Silke Jasso
Attorneys for Gabby Petito’s family have released previously unseen photos of blood on her face that were taken during a Utah domestic violence stop weeks before her suspected murder at the hands of boyfriend Brian Laundrie.
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The law firm Park & McConkie initially described the existence of the photos in a November 2022 wrongful death lawsuit that was filed against the Moab City Police Department. The lawsuit recounted the couple on August 12, 2021, saying a witness had reported seeing Laundrie hit Petito. He allegedly tried to take her phone and drive off without her outside of Moonflower Co-op.
New Photos Of Gabby Petito Emerge
The photo was taken by the YouTuber herself shortly before the stop and was recovered from our phone according to the law firm.
“According to available data, the image was taken at 4:37 p.m., at or before the approximate time of the initial 911 call,” the family’s attorneys revealed in a statement. According to Fox News Digital, a witness had called in an alleged domestic violence incident at 4:30 p.m. on the day of the incident. Police body cam footage shows officers arriving at a stop in the entrance way toARches National Park around 15 minutes later.
Police interviewed both individuals for nearly an hour. According to a civil complaint, it states that “Gabby took a photograph of her injury, which shows blood on her nose and left eye.” She allegedly went to show the injury to Moab Police Officer Eric Pratt, who according to the family’s attorney ignored her “and did nothing more to investigate or document the injury.”
A Moab spokeswoman stated that the city doesn’t comment on matters of litigation.
“The photo demonstrates the cut previously noted on her left cheek as well as blood smeared from her forehead, across her left eye and cheek and over her nose, indicating that she was grabbed over her face in such a way that her airways were likely obstructed,” the Petito-Schmidt attorneys’ statement continues.
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“Gabby documented the injury and, during the stop, attempted to tell the Moab officers, however, the seriousness and significance of this type of assault and injury was completely ignored.”
The Moab Police response went on to conduct an outside investigation that found that Pratt and fellow Moab Officer Daniel Robbins made “unintentional mistakes” in the stop that took place on August 12, 2021. Officers decided to split the couple for the night and declined to press charges, despite a Utah statute that the Petitio’s lawyers say had required them to make an arrest or issue a citation.
According to the lawsuit, police also incorrectly labeled Petito the “predominant aggressor” in the altercation, which her parents’ attorney stated is disproved by the photo.
“Moab Police failed to recognize the violent grabbing of Gabby’s face and obstruction of her nose, mouth, and airways as a critical precursor to her eventual death by strangulation that occurred a short time later,” it said. “Moab Police failed to listen to Gabby, failed to investigate her injuries and the seriousness of her assault, and failed to follow their own training, policies, and Utah law.”
Petito is believed to have been strangled and bludgeoned to death by Laundry in Wyoming on August 28th. Her remains were later found on September 18th. Laundry had returned to his parents’ Florida home on September 1st driving Petito’s van. The FBI local police went on to find him dead in a swamp on October 20th of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A dry bag that was also found nearby contained a handwritten confession to Petito’s death.
Cops should have called her dad and mom to go pick her up. Had they (the cops stepped up) she would be alive todat. And thrown that creep in jail.
Very saddened for her family. People need to learn how to get help at the first sign of mental illness. Moab officers let her down.