Is Brian Laundrie Alive? One Seasoned Pro Says Yes — and Where He Thinks FBI Should Look Next
At least one seasoned investigator, a retired federal marshal with three decades of experience searching for -- and finding -- people who were on the run, says he doesn't think Laundrie was ever in the Carlton Reserve in the first place.
In an interview for
News 4's The Debrief podcast, Craig Caine, who supervised members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force before his retirement from the U.S. Marshals Service, said he believes Laundrie was never in that nature preserve at all.
"I think it was all a ploy. He had plenty of time to calculate those moves," said Caine, who has no involvement in the Petito/Laundrie case but who offered an expert opinion based on 30-plus years working such mysteries in the United States and abroad.
Caine says there is one "critical moment that changed my mind" as far as where he thought the investigation would lead. In his view, it all comes back to that silver Ford Mustang Brian Laundrie's parents told police their son drove to the Carlton Reserve on Sept. 14.
He left behind his phone, which the FBI has since confiscated.
Laundrie's parents went to the preserve after their son didn't come home. They found the Mustang. They drove it home. Three days later, they called police to tell them that Brian Laundrie was missing. That, for Caine, was the critical juncture.
"You're gonna leave your son out in the preserve with no form of communication and no way to get home? Does that make sense to anybody?" Caine asked. "I don't even think he was ever in that preserve."
The FBI and local law enforcement briefly seized that Ford Mustang as part of their investigation and have since returned it to the Laundrie family. It's unclear what, if anything, of forensic note they found inside of it to assist in their investigation.
Caine says he isn't surprised they haven't found Laundrie yet, either. But he does think, eventually, he will be located.
"This isn't reality TV. This is a real-life situation, which leads me to believe this was well-orchestrated, well-planned and he had a lot of time and resources," Caine opined. "This guy will be found, maybe not sooner but he will be found later."