Dog the Bounty Hunter has called Brian Laundrie’s death “suspicious” and detailed a slew of inconsistencies in his disappearance and suicide.
The reality TV star suggested in his new memoir that Brian’s parents knew the location of his body all along after he killed his fiancée Gabby Petito during a cross-country road trip in 2021.
Dog writes that it would have been a “miracle” if Roberta and Chris Laundrie had really found their son’s remains by chance, as they claimed, in the 160-acre Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in North Port, Florida.
“I believe in miracles, but that seems miraculous indeed!” Dog writes in snarling Nine Lives and Counting: A Bounty Hunter’s Journey to Faith, Hope, and Redemptionwhich comes out next month.
Dog joined the search for Brian, but he committed suicide before he could apprehend him, making him the first fugitive ever to evade the famed bounty hunter.
Dog says he’s not convinced Brian shot himself and writes that it doesn’t make sense that his suicide note was still readable despite having supposedly been underwater for a month.
Dog The Bounty Hunter joined the manhunt for Brian Laundrie after he was wanted for the 2021 murder of his fiancée Gabby Petito
Dog, real name Duane Chapman, writes in his upcoming memoir that Laundrie’s death is ‘suspicious’ and points out several ‘inconsistencies’
Dog writes that it would have been a ‘miracle’ if Roberta and Chris Laundrie (pictured) had really found their son’s remains by chance, as they claimed
The case still concerns him because of “too many irregularities and inconsistencies that have not been satisfactorily explained,” he writes.
Petito, 22, of Blue Point, New York, was on a cross-country road trip with Brian, 23, in 2021 when her parents reported her missing in September of that year.
She had been documenting her trip on Instagram and in her posts she talked about how much she was enjoying the trips and living in their van.
His memoir, Nine Lives and Counting: A Bounty Hunter’s Journey to Faith, Hope, and Redemption, will be published next month
But after her parents had not heard from her for a month, they called the police, who later concluded that she had been murdered by Laundrie in late August.
Laundrie went missing shortly afterwards and became the prime suspect, even refusing to come forward when Petito’s body was found, despite mounting outrage from Petito’s family and the public.
Dog became involved in the case while Brian was still on the run and writes in the book that he interrupted his honeymoon in Florida with his sixth wife Francie Frane to knock on the door of the Laudrie family home in North Port.
Dog, whose real name is Duane Chapman, writes that his daughter Barbara Katie died in a car accident when she was 23, the same age as Petito.
“I immediately had an emotional connection with Gabby’s parents,” Dog writes.
After explaining this to Frane, he told her he wanted to knock on the Laundrie family home “so badly” and she agreed to go with him.
After knocking loudly on the property and no one answered, Dog became convinced he was in the area.
He writes: ‘I had the feeling that the parents knew where their son was…I felt that Laundrie was close by.’
Dog said to Francie, “That boy snuck home with his tail between his legs and I’m going to look for him – for Gabby!”
To end his honeymoon, Dog started working the case and “found a bunch of leads” and set up a tip line of former law enforcement officers he knew.
Dog’s suspicions were heightened when Roberta and Chris decided to “suddenly” look for their son’s body at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, where his van had already been spotted.
Shortly afterwards, Brian’s remains were found, along with a backpack and a notebook.
The TV reality star hung a banner with a message for Gabby Petito’s boyfriend: “Aloha Brian Laundrie.” The banner flew over the islands off the west coast of Florida
A dog is seen running through the water in the area around the campsite where the laundries visited in the days before Petito was reported missing
Dog announced he would launch his own manhunt for Laundrie days after Petito’s body was discovered. He posted footage of himself wading through Fort De Soto Park looking for him
Dog asked questions about how Laundrie’s suicide note confessing to Petito’s murder was located in a wooden box in an area that had been flooded for a month, but was still readable
The first inconsistency in the case that Dog cites is that according to reports, the area – which had been searched by police – had previously been flooded, but the water had receded.
Dog writes, “When I spoke to a group of Native Americans living nearby, they told me the water had only receded an inch in two months, so a body or backpack should still have been visible.”
The bigger problem was how Chris Laundrie could have led police to the exact point where his son’s body was, even though it was off a path in a 160-acre park, which was within the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve.
Dog writes: ‘You read that right…I believe in miracles, but that does indeed seem miraculous!’
Dog also asked questions about how Laundrie’s suicide note confessing to Petito’s murder was located in a wooden box in an area that had been flooded for a month but was still readable.
He writes: ‘It was not a watertight box, but an ordinary wooden box. Picture this: take a paper notebook and write in it. Put that notebook in a wooden jewelry box, drop the box into a swimming pool and leave it under water for a month.
‘Then pull the box out of the water and take out the notebook. What do you think are the chances that the paper has not disintegrated or that a note you wrote on that paper is still legible?
Dog writes that it seems “far-fetched,” as does the idea that Brian had shot himself in the left side of the head with a .38 pistol.
“This is curious considering Brian was right-handed,” Dog writes. “It doesn’t follow the usual pattern of suicide by gunshot.”
Dog writes: ‘I found the whole thing suspicious…to this day I believe there are too many irregularities and inconsistencies that have not been satisfactorily explained. Officially the case is closed, but I feel like we don’t have all the answers.’
Chris Laundrie led police to the exact point where his son’s body was, even though it was off a path in a 160-acre park, which was within the 25,000-acre Carlton Reserve.
Dog writes: ‘I found it all suspicious… to this day I believe there are too many irregularities and inconsistencies that have not been satisfactorily explained’
Laundrie’s parents have never been charged with a criminal offense, but late last year they settled a civil lawsuit filed by Petito’s parents Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt for undisclosed terms.
The lawsuit alleged that the laundries intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the Petitos because they knew of Gabby Petito’s death in August 2021 and the location of her body.
But instead of telling authorities, they merely issued a statement expressing the “hope” that she would “be reunited with her family,” giving the Petito family false hope that she was still alive.
During the case, the Petitos submitted to the court a letter written by Roberta, which was later found by detectives in Brian’s backpack next to his corpse.
In the note she told her son: ‘If you are in jail, I will bake a cake and put a file in it. If you need to dispose of a body, I’ll come by with a shovel and garbage bags.’
The envelope bore the words ‘burn after reading’.
Roberta later claimed that she wrote it before her son went on a road trip with Petito and that it was meant as a “joke,” but considering the subsequent events, she admitted that it “sounds horrible.”
The complaint in the case stated that Brian told his parents in a phone call on August 29, 2021, that he frantically told them that Petito was “gone” and asked for a lawyer.
While the Petito family searched for their daughter, Roberta and Chris were accused of vacationing in Florida with Brian.