Details That Suggest FBI No Longer Expect To Find Brian Laundrie Alive In The Carlton Reserve
He's been missing for over a month.
YouTube Investigators have returned to the Carlton Reserve, Florida, yet again to search the last known location of Brian Laundrie.
According to Laundrie’s parents, he left their North Port home on September 13 in the midst of the search for his missing girlfriend, Gabby Petito, who was later found dead in Wyoming.
Laundrie has not been seen or heard from since — aside from alleged sightings from Mexico to North Carolina as many suspect he is on the run.
Yet, investigators seem hyper-focused on the Carlton Reserve, leading to theories that the FBI and police are searching for Laundrie’s body rather than expecting him to be found alive.
Is Brian Laundrie alive?
So far law enforcement have not disclosed whether or not they presume Laundrie to be alive.
However, many have suggested that the conditions of the reserve and the details of the search imply that, if Laundrie is still in the Carlton Reserve, it would have been difficult to survive for over a month.
Cadaver dogs have been brought in to search the reserve.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that human remains detection dogs had been brought to the Carlton Reserve as part of the search.
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office revealed that the team have “two K9 units assisting North Port PD/Sarasota Sheriff's Office/FBI — one human remains detection (HRD) K9 and one K9 trainer.”
It was also clarified that cadaver dogs have been used in the search prior to yesterday. This may imply the police are now searching for a body, rather than hoping to catch Laundrie alive.
There are many dangerous animals in the Carlton Reserve.
"You have so many animals that are hungry,” says wilderness expert Mark Urban.
"You can be in a snake stomach, you can be in a gator stomach, or you can be eviscerated by a bear.”
He pointed out that the heat in the reserve would make it difficult to fight off these animals. Urban also says that smells would disappear in 12 to 24 hours meaning it could be tricky for dogs to detect a body.
Brian Laundrie would struggle to find clean water.
Experts say Laundrie would have to deal with dangerous bacteria or other contaminants in the water he could try to drink.
The reserve has been closed for visitors since September 21, meaning Laundrie doesn’t have the option to scavenge water or food from other people.
Any reasonably safe drinking water is likely in a more public part of the reserve where Laundrie would struggle to avoid detection.
Laundrie could attempt to boil water in order to kill off bacteria but doing so would require him to start a fire which might alert authorities of his location.
Sleep deprivation could have killed Brian Laundrie by now.
While one of Petito’s friends, Rose Davis, claims that Laundrie once lived out in the wilderness on the Appalachian Trail for months, the conditions in the reserve are significantly more difficult to endure.
Jason Marsteiner, the founder of The Survival University, warned that even those with excellent survival skills would struggle to survive.
"He's not sleeping well, and when you don’t sleep you slowly drive yourself insane, so he would be making bad decisions, bad choices and I think that would cause him to be found or get injured or perish,” says Marsteiner.
Experts have debated what Laundrie would need to survive.
While some experts doubt he would have been able to navigate and overcome the conditions in the reserve for this long, survival expert Dave Canterbury says that if Laundrie has the correct tools, it is possible to weather the conditions.
Canterbury lists his “Five C’s of Survivability” as, “a cutting tool, a combustion device, cover elements that protect the body, containers that are used to disinfect water, and cordage.”
“Those five items are probably five things that he’s lacking. He may have one of them — he may have two of them. He probably does not have all of them.”
Alice Kelly is a senior news and entertainment editor for YourTango. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, her work covers all things social justice, pop culture, and human interest. Keep up with her Twitter for more.