YouTuber who went missing on roadtrip ‘scuffled with fiance’ before vanishing
Missing YouTuber Gabby Petitio had a scuffle with her fiance during a tense argument a few weeks before she disappeared.
The couple, who were on a road trip in Ms Petito’s van, were spotted rowing in Moab City, Utah on August 12.
A police report said Gabby started slapping her fiance, Brian Laundrie, who grabbed her face and pushed her into the van.
They told officers tension ‘had been building over the last few days’ and Gabby said she was worried Laundrie was going to drive off and leave her ‘without a ride’.
The said that they had been traveling together for four or five months and that the ’emotional strain between them’ had led to an ‘increased number of arguments’.
Officers treated it as a ‘mental health break’ rather than a domestic assault situation and separated the couple for the night.
Gabby, 22, was reported missing a month later on September 11 after her family hadn’t heard from her in 13 days.
Laundrie, 23, returned to their Florida home on September 1 and is refusing to speak to investigators.
He has now been named as a person of interest in the case.
North Port police chief Todd Garrison said: ‘The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation. The answers will eventually come out.’
The couple set off on a nomadic nationwide road trip in a white Ford Transit van in July, posting regular updates on social media.
They filmed themselves smiling and kissing and running in beaches in a video called ‘Beginning out van life journey’, which has had over half a million views.
Moab Police officer Daniel Scott Robins said that when he turned up to the incident on August 12, Gabby was ‘crying uncontrollably’ and at no point in the investigation did she ‘stop crying, breathing heavily, or compose a sentence without needing to wipe away tears, wipe her nose, or rub her knees with her hands’.
The report said she and Laundrie both suffered from an unspecified disorder that they weren’t on medication for.
It said the couple got into an argument near a local convenience store ‘over a phone,’ and Gabby attempted to slap Laundrie, who locked her out of the van ‘to create distance’ between them.
Neither of them wanted to press charges, and Gabby explained she was struggling with her mental health.
Police determined that the situation did not rise to a criminal case ‘as much as that of a mental health crisis’ and told the feuding couple to spend the night apart.
Gabby, a Long Island native, last spoke to her mother on the phone on August 25 and her last known location was Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Her family have called on Laundrie to give answers, including when he last saw her and ‘why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida’.
‘These are critical questions that require immediate answers,’ they said in a statement.
Mr Laundrie’s lawyer, Steve Bertolino, defended his silence.
‘In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focuses their attention on in cases like this and the warning that “any statement made will be used against you” is true, regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms Petito’s disappearance.
‘As such, on the advice of counsel Mr Laundrie is not speaking on this matter,’ Mr Bertolino said
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