Missing Gun Belonging To Brian Laundrie's Parents Wasn't Made Public, Attorney Says

NORTH PORT (CBSMiami/CNN) - A gun belonging to Brian Laundrie's parents went missing at the time he disappeared.

According to the family's attorney Steven Bertolino, Laundrie's parents discovered a handgun was missing from its case when they voluntarily surrendered their firearms to law enforcement on September 17th, the same day they reported him missing.

The family immediately consulted law enforcement, he said, including the FBI and North Port, Florida, police.

Bertolino's comments come days after a Florida medical examiner confirmed Laundrie, who was the subject of a weekslong manhunt following the disappearance of his fiancée Gabby Petito, died by suicide from a gunshot wound to the head. Laundrie's remains were found in a Florida nature reserve last month.

Asked why information about the missing gun was not publicly shared, Bertolino said he and law enforcement agreed "it was best for that information to not be public."

"Imagine, with the frenzied atmosphere at the time, if the public thought Brian had a gun," Bertolino said. "I cannot speak to why (law enforcement) did not reveal the info but we spoke about it at the time and I believe they felt as I did."

CNN reached out to the FBI for comment. North Port Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Laundrie vanished from his parents' home in North Port just days after Petito had been reported missing. The couple had been traveling across the country over the summer in a converted van before Laundrie returned home without Petito on September

Laundrie vanished days after Petito was reported missing, sparking a multistate investigation. Petito's remains were found in Wyoming on September 19, her death was ruled a homicide by manual strangulation.

In the meantime, authorities focused their search for Laundrie on the vast Florida nature reserve where his remains were eventually found on October 20. On Friday, Bertolino said he did not know whether a gun was found near Brian's remains or possessions.

The circumstances that led to Petito's death remain a mystery. The FBI described her fiancé as a "person of interest" in her murder, but he did not face charges in her death. A federal grand jury had indicted him for allegedly using two accounts that belonged to someone else in the days after Petito died.

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