MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CRIME & JUSTICE

North Port cops MISTOOK Roberta Laundrie for Brian because she wore a baseball cap!

When asked if the police saw someone else, North Port police spokesman Josh Taylor confessed he believed it was Roberta in a hat

Even after Brian Laundrie had been missing for several days, the North Port police claimed to know where he was because they had mistaken his mother, Roberta Laundrie in a baseball cap for him, the department revealed on Monday, October 25. 

Brian had embarked on a cross-country trip with his then-girlfriend, Gabby Petito back in July and returned to his Florida home mid-trip, without her. After that, he lawyered up and refused to cooperate with the cops as to the whereabouts of the 22-year-old vlogger. Five days after Petito had been reported missing, on September 16, North Port Police Chief Tedd Garrison told reporters that he knew where Brian was, believing that he was still at his parent's house. However, in reality, according to family attorney Steven Bertolino, Brian left his home on 12 September, "visibly upset."

READ MORE

Brian Laundrie death: Mystery deepens as poop, rope and dirty cloth found near body

Was Brian Laundrie a sociopath? Experts decode his 'demonic' artworks

Bertolino also claimed that he told the FBI on September 13 that the 23-year-old never returned home but the police did not begin until 17 September, when his mustang was discovered at the Carlton Reserve, where he had gone off hiking. Brian's remains were found at the reserve last week, which means that there is a possibility that Brian was already dead at the time of Garrison's press conference. "For six days, the North Port Police Department and the FBI have been pleading with the family to contact investigators regarding Brian's Fiancé Gabby Petito," the police said after the Laundrie family sought their help in finding their missing son. "Friday is the first time they have spoken with investigators in detail." "It is important to note that while Brian is a person of interest in Gabby's disappearance, he is not wanted for a crime," the police added at the time. "We are not currently working a crime investigation. We are now working a multiple missing person investigations."

Why did Garrison claim he knew where Brian was?

When the timeline of events became clear, the obvious question arose as to why Garrison claimed he knew where Laundrie was located when he had been missing for a few days. On Monday, North Port police spokesman Josh Taylor made it clear that Garrison drew the conclusion based on reports from police officers who claimed they saw Laundrie drive home in his silver Mustang. However, it was later revealed that the person officers saw was actually his mother wearing a baseball cap.

"We thought that we'd seen Brian initially come back into that home on that Wednesday," Taylor said. When asked if the police saw someone else, Taylor confessed he believed it was Roberta in a hat. "I believe it was his mom, who was wearing a baseball cap," he said. "They had returned from the park with that Mustang."

Brian's remains discovered near the Carlton Reserve

On October 20, Brian's skeletal remains were eventually found in a park near the Carlton Reserve after the police and the FBI had been searching the reserve for weeks with little luck. The remains were found after the park reopened to the public and Laundrie's parents accompanied law enforcement into the reserve, helping locate a bag full of his items in it and a notebook. Shortly after his parents handed over the items to the FBI, Brian's partial skeletal remains were discovered.

According to the police, the area where they found his items and remains had been underwater for much of September, and as a result, they had a hard time searching the place but a drier October caused the waters to recede, which revealed the items. After this, a number of people entered the park over the weekend to see if they could locate any other items tied to the case. The North Port police said that they were handed numerous items, including bones, but said none of the items were related to the case. One of them was a water bottle with the same design as Petito's, but the police have not made a public statement confirming that it was owned by her.