The hunt for Brian Laundrie, who went missing after returning from a cross-country trip without his fiancee, Gabby Petito, has taken a bizarre twist – after conspiracy theorists claim to have found evidence that he’s hiding in a “secret bunker” under his parents’ garden.
Laundrie was reportedly under surveillance by the FBI but somehow managed to disappear from under their noses without answering any questions about the death of Gabby, 22.
He had returned from the camping trip on September 1, and went on another break with his parents a week later, before Gabby’s parents reported her missing on September 11.
When police visited the Laundrie home to ask Brian, 23, what he knew about his fiancée’s disappearance, he refused to speak to them.
Shortly after that, according to his parents, he left home carrying a backpack but reportedly without his phone or wallet.
It was only on September 23, four days after Gabby’s remains were found in a forest in Wyoming, that the US District Court of Wyoming issued a federal arrest warrant for him. The charges relate not to Gabby’s murder, but to the misuse of her bank accounts after her death.
But so far Laundrie has managed to evade capture. So where is he? Under his mum and dad’s flower beds, apparently.
Drone video, which has been shared widely across social media, shows the missing man’s parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, apparently tending to their garden.
While it’s not entirely clear when the video was shot, some eagle-eyed conspiracy theorists insist that at one point they can see a hand reaching out from an alleged “secret bunker” beneath the garden.
“Brian is under the garden bed,” insists TikTok user Mamabear_xo. “Watch him hand his mother something.”
Charlienovasite, who also posted the drone footage to TikTok, said: “There is definitely someone there. You can not change my mind”.
Not everyone is convinced. Twitter user Erin Burns wrote: “I can’t believe people actually think Brian Laundrie is in a bunker under their flower bed.
“Realistically, who would coincidentally have an underground bunker in their backyard already OR be able to build one by the time they realized Gabby was missing?”
Although, she added, “I could be wrong…”
Eager to see Brian brought to justice, some Twitter users tagged celebrity bail bondsman Dog The Bounty Hunter into their clips about the garden hideout.
Duane “Dog” Chapman, who starred in A&E’s “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” has said he is following some “very strong leads,” and is searching the coast near the Florida campsite where Laundrie was staying shortly before Gabby was reported missing.
At the end of last month, his spokesperson Jennifer Willingham confidently predicted that Chapman was on the brink of capturing the fugitive, telling reporters: “This could very well be the last day of the hunt to apprehend Brian Laundrie.”