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Was the evidence there the whole time?
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Oct 21, 2021
Breaking news in the Brian Laundrie case emerged yesterday after many people believed the case was ‘going cold’ and would be given up.
Tuesday morning, the FBI reopened the Carlton Reserve and adjacent Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park to visitors — leading Christopher and Roberta Laundrie to head in on Wednesday, finding some substantial evidence in their son’s disappearance.
Why did it take so long to find human remains in search for Brian Laundrie?
Experts have weighed in to express their shock about how FBI were unable to locate this crucial evidence before now.
According to reports from law enforcement, Chris and Roberta wandered off on their own to look for their missing son, when they found a bag full of contents that belonged to him.
The items included a notebook, all of which have been given over to the FBI in order to verify their contents and to aid their investigation.
'Partial human remains' were also found on the scene, but these have not yet been identified.
K-9 handlers say dogs would have been able to detect the remains underwater.
A K-9 handler and former police officer agreed with the skepticism, saying that it is “highly suspicious” the dogs hadn’t found anything in the reserve before.
Law enforcement claimed that the remains and “articles” were found in an area that had previously been underwater, but the handler said it shouldn’t have mattered.
“If the body had been there, when they went by with cadaver dogs, and the body had been there for more than two or three minutes, the odor would have come through the water,” Kyle Heyen, principal and founder of Detector Dogs International, Inc., said on Dan Abrams Live. “They should have been able to locate that body.”
Law enforcement from the FBI to the North Port Police Department and several other authorities from other counties spent almost a full month in the Carlton Reserve searching for Brian.
Chris and Roberta reported him missing 4 days after his disappearance, and claimed that he went to the Carlton Reserve to go on a hike — parking his car by the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.
“It’s highly suspicious,” Heyen said. “If the body was there at that time, x weeks ago, and if it’s the same dog and the same quality of dog or same quality of training, they should have found him. They would have detected Laundrie’s body.”
Chris and Roberta Laundrie's ability to find evidence has raised skepticism.
The Carlton Reserve search had been fruitless for over a month until the FBI reopened the park and Chris and Roberta found his items.
Heyen says the methodology he trained with involved using actual human parts to teach the dogs, and that “if the dogs are well trained [and] well maintained,” then they should have found him before now.
K-9 units, search boats, and underwater expeditions were all made in the Carlton Reserve area in the last month, but it's unclear if dogs had searched the particular area where the remains were found.
Until the remains are analyzed and the information is released to the public, there’s no telling what exactly the Laundries found yesterday.
Brian is still wanted to fraud charges against his late girlfriend Gabby Petito, who was killed by strangulation — a homicide case that he’s a person of interest in.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.