Experts are pointing to Brian Laundrie’s notebook as a potential source for answers into what happened to Laundrie, his girlfriend Gabby Petito and the entire case.
The FBI’s office in Denver said Thursday that a comparison of dental records confirmed that human remains found at the T. Mabry Carlton Jr. Memorial Reserve and Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on Wednesday were, in fact, Laundrie’s.
Authorities were looking for Laundrie as a person of interest in the disappearance and murder of Petito. He also had an arrest warrant out against him for “use of unauthorized access device” related to activities after Petito’s death, who was found dead in September.
Petito and Laundrie had been on a road trip this summer. But only Laundrie returned home on Sept. 1 to North Port, Florida. Ten days later, Petito was reported missing. Authorities found her body on Sunday, Sept. 19, outside of a Wyoming national park. Laundrie went missing on Monday, Sept. 13.
Authorities said Wednesday they found human remains and a backpack, which included items belonging to Laundrie, at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park.
One of those items is reportedly a notebook. And experts want to know what is in the notebook, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- “If that notebook contained, for example, information that could have been admissions, it could be projecting blame or rationalization, all that information could help in the determination,” former FBI profiler Jim Clemente told CNN on Thursday.
- “And that really raises the question that, if indeed, this is Brian Laundrie and died by his own hand, did he take the time to write out a note of explanation? Maybe even regret? Something that would give answers. Not only to the police but to Gabby’s family,” Casey Jordan, a criminologist, told CNN.
An unnamed source told CNN that the notebook was wet but “possibly salvageable.”
- “They are going to use any potential means to dry that out before opening it,” the source told CNN. “They’ll be very careful with it.”