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#WorstParentsAward: James and Jennifer Crumbley compared online to Brian Laundrie's parents

James and Jennifer fled town only to be captured by the Detroit police less than half a mile from the Canadian border

James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of Oxford High School shooting suspect Ethan Crumbley, are being compared to Brian Laundrie's parents, Chris and Roberta, after facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter each, following the deadly shooting by the accused suspect — their son Ethan Crumbley — which left four dead and seven others injured at his high school. 

After the charges were announced against James and Jennifer, they fled town, only to be captured by the Detroit police from the basement of a commercial building on the 1100 block of Bellevue Street in Detroit, less than half a mile from the Canadian border. The couple was found a short while after the vehicle tied to the couple had been located by a Detroit business owner late Friday. The pair are expected to be booked into the Oakland County Jail.

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Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald previously defended the charges against the pair, acknowledging the couple's "extreme negligence" that led to the shooting that killed four. As we previously reported, James Crumbley purchased the pistol used in the shooting just days before, at a Black Friday sale, to which his son was a witness. He is then accused of failing to keep it safely locked up and away from the teen, who showed it off in social media posts. 

Compared to Brian Laundrie's parents

Although there is no relation between the Ethan Crumbley case and the Brian Laundrie case, people have been comparing their parents on social media. For people who are not aware, Brian was named the person of interest in the murder of Gabby Petitio, his girlfriend and vlogger, who was reported missing on September 11, after both of them took a cross-country trip together. Laundrie refused to cooperate with investigators on the advice of a lawyer after he returned alone from the trip to his Florida home. Days later he told his parents he was going for a hike in the Carlton Reserve, a roughly 25,000-acre wetlands area in Sarasota County and never returned. His skeletal remains were later discovered. 

At the time, a number of experts predicted that charges would be brought against Chris and Roberta, but that never happened. Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, speculated that Laundrie's parents would soon be summoned to a grand jury. "I would expect that to happen momentarily, see them in front of a grand jury, and then if they are not going to cooperate, they can get charged with contempt or obstruction," Figliuzzi told CNBC. "There is no parental-child privilege, and I actually thought, by now, we would see them summoned to the grand jury. We now have an indictment, it's a federal case."
 
 However, Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who is now president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers, told The Sun that it was rather unlikely Chris and Roberta Laundrie would be charged, considering they may have dodged jail time by helping the feds find their son's remains and belongings in the natural reserve after they joined the massive manhunt. “The fact they may have led investigators to their son’s possessions and possibly his remains — that all undercuts the argument that they were aiding and abetting his escape. That leads me to believe they were cooperative and not the other way around," Rahmani said. 

'#WorstParentsAward'

However, the differences between the cases did not stop the online critics from drawing comparisons between the two sets of parents. "Brian Laundrie's parents refused to help law enforcement and let their son get away The Crumbley's on the run after giving their troubled son a gun for Christmas The culture of evading justice was set when people saw Trump get away with corruption and an attempted violent coup," one of them said, while another wrote, "Brian Laundrie’s parents are democrats. Ethan Crumbley’s parents are Republicans. Both have raised killers. Take politics out of the equations and start talking to your kids about mental health. Be nosy. Be up in their business. Notice changes." A third commented, "Hey North Port PD.... That is how you FOLLOW the vehicle of who you are looking for! Detroit said "Hell no, we will not be made to look like a fool!" #crumbleyparents #Crumbleys #Crumbley #NorthPort #Laundrie #DirtyLaundrie #BrianLaundrie."

The next remarked, "Ethan Crumbley's parents really out here tryna steal away the 'Worst Parents of the Year' award from the Laundrie family....and doing a damn good job of it so far..." Another quipped, "#Laundrie parents: help cover up sons murder of his girlfriend- 'Nobody can outdo us' #Crumbley parents: 'Hold my beer' and ABANDON their 15 y/o son who just committed murder at school. Yes, what Ethan did was awful, devastating, and horrifying. But who does that to their child?" One more noted, "Brian Laundrie's & Ethan Crumbley's #WorstParentsAward." A commenter tweeted, "WTF is it with PARENTS today? Brian Laundrie's parents help him, if you can call it that - Now, these Crumbley folks FLEE and leave their kid in jail. Does ANYONE take RESONSIBILITY FOR ANYTHING ANYMORE? SMH" A person reacted with, "First the Laundrie family and now the Crumbley family. Take responsibility for your actions it’s NOT hard."