Brian Laundrie mustang car found dumped at Florida nature reserve as vehicle is now seized to be searched as authorities ramp search for missing man.
Authorities are now searching Brian Laundrie’s Mustang automobile which was discovered dumped by a Florida nature reserve last week, as the search for the missing man intensifies.
In an announcement, the family of Brian Laundrie, said they found a police note on his car following his disappearance last week. According to Chris and Roberta Laundrie, their son, went on a ‘hike’, Tuesday only to not return. It wasn’t until Friday that Brian’s parents notified authorities to report their son missing.
At the time of a police note being left on the windshield of the mustang, it is thought that police were unaware that the automobile belonged to Laundrie as authorities on Monday seized the vehicle and began searching its contents.
The 23 year old’s abrupt disappearance followed him being name a person of interest in the disappearance of Gabby Petito last week. The missing woman’s body was found at a Wyoming campsite on Sunday, with an autopsy set to be released Tuesday in to the cause of her death and possibly implicating the deceased woman’s missing boyfriend.
Steven Bertolino, the Laundrie family’s attorney, told ABC7 that the family went looking for Laundrie on Wednesday and, despite not finding Laundrie, spotted the Ford Mustang he was driving with a police note on it.
Gone into hiding? But where?
Bertolino added that the note said the car needed to be removed from the area.
Laundrie’s family left the car on Wednesday ‘so he could drive it back,’ Bertolino told ABC7.
When Laundrie didn’t return, the family went back to the reserve to retrieve the car on Thursday, Bertolino said.
On Friday, the family filed a missing persons report for Laundrie, three days after Laundrie had fled.
Investigators are facing criticism for their handling of the case with many saying authorities let him ‘slip through their fingers’ because they didn’t monitor him.
‘They should’ve immediately placed him under surveillance,’ Ed Gavin, an expert in missing person cases told via the nypost. ‘Immediately.’
The North Port Police Department has since said it’s ‘exhausted all avenues’ in searching for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve, close to where the man’s dumped Mustang vehicle was dumped.
‘Law enforcement agencies continue to search for Brian Laundrie,’ North Port police said.
In a new development, family attorney, Steven Bertolino said he would be making an announcement during a Tuesday press conference at 1pm. It remained unclear what the lawyer planned to divulge.
