- John Walsh said he didn't think
Brian Laundrie ever went to the Carlton Reserve. - "I think he was never there," the "In Pursuit" host told CNN.
- Walsh wondered whether anyone had seen Laundrie since he returned to his family home.
John Walsh, the host of "In Pursuit," has joined the search for Brian Laundrie and expressed skepticism over whether anyone actually saw Laundrie in his family home after he returned from a road trip with
"I'm of a different persuasion and a different philosophy on going back to the swamp. I think he was never there," Walsh told CNN of ongoing police efforts to search for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve in Florida.
Laundrie returned to his family home in North Port, a city near the nature reserve in Sarasota County, on September 1, 10 days before Petito's family reported her missing. Petito and Laundrie had gone on a cross-country trip together.
-Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) September 22, 2021
Laundrie refused to assist authorities in the search, invoking his Fifth Amendment right.
His attorney, Steven Bertolino, told reporters Laundrie remained at the family home, but on Friday he told the police and the public that Laundrie's family last heard from him a few days prior.
The FBI on Tuesday confirmed that remains found near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming were Petito's and said her death was a homicide.
Walsh, who previously hosted "America's Most Wanted," said he didn't believe Laundrie, whom authorities consider a person of interest in Petito's disappearance, ever went to the Carlton Reserve. "His parents and the lawyer on the phone bought him five days, four days, to get out in front of this," he told CNN.
He questioned the family's claims that Laundrie had gone to the reserve and described it as unusual that the family found his Ford Mustang and left a note for him to return.
"In a 60,000-acre preserve they just found his car," Walsh said, adding that there were reports the car didn't leave the driveway when the family said it did.
The police searched the family home Monday and declared it a crime scene. A tow truck removed the car the family said Laundrie drove to the reserve. Investigators could also be seen with large cardboard boxes and evidence bags.
Walsh however, was more concerned over the lack of reports of anyone seeing Laundrie in the home.
"'Has anybody seen any confirmation that he was in that house?'" Walsh said he'd been asking reporters. "What if he came back with the van? He was there for 10 days. Great amount of time to prepare for an escape. Could've scraped the van. I'm surprised the FBI finds anything in that van or anything in the house. So 10 days he's there, did anybody see him? Did any neighbors ever actually see Brian?"
Walsh suggested the family could've taken a photo of their son next to a newspaper with the date showing as proof he was there.
"All this time the time the FBI and the North Port police have been going on the word of the lawyer, of Bertolino, that he's in the house and wasn't everyone surprised when they called up Friday and said he's been gone since Tuesday," Walsh said.
Laundrie is considered a person of interest and not a suspect. He has not been charged with a crime over Petito's disappearance or death. The FBI and the North Port Police Department didn't respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.