The lawyer representingBrian Laundrie’s family is addressing rumors that Brian’s parents planted evidence found at a Florida nature park this week before his body was discovered.
“It’s nonsense,” family attorney Steven Bertolino tells PEOPLE.
On Wednesday, authorities joined Brian’s parents, Chris and Roberta, in searching the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park for signs of their son.
Within an hour of beginning their search, looking in areas that Brian was known to frequent, Chris and Roberta found a white bag and another unspecified item, Bertolino toldtold Fox News Digital.
Separately, the outlet reports, authorities discovered a backpack and notebook belonging to Brian — and in close proximity,partial human remainsthat were later identified as his.
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Given the speed with which new evidence was discovered after the park reopened and Brian’s parents began searching, online theories sprouted up that Chris and Roberta —who have previously been criticizedfor not doing more to assist investigators — planted the evidence at Myakkahatchee, which would help explain why it wasn’t found during previous searches.
Brian Laundrie.Instagram
Bertolino’s assertion is consistent with what the FBI stated at a press conference about their findings Wednesday.
“These items were found in an area that, up until recently, had been underwater,” said Michael McPherson, special agent in charge of FBI Tampa.
Bertolino dismissed the idea that Brian’s parents had any ulterior motive for searching Myakkahatchee on Wednesday.
“When I spoke to them Tuesday night, they said, ‘We want to go in the preserve tomorrow,'” Bertolino told Fox News Digital. “What do I think about that? I told them it was a great idea, and I thought we should notify law enforcement so there’s no issue.”
Bertolino told the outlet that when investigators realized what may have been discovered — presumably the human remains that at that point had not been identified — they sent Chris and Roberta home to wait for a call with more information.
“It’s quite sad,” Bertolino said in an interviewwith CNN. “You can imagine, as a parent, finding your son’s belongings alongside some remains. That’s got to be heartbreaking. And I can tell you that they are heartbroken.”
“People with nothing else to do are afraid this case will go away and they will have to go back to following celebrities and others in the fake world of the internet,” the family attorney tells PEOPLE, addressing the conspiracy that Brian’s parents planted evidence in Myakkahatchee.
source: people.com
