Utah’s Moab City Police Department has released a video of officers interacting with now-missing Gabby Petito — a 22-year-old who documented her cross-country travels on social media — and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie on August 12.
The bodycam footage showed police responding to a 911 call regarding a domestic incident between the couple, ABC 7 reported Thursday.
“Officers located the white van and pulled it over. The more than hour-long video shows police immediately separating Petito and Laundrie before each describes the incident that led to the 911 call. Petito is emotional as she described the incident,” the outlet said.
According to the police report, Laundrie was described as the victim and Petito the suspect. However, Chief Bret Edge noted there was not sufficient evidence for charges.
“Neither Brian nor Gabrielle were the reporting party,” he commented. “Officers conducted an investigation and determined that insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges.”
The officer summarized in his report, “The male tried to create distance by telling Gabbie to take a walk to calm down. She didn’t want to be separated from the male, and began slapping him. He grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed upon him and the van.”
Fox 13’s Kim Kuizon shared a portion of the police report:
Authorities said all parties agreed Petito slapped Laundrie. However, he did not hit her and there were no serious injuries and no one said they wanted to press charges.
“Petito reportedly told officers she suffers from serious anxiety and other redacted medical conditions, and police categorized the incident as a ‘mental/emotional health break’ rather than a domestic assault. Petito told police that the arguments between the couple had been building over the past couple of days,” the ABC 7 report continued.
The two agreed to part for the night and officers helped Laundrie get a hotel room while Petito kept the vehicle.
ABC 6 reported Tuesday Petito was traveling in a white van with a Florida license plate accompanied by her boyfriend when she cut off communications with loved ones.
Police in Florida planned to hold another press conference Thursday to give more information regarding the investigation.
North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison spoke about the case and said, “Two people went on a trip and one person returned. And that person is not talking to us,” adding Laundrie “has the pieces to the puzzle that we need to be able to find Gabby.”
Petito has been missing since late August and Laundrie was named a “person of interest” by officials in Blue Point, Florida, where the two made their home.
“The couple was on a cross-country trip to Oregon when she stopped communicating with her family somewhere in Wyoming,” the ABC 7 article read.
In a social media post on Wednesday, North Port Police shared photos of the van:
“Several detectives are working around the clock to piece this complex and far reaching situation together,” the department said.
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