NORTH PORT, Fla. — It's been roughly 24 hours since the FBI confirmed skeletal remains found in a Southwest Florida nature preserve are those of Brian Laundrie. Authorities were able to use dental records to make the identity.
Laundrie was a person of interest in the disappearance and death of his fiancé, Gabby Petito.
WPTV learned Friday that investigators could be releasing new information slowly because they do not want to jeopardize their investigation.
The FBI said dental records confirm the remains found at the Carlton Reserve wilderness park are those of Laundrie.
The discovery of the remains concluded a massive search involving federal, state, and local law enforcement that began shortly after Laundrie disappeared on Sept. 14, two weeks after the 23-year-old returned alone to his parent's home in North Port without Petito.
Search crews found a notebook and backpack believed to belong to Laundrie.
A criminologist WPTV with said investigators are going to piece together what happened to Laundrie and it could take time.
Dr. Alexis Piquero at the University of Miami said any of the evidence Laundrie has within his body, outside of his body, in the backpack and in the notebook can somehow link him even more directly to gabby.
"All of that stuff is literally trying to re-piece everything together, not knowing what happened," Piquero said. "From a puzzle point of view, that’s what investigators are doing and people need to realize this is not going to end in 44 minutes like CSI does. This is going to be a little bit of time because it takes time to do that kind of real detailed investigation on all of this evidence."
The Petito family has not released any comment regarding this week's findings.
A memorial for Petito outside of the Laundrie family home is growing from people also demanding answers.
