We still don’t have all the answers in the Gabby Petito case; we likely never will now that Brian Laundrie has been found dead. What we do know is that the police have a lot to answer for…
The North Port Police Department is facing serious criticism for their handling of the case, mostly for letting their sole person of interest get away in the first place. Most civilians following the news were confused why Brian wouldn’t be under surveillance the whole time — after all, he wasn’t cooperating with the search for his then-missing fiancée from the start, it was sus as hell.
Related: Utah Police Got Paid For Gabby Petito Bodycam Footage — Why That’s NOT OK!
We recently learned the department were watching the house and even caught him on camera leaving for his final hike into the Carlton Reserve. First, instead of following him, they kept an eye on their cameras and didn’t get concerned when he didn’t come back for two days. Then — and we still can’t believe this is real — they admitted to having mistaken his mother, Roberta Laundrie, for him and assumed he came back. His 55-year-old mother with a full head of dark, curly hair, who looks nothing like her 23-year-old bald son.
Once they admitted to that mistake, calls for an investigation into their “complete incompetence” grew, with a petition to the governor gaining steam this week.
In light of the growing pressure, their public information officer once again came forward to answer for the North Port PD. And this time, the buck stops… with the Laundries. Josh Taylor told NBC4 on Thursday that the mistake “was a direct result of a lack of cooperation from the family early on in this investigation.”
Um, sorry, we absolutely agree there was a lack of cooperation on their part… but how does that cause officers to confuse two people who look nothing alike? Shouldn’t their silence have caused y’all to be extra cautious??
Taylor also doubled down that the mistake had no impact on the extreme cost in both time and money to the state that the subsequent manhunt exacted. He said:
“Other than confusion, it likely changed nothing. We just wanted people to better understand why we thought we knew Brian was in his home.”
Yeah, sorry, that does NOT help at all. As for once again saying Brian was likely already dead by the time they made their mistake, he still has no way of knowing that and likely never will as time of death is unlikely to be that exact. But we do know Brian definitely wasn’t already dead when he first left on that Monday when police should have tailed him to make sure he wasn’t fleeing.
Man, they really need to stop defending themselves.
[Image via Gabby Petito/Instagram/10 Tampa Bay/YouTube.]
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