New video shows Gabby Petito telling police about fight she had with boyfriend weeks before her death
Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old blogger whose body was found in a US national park, told police about a domestic dispute with her boyfriend the month before she disappeared.
Ms Petito was found dead in Wyoming on 18 September and police are investigating her death as a homicide.
Her boyfriend Brian Laundrie, 23, was charged last week with fraudulently using her bank card, although he has not been charged in relation to her death. He has been missing since 14 September and is a person of interest in her disappearance.
Police have released video footage from August which shows Ms Petito telling officers that, while Laundrie had hit her, she had hit him first.
Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito had been travelling in the western United States
In the 52-minute video, she said: “To be honest I hit him first. I slapped him a couple of times.
“I guess yeah but I hit him first. He grabbed my face like this. He didn’t hit me in the face or anything. He grabbed me with his nail and I think that’s why I have a cut right here. I can feel it, it really burns.”
The couple had been driving through the western states of the US in her Ford transit van since June, documenting their trip on social media.
They were pulled over by police in Utah on 12 August after a complaint about a domestic disturbance.
Both were questioned separately but neither of them were charged and a police officer separated them for the night.
Ms Petito’s family reported her missing on 11 September, 10 days after Laundrie returned home from the trip without her.
A lawyer for the Petito family, Richard Stafford, has called for Laundrie to turn himself in, criticising the young man’s parents for a lack of cooperation in the search that found Ms Petito’s body.
“The Laundries did not help us find Gabby, they sure are not going to help us find Brian,” Mr Stafford said. “For Brian, we’re asking you to turn yourself in to the FBI or the nearest law enforcement agency.”
The Laundrie family has denied helping him to flee.
Joseph Petito told reporters all missing people should get the same attention as his daughter. Pic: AP
Earlier in the week, Ms Petito’s father Joseph called for all missing persons cases to be treated equally.
He was responding to claims that the coverage of his daughter’s disappearance was a prime example of “missing white woman syndrome”, while others who disappear get far less media coverage.
“I want to ask everyone to help all the people that are missing and need help. It’s on all of you, everyone that’s in this room to do that,” he said, pointing to reporters and cameras in front of him.
“If you don’t do that for other people that are missing, that’s a shame, because it’s not just Gabby that deserves it.”
Anti-Trump protests took place across America on Saturday, with demonstrators decrying the administration’s immigration crackdown and mass firings at government agencies.
Events ranged from small local marches to a rally in front of the White House and a demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration of the start of the Revolutionary War 250 years ago.
Thomas Bassford, 80, was at the battle reenactment with his two grandsons, as well as his partner and daughter.
He said: “This is a very perilous time in America for liberty. I wanted the boys to learn about the origins of this country and that sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”
At events across the country, people carried banners with slogans including “Trump fascist regime must go now!”, “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” and “Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight,” referencing the university’s recent refusal to hand over much of its control to the government.
Some signs name-checked Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian citizen living in Maryland, who the Justice Department admits was mistakenly deported to his home country.
Read more: Donald Trump’s deportations explained
Pic: AP
People waved US flags, some of them held upside down to signal distress. In San Francisco, hundreds of people spelt out “Impeach & Remove” on a beach, also with an inverted US flag.
People walked through downtown Anchorage in Alaska with handmade signs listing reasons why they were demonstrating, including one that read: “No sign is BIG enough to list ALL of the reasons I’m here!”
Pic: AP
Protests also took place outside Tesla car dealerships against the role Elon Musk ahas played in downsizing the federal government as de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The protests come just two weeks after similar nationwide demonstrations.
👉 Follow Trump 100 on your podcast app 👈
Organisers are opposing what they call Mr Trump’s civil rights violations and constitutional violations, including efforts to deport scores of immigrants and to scale back the federal government by firing thousands of government workers and effectively shuttering entire agencies.
The Trump administration, among other things, has moved to shutter Social Security Administration field offices, cut funding for government health programs and scale back protections for transgender people.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway