The North Port Police Department and other law enforcement agencies search for Brian Laundrie in a Florida nature reserve on October 21, 2021 ( GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Octavio Jones)

Report falsely says remains found in Florida were not Brian Laundrie

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 29, 2021 at 20:21
Updated on October 29, 2021 at 20:22
2 min read
By Claire SAVAGE, AFP USA

Social media posts claim that human remains found in a Florida nature reserve were not a DNA match for Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of slain road tripper Gabby Petito. But local authorities say dental records confirmed the remains were Laundrie's, and that a DNA analysis has not yet been performed.

"LAUNDRIE'S DNA DOES NOT MATCH SKULL FOUND - AUTOPSY COMES BACK 'INCONCLUSIVE' - CAUSE OF DEATH 'UNDETERMINED' - PARENTS 'NO FUNERAL' FOR BRIAN LAUNDRIE," says an October 25, 2021 Facebook post by SKYline news, a North Carolina media company that has nearly 50,000 followers on Facebook.

Screenshot of a Facebook post taken on October 29, 2021

The post then says Fox News journalist Nancy Grace reported that "'No DNA match or cause of death for Brian Laundrie after skull found.'"

The news banner from Grace's October 25 segment on the Petito investigation used that wording, but it did not mean that the remains were determined not to be Laundrie's.

Screenshot of a Fox News video taken on October 29, 2021

Laundrie, 23, had been named a "person of interest" in the killing of Petito, 22, who was found dead in September after the couple went on a road trip across the United States.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation said in an October 21 statement on Twitter that "a comparison of dental records confirmed that the human remains... are those of Brian Laundrie."

On October 26, North Port Police tweeted that the report about DNA not matching Laundrie was false. It included a statement from the medical examiner saying that DNA analysis had yet to be performed, and will be completed when its evaluation is finished.

"The identity of the remains... was confirmed by comparison to known dental records of Brian Laundrie," the statement said.

We have received a number of inquiries Tuesday about a false report of DNA not matching Brian Laundrie. Below is the Medical Examiner’s statement on the matter. pic.twitter.com/tXAe63IdlC
— North Port Police (@NorthPortPolice) October 26, 2021

North Port spokesman Josh Taylor told AFP on October 29 that the statement remains true and that a DNA test has yet to be done.

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