IDAHO FALLS — Brian Laundrie was in a “bad state of mind” when he left his parents’ home on Monday, Sept. 13. That was the last time he spoke to his parents.
“Brian to my knowledge was never quote ‘suicidal,’ and ultimately he was in a bad state of mind when he left. Chris (Laundrie) had conveyed that to me. Chris has said, ‘I wish I didn’t let him walk out of the door.’ But you know, he was a young adult, 22 years old, he’s certainly allowed to walk out the door,” said Steven Bertolino, the Laundrie family attorney.
The FBI confirmed Thursday that the remains found at the Carlton Reserve in North Port, Florida, belonged to Brian Laundrie. He vanished last month after Gabby Petito was reported missing. She was found strangled to death in a Wyoming national park on Sept. 19.
Bertolino talked with EastIdahoNews.com on Friday and said he didn’t know word for word what Brian and his parents Chris and Roberta’s last conversation entailed, but he knew the gist of it.
“Brian had said that he was going out for a hike, that he had packed his backpack. Chris and Roberta didn’t think too much about it because he was always going out on hikes. He was a young man, very independent,” he said.
Law enforcement found Laundrie’s remains on the reserve. They also found Laundrie’s personal items, including a backpack, a notebook, a dry bag and some clothing.
“Chris came across the dry bag. At the same time close by, law enforcement came across the backpack nearer to the (human) remains. That area was two to three feet underwater several weeks ago,” said Bertolino.
Bertolino said the Laundries were familiar with the Carlton Reserve area because they have hiked there many times.
Experts told CNN that the notebook believed to be Laundrie’s could offer some insight.
Bertolino told EastIdahoNews.com that he and the Laundrie family have not been given any information on the notebook, and they haven’t even seen it.
Bertolino said his contact with the North Port Police Department told him that they were not going to release the cause of death for Brian Laundrie on Friday. There’s no word yet as to when that will specifically happen.
“Brian is no longer with us. We can now understand that perhaps he was just in a bad place at that time. As of right now, Chris and Roberta are going to grieve their son,” Bertolino said.
Bertolino said the Petito and Laundrie families have not talked to each other during this time, and it’s up to them if they ever want to.
“We all know there’s a lot of anger, and there’s a lot of grief on both sides. A lot of anger on the Petito side, understandably,” Bertolino said.
There’s been a lot of speculation as to what happened and led up to Petito’s death and what may have happened with Laundrie, but Bertolino says we just don’t know.
“Ultimately, people do have a right to remain silent,” he said. “We try not to judge people by witch hunt or by mobs, and you know if we lose that in this country, we go back several hundred years. Is that really what we want? If you think about the last few weeks, people have pointed the finger at me, they pointed the finger at the Laundries, they said we’ve done this, this and this, and they’ve convicted us . … It’s just not right. It’s unfair.”
