BRIAN'S GRISLY, WATERY DEMISE
Fla. swamp skeleton ID’d as Gabby’s missing beau
Brian Laundrie’s remains were found at a marshy nature reserve near his parents’ Florida home, the FBI confirmed on Thursday, bringing an end to the six-week saga surrounding the disappearance and death of Long Island native Gabby Petito.
The FBI said it used dental records to confirm that the skeletal remains found at the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County on Wednesday belonged to Laundrie, 23, the sole person of interest in the high-profile disappearance and death of his 22year-old girlfriend.
Laundrie’s remains were found about a 40-minute walk from the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park into the reserve, North Port police spokesman Josh Taylor told The Post. Laundrie’s parents had said their son went for a hike into the reserve on Sept. 13 and never returned.
Taylor said the remains, found early Wednesday with a backpack and a notebook belonging to Laundrie, consisted primarily of bones after weeks of decay and exposure to wildlife.
Authorities and locals alike said Laundrie would have been hardpressed to survive for long in the hostile conditions, and his body would have likely been ravaged by the elements and wildlife.
“I walk there all the time, and there won’t be much of the remains left,” said area resident John Widmann. “There’s alligators, but the worst thing are the wild pigs. They’re evil animals and will eat anything.”
Lee County, Fla., Sheriff Carmine Marceno, whose deputies took part in the search, said they had to navigate through chest-deep waters.
Cops said that Laundrie’s body had been submerged for weeks after heavy rains flooded parts of the park last month and that it was exposed as the waters receded in recent weeks.
The water made it difficult for cadaver dogs to sniff out decaying remains, experts say.
“The problem is people don’t understand that dogs are not body finders, they are odor hunters,” said Michael Hadsell, who wasn’t involved in the search for Laundrie but has assisted in searches at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park as president of the Peace River K9 Search and Rescue.
“In this case, the search conditions that they were in initially were really bad, so the probability was more in the 20 percent success rate because there was water in that area.”
The FBI had led a massive manhunt for Laundrie since his parents reported him missing on Sept. 17 — two days before Petito’s body was found at a remote Wyoming campground.
The young couple had been on a cross-country trip out West to visit national parks.
The discovery of Laundrie’s remains came after his parents were summoned to the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park early Wednesday, where family attorney Steve Bertolino had confirmed that “some articles” belonging to Brian had been found.
“Chris and Roberta Laundrie have been informed that the remains found yesterday in the reserve are indeed Brian’s,” Bertolino said in a statement on Thursday. “We have no further comment at this time.”
Taylor, the police spokesman, said Laundrie had parked his family’s Ford Mustang at the park on Sept. 13 and walked into the adjoining Carlton Reserve.
While Thursday’s confirmation concludes one aspect of the cross-country investigation, it does little to answer the many questions that remain about Petito’s fate, including Laundrie’s culpability in her death, what his parents knew and when, why authorities didn’t keep a closer watch on him, and whether he left any clues to what happened.
Petito disappeared in late August and Laundrie was sought for questioning after she was reported missing to Suffolk County, LI, cops on Sept. 11 by her family.
Petito was last seen alive with Laundrie on Aug. 27, when witnesses said he became “aggressive” with staff at a Wyoming restaurant before returning and apologizing.
After returning home to North Port alone in her van on Sept. 1, Laundrie lawyered up and refused to cooperate with investigators.
He fled into the park without revealing to authorities any details of Petito’s fate.
The FBI and local law enforcement had followed up on dozens of tips that Laundrie had been spotted as far north as the Appalachian Trail near the North Carolina-Tennessee border.
Laundrie had not been charged in Petito’s death but was named on a federal fraud warrant out of Wyoming for allegedly using her debit card to charge more than $1,000 during his drive home to Florida.
His parents, meanwhile, have come under scrutiny by protesters and Internet sleuths, who contend they withheld information on their son’s flight from justice.
Jayne Kornburger, who knew Petito from her job at a local Publix supermarket, said the community was reeling from her death, recalling her as “a lively kid.”
“I’ve cried many tears about what happened to her, believe me,” said Kornburger, who had Petito’s “Let It Be” mantra tattooed on her arm.
“The Laundrie family has been appalling in their behavior,” she said. “They should have been telling everything they knew to detectives from the first second, and they should have been out every day searching for their son.”
“Local people are appalled by how they behaved,” she added.