“If Brian is dead, the problem is that no one will ever really know what happened or why it happened,” Petito’s friend, Alyssa Chen, tells PEOPLE.
“We’ll never have answers. That’s why I want him to be alive, because we won’t get answers otherwise. It’ll be a double tragedy for him to be dead.”
During a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Michael McPherson of FBI Tampa announced that human remains were found along with a backpack and notebook belonging to Laundrie in Florida’s found in Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. McPherson did not confirm whether the remains were Laundrie’s.

The area in which the remains were found had previously been underwater, he said.
McPherson said an evidence response team is on the scene, and likely will be there for several days.
For more on the new developments in the search for Brian Laundrie and other top stories, listen below toour daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.
Ben Matula, a high school friend of the couple, tells PEOPLE, “If it’s him, he didn’t want to face the music. He had a lot of things he had to account for, and he can’t do that if he’s dead. Except to God. If he’s meeting his maker, I hope he got things right before he died. But death is the easy way out.”
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Prior to the discovery of the remains, the Sarasota County medical examiner’s office and a cadaver dog were sent to the park after several items belonging to him were found there on Wednesday,Laundriefamily attorney Steven Bertolino confirmed to PEOPLE.

source: people.com