Photo: Moab City Police Department
The Sarasota Medical Examiner's Office has released the autopsy report for Brian Laundrie, providing new details about his death. Laundrie, who admitted to killing his fiance Gabby Petito in a handwritten journal found near his body, was discovered in Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Florida in October, following a month-long manhunt.
District 12 deputy chief medical examiner Dr. Wilson Broussard determined that Laundrie's cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the left side of his head. He used a European American Arms revolver, which was found at the scene.
Broussard noted that Laundrie's remains were partially eaten by animals, including feral dogs and coyotes.
"Most of the distal long bones have moderately extensive carnivore activity evidenced by multiple gouging and gnawing marks. These areas are consistent with carnivores and/or omnivores, including canines such as feral dogs and coyotes along with rodents and raccoons," he wrote in the 47-page report.
Despite the fact that the remains were eaten by animals and submerged under roughly three feet of water for several weeks, investigators managed to recover most of his skeleton.
"In summary, the vast majority of skeleton is recovered. The cranium is extensively fragmented with the mandible generally intact and the lower aspect of the maxilla generally intact, each with Some teeth present as described," Broussard wrote. "Missing bones include one mandibular tooth, five maxillary teeth, up to five craniofacial bone fragments with a moderately large area of the left temporal, lower left parietal, and superior wing of the left sphenoid bone absent."