As the search for Brian Laundrie continues, officials in Florida confirmed that they had him under surveillance before he disappeared. They did not provide details about what type of surveillance he was under or how he managed to vanish without alerting anybody.
When officers went to his home in North Port, Florida, on September 11, the day that Gabby Petito was reported missing, he was not home. As a result, authorities did not get a chance to speak to Laundrie before he vanished.
North Port police spokesman Josh Taylor told CNN that investigators were unable to recover the phones that Laundrie and Petito used during their trip but did recover a cell phone Laundrie purchased after he returned home from a cross-country road trip without Petito.
While officials have been focusing their search on two nature reserves in Florida where Laundrie liked to hike and camp, some experts believe he has fled the state and likely had help.
"It seems unlikely that he's still in that reserve. They did not find any trace of him so far. It's been weeks," former FBI agent Bryanna Fox told NBC News. "The idea that nothing has been said reinforces to me that he was likely getting help."
Fox said that Laundrie is lucky he hasn't been found and expects he will make a mistake that leads investigators to his location.
"He has to get lucky all the time for him not to get caught," she said. "They only have to get lucky once. In the end, there's a good chance law enforcement will either find him or learn what happened to him sooner than later."