Manhunt for Brian Laundrie; some think he could be in Appalachians

[4eyedbuzzard]

he may fancy himself living along the AT, changing his appearance and trying to mix in with other hikers

how many times have you encountered a "duffle-bag" hiker on the AT ? the drifter who wanders the trail and lives in AT shelters bumming food or money off AT hikers.

hope this Laundrie character doesn't turn into another Gary Gilmore, a psycho drifter who looked for victims along the AT and trails in the national forests. Gary Gilmore murdered Meredith Emerson on Blood Mountain on New Years Day 2008. He's on death row in Florida for murdering another woman in Apalachicola National Forest.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/gary-hilton

Yeah, both of those Garys were bad guys but only Hilton had a connection to the trail and hiking in general. But more important, both had violent histories and problems extending from childhood. Laundrie doesn't fit the same profile. Whatever happened - and we simply don't know - seems more like it might be a domestic issue gone horribly wrong. He's scared and running/hiding, but I don't see him as a predator type like the two guys you mentioned. But, just MHO.

That is a pretty bold statement. Maybe they have "something" that they are not telling the rest of us. Who knows?

Fair enough. I'm sure they have info that isn't being released. But they sure don't seem hot on the trail of much of anything.

[JNI64]

In this interesting day & age of folks driving around alone with face masks on & walking into banks with face masks on, I would think it could be fairly easy to hide out for a long time

Concur! A huge problem for sure!

[John B]

Could he survive 3 weeks in a Florida swamp?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/10/us/co...rts/index.html

[Alligator]

Could he survive 3 weeks in a Florida swamp?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/10/us/co...rts/index.html

Survivalists can be really ridiculous when asked these questions. I'm sure the reserve has its difficulties, but as a backpacker, if I decided to duck into the local woods, I wouldn't have any difficulty making it three weeks, spring, summer, fall. Winter, that would make for a big hall. Survivalists would be packing big bowie knives, Hatchett, all the "tactical" stuff. Me I'd be thinking I need to triple my food and fuel, a water filtration backup could be key, bring some extra soap. Of course the pack would be heavy and moving far would not be in the cards. Survivalist are like the animals are going to kill him. I guess people drop like flies in the reserve there from the various beasts

[TwoSpirits]

If he's out there and alive, his body is putting out a heat signature that can be detected by pretty standard technology readily available to law enforcement.

[Jonnycat]

If he's out there and alive, his body is putting out a heat signature that can be detected by pretty standard technology readily available to law enforcement.

That's cheating.

[Alligator]

I'm not ignoring LE being able to detect him.

But imagine he has a couple of bucket caches set up. It would be like a thruhiker going to town! The survivalists don't even mention it.

Of course a modern thruhiker might be like well I'll need about 3‐4 buckets a week and each bucket should have about 1.5 to 2.5 days of food and if I put one bucket near a gas station I can get a sandwich ...

[4eyedbuzzard]

Survivalists can be really ridiculous when asked these questions. I'm sure the reserve has its difficulties, but as a backpacker, if I decided to duck into the local woods, I wouldn't have any difficulty making it three weeks, spring, summer, fall. Winter, that would make for a big hall. Survivalists would be packing big bowie knives, Hatchett, all the "tactical" stuff. Me I'd be thinking I need to triple my food and fuel, a water filtration backup could be key, bring some extra soap. Of course the pack would be heavy and moving far would not be in the cards. Survivalist are like the animals are going to kill him. I guess people drop like flies in the reserve there from the various beasts

Yeah, the three essentials: shelter, water, and food. Even beyond their obsession with weapons and defense strategies against the animals they fear, the whole survivalist thing is pretty ridiculous. Even armed with things like axes, big knives, bow and arrow, fishing gear, etc., a single human, alone and completely on their own, without an established base (dry, heated shelter) and gear in place to store and preserve food, has very little chance of surviving for any protracted length of time (more than a few months max). Perhaps it's possible in a year round warm climate with abundant natural food sources that can be foraged year round - maybe stranded on a tropical island where the fish jump in front of your spear and the coconuts fall from the palms. Otherwise, it's just an exercise in slowing the inevitable death by starvation and/or illness. Get past all that, and you can look forward to dying from loneliness.

[Odd Man Out]

If he's out there and alive, his body is putting out a heat signature that can be detected by pretty standard technology readily available to law enforcement.

Unfortunately, so is every deer, bear, and bigfoot.

[martinb]

He's not in that swamp, alive anyway. He had, with help from his parents, at least 10 days to make plans to hide. His parents, who supposedly "loved" Gabby never became concerned enough to call him out or call the police? According to the parents they all "went camping" for a few days shortly after he came back on Sept 1. I suspect he is south of the border because he certainly had enough time to make his way there before all of this came out.

[Jonnycat]

Unfortunately, so is every deer, bear, and bigfoot.

Naw, bigfoot are able to shapeshift into pure energy, that's why FLIR doesn't detect them.

[slowdive]

I guess the title "Hide and Seek Champion" has a new contender.
CNN.com was running the survival story daily until now, seems like its not big news anymore. It would not surprise me if he's found hiding in the attic of the parents house, or somewhere right under authorities noses. Or somewhere in Virginia by now.

[simon]

Hm, Florida and a week head start or even a day head start on a boat to sea with money. Add in a friend or lets think, a smuggler and he could be sitting in the sun for years at the first dock. Today autopsy comes out so we'll see what some coward did to this wonderful young lady!

[Coffee]

I guess the title "Hide and Seek Champion" has a new contender.
CNN.com was running the survival story daily until now, seems like its not big news anymore. It would not surprise me if he's found hiding in the attic of the parents house, or somewhere right under authorities noses. Or somewhere in Virginia by now.

No doubt he's laying low until the news cycle dies down. No news story can sustain itself forever and he is relying on it becoming a cold case. Hope they get him while the story is still in the news.

[Longboysfan]

Maybe a late season thru hike?

[Jonnycat]

CNN.com was running the survival story daily until now, seems like its not big news anymore.

How many people in this country are currently wanted for murder with unknown whereabouts? Here is the FBI's 10 most wanted list. Do you know about every one of them? What makes Brian Laundrie more special or dangerous than any of them?

Less than one month ago, nine people were murdered in Chicago during the course of one weekend. Why aren't their stories national news?

[nsherry61]

. . . Less than one month ago, nine people were murdered in Chicago during the course of one weekend. Why aren't their stories national news?

That's pretty simple. Because, they weren't young attractive women with a sizable social media following and a love-gone-wrong story for us all to watch. Duh.
News is all about selling advertising. It is NOT about doing the right thing or providing "balanced" coverage.

[cmoulder]

.................

[slowdive]

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/gab...-21/index.html

Poor girl was strangled. I'm not a detective but isn't strangulation done in anger most of the time? Unfortunately, the cause of death doesn't shed any light to his whereabouts, but maybe it will get the search for him kicked in to high gear. IDK. They might not be actively looking for him and just waiting for him to slip up. I would imagine the powers that be keep their cards close to their vest as to not tip of the fugitive.

In response to Johnnycat; thats a whole topic in itself. That same scenario is played out every weekend in Chicago with little to no front page coverage which is sad.

[Alligator]

OK folks, keep it pertinent to the possibility (however remote it might be) that Laundrie is hiding out on the AT. Not much of an issue about consideration of other backcountry areas but after that not much interest hosting the thread we're not looking to do a special or anything.