Bodycam shows missing woman, boyfriend argued
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Police video shows a Florida woman who disappeared during a crosscountry journey in a converted camper van had an emotional fight with her boyfriend in a Utah tourist town before she vanished.
The video released by the Moab Police Department shows an officer pulling over the van Aug. 12 after it was seen speeding and hit a curb near the entrance to Arches National Park.
Inside was Brian Laundrie, 23, and his 22-year-old girlfriend, Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito, who was reported missing by her family a month later and is now the subject of a nationwide search joined by the FBI.
Police in North Port, Fla., where the couple lived, say Laundrie is a “person of interest” in her case. He hasn’t been charged, but he’s also not cooperating.
North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison publicly vented his frustration over his lack of help Wednesday, pleading for Laundrie’s lawyer to arrange a conversation. “Two people left on a trip and one person returned!” the chief ’s tweet said.
The body camera video shows Petito visibly upset when an officer approached them.
“We’ve just been fighting this morning. Some personal issues,” she tells him, adding she suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder that affects her behavior.
“Some days I have really bad OCD, and I was just cleaning and straightening up and I was apologizing to him saying that I’m so mean because sometimes I have OCD and get frustrated,” she said.
Laundrie says on the video the couple got into a minor scuffle that began when he climbed into the van with dirty feet, and he said he didn’t want to pursue a domestic violence charge against Petito, who officers decided was the aggressor.
Ultimately, Moab police decided not to file any charges and instead separated the couple for the night.
Petito and Laundrie started their drive across the U.S. in July from New York’s Long Island, where both grew up.
They intended to reach Oregon by Halloween, according to their social media accounts, but Petito vanished after her last known contact with family in late August from Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, authorities said.
Laundrie drove the Ford Transit van back to Florida on Sept. 1 alone, police said. Petito’s family filed a missing persons report last Saturday with police in Suffolk County, N. Y.
Laundrie’s attorney, Steven Bertolino, said the Laundrie family is hoping for Petito’s safe return, but he’s asked them not to speak with investigators.
“I can’t speculate as to why he’s not talking, but he has the pieces to the puzzle that we need to find Gabby,” Garrison said Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Garrison said at a news conference Thursday the investigation remains a missing persons case, not a murder probe, and that no intensive searches have begun because it’s unclear exactly where authorities might look.
Authorities also are looking for any possible connection between Petito’s disappearance and the still-unsolved slaying of two women who were fatally shot at a campsite near Moab.
Their bodies were found Aug. 18, six days after the incident between Laundrie and Petito. The two women, Kylen Schulte, 24, and Crystal Turner, 38, had told friends they feared a “creepy man” they had seen nearby might harm them.