Cf. threads about “Why don’t I ever see dead birds?”
Real-life that happened to me.
Someone I knew closely was murdered. I’m not going to go into details to avoid identifications but the murderer when being questioned by police denied committing the murder. When the police asked who else could have done it, he said that I might have done it. So I get a call out of the blue from the sheriff’s and the innocuous questions begin Of course I’m not a suspect (they say 
) but they have to check out every lead and start asking about my relationship with the victim and the suspect’s relationship with the victim. I clam up and say if they are going to question me, I’ll need a lawyer present.
So did I do (morally) wrong by not helping the police? Does anyone think I should have answered their questions?
I don’t.
Kim Wall’s bodyparts was found by cadaver dogs under water, admittedly more or less clean sea water, not swamp water.
Nope. If they needed more information they could have easily had you come in with your lawyer.
Any competent lawyer in this situation would advise @Saint_Cad to refuse any interview with the police. I agree that “don’t talk to the police” can be taken too far, but being investigated for murder is a good time to completely clam up. If the cops want to talk to him so badly, the DA can grant him immunity.
You did right.
Of course you shouldn’t have answered their questions–not without an attorney present, and almost certainly not even then. But that sounds like a very different scenario than Brian Laundrie’s case, where he was the only person who knew exactly what happened and the only one who could have given the answers Petito’s anguished family have needed so badly. LEGALLY, sure, Brian Laundrie did the right thing to save his own skin. MORALLY, what he did and what he failed to do were pretty egregious.
Last night I watched a documentary on the Chris Watts case. I’m sure a lot of people would say he was an idiot for talking to the cops without an attorney present and even more so for confessing–and legally, he was foolish. But without his doing so, I doubt the police would have been able to solve the case and secure a conviction. I believe in the protections guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, but I also believe in taking responsibility for one’s own actions and in the obligation to help ease the additional suffering of victims’ families haunted by the unanswered “whys.”
How can the family be sued for the actions of their 22 year old son? Brian Laundrie's Family Lawyer Says Brian Was Upset and Dad Couldn't Stop Him
Someone capable of murdering another human being probably doesn’t share your sense of right and wrong.
And then he didn’t even “save” it. Moral and legal quandaries aside, I am really ghoulishly curious to know if he went into the park intending to die or intending to try to survive until investigators gave up the search.
I want to know and understand all the psychological stuff, but we’ll probably never know. Why did they stay together? The relationship must have been miserable if he ended up murdering her, as it appears. Was he trying to come up with some escape plan and then resigned himself to death? Surely his parents didn’t know much and/or suspect that he would kill himself or they would have tried to stop him from leaving - or maybe they did try. (Assuming that he did kill himself.)
I would have.
The day I end up in prison for a crime I didn’t commit I will accept your “Told ya so!”
Those of us who thought there was something hinky about the Laundrie parents’ actions and the timeline are in good company.
His parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, may be vital to unraveling the mysteries. But their recollections of key moments during these critical days – according to their family attorney – have been inconsistent or conflicted with law enforcement authorities’ version of events.
The Laundrie family “has conducted themselves in a very odd way that’s generated a lot of suspicion right from the beginning,” former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told CNN.
Between 9/11 and 9/13, the Laundries’ accounts as conveyed by their attorney and the police accounts differ dramatically.
Police were never in the same room as Laundrie. On 9/11, when North Port police came to the home, they were told Brian invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, but they never actually saw or heard Brian.
On 10/6, after the FBI questioned the Laundrie’s timeline and noted the Mustang had been returned to the Laundries’ driveway on 9/15, the senior Laundries told LE Brian had actually left on 9/13, not 9/14, as they’d previously said. This is especially odd because on the evening of 9/13, Chris Laundrie went to the Carlson/Myakkahatchee parks to look for Brian.
So not only did he supposedly leave on 9/13, but his dad went to look for him that night, yet 3 days later, the Laundries claimed Brian left on the 14th.
Then there’s this:
“Let the record be clear, the Laundries reported Brian did not come home the night he went out for the hike,” Bertolino told CNN Wednesday. “I actually reported that to the FBI, personally.”
When did he supposedly tell this to the FBI, on the night Brian really left, the 13th, or the night the Laundries originally said BL had left, the 14th? If the latter, it was not the night Brian left; if the former, it’d have made no sense for them to say he’d left on the 14th.
Also, North Port police had NO information BL was missing on 9/13 and believed at the time he was at the house. They didn’t know otherwise until 9/17, when the Laundries finally–and only when confronted with the dates pertaining to the Mustang-- reported Brian as missing.
Then we come to Chris Laundrie going to the Carlton/Myakkahatchee Creek area with police to search for Brian. Who just happened to find the dry bag BL used? Chris.
“The idea of family members participating in a search and then being the ones actually finding the evidence, and then picking up the evidence and taking it to law enforcement is really quite unusual,” said former senior FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole.
Somehow it doesn’t add up.
Reminds me of JonBenét Ramsey .
Whoops! Looks like you lost track of the side-argument under discussion here. The debate is not about the laws/ethics/morality of what Brian did or didn’t do. It’s about the laws/ethics/morality of what his parents did or didn’t do.
That’s only one of the many side issues discussed in this thread.
The police came to the house. They were told that Brian did not want to talk, so they left. Was it their obligation, morally or otherwise, after having told them to piss off, to then keep them updated about his movements? Especially when there was no warrant for his arrest or any other legal process keeping him there? He was only a “person of interest” and at the time the FBI said that he was not a suspect and that they just wanted to talk: something he said he wasn’t interested in doing. At that time, he was as free as you or me to go anywhere in the world. Why do the police need updates on his movements?
When they reported him missing is when you would expect someone to report someone missing. If my wife walks out the door and needs time to herself, I would give her space to spend time with her friends. But if I find her car abandoned, especially near a swamp, then I get concerned and report her missing. This whole paragraph seems so very normal to me.
If he wasn’t home at the time wouldn’t that be a lie by omission?
If you’ll look back at the post you quoted, you’ll see that it’s not about whether the Laundries should have talked with the police or kept them updated. It’s about the timelines not matching up. From the linked article:
But their [the Laundries’] recollections of key moments during these critical days – according to their family attorney – have been inconsistent or conflicted with law enforcement authorities’ version of events.
Again, one instance of this was:
Bertolino claims he told the FBI that Brian hadn’t returned the night of the day he’d gone for the hike (either the 14th, the date the Laundries originally said Brian left or the 13th, the date they later said he left).
Yet despite working with the FBI, North Port police didn’t know Brian had been gone until the Laundries reported him missing on the 17th. The North Port police chief reached out to Bertino via Twitter on 9/15 to ask to speak to Brian and got no response.
Different timelines. Please read the linked article. (It’s not too long.)
I hope this clarifies things for you. .
Laundrie’s autopsy was inconclusive and the remains are being sent to a forensic anthropologist to determine cause of death: