TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Brian Laundrie, the fiancé of Gabby Petito and person of interest in her death, died from a self-inflicted gunshot, autopsy results show.
"Chris and Roberta Laundrie have been informed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and the manner of death was suicide. Chris and Roberta are still mourning the loss of their son and are hopeful that these findings bring closure to both families," the family's attorney, Steven Bertolino said.
This story is developing and will be updated.
ORIGINAL STORY | The attorney representing Brian Laundrie's family says they will likely have more answers about his death as soon as Tuesday.
Laundrie's skeletal remains were discovered Oct. 20 at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in North Port, and identified through dental record comparison. His cause and manner of death were not revealed. Attorney Steven Bertolino said his remains were sent to a forensic anthropologist after an initial autopsy came back inconclusive.
Bertolino told WFLA's Josh Benson via text on Tuesday that there will be an update on the case “today” or “tomorrow."
Sources told WFLA's J.B. Biunno that the FBI is expected to give the update instead of the medical examiner's office. Bertolino said Laundrie's family has yet to receive an update on his death, but will get the new information before it's made public.
Laundrie was the only person of interest in the death of his fiancée Gabby Petito. The couple went on a cross-country road trip this summer, but only Laundrie returned to their home in North Port. Petito's body was found in Wyoming about a week after she was reported missing. A coroner said she was strangled to death.
Although Laundrie was named a person of interest in her killing, he was never charged with Petito's murder. He was suspected of debit card fraud and withdrawing more than $1,000 from an unnamed account during the time she was missing.
Laundrie's remains were located in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park along with a notebook and other personal items. The FBI has been working to preserve the water-damaged book. If the contents are still legible, crime experts say it could answer questions about why the couple died.
“We have experts who really spend their careers doing things like drying out paper evidence, trying to recover the writing and the ink marks, and potentially finger prints, and all sorts of potentially relevant pieces of evidence from an article just like this,” Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer last week. “In terms of understanding Laundrie’s motive, his feeling about Petito, maybe event any kind of notes or comments he may have made about the events—that notebook could shed a lot of light on those issues.”
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