With the discovery of Brian Laundrie’s remains comes even more questions and more uncertainties. One of the most pertinent parts of the investigation for supporters of Gabby Petito has to do with the bodycam footage collected from the couple’s interaction with Moab police in Utah. Previously, the department released part of the footage that revealed Petito and Laundrie’s explanations of the domestic dispute. However, there is a third angle that police have yet to release to news outlets.
According to Newsweek, the publication has sent the U.S. Department of Interior a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA). On Wednesday, the source received a response stating that the FBI will continue to hold onto the footage until further notice. This was before the report from the medical examiner came back, declaring that the dental records from the human remains found at Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park belonged to Brian Laundrie.
“Upon further review, the information you have requested is being withheld in full under Exemption 7(A),” the letter from the U.S. Department of Interior read.
Exemption 7(A) “authorizes the withholding of ‘records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that production of such law enforcement records or information . . . could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings,'” as the U.S. Department of Justice defined.
This could mean that this third source of footage will not become available to the public until after the FBI closes the case on Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito.
Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie Detail Incident in Utah to Police
Prior to the discovery of Brian Laundrie’s remains, Moab police released two separate bodycam videos from their interaction with him and Gabby Petito. Back in August, dispatch received a call from a concerned bystander that witnessed a man slapping a woman.
They described the couple’s white camper van, and sure enough, it belonged to Petito and Laundrie. When the officers arrived at the scene, they separated the two to hear their accounts of the incident. According to Laundrie, when Petito gets worked up, she “swings.”
Laundrie also claimed that Petito had her phone in her hand, so he pushed her back. However, Petito shared a very different story through her tears as she sat in the back of the cruiser. In Petito’s account of the incident, Laundrie grabbed her face, and his nail cut her cheek.
She quickly tried to backpedal, though, stating that she hit him first.
“He didn’t like hit me in the face,” she told the officers. “He didn’t like punch me in the face or anything.”
Following the incident, police encouraged Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie to spend the night away from each other. They helped Laundrie arrange for a hotel room to stay in, while Petito slept in the van. This was one of the last known interactions with Petito before her death.
