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Fugitive Brian Laundrie left to go ‘for a hike’ in Florida swampland a day earlier than his parents originally told police, Dailymail.com can reveal.

Dad Christopher, 62, and mom Roberta, 55, told detectives he vanished on the evening of Tuesday, September 14 – two weeks after he returned alone from the ill-fated cross-country road trip with girlfriend Gabby Petito, 22.

But the Laundrie lawyer Steve Bertolino says the parents have now corrected their version of events and say their son disappeared on Monday, September 13.

The Laundries did not report their son missing until the Thursday of that week.

Bertolino told Dailymail.com: ‘The Laundries were basing the date Brian left on their recollection of certain events.

‘Upon further communication with the FBI and confirmation of the Mustang being at the Laundrie residence on Wednesday, September 15, we now believe the day Brian left to hike in the preserve was Monday, September 13.

Police have previously said Laundrie’s silver Ford Mustang convertible was given a police ticket at one of the entrances to the alligator-infested Carlton Reserve near his home in North Port, Florida, when left there on the Tuesday night.

Bertolino did not respond when asked at what time Brian left the house on the Monday.

However Dailymail.com arrived at the Laundrie home to cover the story of Gabby’s disappearance at 1pm that day. The Mustang was not on the driveway, suggesting Brian had already vanished.

Officers had turned up at the Laundrie house on the night of Saturday, September 11 to speak with Brian. It was just hours after Gabby’s frantic mom Nichole Schmidt reported her missing at around 7pm to her local sheriff’s office near her own home on Long Island, New York.

However the Laundrie parents refused ‘to make Brian available’ at the doorstep, saying everything should be handled through Bertolino.

Dailymail.com has confirmed no officers actually saw Brian that night at the home. North Port police said: ‘He was not seen.’

Spokesman Josh Taylor added: ‘I would preface that by saying I cannot speak on if we saw him after that, for the integrity of the investigation.’    

It is not clear why the Laundries did not alert authorities to their son’s disappearance for four days.

Nor is it clear if authorities ever received proof of Laundrie being in the family home on September 11 or entering the Carlton Reserve – where they have focused much of the more than $1 million search based on the information from Laundrie’s parents. 

Laundrie’s headstart on authorities has so far proved to be problematic for investigators who are yet to locate the 23-year-old after a more than two week manhunt. 

Questions continue to mount about what Laundrie’s parents know about the doomed cross-country trip and their son’s current whereabouts. 

When Petito was reported missing on September 11, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie refused to let authorities speak to their son.

They then didn’t tell police he had vanished until three days after they allegedly last saw him on September 14, sparking a nationwide manhunt. 

Rumors have also been circulating that both Laundrie and his mom have been using burner phones.    

Petito’s dad Joe Petito hit out at the Laundrie parents in a new Dr. Phil interview, which aired Tuesday, calling them ‘cowards’ who ‘don’t know how to stand up for their actions’. 

Joe and Petito’s mom Nicole Schmidt said they had tried calling and texting the Laundries multiple times when they grew concerned about not hearing from their daughter in early September – but they never replied.  

Laundrie’s sister Cassie has also questioned her parents’ involvement in her brother’s disappearance, urging them to ‘come clean’ about what they know in an interview with ABC’s GMA, which aired Tuesday.  

While she insisted she had nothing to do with Laundrie’s disappearance, she admitted she wasn’t so sure about her parents Christopher and Roberta Laundrie who she urged to cooperate with investigators.

‘I don’t know if my parents are involved,’ said Cassie. ‘I think if they are, then they should come clean.’  

Cassie said she would ‘turn him in’ if she knew where her brother was and said she doesn’t know ‘what to think’ about what happened on the young couple’s doomed cross-country trip.  

Laundrie’s sister has come under fire in recent days after it emerged she had seen her brother twice in the time between him returning home to Florida and going on the run – despite previously claiming she hadn’t spoken to him.   

The significant change in the timeline of Laundrie’s disappearance was revealed the same day the attorney also admitted Laundrie took a round trip to Florida in the days leading up to Petito’s disappearance.

Bertolino has claimed the fugitive flew home to Florida ‘to empty a storage unit’ five days after he and Gabby Petito got into a physical fight in Utah – before then rejoining his fiancee just two days before she made her final phone call to her family.

Attorney Steve Bertolino told Newsday Tuesday that Laundrie, 23, took a commercial flight from Salt Lake City, Utah to Tampa, Florida, on August 17.

Five days later, on August 23, Laundrie then took a return flight ‘to rejoin Gabby’ for the remainder of their trip. 

