Gabby Petito’s family alerted Utah authorities on Monday that they want to file a wrongful death lawsuit saying that police failed to notice their daughter was in a life-threatening scenario last year while investigating a disagreement between her and her boyfriend.
The brawl occurred in Moab last summer, just weeks before her lover Brian Laundrie allegedly murdered her when the pair was on a cross-country van vacation.
According to the $50 million notice of claim, police in the tourist town of Moab ignored warning signals that Petito was the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of Brian Laundrie on Aug. 12, 2021. The cops eventually let the pair go after asking them to spend a night apart. As the inquiry proceeded, police body camera footage of Petito, 22, obviously agitated, was widely watched, raising doubts about whether a better police reaction may have saved her death.
‘Gabby would still be alive today if the cops had been properly educated and obeyed the law,’ said attorney James McConkie in a statement announcing the filing of the notice of claim.
People must file notices of claims before they may sue government institutions, and the family’s claim said that the case would seek $50 million in damages.
Moab authorities did not reply quickly to phone and email inquiries seeking comment on the report on Monday.
Petito went missing a month after the traffic stop, and her strangled death was recovered on the outskirts of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19.
Laundrie, 23, subsequently committed herself in Florida after being deemed the only suspect in her death. Petito and Landrie are from Long Island, New York.
The hunt for Petito gained international interest, prompting amateur sleuths to scan social media for leads.
An independent review determined earlier this year that police in Moab made “many inadvertent blunders” when they encountered Petito and Laundrie.
According to the investigation, Petito ‘was a long-term victim of domestic abuse, whether it be physically, psychologically, and/or emotionally.’ Laundrie committed herself in a Florida marsh, leaving behind a notepad with a confession, according to investigators.
Nichole Schmidt, Petito’s mother, talked about her daughter last week while presenting a $100,000 gift from the Gabby Petito Foundation to the National Domestic Violence Hotline to assist others in surviving stressful and abusive relationships.
Schmidt told The Associated Press last week that she still has a lot of concerns about what went wrong.
‘In retrospect, I didn’t notice any warning signals. Gabby and Brian, I believe, are the only two individuals who will ever know what transpired in that relationship. And although we may speculate and make guesses, we don’t truly know what occurred,’ she continued.
‘The situation most likely ended that way because something was going on for a time.’