Newly-released bodycam footage has revealed Gabby Petito told cops Brian Laundrie had hit her and cut her face by grabbing her ‘with his nail’ during a domestic incident less than two weeks before she was last seen alive.
The never-before-seen footage from a second officer’s body camera shows the cop pointing out ‘new’ marks on Petito’s face and arm after pulling the couple’s van over in Moab, Utah, on August 12. Asked if Laundrie had hit her, Petito answers: ‘I guess.’
‘He like grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that’s why it looks, I definitely have a cut right here. I can feel it, when I touch it it burns,’ she tells the officer.
The 22-year-old, whose body was found on September 19, quickly backtracks and defends her fiancé saying she ‘hit him first’ when he locked her out of their van and refused to let her in.
Meanwhile, Laundrie, who is currently on the run and is a person of interest in Petito’s homicide, is seen defending himself and pushing the blame onto Petito as soon as the cop arrives on the scene.
He claims Petito was ‘really worked up’ and that he ‘was just trying to push her away’ when asked about allegations he had hit her.
Newly-released bodycam footage has revealed Gabby Petito told cops Brian Laundrie had hit her and cut her face by grabbing her ‘with his nail’ during the August 12 domestic incident
The never-before-seen footage from a second officer’s body camera shows the cop pointing out ‘new’ marks on Petito’s face and arm and her admitting that he cut her face with his nail
Police in Moab, Utah, responded to a 911 call from a bystander who said they had seen a man slapping a woman outside the Mayflower grocery store before driving off in a white van.
Bodycam footage from one Moab police officer was released on September 16 – at a time when Petito was still a missing person.
That footage shows Petito telling the officer she slapped Laundrie while he is seen showing the cop scratches on his face and arm which he claims were caused when she ‘hit me with her phone’.
The cops determined Petito was ‘the primary aggressor’ and separated them for the night.
Now, the release of the bodycam from the second officer casts new light on the incident and what the couple told cops. Key moments of the cops’ chat with the couple was inaudible in the previously-released clip.
The two Moab police officers were also joined on the scene by two US Park Rangers, whose bodycam videos remain under wraps.
Last week, a probe was launched into the police handling of the August 12 incident and Moab City Police Department Chief Bret Edge has since taken a leave of absence pending the investigation.
In the newly-released footage, Petit tells the officer Laundrie got ‘frustrated’ with her over her OCD and ‘locked me out of the car.’
‘I was just really stressed this morning trying to get a lot of work done and I was apologizing to him,’ she says.
She tells the cop she was saying ‘sorry’ to her fiancé because of her OCD which meant she was ‘organizing stuff’.
‘I get so stressed out. I have OCD and I was like organizing stuff and sometimes I get this mean attitude when I’m not trying to be mean and I was trying to straighten things out,’ she says.
Police pulled over the couple’s van in Moab, Utah, on August 12 following reports of a man hitting a woman
The new bodycam shows Petito telling the cop the cut on her face ‘burns’ before defending her fiance saying she ‘hit him first’ when he locked her out of their van and refused to let her in
Meanwhile, Laundrie is seen instantly defending himself and pushing the blame onto Petito as soon as the cop arrives on the scene
He claims Petito was ‘really worked up’ and that he ‘was just trying to push her away’ when asked about allegations he had hit her
‘And I was just apologizing but I guess I said it in like a mean tone and he got really frustrated with me, and he locked me out of the car and told me to go take a breather, but I didn’t want to take a breather.’
‘And I wanted to get going. We’re out of water.’
Petito tells the cop Laundrie wouldn’t let her back in their van which made her ‘really mad.’
The officer questions Petito about marks on her face and arm, which he says ‘looks like someone might have hit you in the face.’
‘Is there something on your cheek here?’ he says. ‘Did you get hit in the face?’
Petito is seen lifting her hand up to her face and replying: ‘Erm.’
‘It kinda looks like someone might have hit you in the face?’ the cop asks again.
‘And then over on your arm – your shoulder right here that’s new huh? You have a new mark.’
Petito looks at her arm and then back at the cop, replying: ‘Yeah I don’t know.’
The officer asks to see the other side of her face and asks her what happened.
Petito claims at first that Laundrie’s backpack struck her before finally admitting her grabbed her face and cut her with his nail.
‘I’m not sure,’ she says.
‘It was happening really fast. I was trying to get back in the car and his backpack got me.’
The cop presses Petito questioning her backpack theory and telling her two witnesses reported seeing Laundrie ‘hit’ or ‘punch’ her.
Petito tells the officer she ‘hit him first.’
‘Well to be honest I definitely hit him first,’ she says, telling the cop she ‘slapped him a couple times.’
The cop asks what Laundrie’s reaction was to that, to which she replies ‘to grab my arm.’
‘Did he hit you though?’ the officer asks, telling Petito they are trying to get to the truth.
‘I guess,’ she says, becoming more tearful as she makes the admission.
‘I guess, yea. But I hit him first.’
‘Where did he hit you?’ the officer replies. ‘Don’t worry, just be honest.’