Bertolino said the purpose of the fleeting visit was to pick up some items and close the storage unit because the young couple were thinking of ‘extending the road trip’ which was due to end in Oregon in October.   

But the trip was in fact cut short, with Laundrie driving the couple’s white campervan back to his family’s home in North Port, Florida, on September 1 while Petito’s body was discovered in a park in Wyoming over two weeks later on September 19. 

Laundrie remains at large with a nationwide manhunt under way for the only person of interest in his fiancee’s homicide.

The additional details of the couple’s whereabouts – and the fact they separated for five days – raises more questions about what happened on the doomed cross-country trip. 

Bertolino said he believed the couple shared the costs for Laundrie to make the detour. 

‘To my knowledge, Brian and Gabby paid for the flights as they were sharing expenses,’ the attorney said. 

‘Brian flew home to obtain some items and empty and close the storage unit to save money as they contemplated extending the road trip.’ 

This revelation reiterates what Petito’s mom Nicole Schmidt told DailyMail.com exclusively earlier on in the search. 

DailyMail.com has reached out to the FBI Denver Office – which is leading the manhunt for Laundrie – to confirm the timeline detailed by Bertolino. 

Laundrie’s alleged flight back to Florida came just days after the couple were separated by police in Moab, Utah, following a domestic incident. 

Bodycam footage from the August 12 encounter reveals a distraught Petito telling cops her fiance had hit her and cut her face by grabbing her ‘with his nail’ during a fight when he locked her out of their van. 

‘He like grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that’s why it looks, I definitely have a cut right here. I can feel it, when I touch it it burns,’ she tells the officer.   

The 22-year-old is then seen defending Laundrie saying she ‘hit him first’, after an officer points out marks on her arms and face. 

Police had responded to a 911 call from a bystander who said he had seen a man slapping a woman outside the nearby Mayflower grocery store before driving off in a white van. 

Cops determined Petito was the ‘primary aggressor’ and separated the couple for the night – meaning they are likely to have reunited on August 13. 

Body camera video from one Moab officer was released two weeks ago, while Petito was still a missing person and the audio was unclear at times. 

Footage from the second officer’s body-worn camera was released last week, revealing Petito did admit to her fiancee hitting her. 

According to the account given by Laundrie’s attorney, it was five days after this police callout that Laundrie left his fiancee in Utah and flew to Florida. 

It is not clear if Laundrie stayed at his parents’ home in North Port or who he saw during that five-day period. 

It is also not clear what Petito did during this timeframe as she stayed back in Utah with the couple’s campervan.

In police bodycam footage on August 12, Petito tells the officer she does not usually drive the vehicle. 

On August 19, Petito posted two photos on Instagram – an aerial view of the couple’s campervan and a photo showing what appears to be the back of Laundrie’s head sitting in front of her in the back of the van.  

‘Almost immediately after telling @bizarre_design_ how happy it made me to see that people were truly respectful of the park, I watched some guy leave his processed pre-packaged plastic conglomerate of lunch garbage on the picnic table!’ she captioned the post. 

It is not clear when those photos were taken.  

The timing of Laundrie’s return on August 23 could also be significant as it comes just two days before Petito made her final phone call to her mom on August 25, where she told her she was in Grand Teton National Park.

She is thought to have last been seen alive on August 27 at the Merry Piglets Tex-mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming, where the manager said she witnessed an ‘incident’ involving the couple. 

‘Yes, we can confirm Gabby and Brian were in Merry Piglets … We have already notified the FBI and they are aware. We are letting them do their jobs and we are respecting Gabby’s family and have nothing further to comment,’ the restaurant said in an Instagram post last month. 

Two witnesses in the restaurant – Nina Angelo and her boyfriend Matt England – described seeing a ‘commotion’ between the couple.

Angelo previously told CNN Petito was crying and Laundrie was visibly angry, going in and out of the restaurant several times and appearing angry with the staff.

The coroner has not released details on when Petito died.

A preliminary autopsy ruled her death a homicide but cause of death is still unknown.  

On September 1, just nine days after Laundrie is said to have returned from Florida to Utah, he arrived back at his family’s home in North Port without his fiancee but driving their van.

Petito was reported missing on September 11 by her mom after not hearing from her daughter for multiple days and coming up against a wall of silence from Laundrie and his parents. 

Laundrie lawyered up and refused to speak to cops about his fiancee’s whereabouts before going on the run. 

His parents reported him as missing on September 17, telling authorities they had not seen him since September 14 when he went on a hike in the alligator-infested Carlton Reserve in North Port. 

Local police and the FBI have now been searching for Laundrie for almost three weeks.