A new study from the Moab Police Department in Utah suggests that Gabrielle Petito and Brian Laundrie may have had tense relations in the days leading up to her disappearance, with the tension possibly being compounded by Laundrie’s mental condition.
On August 12, police were called to a probable domestic violence issue between Gabby and Brian. The report outlines the encounters cops had with the couple and a witness. After investigating, police concluded there was insufficient evidence to press criminal charges.
However, the police did take measures to temporarily separate the two in an effort to defuse the situation for the night.
Officer Eric Pratt of the Moab Police Department responded to a “domestic problem” near the Moonflower Co-op, as detailed in the report. The suspects, eventually identified as Gabby and Brian, were gone by the time Pratt arrived. The officer had a conversation with a bystander identified in the report as Chris.
This is just a snippet of a police report involving Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie. Police say they were responding to a call of disorderly conduct in Moab Utah. @fox13news #northport pic.twitter.com/IjttXiiNY0
— Kim Kuizon FOX 13 (@kkuizon) September 15, 2021
Chris was later interviewed by another responding officer, who reported hearing him say that he “was not entirely sure what it is he had seen but feared the worst.”
Chris claimed to have witnessed Brian and Gabby engaged in a heated phone debate. Chris said Brian got in the van, and then Gabby hit him on the arm. “Chris stated that Gabby then climbed through the driver’s side window, acting as if Brian had locked her out and she was trying to find a way in,” the report added.
Officer Daniel Robbins caught up with Brian and Gabrielle as they were leaving the co-op in their camper van while Officer Pratt was still investigating the initial scene.
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Near Arches National Park, where Gabrielle was last seen before she vanished, police officer Robbins located the van. The van was traveling 45 mph in a 15 mph zone, according to Robbins’s report.
“After I had activated my lights to initiate a traffic stop, I watched the van cross the double yellow dividing line in lane one, merge to lane two, and abruptly swerve to the right,” Robbins’ report states. “When the vehicle swerved, both the front and rear passenger side wheels hit the curb. A short distance before the entrance gate, the vehicle came to a stop.”
Robbins claimed that when he got close to the van, he observed Gabrielle “crying uncontrollably.” After questioning Gabby, the cop drove her away in his patrol car. For privacy reasons, some details of the report have been blacked out. Gabby may have been hinting at a problem with her mental health, though.
“Gabrielle told me that she suffers from [redacted] with [redacted],” the report says. “Because of her [redacted] and [redacted], combined with little arguments she and Brian had been having that day, she was struggling with her mental health, which led to the incident that was reported to law enforcement.”
According to the report, Gabby was startled by the police car’s sirens and struck Brian’s arm, forcing the van to veer and hit the curb. According to the report, after speaking with Gabrielle, Officer Robbins spoke with Brian, whose version of events was consistent with Gabby’s and the witness’s.
Officer Robbins advised they spend the night apart and made hotel reservations for Brian. The police officer claimed he suggested they wait to resume their conversation until AM so they could “reset their mental states without interference from one another.” The couple apparently consented, and the officer drove Brian to a hotel while Gabby waited in the car, according to the report.
Family members have not heard from Gabrielle since around August 25. After her family reported her missing on September 11, her van was located at the residence of Brian Laundrie in North Port, Florida. Since then, the police and the FBI have been trying to determine what happened to Gabby.