Brian Laundrie Mistaken for Mom, Not Watched Carefully, Police Admit
Here is why the police said they knew where Brian was when it turned out they didn't.
During a recent interview with WINK News in Florida, North Port Police Public Information Officer Josh Taylor said the department watched Laundrie leave his home on September 13 and then believed he returned home in his
Ford Mustang on September 15.
However, the North Port Police Department later learned that the person in the vehicle was Brian's mother, Roberta Laundrie.
"I believe it was it was his mom who was wearing a baseball cap," Taylor told the local news station. "They had returned from the park with that Mustang. So who does that? Right? Like, if you think your son's missing since Tuesday, you're going to bring his car back to the home.
So it didn't make sense that anyone would do that if he wasn't there. So the individual getting out with a baseball cap we thought was Brian."
"They're kind of built similarly," Taylor added in regard to Brian and his mother.
A day after officials with the North Port Police Department believed Laundrie returned home, they held a press conference where Chief Todd Garrison said that "All I'm going to say is we know where Brian Laundrie is at," believing that he was still at his home in North Port.
While Bertolino previously told the FBI that Laundrie did not return home from his hike, an official missing persons report was not filed with the North Port Police Department until Friday, September 17.
"When the family reported him on Friday. That was certainly news to us that they had not seen him," Taylor said. "We thought that we'd seen Brian initially come back into that home on that Wednesday...No case is perfect