‘The FBI Has Found Something’: Brian Laundrie’s Father Returns Home After ‘Unusual’ Visit to Nature Preserve as Police Search for Fugitive Son

Brian Laundrie’s father Chris Laundrie was back at his North Port, Florida, home on Thursday afternoon, shortly after he went to a Sarasota nature preserve late Thursday morning — possibly to help with the search for his fugitive son, who has been missing since mid-September.

Brian Laundrie’s girlfriend Gabby Petito disappeared during the couple’s cross-country road trip this summer and was found murdered in September. Laundrie has been missing since before Petito’s body was found.

Multiple reporters at the scene saw the elder Laundrie arrived to the entrance of Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, which borders Carlton Reserve, late Thursday morning. He was reportedly seen being driven into the park in a police vehicle, and remained there for only a few hours before returning home.

News Nation Now reporter Brian Entin was at the scene, and spoke to former FBI agent Jennifer Koffendaffer about the decision for the FBI to bring Chris Laundrie to the scene of the search.

“It is unusual,” Koffendaffer told Entin in a phone interview that Entin broadacast on his Twitter feed.

“I believe the FBI has found something at the reserve, something that may or may not be significant, but something that can’t be transported.”

“Possibly a camping site and they want his father to come look at perhaps how the fire pit looks, or the setup of the camp, to see if it is something that he recognizes or is familiar with how Brian Laundrie possibly sets up the camp.”

“This request … is now putting the FBI in contact with the father,” the former agent added. “I guarantee they have questions for him about what they have found [that] they believe he can answer.”

North Port police later said that no campsite was located, despite an earlier report that there was.

The FBI has not yet commented on any possible evidence found in the search for Laundrie, who is wanted on a federal warrant for a financial crime. He is accused of fraudulently accessing another person’s financial accounts shortly after his girlfriend Gabby Petito was last in touch with her family. Petito was found dead in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Park on September 19. A medical examiner determined that she died of homicide, but authorities have not yet released the specific cause of death.

Laundrie was named a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance before she was found dead. He has not yet been named a suspect in her murder.

For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast. Listen to the latest episode:

[Feature image: Reporters inspect a creek flowing under an entrance road at the Carlton Reserve during a search for Brian Laundrie, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021/AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack; Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie/Instagram]