The “human remains” found in a Florida nature reserve are those of Brian Laundrie.
Thus confirmed, after "a comparison of dental data", the American authorities Thursday, the day after their discovery.
This news marks the end of the hunt for this 23-year-old young man, named as a "person of interest in the investigation" in the death of influencer Gabrielle Petito (or "Gabby"), but she does not is not without asking other questions.
Brian Laundrie had been wanted for more than a month, after he returned home alone on September 1 from what was to be a long trip across the United States.
In a campervan, he had started it two months earlier with his 22-year-old fiancée, Gabby Petito.
“Influencer”, followed by tens of thousands of people on social networks, she documented the trip by posting photos and videos on Instagram and YouTube.
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A post shared by Gabby (@gabspetito)
Smiling, sunglasses on her head, she appeared again on August 26 in a series of photos posted on Instagram.
This was his last publication.
Without news of their daughter, the parents of Gabby Petito had reported her disappearance on September 11.
Logically questioned from the start, Brian Laundrie then refused to answer the investigators and say where his girlfriend was ... before disappearing himself.
The "manhunt" had escalated after a video broadcast by police in Moab, Utah, on September 16.
Was the romance posted on social networks just a facade?
Filmed by police pedestrian cameras on August 12, while the couple were traveling, the video shows a police intervention after they were called by a witness who saw a man hit a woman.
On the images, we see the influencer in tears and her fiancé who admits to having been violent with her… On September 19, Gabby Petito's body was finally found in a national park.
The young woman was strangled and her death would date back to three to four weeks, so at the end of August, according to the autopsy.
The discovery of the body questions
So what happened? The story, like a series that even Americans do not know how to do, fascinates the whole world. Testimonies are multiplying, in the media and on social networks, in an attempt to retrace the couple's route. The case gives rise to a soul of investigators in some. Witnesses across the United States say they saw Brian Laundrie ... "I would like to tell my brother to come forward and get us out of this horrible mess," his sister said, facing ABC cameras, in early October. .
Was Brian Laundrie ever on the run? The discovery of his body raises questions. The Carlton Swamp Preserve, where he was found, is located not far from his parents' home, where he lived. As the authorities have described it, it is a "large and hostile area at times". "It's dangerous work for search teams advancing through swamps infested with alligators and snakes," police said earlier. The exact spot where the body was found was underwater at the start of the research, which may be why the body was not found earlier.
#UPDATE: On October 21, 2021, a comparison of dental records confirmed that the human remains found at the T. Mabry Carlton, Jr. Memorial Reserve and Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park are those of Brian Laundrie.
@FBITampa pic.twitter.com/ZnzbXiibTM
- FBI Denver (@FBIDenver) October 21, 2021
Did Brian Laundrie want to hide on the reserve?
Asked by CNN, experts believe that anyone who was not prepared could not survive this long on this reserve.
"Someone without experience cannot be lucky and survive in this kind of climate," said Robert Urban, a survival specialist.
Did Brian Laundrie knowingly venture there to commit suicide?
Was he even trapped in nature during a ride?
So many questions to which the investigators do not yet have an answer.
Near the human remains found, next to a backpack belonging to Brian Laundrie, investigators got their hands on a notebook.
Could the truth be there?
The United States is now passionate about these pages of which no one yet knows what they contain, and without knowing if we will one day know, water and time having damaged it.
Everyone has a question on their lips: will we ever know what happened?