The Laundrie family attorney is shutting down theories that Brian Laundrie’s parents planted the evidence found in a Florida nature reserve Wednesday after weeks of officials coming up empty handed.
As we reported, Chris and Roberta Laundrie joined law enforcement yesterday for the first time together at the Carlton Reserve, where they had continuously told police they believed their fugitive son had been hiding after the strangled body of his fiancée, Gabby Petito, was found in Wyoming.
Just a few hours into the search, police found human remains, Brian’s backpack, and his notebook, while Chris discovered a white plastic dry bag belonging to his son nearby. But considering how officials had already combed the area for weeks and found nothing, the fact that the breakthrough just so happened to come hours after Brian’s parents joined the search was suspicious to many.
FBI special agent Michael McPherson told press on Thursday that the location where the remains were found had been under a foot of water at the time of the initial search, where authorities used sophisticated search tools like sonar, drones, swamp buggies, and fixed wing aircraft.
Related: The Trail Of Bodies Discovered During Brian’s Manhunt
But because we live in an age of constant paranoia, where people believe pop stars are sending them hidden messages in their Instagram photos, sleuths who have been following the Petito case instantly accused the Laundries of planting the evidence, claiming the timing of the discovery was just too coincidental.
Law enforcement experts only added fuel to the fire. K-9 handler and former police officer Kyle Heyen alleged that even if the remains had been under water at the time officials were looking, it’s “highly suspicious” that the cadaver dogs still weren’t able to sniff it out. He told NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live:
“If the body had been there, when they went by with cadaver dogs, and the body had been there for more than two or three minutes, the odor would have come through the water. They should have been able to locate that body.”
On Wednesday, however, Laundrie family lawyer Steven Bertolino said the theories that his clients planted evidence were “hogwash,” telling CNN’s Chris Cuomo:
“Chris and Roberta went to this area first and as happenstance was, they stumbled upon these items.”
Bertolino also told CNN he was the one who advised Chris and Roberta not to speak to the media or Gabby’s family — another thing the Laundries have been getting blasted for over the past few weeks. He added:
“Now is not the right time to talk about the situation with Gabby. The family was following my directions. I told them not to talk with anybody, not to say a word, I was the intermediary between the family and law enforcement. Everybody has the right to remain silent and that’s what I told my clients and that’s what they did… This is the advice they’re taking, and that’s on me. I’m the one who told them not to talk. That’s been on me from day one. That’s not on the family.”
When asked why the parents hadn’t joined the search at the park earlier, Bertolino noted that it hadn’t been open to the public before Tuesday. He said:
“The parents had assumed that the experts, the FBI and all the tracking teams they had, would be able to locate Brian based upon the information that we had provided them to the specific areas and trails in the park that Brian liked to visit.”
As for why Brian’s father picked up the dry bag he found, Bertolino explained:
“Chris didn’t want to pick the bag up because he wanted law enforcement to see it. This was caught on camera. Chris couldn’t find the law enforcement because they were then out of sight, because Chris had been in the woods, so he didn’t want to leave the bag there with the news reporter standing nearby, so he picked it up… He did meet up shortly with law enforcement. They looked at the contents of the bag. At that time, law enforcement officers showed him a picture on the phone of a backpack that law enforcement had located also nearby, and also some distance off the trail. At that point, the Laundries were notified that there was also remains near the backpack and they were asked to leave the preserve.”
On Thursday morning, he added to DailyMail.com:
“Speculation is just that.”
Hmm…
What do U think about all this??
[Image via Moab Police Dept./Fox News Digital]
The post Laundrie Family Lawyer BLASTS Theory That Brian's Parents Planted Evidence, Claims HE Was The Reason The Family Never Cooperated! appeared first on Perez Hilton.
