Why has Brian Laundrie been charged with and indicted for illegal use of a debit card instead of murder? Currently, no evidence has been revealed that he has committed a homicide. However, there is evidence that Laundrie charged over $1000 to a Capital One credit card between August 30 and September 1, 2021. [October 1, 2019 – CNBC] He was not an authorized user for the card. Therefore, thus far his indictment will be for the crime of illegal use of credit card. See the following excerpt from U.S.C. 1029.
18 U.S.C 1029:
(2) whoever knowingly and with intent to defraud traffics in or uses one or more unauthorized access devices during any one-year period, and by such conduct obtains anything of value aggregating $1,000 or more during that period; [Legal Information Institute. Cornell Law. www.law.cornell.edu]
Laundrie has been missing since September 14.