Young couple goes on van tour of US, boy comes back with van - no girl

Am I following this correctly? No developments at all, then all of the sudden his parents go back into the park and almost instantly find something belonging to Laundrie?
From what I gather, popo found something, had the Laundries come in and attempt to identify it as belonging to Brian. And when they did confirm, then the ME showed up. FWIW, reports are that the Laundries left the park crying/in tears.