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Joshua Taylor, the spokesman for the North Port Police Department in Sarasota County, Florida said on Friday, Oct. 29, said that "other than confusion, it likely changed nothing. There is a very good possibility that Brian was already deceased."
"He still needed to be found," Taylor said. "We just wanted people to better understand why we thought Brian was in his home."
Taylor also said the mistake was "a direct result of a lack of cooperation from the family early on in this investigation."
Laundrie, who was a person of interest in the Gabby Petito murder case, had been missing for several weeks and had refused to speak with law enforcement before he went to the Carlton Reserve to "hike."
Investigators realized their mistake on Friday, Sept. 17, when his parents told police they hadn't seen their son since Tuesday, Sept. 14.
The parents later changed their story, saying they hadn't seen him since Monday, Sept. 13.
Laundrie's remains were found last week at the nature reserve near his family home. A cause of death has not been determined.
Laundrie and Petito, age 22, of Blue Point, in Suffolk County, were on a cross-country trip when she was reported missing on Saturday, Sept. 11 by her mother.
Her remains were found a week later on Sunday, Sept. 17 in a campground in the mountains of Wyoming. Her cause of death was deemed strangulation and manner of death a homicide.
Laundrie had returned home to Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 1, in Petito's van by himself.
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