Police admit to mistakes in Brian Laundrie investigation, report claims

NEW YORK - The North Port Police Department says that investigators made mistakes in surveilling Brian Laundrie in the days before he disappeared, according to a new report.

WINK reports that North Port Police had set up cameras around the Laundrie family home but did not notice that he did not return home after he left one day.

North Port police began tracking Brian after Gabby Petito's mother, in Suffolk County on Long Island, reported her missing on September 11.

WINK reports that police saw Brian Laundrie leave the house on Sept. 13 and thought they saw him return on Sept. 15.  It was actually his mother, wearing a baseball cap, that arrived at the home on Sept. 15, according to the report.

Brian Laundrie's remains were found in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in North Port last Wednesday.  They were found in an area that had been underwater and authorities believe his body had been there for an extended period of time.

Steven Bertolino, a Long Island lawyer for the Laundrie family told FOX 5 News, "Everyone makes mistakes. But Brian and Roberta are not ‘built’ the same.  Moreover, it was NPPD that put the ticket on the Mustang at the park and if they saw Brian leave on Monday in the Mustang, which is news to me, then they should have been watching the Mustang and the park starting on Monday and they would have known it was Chris and Roberta that retrieved the Mustang from the park. Now to be clear, none of this may have made a difference with respect to Brian’s life but it certainly would have prevented all of the false accusations leveled by so many against Chris and Roberta with respect to ‘hiding’ Brian or otherwise financing an ‘escape’."

Gabby disappeared during a cross-country trip with Laundrie, her fiancé, sparking a nationwide search for the 22-year-old that ended with authorities finding her remains at a Wyoming national park.

Laundrie had been wanted on a federal warrant, charged with intent to defraud for one or more unauthorized uses of Gabby Petito's bank card, between August 30 and September 1, taking more than $1,000.

Officials did not initially call him a suspect in Petito's homicide. A Wyoming coroner said she died by strangulation, and her body was likely outside for up to four weeks, but no suspects were ever named in her death.