This is the desolate swampland scene in Florida where fugitive Brian Laundrie’s bones were discovered, Dailymail.com can reveal.
Circles of orange FBI marker paint on leaves reveal the likely spot his skeletal remains and backpack were found by law enforcement, around 50 yards from a trail Laundrie liked to hike.
On the other side of the trail, some 20 yards into the undergrowth, an orange and a lime green flag marker were still evident. These are possibly where Laundrie’s bag and a possibly crucial notebook were discovered.
Dailymail.com ventured into the intimidating swamp as it opened up to the public following a near six-week FBI-led search for Laundrie, the only person of interest in the murder of his van-life fiancé Gabby Petito, 22.
The death scene – which had been under flood water for weeks – is just 700 yards from the entrance to the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, four miles from the Laundrie home in North Port.
This is the desolate swampland scene dotted with orange FBI marker paint in Florida where fugitive Brian Laundrie’s bones were discovered, Dailymail.com can reveal
Circles of orange FBI marker paint on leaves reveal the likely spot his skeletal remains and backpack were found by law enforcement, around 50 yards from a trail Laundrie liked to hike
The scene is just 700 yards from the entrance to the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park and still has the orange and lime green marker flags placed by the FBI
Some 20 yards into the undergrowth, an orange marker was still evident. This is possibly where Laundrie’s bag and a possibly crucial notebook were discovered
A lime green flag was also discovered at the scene, where Laundrie's remains and belongings were possibly found
Dailymail.com ventured into the swamp as it opened up to the public following a near six-week FBI-led search for Laundrie
Laundrie left his silver Ford Mustang convertible at the park entrance parking lot after leaving his parent’s house in an ‘emotional state’ on September 13. He would have walked over a cream-colored bridge linking the park to the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve.
We followed his route from Myakkahatchee into the snake and gator-ridden reserve. He would have turned right along a dusty track after the bridge, then left on to the ‘Live Long’ trail.
Dense vegetation borders both sides of the trail for the first few hundred yards. Laundrie, 23, would have followed it until coming close to a clearing, which contains large pools of water.
Just before the clearing, it appears Laundrie would have turned left and headed to a patch of ground where there is a break in the canopy of trees.
That is where we found the crime scene paint sprayed in circles – and is close to the location of the huge white law enforcement tent that could be seen from the air by news helicopters.
Laundrie’s bones were discovered on Wednesday when his parents Christopher, 62, and Roberta, 55, suddenly decided they wanted to venture into the reserve to look for their son themselves.
They left their home before 7am and were met at the Myakkhatchee park by two law enforcement officers who accompanied them inside. They had told police that missing Brian liked to hike a particular trail, that was now probably flood free.
Steve Bertolino, their lawyer, described what happened, saying: ‘As they went further in, Chris ventured off the trail into the woods.
‘He was zigzagging in different areas, law enforcement was doing the same thing. And Roberta Laundrie was walking down the trail.
‘At some point, Chris locates what's called a dry bag. The dry bag is a white bag, laying in the woods, say 20 feet or so off the trail.’
Bertolino continued: ‘Law enforcement… looked at the contents of the bag. At that time, law enforcement officers showed him a picture on the phone of a backpack that law enforcement had located also nearby and also some distance off the trail.
‘At that point, the Laundries were notified there was also remains near the backpack, and they were asked to leave the preserve’.
The notebook ‘could be salvageable’ a source told CNN. They added: ‘It had clearly been wet and they are going to use any potential means to dry that out before opening it. They will be very careful with it.’
An autopsy by the medical examiner in Sarasota has failed to determine how Laundrie died and his bones were yesterday/FRI sent to an anthropologist for further examination, Bertolino told Dailymail.com.
The death scene is just four miles from the Laundrie home in North Port, Florida
The reserve was described as looking ‘like Jurassic Park’ by one search and rescue
