Two days after Gabby Petito went missing, a North Port police official indicated there was a "very strong chance" that Brian Laundrie had died.

During an interview with PEOPLE, North Port Police spokesperson Josh Taylor made the assertion that Mr. Laundrie was mistakenly identified.

"Other than confusion, it likely changed nothing. There is a very good possibility that Brian was already deceased," Mr Taylor said. "He still needed to be found. We just wanted people to better understand why we thought we knew Brian was in his home."

Earlier this week, it was revealed that officials with the department mistakenly thought Mr Laundrie's mother Roberta was her son after Ms Petito went missing. Mr Taylor was providing context to that discovery.

Officers mistakenly assumed Ms Laundrie, who was wearing a baseball cap, was driving her son's silver Mustang.

In response to a question from a reporter about why North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison informed them on September 16 that he knew where Mr Laundrie was situated, this was the reason given.

According to Steven Bertolino, the family's attorney, Mr. Laundrie really left his house "extremely agitated" on September 12th. Mr Taylor believes that Mr Laundrie had already died by the time of the news conference at which the chief spoke.

While the Laundrie family was criticized by Mr Taylor as part of the mix-up, he also pointed out that Mr Laundrie and his mother were "built" similarly and blamed their failure to assist with police for making it difficult for them to locate down their son.

In a statement to ABC 7, Mr Bertolino disputed that argument.

"Everyone makes mistakes," he wrote. "But Brian and Roberta are not 'built' the same. Moreover, it was NPPD that put the ticket on the Mustang at the park and if they saw Brian leave on Monday in the Mustang, which is news to me, then they should have been watching the Mustang and the park starting on Monday and they would have known it was Chris and Roberta that retrieved the Mustang from the park" he added.

"Now to be clear, none of this may have made a difference with respect to Brian's life but it certainly would have prevented all of the false accusations levelled by so many against Chris and Roberta with respect to 'hiding' Brian or otherwise financing an 'escape.' In the end, LE searchers did their best to locate Brian and their efforts are appreciated," he further said.