Petito tries to defend Laundrie insisting: ‘He didn’t like hit me in the face.
‘He didn’t like punch me in the face or anything.’
The cop replies: ‘Did he slap your face, or what?’
At this point, Petito says Laundrie ‘grabbed me with his nail’ and makes a grabbing motion on her face.
‘Well he like, grabbed me with his nail, and I guess that’s why it looks, I definitely have a cut right here,’ she says.
‘I can feel it, when I touch it, it burns.’
In the footage, the cop also calls the witness to run through what he had seen at the Mayflower.
The witness says he saw the couple ‘sort of arguing a bit’ and it seemed they were ‘squabbling over a phone.’
‘I want to say that he was trying to take her phone,’ he says.
Petito’s cellphone has never been found since her disappearance and death.
Laundrie, meanwhile, is now suspected of buying a burner phone on September 14 – the day he was reportedly last seen by his parents before he took off.
The witness tells the cop Laundrie ‘wasn’t letting her’ in the van so she ‘hit him a few times’, he says.
The witness says it ‘wasn’t like a punch to the face’ but more like ‘children fighting.’
However, he adds that ‘it seemed like something was off – a weird vibe.’
‘Did you ever see the male strike the female?’ the cop asks.
‘I think I saw maybe a push or a shove, but not a full on punch to a face or anything,’ the witness says.
‘You did see her slapping him though it sounds like?’ the cop asks.
‘Yes,’ the witness replies.
The very beginning of the footage reveals the moment the cop arrived on the scene and approached the driver’s side of the door.
Laundrie is seen inside while Petito is no longer in the passenger seat after the officer’s colleague asked her to step out.
The 23-year-old is seen instantly defending himself to the officer.
The cop is heard telling Laundrie that police had received a 911 call about ‘a male hitting a female’ and then taking off in their white van.
Laundrie looks toward the passenger sear and stumbles over his words holding his hands up.
‘I – I – I don’t want to try to defend myself by saying anything here but I pushed her away,’ he tells the officer.
‘She gets really worked up, and when she does she swings and she had her cell phone in her hand. So I was just trying to push her away.’
He then looks through the passenger door window and asks if the officers ‘are talking to my fiancee.’
The first bodycam video of the incident revealed that the cops agreed Petito was ‘the primary aggressor’ and it was Laundrie who said he didn’t want to pursue charges against her.
Petito’s body was discovered around one month later after Laundrie returned home from their campervan trip alone.
Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie are pictured together during their doomed cross-country trip. He is now on the run
The young couple set off on a cross-country trip back on July 2 and were documenting their travels on YouTube.
Petito was last seen alive on August 24 leaving a motel in Salt Lake City, Utah, with Laundrie and last spoke to her mom by phone the following day.
Her family said they believe texts from her phone after then were ‘suspicious.’
Brian returned to his home in North Port alone on September 1 driving the couple’s campervan.
Petito was reported missing on September 11 by her family and her body was discovered in a campsite near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19.
Her death has been ruled a homicide but the cause of death is not yet clear.
Brian refused to speak to authorities during a week-long search for his missing girlfriend.
On September 17, his parents told police they hadn’t seen him in three days when he headed for a hike at the nearby Carlton Reserve.
He has been missing ever since and was named a person of interest in Petito’s homicide.
A warrant is out for his arrest for allegedly fraudulently spending $1,000 on Petito’s Capitol One Bank debit card between August 30 and September 1.
A manhunt for him has so far proved unsuccessful.
FBI agents arrived at the Laundrie home in North Port, Florida, Thursday afternoon to collect personal items belonging to the 23-year-old to help in the hunt.
The Fort De Soto campsite in Florida is seen in exclusive DailyMail.com photos. New details have emerged about a camping trip Brian took with his parents there days before Petito was reported missing
The campsite (pictured) is located in Fort De Soto in Pinellas County, Florida, close to St Petersburg and was visited by the Laundries days before Gabby was reported missing
Two months ago Laundrie and Gabby Petitio visited the same spot and posted photos hiking and showing them relaxing on the beach. They also posted this photo behind bars
In recent days, the search has turned to the Fort De Soto National Park, 75 miles from the Laundrie home in Florida, after it emerged Laundrie stayed there with his parents after returning home from the campervan trip without Petito.
New details emerged Wednesday about the camping trip which took place days before Petito was reported missing and around one week before he went on the run.
Documents obtained by Fox News reveal Brian’s mom changed her reservation for the campsite to three people from September 6 to September 8, after Brian returned home early from his and Gabby’s campervan trip early and alone.
On August 31, she also reportedly canceled a stay for two people from September 1 to 3, suggestion she may have known Brian was heading home the next day.
The FBI is now examining surveillance footage from the Fort De Soto Park campsite where the family’s attorney admitted the trio visited and Dog the Bounty Hunter believes Brian could be hiding out.
Federal investigators are also following a lead that Brian bought a burner phone from an AT&T store in North Port on the day he went missing in an outing where he was joined by ‘an older woman’.