Brian Laundrie was under police surveillance but disappeared anyway, police admit

• Florida police said Thursday they were monitoring Brian Laundrie before he went missing.
• A spokesperson said that there were legal limits on how effectively officers could monitor him.

Florida police were monitoring Brian Laundrie, the fiancé of Gabby Petito, before he went missing.

A spokesman for North Port Police confirmed to Insider that Laundrie was under surveillance when he vanished on September 17.

He vanished all the same, and authorities only declared him missing after Laundrie's parents let them know.

The police spokesman, Josh Taylor, said that officers monitoring Laundrie had done "everything we could within the law." He did not specify what methods they had used.

Taylor said that the FBI and the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department had also been involved in the surveillance.

At the time he disappeared, there was no warrant for Laundrie's arrest. That came only after Petito's remains had been found in Wyoming, near where she and Laundrie had travelled. Laundrie is wanted for alleged misuse of a bank card, and has not been charged with harming Petito.

Laundrie returned to his Florida family home alone on September 1, after taking a cross-country road trip in a van with her.

Police went into Laundrie's home on September 11 but did not speak to him, Taylor told CNN.

Petito's remains were recovered in Wyoming on September 19, near where the couple had last been seen together. A coroner determined she died by homicide, Insider reported previously.

Officers have been searching for Laundrie without success since he went missing. Most of their efforts have focused on a nature reserve near North Port.