. The day after #BrianLaundrie went 'missing'. #ChrisLaundrie is leaving to go to reserve to search for his son. Didn’t find him then. But found 'him' weeks later in his favourite spot in 30 minutes????#SoManyQuestions"

Bertolino says any suggestion that parents planted the items is 'hogwash'

In the interview, Bertolino condemned the suggestion that the parents planted the items in the swamp "hogwash". The lawyer pointed out that reporters and police followed the couple into the nature reserve. He also made it clear that the family had informed investigators about the exact location within the reserve based on the trails they knew Laundrie to frequent. "Indeed, this is the very area of the park that we initially informed law enforcement, on I believe it was September 17th, that Brian would be most likely in the preserve," said Bertolino. "Mr Laundrie informed me that it was quite near the entrance. He didn't put an exact distance on it. He put a time frame of about 30 minutes in. But I would guess it could be a mile or two into the preserve."

As to why the law enforcement failed to find the human remains when they first searched the park a month back, local authorities say the nature reserve was largely submerged in water in September. The may have hindered the discovery of the items found this week. As for his family joining in the search for Brian, Bertolino stressed on the fact that the park had not been open to the public before Tuesday, October 19. "The parents had assumed that the experts, the FBI and all the tracking teams they had, would be able to locate Brian based upon the information that we had provided them to the specific areas and trails in the park that Brian liked to visit," he said.