(CNN) For more than three weeks, local and federal officials combed the 25,000-acre nature reserve to Brian Landry 22 year old fiancee Gabby Petite.
On Sept. 1, Landry returned to the couple’s Northport, Fla., location in Petite’s van, according to police. Petite’s body was later found In Teton County, Wyoming.
Landry has not been accused of any wrongdoing in Petite’s murder. Landry’s parents told police he left home on September 13. Carlton Reserve.
Dozens of officers from agencies such as the FBI, the Northport Police Department, the Florida Wildlife Commission, several sheriff’s offices, and the K9 search and rescue team said Landry’s parents first called police on Sept. 17. I’ve been searching the reserve ever since.
“The Carlton Reserve is a vast and unforgiving place at times. Many areas are currently submerged (waist-deep) in water,” Northport Police said on Facebook. director last month. “The search party is a dangerous task as they are walking through crocodile- and snake-infested swamps and flooded hiking and biking trails.”
CNN asked survival experts if Landry had a chance of being alive if he had been at the reserve since mid-September. Here’s what they said.
it depends on his supplies and experience
In an interview with ABC that aired last week, Landry’s sister, Kathy Landry, said she has previously traveled the Appalachian Trail for up to five days. She said her brother was “a mediocre survivalist.”
Robert Urban, founder and chief instructor of the Urban Survival Academy, says he believes it’s nearly impossible for someone without professional training in survival tactics to survive this long in the reserve. .
“Florida’s climate is very difficult,” Urban told CNN. “I am an experienced professional and everything I can do to survive for more than three weeks. A person without experience cannot survive in such a climate.”
The list of challenges a laundry can face is not short. There are wildlife that could hurt him, including water moccasins, pigs, bears and alligators, survival experts told CNN.There was also panther sightings in reserve in the past. Some experts believe that if Landry had been in the reserve for so long, his survival skills could be hampered by fear of escaping authorities or trying to survive. are likely not operating in the best possible way, he added.
“When you’re tired, you’re less defensive and less cautious than you should be,” Urban said.
Jason Marsteiner, founder and president of Survival College, says they struggle when sending his program’s trainees into the wilderness for about a week after completing a 50-day course. rice field.
“Twenty-five days in the area is very demanding. I don’t want to do that. And I’ve had jungle training and mountain training,” he said. No. If you don’t sleep you will slowly go insane, so he will be making bad decisions, bad choices, which can lead to him being found, injured or even killed. I think it’s going to be exhausting.”
he needs shelter, water and food
It’s unclear what Landry took with him when he left.his parents I told the police that I left home with my backpack.Experts say that if he was in a reserve, a large part of whether he was still alive would depend on how prepared he was when he entered and how he had access to shelter, water and food. It all depends on how well you can come up with the three basics.
A survival expert said, “If you have a way to protect yourself (cover) from things like filtering water disinfection or the weather, you can survive for a certain period of time.” Dave Canterbury told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday. “If there was a way to collect and process food, he could live longer.”
But laundries will have to process and cook the food they collect, and if the water filtration system fails, they will have to find another way to disinfect the water, Canterbury added. Both of these things could possibly require him to start a fire. But Northport Police spokesperson Josh Taylor told CNN’s Randy Kaye on Friday.Police also disputed the discovery of a recently used campsite. The information was provided to CNN by a source close to the Landry family.
“If (Landry) doesn’t want to be discovered or seen, it’s not a big deal to shoot, so I think it’s very difficult for him to stay there for very long,” Canterbury said. Told. However, he added that Landry may have had enough of the backpack to survive to this point.
Rancher and outdoor enthusiast Alan McEwen, who lives near the reserve, said that parts of the reserve reach knee- and waist-deep water levels, making the area feel like “mud.” , said that camping in the wilderness has become very difficult.
“Just the palmetto in there is enough to make you trip when you’re walking or when you trip,” McEwen told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Friday night. If you haven’t used the repellant spray for more than a day, the bugs will catch you and everything else and drive you crazy.”
“There is no way anyone can survive like that,” he added. “None.”
In the view of Byron Kerns, founder of the Itchatad Outdoors Survival School, Laundrie’s most pressing need is water, and if he had a water pump he could have gallons with it. . But three weeks later, Landry needs to get food. It can be difficult for him to know what to eat and how to get it if he isn’t trained and doesn’t have the right tools.
“Does he know that insects can also be a source of protein in the wilderness?” Kearns said.
Drone footage of the Carlton Reserve in Venice, Florida, on October 8, 2021.
Experts believe he is not alive or there
The Landry family’s attorney, Steven Bertolino, said he “hopes” Mr. Landry is still alive when asked by CNN. , it was “certainly possible” that Landry was alive.
“We have nothing to suggest in any way,” Taylor said in an email.
Survival experts CNN spoke to seem to agree that Landry is no longer alive or in the reserve.
“(Authorities) are looking for perhaps the best man in the country, but they haven’t found a trace of him,” Marsteiner said. When you’re cleaning the area, it’s really not.”
Urban added that it is highly unlikely that he will continue to sleep out and evade search teams looking for him.
“Untrained people who are accustomed to walking trails can’t get around a team of such professionals just by hiding,” Urban said, adding that Landry isn’t in the reserve. added that he believed he did not live there.
Urban added that if Landry is in the reserve but not alive, the water, sand and movement of passing animals will make it harder to find him as the day goes on. But there’s also no indication that Landry has died.
“If something is dead, there will be buzzards flying everywhere,” McEwen told Cuomo on Friday. There are no buzzards flying.”